So the best courser on the plain, LORD ELDON. The character of Lord Eldon is not yet become matter of history, and it is therefore difficult to appreciate it properly. It will, perhaps, on thisaccount, be better to confine the present brief notice of this very eminent judge to an enumeration of the steps by which, from almost a humble situation in life, he attained the highest honours within the grasp of an English subject. He was admitted a student of the Middle Temple in 1772, and was called to the Bar in Hilary Term, 1776. For some time he practised almost exclusively as an Equity draughtsman, but finding so sedentary an occupation injurious to his health, he appeared in Court, and quickly rose into notice. In the year 1783, a patent of precedency was granted to him, and soon afterwards he was introduced into Parliament for the Borough of Webly, in Hereford. In 1788, Mr. Scott was knighted on being raised to the office of Solicitor-General, and in 1793, he was appointed Attorney-General. This office he held until the year 1799, when he was created a Peer, and made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Four years afterwards he was raised to the Woolsack, a seat which he has since continued to occupy, with the exception of the short period during which Lord Erskine held the Seals. LORD KEEPER WILLIAMS'S NOTION OF THE fleet. "One Beeston, who had been committed from the power of the high Court of Chancery, loathing this captivity, besought this new officer (L. K. Williams) to be released and was denied; he cries out for mercy to the King, roars out that the parliament might hear him, follows the Lord Buckingham with his clamours, who advised the Lord Keeper to consider upon it. It is a maxim in old Columella, lib. vi. c. 2, pervicax contumacia plerumque sævientem fatigat, &c.; boisterous im portunity thinks to fare better than modest innocency; but he gave the Lord Marquis this answer. "MY NOBLE LORD, "Decrees once made must be put in execution; else I will confess this Court to be the greates : imposture and grievance in the Kingdom. The damned in hell do never cease repining at the justice of God; nor the prisoners in the Fleet at the decrees in Chancery. In the which hell of prisoners, this one for antiquity and obstinacy may pass for a Lucifer. I neither know him nor his cause, but as long as he stands in contempt, he is not like to have any more liberty." (Hacket's Life of Williams, Part i. p. 71.) POINTS OF GENTOO LAW. The following extracts are made from a translation of the Gentoo code, executed from á Persian version of the original Shanscrit, by Mr. Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, during the government of Warren Hastings, and dedicated to him by the translator. The venerable principle of legitimate government and paternal sway, we find, at the outset, enforced in a very emphatic manner. "Providence," says the ancient legislator, "created the magistrate for the guardianship of all. The magistrate must not be considered as a mere man ; even in the case of the magistrate being a child, he must still be looked upon in the light of the Dewtah, or Deity; in truth, the magistrate is the Dewtah in a human form, born in this world. Providence created punishment for the preservation of the magistrate." It is only proper that so sublime a personage as the magistrate should be properly accoutred, and he is accordingly enjoined to cause to be made for himself a round umbrella, of the feathers of the bird lut, or the peacock. When provided with this appendage, he is in a proper situation to consult with his councillors, "whereupon," says the law," he shall chuse a retired place, on the top of the house, or on the top of a mountain, or in the desert, or some such secret recess, and shall hold his council there; and in places where there are parrots or other talkative birds, he shall not hold his council while they are present." To this provident caution against the loquaciousness of the feathered race, the law adds two injunctions, which are highly necessary to be observed in all legitimate governments. Hypocrisy and treachery are the virtues of this good old form of government; and therefore "the magistrate shall keep such a guard upon himself, that his foibles may never be discovered, and by sending his spies, he shall inform himself of the faults of others." The methods prescribed for attaining that very desirable but often very difficult object, viz. the recovery of debts, are curious." If a creditor on the day appointed for payment, demands his money of the debtor, who refuses to discharge the debt," first he shall treat the matter with some delicacy, and trying what indirect influence will 1 do," he shall speak to the friends and relations of the debtor, and procure them to demand payment." If this proves unsuccessful, his next step is a far more common one: " he shall go in person and importune for his money, and stay some time at the debtor's house, without eating or drinking." If these means fail, he shall next try the effect of taking the debtor to his own house: "he shall carry the debtor home with him, and having seated him before men of character and reputation, shall there detain him." It is not stated whether the debtor is, in this case, to eat and drink in the creditor's house; if so, the good fare, in company with "men of reputation," might have some efficacy. If even this method should not succeed, the law next allows a little roguery to be hazarded: "he shall endeavour, by feigned pretences, to get hold of some of his goods."This is an old ruse de guerre, and is chiefly remarkable here as being enjoined by legal sanction. If all these circuitous proceedings prove unavailing, the creditor is then permitted to wage serious war; he " ramps for his money ;" and by an operation in the nature of a fieri facias, pounces, "with one fell swoop," on the wife and "all the little ones" of the defendant: "if he cannot by evasive means, distrain the debtor's goods, he shall then seize and confine the debtor's wife, children, cattle, buffaloes, horses, and such kind |