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ber of fifteen or twenty, are assembled at Hillboro' Court House, and the Chairman of Quarter Sessions for the County of Stoneyshire (Mr. Denham, Q.C., M.P.) at once proceeds to charge the Grand Jury. The chairmanship of the Quarter Sessions is an entirely unpaid office, yet as it is considered to confer honour on its holder it is one which is a good deal coveted by the J.P.'s for the County of Stoneyshire, who alone are eligible to fill it. These gentlemen had, however, two or three years ago, the good sense to elect Mr. Denham to the post of Chairman. Mr. Denham is a gentleman who practised for a good many years at the Bar, but on succeeding to some property in Stoneyshire he retired (with the rank of a Queen's Counsel) from the exercise of his profession.

It may safely be said that Mr. Denham is one of the very few competent chairmen of Quarter Sessions whom England possesses. In his early career at the Bar he had a considerable practice at Stoneyshire sessions both in prosecuting and defending prisoners, and as the result thereof he has the criminal law of England at his finger's ends. No one can be in court for ten minutes without seeing how valuable Mr. Denham's early training at the Bar is to him in his present post. Observe with what quickness and perspicuity he

charges the Grand Jury-not wasting time as most chairmen of country sessions do in uttering platitudes about 'the evil effects of intoxication in leading persons to commit crimes,' &c., but pointedly directing the attention of the Grand Jury to such of the cases as really present some features of difficulty. Having lucidly explained to them the law bearing upon the few cases in which these points of nicety arise, Mr. Denham dismisses the Grand Jury to their labours.

Nine out of every ten men, I should say, who are engaged in practice at the Common Law Bar, began their professional career by addressing a country jury at Quarter Sessions. Here, for example, to-day is young Mr. Phunky (who was only called to the Bar last term) making his first attempt to address a British jury. Poor fellow ! As he rises the court seems to spin round before his bewildered eyes, and his own voice sounds to him as though it belonged to some one else. The intense silence in court, the 'stoney British stare' of the twelve jurymen whom he is confronting ; even the sympathetic glances which he can see some of the county magistrates are casting at him from the bench alike unnerve him. Before he has spoken two minutes he finds himself helplessly involved in a sentence which seems to him never to

have had any beginning, and which he finds himself utterly unable to bring to a close. At length he fairly breaks down, for he stops short in the middle of a sentence and, looking as though he would like to rush from the court, drops into his

seat.

But Mr. Denham, Q.C. is a kind-hearted and withal an experienced man, and he at once reassures Mr. Phunky, by remarking to him in a casual way—and quite as though the fact of a barrister breaking down in the middle of a speech was a matter of everyday occurrence 'You had better call the witnesses for the prosecution, Mr. Phunky.' Mr. Phunky, who a moment ago considered that his prospects in life were ruined and that an immediate recourse to prussic acid was the only thing left for him to do, takes Mr. Denham's hint, and without attempting to resume his address to the jury, at once calls the first witness for the prosecution. He-fortunately for Mr. Phunky-is a clear-headed, sensible man, and, as it is by no means so embarrassing to young beginners at the Bar to examine witnesses as to make speeches, Mr. Phunky manages to elicit from the witness the main facts of the case for the prosecution. This gives Mr. Phunky confidence, though he does once or twice put, as all young counsel do, some terribly

'leading' questions to the witnesses which make Mr. Denham wince, but which, out of kindness for Mr. Phunky and from a belief that no substantial injustice is being done to the prisoner, he allows to be asked. So encouraged is Mr. Phunky by hist success in examining his witnesses that (the prisoner whom he is prosecuting being defended by counsel) he manages to sum up the case for the prosecution to the jury in a few modest, clear, and even well-turned sentences. The fact is, that Mr. Phunky has found his head' (as the saying is), and being, though a nervous, by no means a stupid man, I have little doubt that in a few years' time we shall find him one of the leaders at Stoneyshire sessions, 'defending' in half-a-dozen cases in a day, and wondering how upon earth he could ever have made such an ass of himself in his first prosecution!

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That men possessed even of great talent, either through nervousness or ignorance, do occasionally make fearful exhibitions of themselves when they address a court of law for the first time I may illustrate by an anecdote which is told of a gentleman who now occupies a high post in Her Majesty's government. The post filled by this gentleman is, in point of fact, so high, that were I to attempt to indicate it more minutely the reader would have no

difficulty in singling out the hero of my story. As, however, I do not wish to give any clue to the identity of the gentleman in question, I shall here call him Mr. X. Mr. X., then, had a brief given to him (his first one) to prosecute a prisoner at shire Quarter Sessions. This prisoner, it so happened, had been convicted six times previously, which fact was duly stated in Mr. X.'s brief, but was never intended to be mentioned by him to the jury. Indeed it is a cardinal rule in English law that during the trial of a prisoner a jury must never be informed of his having been previously convicted of any crime for fear of their minds being thereby prejudiced against him. Mr. X., however, after stating to the jury the facts of the case against the prisoner whom he was engaged in prosecuting, went on, to the horror of every one in court, to say, 'Finally, gentlemen of the jury, I shall call a witness before you who will prove to you that the prisoner has been convicted six times of offences similar in character to that for which he now stands arraigned!'

The scene in court after Mr. X. had concluded his speech with the foregoing astounding remark was, I am assured by an eye-witness of it, ludicrous. The chairman of Quarter Sessions sat aghast; the magistrates grinned; the Bar shrieked with laughter; and even the very policemen knew

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