history of Mr. Page's private life instead of merely sketching for you his career as a rising barrister, I could tell you such a tale about him as would make you pity instead of blame him. But this reminds me that I am wandering from my subject, which, as I have just said, is to sketch for you Mr. Page's career as 'a rising junior,' not to relate to you the sad history of what befell him six or seven years ago. Let us therefore leave his residence chambers in Lamb Court, and do you, my reader, come with me to his 'business chambers' in Parchment Buildings.

Mr. Page's 'business chambers' are upon the ground floor-indeed it is a matter of absolute necessity that 'business chambers' in the Temple should be either upon the ground or first floors, inasmuch as middle-aged and plethoric attorneys have a not unnatural objection to clambering up three pairs of stairs. Mr. Page's 'business chambers' comprise three rooms. The first room which we enter is the clerks' room, and in it there are seated two clerks, one of whom is a man of about thirty years of age, and who has been Mr. Page's clerk ever since he was called to the Bar; the other is a small boy of fifteen, who partakes to the full of the terrible precocity which is so characteristic of London boys at that age.

The second room, into which we pass, is occupied by Mr. Page's seven pupils, each one of whom, as I have already mentioned, has paid him a fee of one hundred guineas for the privilege of reading with him for the space of one year. They help Mr. Page, too, in various ways, by looking up decided cases, and also by drawing his pleadings, etc., for him.

A whole chapter might be written upon Mr. Page's pupils, but as it is, a very few words must suffice to describe them. No. I is an Oxford man, who won the Eldon Law scholarship, and who, being both clever and ambitious, is working very hard at law. He is indeed quite a legal gourmand, for he is at Mr. Page's chambers every morning by ten o'clock, and he never quits them till nightfall. Nos. 2 and 3 are two Cambridge men, both of whom contented themselves with taking 'poll' degrees there, and who now read law with Mr. Page in a very easy fashion. Sometimes they attend chambers with tolerable regularity, at others they fail to put in an appearance for days together. No. 4 is a very sprucely-attired young gentleman, who always walks into Mr. Page's chambers looking as though he had just stepped out of a band-box. His chief ambition in life is to be the best-dressed man of his 'set,' in which very modest aim he is, I think we

may concede, tolerably successful. No. 5 is a slow, heavy, plodding man, who, after three years of coaching, and after enduring much mental anguish in the process, managed to come out 'wooden spoon' at Cambridge. No. 6 is a lanky, ill-dressed, rough-looking, Scotchman (with a terrible brogue), who having, at the age of twenty, 'taken out his A.M. degree at 'Old Aberdeen' has come up to London (at twenty-one) with the full determination of attaining the highest honours of the law. He obtained several college prizes whilst at Aberdeen, and he is (between ourselves) much astonished to find that the news of his academical successes has not penetrated into the world of London. No. 7 is-but lo! how shall I describe him whom I have never seen and whom even Mr. Page has only beheld once? He came three months ago to Mr. Page, paid his fee of one hundred guineas, and then disappeared. In vain has Mr. Page written to him requesting him to come to chambers. The fact is, I believe, that the young Hopeful in question simply wishes Mr. Page to give him a certificate of his having read in his chambers for one year, so as to thereby enable him to be called to the

That certificate, however, Mr. Page, who is a man of honour, will not give him. Indeed, Mr. Page has to-day written to him telling him so, and

offering at the same time to return him his fee. What effect this line of conduct may produce upon No. 7, time alone can show.

Let us now pass into the third room, in which sits Mr. Page himself, at a small desk placed upon a square table, in the centre of the room. Around the walls there stand bookcases filled with volumes of law reports, and legal text books, all uniformly bound in that most ugly of bindings known as 'legal calf.' Upon Mr. Page's table there are piled literally heaps of law papers, all tied up with red tape. Let us glance at the inscriptions upon some of these papers. In every instance, we shall find that each bundle of papers has, marked upon the outside of it, the name of the court in which the cause is pending, the name of the cause itself, and Mr. Page's own name-which last is always written immediately above the fee marked upon the papers. Upon the papers, too, there is invariably recorded the name of the firm of solicitors who have sent them to Mr. Page.

Here, for example, are a few of the inscriptions upon some of the bundles of papers which lie upon Mr. Page's table. 'Howler v. Growler, case for opinion, Mr. Page 2 guas.' 'Thompson v. Jones, brief to show cause; Mr. Page, 5 guās; with you Mr. Quirk, Q.C.' 'Harrison v. the Great Loam

shire Railway Co., brief for the defendants; Mr. Page, 25 guās; with you Sir L. Bigwig, Q.C.' 'Jack v. Jill, demurrer to take notes; Mr. Page, 5 guās; with you Mr. Ferret, Q.C. to argue.' 'Jones v. Smith, to draw points; Mr. Page, 3 guās.' 'Blackman v. Softman, instructions for declaration; Mr. Page, 3 guās.' 'Green v. Smith, instructions. for pleas; Mr. Page, 2 guās.' 'Robson v. Corpn. of Greenpool; to draw appeal case; Mr. Page, 5 guas.' Slowman v. Fastman, to draw interrogatories; Mr. Page, 2 guas.' 'Benjamin v. Solomon, to advise on evidence; Mr. Page, 2 guās.' 'Jackson v. Johnson, to attend summons at chambers; Mr. Page, 2 guas.' &c. &c.

Now let us look a little more closely into each of these bundles of papers. The first bundle which we took up was that marked 'Howler v. Growler, case for opinion.' This is, it appears, an action on a breach of contract to supply the plaintiff with a certain kind of rope. The 'points,' however, in the case, Mr. Page finds run rather fine, so he hands it over to pupil No. 1, telling him to look up some decided cases (the names of which Mr. Page gives him), and then to come and talk them over with him. After the pupil has done so, Mr. Page will write his 'opinion,' advising the plaintiff whether he has a good cause of action; and (if so) whether it