January 21.

Aquarius,OR, THE WATER BEARER.

The sun enters Aquarius on this day, though he does not enter it in the visible zodiac until the 18th of February.

Ganymede, who succeeded Hebe as cup-bearer to Jove, is fabled to have been changed into Aquarius. Canobus of the Egyptian zodiac, who was the Neptune of the Egyptians, with a water-vase and measure, evidently prefigured this constellation. They worshipped him as the God of many breasts, from whence he replenished the Nile with fertilizing streams. Aquarius contains one hundred and eight stars, the two chief of which are about fifteen degrees in height:

His head, his shoulders, and his lucid breast,Glisten with stars; and when his urn inclines,Rivers of light brighten the watery track.Eudosia.

His head, his shoulders, and his lucid breast,Glisten with stars; and when his urn inclines,Rivers of light brighten the watery track.

Eudosia.

St. Agnes.St Fructuosus, &c.St. Vimin, or Vivian.St. Publius.St. Epiphanius.

“She has always been looked upon,” says Butler, “as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate mother of God.” According to him, she suffered martyrdom, about 304, and performed wonderful miracles before her death, which was by beheading, when she was thirteen years old; whereupon he enjoins females to a single life, as better than a married one, and says, that her anniversary “was formerly a holiday for the women in England.” Ribadeneira relates, that she was to have been burned, and was put into the fire for that purpose, but the flames, refusing to touch her, divided on each side, burnt some of the bystanders, and then quenched, as if there had been none made: a compassionate quality in fire, of which iron was not sensible, for her head was cut off at a single blow. Her legend further relates, that eight days after her death she came to her parents arrayed in white, attended by virgins with garlands of pearls, and a lamb whiter than snow; she is therefore usually represented by artists with a lamb by her side; though not, as Mr. Brand incautiously says, “ineverygraphic representation.” It is further related, that a priest who officiated in a church dedicated to St. Agnes, was very desirous of being married. He prayed the pope’s license, who gave it him, together with an emerald ring, and commanded him to pay his addresses to the image of St. Agnes in his own church. Then the priest did so, and the image put forth her finger, and he put the ring thereon; whereupon the image drew her finger again, and kept the ring fast, and the priest was contented to remain a bachelor;“and yet, as it is sayd, the rynge is on the fynger of the ymage.”

In a Romish Missal printed at Paris, in 1520, there is a prayer to St. Agnes, remarkably presumptive of her powers; it is thus englished by Bp. Patrick:

Agnes, who art the Lamb’s chaste spouse,Enlighten thou our minds within;Not only lop the spreading boughs.But root out of us every sin.O, Lady, singularly great,After this state, with grief opprestTranslate us to that quiet seatAbove, to triumph with the blest.

Agnes, who art the Lamb’s chaste spouse,Enlighten thou our minds within;Not only lop the spreading boughs.But root out of us every sin.

O, Lady, singularly great,After this state, with grief opprestTranslate us to that quiet seatAbove, to triumph with the blest.

From Naogeorgus, we gather that in St. Agnes’ church at Rome, it was customary on St. Agnes’ Day to bring two snow-white lambs to the altar, upon which they were laid while the Agnus was singing by way of offering. These consecrated animals were afterwards shorn, and palls made from their fleeces; for each of which, it is said, the pope exacted of the bishops from eight to ten, or thirty thousand crowns, and that the custom originated with Limes, who succeeded the apostle Peter: whereupon Naogeorgus inquires,

But where wasAgnesat that time? who offred up, and how,The two white lambes? where then was Masse, as it is used now?Yea, where was then the Popish state, and dreadfull monarchee?Sure in Saint Austen’s time, there were no palles at Rome to see, &c.

In Jephson’s “Manners, &c. of France and Italy,” there is one dated from Rome, February, 14, 1793. That this ceremony was then in use, is evident from the following lines:—

St. Agnes’ Shrine.Where each prettyBa-lamb most gaily appears,With ribands stuck round on its tail and its ears;On gold fringed cushions they’re stretch’d out to eat,And piouslyba, and to church-musick bleat;Yet to me they seem’d crying, alack, and alas!What’s all this white damask to daisies and grass?Then they’re brought to the Pope, and with transport they’re kiss’d,And receive consecration from Sanctity’s fist.

St. Agnes’ Shrine.

Where each prettyBa-lamb most gaily appears,With ribands stuck round on its tail and its ears;On gold fringed cushions they’re stretch’d out to eat,And piouslyba, and to church-musick bleat;Yet to me they seem’d crying, alack, and alas!What’s all this white damask to daisies and grass?Then they’re brought to the Pope, and with transport they’re kiss’d,And receive consecration from Sanctity’s fist.

Stopford, in “Pagano-Papismus,” recites this ceremony of the Romish church. The sheep were brought into the church, and the priest, having blessed some salt and water, read in one corner this gospel, “To us a child is born,” &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again; in the second corner he read this gospel, “Ye men of Galilee,” &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again; in the third corner he read this gospel, “I am the good shepherd,” &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again; and in the fourth corner he read this gospel, “In these days,” &c. with the whole office, a farthing being laid upon the book, and taken up again. After that, he sprinkled all the sheep with holy water, saying, “Let the blessing of God, the Father Almighty, descend and remain upon you; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” Then he signed all the sheep with the sign of the cross, repeated thrice some Latin verses, with the Paternoster and Ave-Marias, sung the mass of the Holy Ghost, and at the conclusion, an offering of fourpence was for himself, and another of threepence was for the poor. This ceremony was adopted by the Romish church from certain customs of the ancient Romans, in their worship of Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and pastures. They prayed her to bless the sheep, and sprinkled them with water. The chief difference between the forms seems to have consisted in this, that the ancient Romans let the sheep remain in their folds, while the moderns drove them into the church.

St. Agnes.Christmas Rose.Helleborus niger flore albo.

THE CROCUS.Dainty young thingOf life!—Thou vent’rous flower,Who growest through the hard, cold bowerOf wintry Spring:—Thou various-hued,Soft, voiceless bell, whose spireRocks in the grassy leaves like wireIn solitude:—Like Patience, thouArt quiet in thy earth.Instructing Hope that Virtue’s birthIs Feeling’s vow.Thy fancied bride!The delicate Snowdrop, keepsHer home with thee; she wakes and sleepsNear thy true side.Will Man but hear!A simple flower can tellWhat beauties in his mind, should dwellThrough Passion’s sphere.J. R. Prior.

THE CROCUS.

Dainty young thingOf life!—Thou vent’rous flower,Who growest through the hard, cold bowerOf wintry Spring:—Thou various-hued,Soft, voiceless bell, whose spireRocks in the grassy leaves like wireIn solitude:—Like Patience, thouArt quiet in thy earth.Instructing Hope that Virtue’s birthIs Feeling’s vow.Thy fancied bride!The delicate Snowdrop, keepsHer home with thee; she wakes and sleepsNear thy true side.Will Man but hear!A simple flower can tellWhat beauties in his mind, should dwellThrough Passion’s sphere.

Dainty young thingOf life!—Thou vent’rous flower,Who growest through the hard, cold bowerOf wintry Spring:—

Thou various-hued,Soft, voiceless bell, whose spireRocks in the grassy leaves like wireIn solitude:—

Like Patience, thouArt quiet in thy earth.Instructing Hope that Virtue’s birthIs Feeling’s vow.

Thy fancied bride!The delicate Snowdrop, keepsHer home with thee; she wakes and sleepsNear thy true side.

Will Man but hear!A simple flower can tellWhat beauties in his mind, should dwellThrough Passion’s sphere.

J. R. Prior.

1793. On the 21st of January, Louis XVI. was beheaded at Paris, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and nineteenth of his reign, under circumstances which are in the recollection of many, and known to most persons. A similar instrument to theguillotine, the machine by which Louis XVI. was put to death, was formerly used in England. It was first introduced into France, during the revolution, by Dr. Guillotine, a physician, and hence its name.

The History of Halifax in Yorkshire, 12mo. 1712, sets forth “a true account of their ancient, odd, customary gibbet-law; and their particular form of trying and executing of criminals, the like not us’d in any other place in Great Britain.” The Halifax gibbet was in the form of the guillotine, and its gibbet-law quite as remarkable. The work referred to, which is more curious than rare, painfully endeavours to prove this law wise and salutary. It prevailed only within the forest of Hardwick, which was subject to the lord of the manor of Wakefield, a part of the duchy of Lancaster. If a felon were taken within the liberty of the forest with cloth, or other commodity, of the value of thirteen-pence halfpenny, he was, after three market-days from his apprehension and condemnation, to be carried to the gibbet, and there have his head cut off from his body. When first taken, he was brought to the lord’s bailiff in Halifax, who kept the town, had also the keeping of the axe, and was the executioner at the gibbet. This officer summoned a jury of frith-burghers to try him on the evidence of witnesses not upon oath: if acquitted, he was set at liberty, upon payment of his fees; if convicted, he was set in the stocks on each of the three subsequent market-days in Halifax, with the stolen goods on his back, if they were portable; if not, they were placed before his face. This was for a terror to others, and to engage any who had aught against him, to bring accusations, although after the three market-days he was sure to be executed for the offence already proved upon him. But the convict had the satisfaction of knowing, that after he was put to death, it was the duty of the coroner to summon a jury, “and sometimes the same jury that condemned him,” to inquire into the cause of his death, and that a return thereof would be made into the Crown-office; “which gracious and sage proceedings of the coroner in that matter ought, one would think, to abate, in all considering minds, that edge of acrimony which hath provoked malicious and prejudiced persons to debase this laudable and necessary custom.” So says the book. In April, 1650, Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchell were found guilty of stealing nine yards of cloth and two colts, and on the 30th of the month received sentence, “to suffer death, by having their heads severed and cut off from their bodies at Halifax gibbet,” and they suffered accordingly. These were the last persons executed under Halifax gibbet-law.

The execution was in this manner:—The prisoner being brought to the scaffold by the bailiff, the axe was drawn up by a pulley, and fastened with a pin to the side of the scaffold. “The bailiff, the jurors, and the minister chosen by the prisoner, being always upon the scaffold with the prisoner, in most solemn manner, after the minister had finished his ministerial office and christian duty, if it was a horse, an ox, or cow, &c. that was taken with the prisoner, it was thither brought along with him to the place of execution, and fastened by a cord to the pin that stay’d the block, so that when the time of the execution came, (which was known by the jurors holding up one of their hands,) the bailiff, or his servant, whipping the beast, the pin was pluck’d out, and execution done; but if there were no beast in the case, then the bailiff, or his servant, cut the rope.”

The Halifax Gibbet.

But if the felon, after his apprehension, or in his going to execution, happened to make his escape out of the forest of Hardwick, which liberty, on the east end of the town, doth not extend above the breadth of a small river; on the north about six hundred paces; on the south about a mile; but on the west about ten miles;—if such an escape were made, then the bailiff of Halifax had no power to apprehend him out of his liberty; but if ever the felon came again into the liberty of Hardwick, and were taken, he was certainly executed. One Lacy, who made his escape, and lived seven years out of the liberty, after that time coming boldly within the liberty of Hardwick, was retaken, and executed upon his former verdict of condemnation.

The records of executions by the Halifax gibbet, before the time of Elizabeth, are lost; but during her reign twenty-five persons suffered under it, and from 1623 to 1650 there were twelve executions. The machine is destroyed. Theengravingplaced above, represents the instrument, from a figure of it in an old map of Yorkshire, which is altogether better than the print of it in the work before cited.

The worthy author of the Halifax gibbet-book seems by his title to be well assured, that the machine was limited to, and to the sole use and behoof of, his district; but in this, as in some other particulars, he is mistaken.

A small print by Aldegraver, one of the little German masters, in 1553, now lying before the writer, represents the execution of Manlius, the Roman, by the same instrument; and he has a similar print by Pens, an early engraver of that school. There are engravings of it in books printed so early as 1510. In Hollinshed’s Chronicle there is a cut ofa man who had attempted the life of Henry III. suffering by this instrument. In Fox’s “Acts and Monuments,” there is another execution in the same manner.

The “maiden” by which James, earl of Morton, the regent of Scotland, was put to death for high treason in 1581, was of this form, and is said to have been constructed by his order from a model of one that he had seen in England: he was the first and last person who suffered by it in Scotland; and it still exists in the parliament-house at Edinburgh. In “The Cloud of Witnesses; or the last Speeches of Scottish Martyrs since 1680,” there is a print of an execution in Scotland by a similar instrument. The construction of such a machine was in contemplation for the beheading of lord Lovat in 1747: he approved the notion—“My neck is very short,” he said, “and the executioner will be puzzled to find it out with his axe: if they make the machine, I suppose they will call it lord Lovat’s maiden.”

Randle Holme in his “Armory” describes an heraldic quartering thus:—“He bearethgules, a heading-block fixed between two supporters, with an axe placed therein; on thesinisterside a maule, allproper.” This agreeable bearing he figures as the reader sees it.

beheading implement

Holme observes, that “this was the Jews’ and Romans’ way of beheading offenders, as some write, though others say they used to cut off the heads of such, with a sharp, two-handed sword: however, this way of decollation was by laying the neck of the malefactor on the block, and then setting the axe upon it, which lay in a rigget in the two side-posts or supporters; the executioner with the violence of a blow on the head of the axe, with his heavy maul, forced it through the man’s neck into the block. I have seen the draught of the like heading-instrument, where the weighty axe (made heavy for that purpose) was raised up and fell down in such a riggetted frame, which being suddenly let to fall, the weight of it was sufficient to cut off a man’s head at one blow.”

Remarkable instances of the mildness of January, 1825, are recorded in the provincial and London journals. In the first week a man planting a hedge near Mansfield, in Yorkshire, found a blackbird’s nest with four young ones in it. The Westmoreland Gazette states, that on the 13th a fine ripe strawberry was gathered in the garden of Mr. W. Whitehead, Storth End, near End-Moor, and about the same time a present of the same fruit was made by Thomas Wilson, Esq. Thorns, Underbarrow, to Mr. Alderman Smith Wilson, some of them larger in bulk than the common hazel-nut. Indeed the forwardness of the season in the north appears wonderful. It is stated in the Glasgow Chronicle of the 11th, that on the 7th, bees were flying about in the garden of Rose-mount; on the 9th, the sky was without a cloud; there was scarcely a breath of wind, the blackbirds were singing as if welcoming the spring; pastures wore a fine, fresh, and healthy appearance; the wheat-braird was strong, thick in the ground, and nearly covering the soil; vegetation going on in the gardens; the usual spring flowers making their appearance; the Christmas rose, the snowdrop, the polyanthea, the single or border anemone, the hepatica in its varieties, and the mazerion were in full bloom; the Narcissus making its appearance, and the crocusses showing colour. On the 11th, at six o’clock, the thermometer in Nelson-street, Glasgow, indicated 44 degrees; on the 9th, the barometer gained the extraordinary height of 31·01; on the 11th, it was at 30·8. The Sheffield Mercury represents, that within six or seven weeks preceding the middle of the month, the barometer had been lower and higher than had been remarked by any living individual in that town. On the 23d of November it was so low as 27·5; and on the 9th of January at 11P. M.it stood at 30·65. In the same place the following meteorological observations were made:

At Paris, in the latter end of 1824, the barometer was exceedingly high, considering the bad weather that had prevailed, and the moisture of the atmosphere. There had been almost constant and incessant rain. The few intervals of fair weather, were when the wind got round a few points to the west, or the northward of west: but invariably, a few hours after, the wind again got to the southwest, and the rain commenced falling. It appeared as if a revolution had taken place in the laws of the barometer. The barometer in London was at 30·48 in May, 1824, and never rose higher during the whole year.

St. Vincent.St. Anastasius.

St. Vincent was a Spanish martyr, said to have been tormented by fire, so that he died in 304. His name is in the church of England calendar. Butler affirms that his body was “thrown in a marshy field among rushes, but a crow defended it from wild beasts and birds of prey.” The Golden Legend says that angels had the guardianship of the body, that the crow attended to drive away birds and fowls greater than himself, and that after he had chased a wolf with his bill and beak, he then turned his head towards the body, as if he marvelled at the keeping of it by the angels. His relics necessarily worked miracles wherever they were kept. For their collection, separation, and how they travelled from place to place, see Butler.

Brand, from a MS. note by Mr. Douce, referring to Scot’s “Discoverie of Witchcraft,” cites an old injunction to observe whether the sun shines on St. Vincent’s-day:

“Vincenti festo si Sol radiet memor este.”

It is thus done into English by Abraham Fleming:

Remember on St. Vincent’s dayIf that the sun his beams display

Dr. Forster, in the “Perennial Calendar,” is at a loss for the origin of the command, but he thinks it may have been derived from a notion that the sun would not shine unominously on the day whereon the saint was burnt.

1800.—On the 22d of January, in this year, died George Steevens, Esq. F. R. S. F. A. S. He was born at Stepney, in 1751 or 1752, and is best known as the editor of Shakspeare, though to the versatility and richness of his talents there are numerous testimonials. He maintained the greatest perseverance in every thing he undertook. He never relaxed, but sometimes broke off favourite habits of long indulgence suddenly. In this way he discontinued his daily visits to two booksellers. This, says his biographer in the Gentleman’s Magazine, he did “after many years’ regular attendance, for no real cause.” It is submitted, however, that the cause, though unknown to others may have been every way sufficing and praiseworthy. He who has commenced a practice that has grown into a destroyer of his time and desires to end it, must snap it in an instant. If he strive to abate it by degrees, he will find himself relaxing by degrees.

“Delusions strong as hell will bind him fast,” unless he achieve, not the determination to destroy, but the act of destruction. The will and the power are two. Steevens knew this, and though he had taken snuff all his life, he never took one pinch after he lost his box in St. Paul’s church-yard. Had he taken one he might have taken one more, and then only another, and afterwards only a little bit in a paper, and then, he would have died as he lived—a snuff-taker. No; Steevens appears to have discovered the grand secret, that a man’s self is the great enemy of himself, and hence his intolerance of self-indulgence even in degree.

His literary collections were remarkably curious, and as regards the days that are gone, of great value.

St. Vincent.Early Witlow grass.Draba verna.

HILARY TERMbegins.

St. Raymundof Pennafort,A. D.1275.St. Johnthe Almoner,A. D.619.St. Emerentia,A. D.304.St. Clementof Ancyra.St. Agathangelus.St. Ildefonsus,A. D.667.St. Eusebius, Abbot.

This being the first day of term, the judges of the different courts at Westminster, take their seats in Westminster-hall to commence business.

The engraving represents the interior of the hall at the time when the print from whence it is taken was engraved by C. Mosley. The drawing was by Gravelot, who died in 1773.

Westminster Hall, with its Shops.

The shops within the hall are remarkably curious from their situation, and indeed the courts themselves are no less worthy of observation. It will be recollected that the court of Chancery and the court of King’s Bench, at the upper end were, until the coronation, enclosed from sight and hearing; in the print they are open. This is the print alluded to in the volume on “Ancient Mysteries,” p. 266, wherein is cited Ned Ward’s remarks respecting the sempstresses, by whom some of these shops were occupied.

It is of ancient custom on the first day of term for the judges to breakfast with the lord chancellor in Lincoln’s-inn-hall, and proceed with him in their respective carriages to Westminster-hall. Being arrived at the hall door in Palace-yard, and having alighted with their officers and train bearers, they formed a procession along the hall until they came opposite to the court of Common Pleas, before which stood the serjeants at law, who had previously arranged themselves in their full dress wigs and gowns, and awaited the coming of the judges, who were also in their full dress. Then the serjeants all bowed, and their obeisance being acknowledged by the judges in like manner, the lord chancellor, being first, approached the first serjeant in the rank, and shook hands with him, saying, “How d’ye do, brother? I wish you a good term;” whereupon the serjeant bowed and thanked his lordship, and the chancellor bowing to him, the serjeant again bowed; and the chancellor saluted and shook hands with the next serjeant in like manner, and so he did with each serjeant present, and then proceeded with his officers to his court. The lord chief justice of England and each of the puisne judges of the court of King’s Bench, saluting and shaking hands with each serjeant in the same manner, followed the chancellor and went into their court. In the same manner also did the chief justice and puisne judges of the court of Common Pleas, and entered their court at the back of the serjeants. Lastly, the lord chief baron and the puisne barons of the Exchequer, having also so saluted the serjeants, returned back and entered the court of Exchequer, which is at the right hand immediately on entering the hall; the entrance to the court of Common Pleas being about midway on the same side of the hall, whither, on the barons having retired, the serjeants withdrew to commence business before the judges. The site of the court of Chancery is on the same side up the steps at the end of the hall, and that of the court of King’s Bench level with it on the left-hand side. It is to be noted, that one judge does not salute the serjeants before the rest of the judges begin to salute them, but each follows the other. Thus whilst the chancellor is saluting the second serjeant the lord chief justice salutes the first, and he salutes the second while the chancellor salutes the third, the next judge of the King’s Bench court saluting the first serjeant; and so the judges proceed successively, and close to each other, till all the serjeants have been saluted. It is further observable, that more extended greetings sometimes pass between the judges and serjeants who are intimate.

In 1825, the 23d of January, whereon Hilary term commences, happening on a Sunday, which is adies non, or no day in law, the courts were opened on the 24th, when the judges refreshed themselves in Lincoln’s-inn-hall with the lord chancellor, as usual, and departed at half-past twelve o’clock. On retiring, sir Charles Abbot, as lord chief justice, took precedence of lord Gifford, the master of the rolls, though he ranks as a baron of the realm, and is deputy speaker of the house of lords. The court of Chancery in Westminster-hall being under reparation, the chancellor remained in Lincoln’s-inn to keep his term there. For the same reason, the serjeants did not range themselves in the hall at Westminster, but awaited the arrival of the judges of the Common Pleas in their own court; the carriages of the judges of the King’s Bench turned to the right at the top of Parliament-street, and proceeded to the new Sessions’ house, where the judges sit until the new court of King’s Bench in Westminster-hall shall be prepared.

It is further to be remarked, that theSide Barin Westminster-hall stood, till very lately, within a short space of the wall, and at a few feet on the Palace-yard side of the court of Common Pleas’ steps. Formerly, attorneys stood within this bar every morning during term, and moved the judges for the common rules, called side-bar rules, as they passed to their courts, and by whom they were granted them as of course. These motions have been long discontinued; the rules are applied for and obtained at the rule-office as rules of course; but each rule still expressesthat it has been granted upon a “side-bar” motion.

To recur to theengraving, which exhibits Westminster-hall at no distant period, in a state very dissimilar to its more late appearance. The original print by Mosley bears the following versified inscription:

When fools fall out, for ev’ry flaw,They run horn mad to go to law,A hedge awry, a wrong plac’d gate,Will serve to spend a whole estate,Your case the lawyer says is good,And justice cannot be withstood;By tedious process from aboveFrom office they to office move;Thro’ pleas, demurrers, the dev’l and all,At length they bring it to thehall;The dreadful hall by Rufus rais’d,For lofty Gothick arches prais’d.TheFirst of Term, the fatal day,Doth various images convey;First from the courts with clam’rous bawlThecrierstheirattorneyscall;One of the gown, discreet and wise,Bypropermeans his witness tries;FromWreathock’sgang—not right or lawsH’assures his trembling client’s cause;Thisgnaws his handkerchief, whilstthatGives the kind ogling nymph his hat;Here one in love with choiristersMinds singing more than law affairs.Aserjeantlimping on behindShews justice lame, as well as blind.To gain new clients some dispute,Others protract an ancient suit,Jargon and noise alone prevail,While sense and reason’s sure to fail;AtBabelthuslaw termsbegan,And now at Westm——er go on.

The advocate, whose subornation of perjury is hinted at, is in the foremost group; he is offering money to one of “Wreathock’s gang.” This Wreathock was a villainous attorney, who received sentence of death for his criminal practices, and was ordered to be transported for life in 1736. It is a notorious fact, that many years ago wretches sold themselves to give any evidence, upon oath, that might be required; and some of these openly walked Westminster-hall with a straw in the shoe to signify that they wanted employment as witnesses; such was one of the customs of the “good old times,” which some of us regret we were not born in. The “choirister” in a surplice, bearing a torch, was probably one of the choir belonging to Westminster-abbey. To his right hand is the “limping serjeant” with a stick; his serjeantship being denoted by thecoif, or cap, he wears; thecoifis now diminished into a small circular piece of black silk at the top of the wig, instead of the cap represented in the engraving. The first shop, on the left, is occupied by a bookseller; the next by a mathematical instrument maker; then there is another bookseller; beyond him a dealer in articles of female consumption; beyond her a bookseller again; and, last on that side, a second female shopkeeper. Opposite to her, on the right of the hall, stands a clock, with the hands signifying it to be about one in the afternoon; the first shop, next from the clock, is a bookseller’s; then comes a female, who is a map and printseller; and, lastly, the girl who receives the barrister’s hat into her care, and whose line appears to sustain the “turnovers” worn by the beaus of those days with “ruffles,” which, according to Ned Ward, the sempstresses of Westminster-hall nicely “pleated,” to the satisfaction of the “young students” learned in the law.

Enough has, probably, been said of the engraving, to obtain regard to it as an object worth notice.

The first day of term is occupied, in the common law courts, by the examination of bail for persons who have been arrested, and whose opponents will not consent to the bail justifying before a judge at his chambers. A versified exemplification of this proceeding in the court of King’s Bench, was written when lord Mansfield was chief, and Mr. Willes a justice of the court; a person named Hewitt was then cryer, Mr. Mingay, a celebrated counsel, still remembered, is represented as opposing the bail proposed by Mr. Baldwin, another counsel:

KING’S-BENCH PRACTICE. CHAP. 10. OF JUSTIFYING BAIL.Baldwin.Hewitt, call Taylor’s bail,—for IShall now proceed to justify.Hewitt.Where’s Taylor’s bail?1st Bail.————————— I can’t get in.Hewitt.Make way.Lord Mansfield.—— For heaven’s sake begin.Hewitt.But where’s the other?2d Bail.————————— Here I stand.Mingay.I must except to both.—CommandSilence,—and if your lordship crave it,Austenshall read our affidavit.Austen.Will.Priddle, late of Fleet-street, gent.Makes oath and saith, that late he wentTo Duke’s-place, as he was directedBy notice, and he there expectedTo find both bail—but none could tellWhere the first bail lived—Mingay.———————Very well.Austen.And this deponent further says,That, asking who the second was,He found he’d bankrupt been, and yetHad ne’er obtained certificate.When to his house deponent went,He full four stories high was sent,And found a lodging almost bare;No furniture, but half a chair,A table, bedstead, broken fiddleAnd a bureau.(Signed)William Priddle.Sworn at my chambers.Francis Buller.Mingay.No affidavit can be fuller.Well, friend, you’ve heard this affidavit,What do you say?2d Bail.———Sir, by your leave, itIs all a lie.Mingay.Sir, have a care,What is your trade?2d Bail.———— A scavenger.Mingay.And, pray, sir, were you never foundBankrupt?2d Bail.I’m worth a thousand pound.Mingay.A thousand pound, friend, boldly said—In what consisting?2d Bail.————Stock in trade.Mingay.And, pray, friend, tell me,—do you knowWhat sum you’re bail for?2d Bail.—————— Truly no.Mingay.My lords, you hear,—no oaths have check’d him:I hope your lordships will—Willes.———————— Reject him.Mingay.Well, friend, now tell me whereyoudwell.1st Bail.Sir, I have liv’d in ClerkenwellThese ten years.Mingay.—— Half-a-guinea dead. (Aside.)My lords, if you’ve the notice read,It saysDuke’s-place. So I desireA little further time t’ inquire.Baldwin.Why, Mr.Mingay, all this vapour?Willes.Take till to morrow.Lord Mansfield.———— Call the paper.

KING’S-BENCH PRACTICE. CHAP. 10. OF JUSTIFYING BAIL.

Baldwin.Hewitt, call Taylor’s bail,—for IShall now proceed to justify.Hewitt.Where’s Taylor’s bail?1st Bail.————————— I can’t get in.Hewitt.Make way.Lord Mansfield.—— For heaven’s sake begin.Hewitt.But where’s the other?2d Bail.————————— Here I stand.Mingay.I must except to both.—CommandSilence,—and if your lordship crave it,Austenshall read our affidavit.Austen.Will.Priddle, late of Fleet-street, gent.Makes oath and saith, that late he wentTo Duke’s-place, as he was directedBy notice, and he there expectedTo find both bail—but none could tellWhere the first bail lived—Mingay.———————Very well.Austen.And this deponent further says,That, asking who the second was,He found he’d bankrupt been, and yetHad ne’er obtained certificate.When to his house deponent went,He full four stories high was sent,And found a lodging almost bare;No furniture, but half a chair,A table, bedstead, broken fiddleAnd a bureau.(Signed)William Priddle.Sworn at my chambers.Francis Buller.Mingay.No affidavit can be fuller.Well, friend, you’ve heard this affidavit,What do you say?2d Bail.———Sir, by your leave, itIs all a lie.Mingay.Sir, have a care,What is your trade?2d Bail.———— A scavenger.Mingay.And, pray, sir, were you never foundBankrupt?2d Bail.I’m worth a thousand pound.Mingay.A thousand pound, friend, boldly said—In what consisting?2d Bail.————Stock in trade.Mingay.And, pray, friend, tell me,—do you knowWhat sum you’re bail for?2d Bail.—————— Truly no.Mingay.My lords, you hear,—no oaths have check’d him:I hope your lordships will—Willes.———————— Reject him.Mingay.Well, friend, now tell me whereyoudwell.1st Bail.Sir, I have liv’d in ClerkenwellThese ten years.Mingay.—— Half-a-guinea dead. (Aside.)My lords, if you’ve the notice read,It saysDuke’s-place. So I desireA little further time t’ inquire.Baldwin.Why, Mr.Mingay, all this vapour?Willes.Take till to morrow.Lord Mansfield.———— Call the paper.

The preceding pleasantry came from the pen of the late John Baynes, Esq. a Yorkshire gentleman, who was born in April, 1758, educated for the law at Trinity college, Cambridge, obtained prizes for proficiency in philosophy and classical attainments, was admitted of Gray’s-inn, practised in his profession, and would probably have risen to its first honours. Mr. Nichols says “his learning was extensive; his abilities great; his application unwearied; his integrity unimpeached. In religious principles he was an Unitarian Christian and Protestant; in political principles the friend of the civil liberties of mankind, and the genuine constitution of his country. He died August 4, 1787, and was buried on the 9th in Bunhill-fields’ burying-ground, near to the grave of Dr. Jebb,” his tutor at college: “the classical hand of Dr. Parr” commemorated him by an epitaph.

One of the best papers in Mr. Knight’s late “Quarterly Magazine,” of good articles, is so suitable to this day, legally considered, that any one sufficiently interested to sympathize with “the cares and the fears” of a young lawyer, or, indeed, any one who dares to admit that a lawyer may have bowels, as well as an appetite, will suffer theConfessions of a Barristerto be recorded here.

“A lawyer,” says an old comedy which I once read at the British Museum, “is an odd sort of fruit—first rotten—then green—and then ripe.” There is too much of truth in the homely figure. The first years of a young barrister are spent, or rather worn out, in anxious leisure. His talents rust, his temper is injured, his little patrimony wastes away, and not an attorney shows a sign of remorse. He endures term after term, and circuit after circuit, that greatest of all evils—a rank above his means of supporting it. He drives round the country in a post-chaise, and marvels what Johnson found so exhilarating in its motion—that is, if he paid for it himself. He eats venison, and drinks claret; but he loses the flavour of both when he reflects that his wife (for the fool is married, and married for love too!) has perhaps just dined for the third time on a cold neck of mutton, and has not tasted wine since their last party—an occurrence beyond even legal memory. He leaves the festive board early, and takes a solitary walk—returns to his lodgings in the twilight, and sees on his table a large white rectangular body, which for a moment he supposes may be a brief—alas! it is only a napkin. He is vexed, and rings to have it removed, when up comes his clerk, who is drunk and insolent: he is about to kick him down stairs, but stays his foot on recollecting the arrears of thefellow’s wages; and contents himself with wondering where the fellow finds the means of such extravagance.—Then in court many are the vexations of the briefless.—The attorney is a cruel person to them—as cruel as a rich coxcomb in a ball-room, who delights in exciting hopes only to disappoint them. Indeed I have often thought the communications between the solicitors and the bar have no slight resemblance to the flirtation between the sexes. Barristers, like ladies, must wait to be chosen. The slightest overture would be equally fatal to one gown as the other. The gentlemen of the bar sit round the table in dignified composure, thinking just as little of briefs as a young lady of marriage. An attorney enters—not an eye moves; but somehow or other, the fact is known to all. Calmly he draws from his pocket abrief: practice enables us to see at a glance that the tormentor has left a blank for the name of his counsel. He looks around the circle as if to choose his man; you cannot doubt but his eye rests on you; he writes a name, but you are too far off to read it, though you know every name on your circuit upside down. Now he counts out the fee, and wraps it up with slow and provoking formality. At length all being prepared, he looks towards you to catch (as you suppose) your eye. You nod, and the brief comes flying; you pick it up, and find on it the name of a man three years your junior, who is sitting next you: you curse the attorney’s impudence, and ask yourself if he meant to insult you.—“Perhaps not,” you say, “for the dog squints.”—I received my maiden brief in London. How well do I recollect the minutest circumstances connected with that case! The rap at the door! I am a connoisseur in raps—there is not a dun in London who could deceive me: I know their tricks but too well; they have no medium between the rapservile, and the rapimpudent. This was a cheerful touch; you felt that the operator knew he should meet with a face of welcome. My clerk, who is not much under the influence of sweet sounds, seemed absolutely inspired, and answered the knock with astonishing velocity. I could hear from my inner room the murmur of inquiry and answer; and though I could not distinguish a word,—the tones confirmed my hopes;—I was not long suffered to doubt—my client entered, and the roll of pure white paper tied round with the brilliant red tape, met my eye. He inquired respectfully, and with an appearance of anxiety, which marked him to my mind for a perfect Chesterfield, if I was already retained in ——v.——? The rogue knew well enough that I had never had a retainer in my life. I took a moment to consider; after making him repeat the name of his case, I gravely assured him I was at perfect liberty to receive his brief. He then laid the papers and my fee upon the table; asked me if the time appointed for a consultation with the two gentlemen who were “with me” would be convenient; and finding that the state of my engagements would allow me to attend, made his bow and departed. That fee was sacred, and I put it to no vulgar use. Many years have now elapsed since that case was disposed of, and yet how fresh does it live in my memory! how perfectly do I recollect every authority to which he referred! how I read and re-read the leading cases that bore upon the question to be argued! One case I sobethumbedthat the volume has opened at it ever since, as inevitably as the prayer-book of a lady’s maid proffers the service of matrimony. My brief related to an argument before the judges of the King’s Bench, and the place of consultation was Ayles’s coffee-house, adjoining Westminster-hall. There was I before the clock had finished striking the hour; my brief I knew by heart. I had raised an army of objections to the points for which we were to contend, and had logically slain every one of them. I went prepared to discuss the question thoroughly; and I generously determined to give my leaders the benefit of my cogitations—though not without a slight struggle at the thought of how much reputation I should lose by my magnanimity. I had plenty of time to think of these things, for my leaders were engaged in court, and the attorney and I had the room to ourselves. After we had been waiting about an hour, the door flew open, and in strode one of my leaders, the second in command, less in haste (as it appeared to me) to meet his appointment, than to escape from the atmosphere of clients in which he had been just enveloped, during his passage from the court.—Having shaken off his tormentors, Mr. —— walked up to the fire—said it was cold—nodded kindly to me—and had just asked what had been the last night’s division in the house—when the powdered head of an usher wasprotruded through the half open door to announce that “Jones and Williams was called on.” Down went the poker, and away flew —— with streaming robes, leaving me to meditate on the loss which the case would sustain for want of his assistance at the expected discussion. Having waited some further space, I heard a rustling of silks, and the great ——, our commander in chief, sailed into the room. As he did not run foul of me, I think it possible I may not have been invisible to him; but he furnished me with no other evidence of the fact. He simply directed the attorney to provide certain additional affidavits, tacked about and sailed away. And thus ended the first consultation. I consoled myself with the thought that I had all my materials for myself, and that from having had so much more time for considering the subject than the others, I must infallibly make the best speech of the three. At length the fatal day came. I never shall forget the thrill with which I heard —— open the case, and felt how soon it would be my turn to speak. O, how I did pray for a long speech! I lost all feeling of rivalry; and would gladly have given him every thing that I intended to use myself, only to defer the dreaded moment for one half-hour. His speech was frightfully short, yet, short as it was, it made sad havoc with my stock of matter. The next speaker’s was even more concise, and yet my little stock suffered again severely. I then found how experience will stand in the place of study. These men could not, from the multiplicity of their engagements, have spent a tithe of the time upon the case which I had done: and yet they had seen much which had escaped my research. At length my turn came. I was sitting among the back rows in the old court of King’s Bench. It was on the first day of Michaelmas term, and late in the evening. A sort of “darkness visible” had been produced by the aid of a few candles dispersed here and there. I arose, but I was not perceived by the judges, who had turned together to consult, supposing the argument finished.B——was the first to see me, and I received from him a nod of kindness and encouragement which I hope I shall never forget. The court was crowded, for it was a question of some interest; it was a dreadful moment—the ushers stilled the audience into awful silence. I began, and at the sound of an unknown voice, every wig of the white inclined plane, at the upper end of which I was standing, turned round; and in an instant I had the eyes of seventy “learned friends” looking me full in the face! It is hardly to be conceived by those who have not gone through the ordeal, how terrific is this mute attention to the object of it. How grateful should I have been for any thing which would have relieved me from its oppressive weight—a buzz, a scraping of the shoes, or a fit of coughing, would have put me under infinite obligations to the kind disturber. What I said I know not; I knew not then; it is the only part of the transaction of which I am ignorant; it was “a phantasma, or hideous dream.” They told me, however, to my great surprise, that I spoke in a loud voice; used violent gesture, and as I went along seemed to shake off my trepidation. Whether I made a long speech or a short one I cannot tell; for I had no power of measuring time. All I know is, that I should have made a much longer one, had I not felt my ideas, like Bob Acre’s courage, oozing out of my fingers’ ends. The court decided against us, erroneously as I of course thought, for the young advocate is always on the right side. The next morning I got up early to look at the newspapers, which I expected to see full of our case. In an obscure corner, and in a small type, I found a few words given as the speeches of my leaders: and I also read that “Mr. —— followed on the same side.”

It is affirmed of sir William Blackstone, that so often as he sat down to the composition of his Commentaries on the Laws of England, he always ordered a bottle of wine wherewith to moisten the dryness of his studies; and in proof that other professional men sometimes solace their cares by otherwise disporting themselves, there is a kind of catch, the words of which, having reference to their art or mystery, do so marvellously inspire them, that they chant it with more glee than gravity, to a right merry tune:—

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