Still bent on adding to your store To 'foresaid rooms, and then and there Then he favours his pupil with a bit of his own history, which seems to me capital :— "Whoe'er has drawn a special plea That genius was my special pleader. To pluck the goose and drive the quill. Of both I washed my hands; and though With nothing for my cash to show *The Purification of the Virgin Mary is one of the return days of Hilary Term. But precedents, so scrawled and blurred Hired books, made friends, and gave to eat. on, My mother sent a haunch of ven'son. I most respectfully entreated To wit, old Buzzard, Hawk, and Crow, By love of food and contest led, Would haunt the spot where once they fed. Thus having with due circumspection Formed my professional connexion, My desk with precedents I strewed, Turned critic, danced, or penned an ode, And easy man of gallantry ; I seemed as one estranged to sleep, Sate motionless; while in my hand I And though I never read a page in't, Five pupils were my stint, the other I took to compliment his mother.” This piece of autobiography seems to me admirable for its neatness and point, its humour and its good-humour. The termination of the poem is a trial of matchless pleasantry between John-a-Gull and John-a-Gudgeon, for an assault at an election. I transcribe the commencement and part of the opening speech-a piece of legal comedy which will make its way even with the least learned reader : For the Plaintiff, Mr. Counsellor BOTHER'UM.-For the Defendant, Mr. Counsellor BORE'UM.-Mr. BOTHER'UM opens the pleadings. His speech at length : “I rise with pleasure, I assure ye, * As taken by an eminent short-hand writer. [Aside. Middlesex. This being an election affray, the venue is supposed to have been changed upon the usual affidavit, for the sake of a more fair and impartial trial before a Middlesex jury. Our French will serve us for this legal word which s, I suppose, old Norman French, pronounced English-wise, but signifying a wrong, as one might guess from the modern tongue: "By John-a-Gudgeon for a tort; The pleadings state' that John-a-Gull, With swords, knives, sticks, staves, fist and bludgeon, This prodigious accumulation of weapons, as well as the "twelve pots, twelve mugs," and so forth, to which we are coming, is an imitation of the real law fictions and endless repetitions which result from the circumstance of nothing being allowed to be proven at a trial that has not been named in the indictment, whereas there is no rule to compel the proof of more than the counsel think essential to the case; it is, therefore, really usual to provide against all contingencies by enumerating far more particulars than are likely to be brought forward. Lawyers will best feel the satire, but all can enjoy the fun : "First count's for that with divers jugs, To wit, twelve pots, twelve cups, twelve mugs, And clothes which he had then and there on ; By which and other wrongs unheard of, His clothes were spoilt and life despaired of: Is son assault and issue's joined." Here our French helps us again, and the common expression of joining issue. Now for Counsellor Bother'um's history of the battle. The watery names are very happy : "Such, gentlemen, is word for word To this same feast, without suspicion, And Gudgeon, with much approbation, Was singing an election ballad, Penned by the ingenious Doctor Mallard, (That orthodox and learned writer, Who bids so fairly for a mitre,) When Gull, who heard this song or sonnet, With Mr. Gudgeon's comments on it; The short ribs of his peaceful neighbour; |