menes, That he had a flood of words, and a drop of reason. His boldness riseth or falleth as he apprehends the goodnesse or badnesse of his cause. 6. He joys not to be retained in such a cause, where all the right in question is but a drop blown up with malice to be a bubble. Wherefore, in such triviall matters he perswades his client to sound'a retreat, and make a composition. 7. When his name is up, his industry is not down, thinking to plead not by his study, but his credit. Commonly physicians, like beer, are best when they are old, and lawyers, like bread, when they are young and new. But our advocate grows not lazie; and if a leading case be out of the road of his practice, he will take pains to trace it thorow his books, and prick the footsteps thereof wheresoever he finds it. 8. He is more carefull to deserve, than greedy' to take fees. He accounts the very pleading of a poóre widow's honest cause sufficient fees, as conceiving himself then the King of Heaven's advocate, bound ex officio to prosecute it. And, although some may say, that such a lawyer may even go live in Cornwall, where it is observed that few of that profession hitherto have grown to any livelihood, yet shall he (besides those two felicities of common lawyers, that they seldome die either without heirs or making a will,) find God's blessing on his provisions and posterity. We will respite him a while till he becomes a judge, and then we will give an example of both together." (Fuller's Holy State, p. 51.) "Sir Edward Coke was wont to say, when a great man came to dinner with him, and gave him no knowledge of his coming, Sir, since you sent me no word of your coming, you must dine with me; but if I had known of it in due time, I would have dined with you."-(Bacon's Apothegms.) "Sir Thomas More had only daughters at the first, and his wife did ever pray for a boy. At last she had a boy, which being come to man's estate proved but simple. Sir Thomas said to his wife, "Thou prayedst so long for a boy that he will be a boy as long as he lives."-(Bacon's Apothegms.) BURNET'S RECOMMENDATION OF THE LAW. In the concluding part of the History of his Own Times, in which he notices the prevailing errors in education, Burnet strongly advises the young gentlemen of his day to acquire some "A knowledge of the law, which, as he asserts, will make them very useful in their country. competent measure of the knowledge of the law is a good foundation for distinguishing a gentleman; but I am in doubt whether his being some time in the Inns of Court will contribute much to this, if he is not a studious person. Those who think they are there only to pass away so many of their years, commonly run together and live both idly and viciously.* I should imagine it a much better way, though it is not much practised, to get a learned young lawyer, who has not got into much business, to come and pass away a long vacation or two with a gentleman, to carry him through such an introduction to the study of the law, as may give him a full view of it, and good directions how to prosecute his study in it. A competent skill in this makes a man very useful in his country, both in conducting his own affairs and in giving good advice to those about him. It will enable him to be a good justice of peace, and to settle matters by arbitration, so as to prevent law suits; and, which ought to be the top of an * The Bishop spoke feelingly upon this subject. His son, Thomas Burnet, afterwards Mr. Justice Burnet, during his residence at the Temple, lived a very dissipated life. Some account of him will be found in another part of these volumes. English gentleman's ambition, to be an able Parliament man, to which no gentleman ought to pretend unless he has a true zeal for his country, with an inflexible integrity and resolution to pursue what appears to him just and right, and for the good of the public. The Parliament is the fountain of law, and the fence of liberty, and no sort of instruction is so necessary for a gentleman as that which may qualify him to appear there with figure and reputation."-(Burnet,v.iv.p.434.) AN EXTRAORDINARY EJECTMENT. Every creature has its element, and finds its pleasure and subsistence in situations which to others would be destructive. To some men the prison, with its cell and its bars, has its own peculiar charm. It happened lately that a person of the name of Braybrook, was committed to the Fleet prison for debt, but his creditor, from motives of humanity towards the defendant's large family, did not declare against him, and he became in consequence supersedable. Instead of availing himself of this clemency and returning to his family, who were forced to go to the work-house, he obtained from time to time fictitious actions, and remained his own prisoner. He derived his support from the rent of his room, and the precarious bounty of green-horn prisoners. Several spirited collegians at length represented the mat ter to the Warden, and stated the hardship that a volunteer prisoner should, by occupying one of his rooms, deprive more deserving and necessitous persons of their privilege; in consequence of which, the Warden applied to the attorney in the actions and procured the necessary discharges, after which the prisoner was expelled by his brother collegians as an unworthy fellow, and the Governor gave strict orders to the turnkeys never to admit him again! Driven from his Eden, the unhappy debtor wandered forth: "Then, looking back, all the Eastern side beheld Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate Some natural tears he dropp'd, but wiped them soon: The world was all before him." THE BICAUD, OR TWO-TAILED gabbler. The following amusing jeu d'esprit may be found in the second volume of the Indicator. "The preternatural history of the most degenerate animals of the human race. No. 1. The Bicaud, or Two-Tailed Gabbler. Jurisconsultus, jurisperitus, in Latin. L'Avocat, in French. |