hang you, I don't mean to hang you,-will nobody tell her I don't mean to hang her."

Sir Eardly Wilmot, whose modesty and love of retirement was so great that all, even the greatest office was with difficulty forced upon him, he refused peremptorily to accept the great seal.

Mr. Justice Buller, Sir James Mansfield, Lords Ellenborough and Tenterden, names sufficiently high and venerated. The last words of Tenterden were characteristic, and exhibit the ruling passion strong in death,-"gentlemen of the jury, you are discharged:" he then fell back upon his bed, and almost immediately expired. Nor can we omit mention of Gascoigne, who imprisoned the Prince of Wales for a contempt; of David Jenkins, who, in the discharge of his duty, being threatened with the tower, nobly exclaimed, “I will go there with Magna Charta under one arm and the Bible under the other;"-of Selden and Blackstone, the great legal antiquarians.†

In the time of Alfred the Great, it would appear that the corruption of judges was proverbial, for we are told that forty-four were tried and executed during the reign of that wise and politic prince. It is also said that, upon rigid investigation, the English Justinian, Edward, could find but two, of all his judges, free from the foulest stains-Johannes de Mettingham and Elias de Beckingham. He fined and banished Sir Thomas Wayland and Sir Ralph Hengham, executed Thorpe and de Stratton, chiefs of the king's bench and exchequer. But these were barbarous times, and when we have mentioned a Scroggs, a Macklesfield, and that abominable monster Jefferies, all of more modern date, the black catalogue will be finished. At the bar, Epsom and Dudley, the iniquitous and corrupt minions of Henry VII., stand almost alone in the naked deformity of their characters. Since the passage of the act 12 William III., which changed the judicial tenure from durante bene placito into

Junius says, if you wish to know what justice is, you may go to Sir William's book, but to know what injustice is, you must become acquainted with the learned judge himself. Horne Tooke thought the Commentaries "a good gentleman's law book, clear, but not deep."

+ We had intended a sketch of some of the great lawyers of our own country, the Marshalls, Kents, Storys, etc.-but the length of the present article is already too great. At a future day we may devote a few pages to the subject. The Carolina bar, in particular, affords a rich fund of anecdote, within our immediate reach.

de bene gesserint, the most powerful inducements to evil have been removed, and the judges now, in the independence of their character, have as little to fear from the arbitrary requisitions of the government, as they have from the rash and inconsiderate menaces of the populace.* Perhaps we cannot better conclude this division of our subject, than with the words of Chancellor Kent: "Every person well acquainted with the contents of the English reports, must have been struck with the unbending and lofty morals with which the courts were inspired. If we were to go back to the iron times of the Tudors, and follow judicial history down, we should find the higher courts of civil judicature generally, and with rare exceptions, presenting the image of the sanctity of a temple, where truth and justice seem to be enthroned and personified in their decrees."

To the law, as well as to the other learned professions, belong the esoteric and exoteric principles; and, perhaps, to the law pre-eminently belongs that wide and extensive field, in which the former is capable of being applied. Legal subtlety is proverbial. We have assigned in another place, some of the reasons for its existence; we simply mention the fact here. Every day the recondite, the profound, the hair-splitting discrimination, are named among the essential elements of the legal profession. The fact is so; these form the inner divisions of the temple,-parts too sacred for rude and vulgar profanation,-reached only by avenues too dark and cheerless to invite a numerous priesthood. The portals of the temple are thronged with devotees,-they are crowded and clamorous without,-but where are those that tread in solemn awe its vaulted aisles,-that press behind the dark veil, that penetrate the deep recesses, and offer up sacrifice upon the altar?

Lawyers are accused of an exceeding fondness for refined distinctions, of an elaboration in their perplexed metaphysics, of an ever ready hand to draw nice lines of demarkation, and spin out cobwebs of subtlety from their brains.

* From the following list, it will appear that the boasted independence of the Judges is not altogether attained in this country. In Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut, they hold their seats during good behaviour, or until seventy years of age; Missouri sixty-five, and perhaps South-Carolina soon; New-York, sixty; Tennessee, they hold eight or twelve years; New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, seven years; Alabama and Mississippi, six years; Georgia, three years; Vermont and Rhode Island, annually elected!

And, in very truth, it requires no ordinary mental power to be successful here. What skill, acumen and rigid intelleetual training, must needs be brought into such a field! Well did Alexander Hamilton suggest Euclid as the lawyer's indispensable companion, and peruse it annually himself! The whole learning of uses, trusts and powers, when in their full vigor, what a formidable array! Who shall march up with firmness and nerve? Who shall do battle here, storm the high places and bear away the laurel of victory even from the enemy's camp?

We have, in the case of Sir James Hale, a passage of exquisite perfection in the discriminating art. Sir James had committed suicide. "The felony, said Mr. Justice Brown, is attributed to the act, which act is always done by a living man in his life-time. Sir James Hale was dead, and how came he to his death? It may be answered by drowning,and who drowned him ?-Sir James Hale. And when did he drown him?-in his life-time. So that Sir James Hale being alive, caused Sir James Hale to die; and the act of the living man was the death of the dead man." Shakspeare, in Hamlet, is supposed to have had reference to this very case, and admirably ridicules its refinement: "If I drown myself wittingly, wisely observes one, it argues an act, and an act has three branches,-it is, to act, to do and to perform. Argal, she drowned herself wittingly; here lies the water, good,-here stands the man, good, if the man goes to this water and drowns himself, it is will he, nill he, he goes,mark you that; but if the water comes to him and drowns him, he drowns not himself."

Next to legal subtlety, its technicalities and its fictions have afforded ground for much humorous representation and no little satire. Law Latin has been yclept a barbarous and mongrel growth, and law French an abomination. Yet is it from these precious and prolific sources that all those rare exotics are culled, which thrive so well in the soil and atmosphere of a court house. If we consider its English, how very significant and intelligible the phraseology at times,"tenancy in tail, without possibility of issue extinct," "the whole of an undivided moiety," "an undivided moiety of the whole," et cetera, et cetera; sensible enough to ordinary and unintiated intelligence! With respect to fiction, never let it be thought for a moment that good old lady common law, has any thing of a romantic inclination, because it plea

ses her once in a way to draw upon the imagination; her ideality is curious enough, and when she sketches a John Doe or a Richard Roe, what queer, old-fashioned gentry they prove to be. But then, she never sketches simply for amusement; her purposes in this field are higher; she aims to be just, even when she would be most fanciful,-boasting her old maxim, "in fictione juris consistat æquitas." How prolific was her imagination in her earlier creations of "fines," "recoveries" and "ejectments;" and with what gravity, even in her fooleries, has she been wont to appear, and what wisdom in her assumed gravity withal. When she talked in her "levied fines" and "suffered recoveries," about suits, compromises and adjustments, that had never taken place, was she telling downright, deliberate lies to defraud, so that Sir Matthew Hale's conscientious progenitor might be excused for abandoning her retinue forever? Not at all. She was squinting terribly another way; her eye was fixed upon those overgrown and enormous estates, which the nobility, by virtue of the "family statute," de donis, were locking up from the nation, and in this way encouraging every kind of treason, stratagem and spoils. By virtue of a statute of Henry VII., came the "fine," but clerical ingenuity, that fecund soil, had long before given the idea of the "recovery," of which the judges did not scruple to avail themselves, and the politic Edward VI. to wink at, in all good nature.

Let us take a momentary glance at this so celebrated "recovery," now buried in the "tomb of the Capulets." Tom brings an action against Dick for land, alleging that he obtained it from one Harry, who had turned him (Tom) out of possession; whereupon Dick enters court, ready to swear upon his "bible oath" that the land is his, obtained from one Bob, and as to the said Harry, that he has never known him or even heard of him before. "Bring in Bob," says the court; and in steps this worthy, who proves to be none other than the crier. At this Tom looks aghast, but begs to have a little private parlance with him, which is granted, of course;whereupon they strut out of court, arm and arm. Directly comes in Tom alone, but Bob is never seen or heard of afterward. Horrible! could Tom have murdered him? Nothing of this kind is proved. What thinks the court? Say the judges, it is evident that the land is Tom's, and this Dick and this Bob have been conniving together to oust him of his right and title, for has it not happened, they shrewdly ask,

that at the very moment when Dick is to establish his title, Bob, fearing the detection of his iniquities, has taken to flight? The proof is positive. Now, what is the whole amount of the admirable farce? Simply this-to allow land, by virtue of a voluntary agreement, to pass from Dick to Tom, barring all claim which the heirs tail of Dick might have in it; or, in other words, to permit alienation indirectly, which directly was contrary to the feudal policy. With such iron fetters was the nation bound, and so artfully was the work of manumission accomplished.

"The law's delay" has been every where the subject of song. To get into chancery is to live there, say some; nay, it is often to take a fee simple right for the benefit of one's posterity. Then are there, too, its prolix documents,-its never-ending repetitions,-its "said Johns" and its "said Williams," and its "deponents,"-its quarto sheets loosely hieroglyphic'd over and elegantly decorated with fancy tape. Save us from the "English bill" in chancery, with its "thrice told tale," from all of these in mercy deliver us! Who does not remember the great case of Perrin versus Blake, which for thirty years "awakened all that was noble and illustrious in talent and endowment through every precinct of Westminster Hall."

Ten persons once applied to a lawyer to have articles of partnership drawn up, which, had it been legally accomplished, would have required by calculation 90,720,000 provisos; enough, one would suppose, to strike terror into every aspirant for legal eminence, and justify the reply made by a celebrated judge to a lady, who inquired if her son had much chance of success in this branch: "Yes, madam, if he can eat sawdust without butter!"

The growth of law libraries presents an interesting topic for investigation and comment, since their present enormous stature and unmeasurable proportions cannot but inflict many a pang on even the most hardy and indomitable. Many times the space usually allotted to humanity, would not suffice even to enter upon their merits; and he would be a reckless, daring lawyer, who could encourage a reasonable hope of even turning over this cumbrous pile, much less of getting a glance at its contents. But this, however, is a modern bugbear, one of the fruits of our steam-press reformation! It was said sneeringly, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, that all the common law books in Eng