THE SWORD FOR THE GOWN.

A young student of law, was obliged by lot to inscribe his name among certain new levies of the Austrian Imperial army. He sent a petition to the emperor, stating, that as he was on the point of being called to the bar, he flattered himself he could be of more service to his country as a lawyer, than as a soldier. "My good friend," said the emperor," you are not ignorant that I am engaged in a very intricate suit against the French Convention, and that I want the assistance of men of talent as you appear to be. Have the goodness to accept these twelve ducats. your duty, and I promise you promotion."

HARDSHIP OF ARREST.

Do

In an action of debt, tried before Lord Mansfield at sittings at Guildhall, the defendant, a merchant of London, complained with great warmth to his lordship of the indignity which had been put on him by the plaintiff, in causing him to be arrested, not only in the face of day, but in the Royal Exchange, in the face of the whole assembled credit of the metropolis. The Chief Justice stopped him with great composure, saying, "Friend, you forget yourself; you were the defaulter in refusing to pay a just debt; and let me give you a piece of advice worth more to you than the debt and costs. Be careful in future not to put it in any man's power to arrest you for a just debt in public or in private."

C

GOING TO LAW.

An action was brought at Lincoln assizes for the recovery of a horse. Justice Bailey at the close of the cause, in which £25 damages were given, strongly discouraged going to law in cases of that nature. "Take my advice, gentlemen," said he, " and accommodate matters of this kind, if possible; for men, in general, lose more than £25 in bringing an action on the warranty of a horse, even if they win; and such is the danger from the evidence common in cases like this, that justice is no security to a man, of success.

perceive that the gentlemen below me do not approve of my doctrine; but the truth must be told sometimes."

BEING COVERED IN COURT.

On the arraignment of Ann Turner, a physician's widow, who was indicted for being an accessary before, the fact, to the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, she kept on her hat. Sir Edward Coke observing this, bade her put it off, saying, "that a woman might be covered in church, but not when arraigned in a court of justice;" the prisoner said, she thought it singular, that she might be covered in the house of God, and not in the judicature of `man. Sir Edward replied, "that from God no secrets were hid, but that it was not so with man, whose intellects were weak therefore in the investigation of truth, and especially when the lives of our fellow creatures are in jeopardy, on the charge of having deprived another

thereof, the court should see all the obstacles removed; and because the countenance is often an index to the mind, all covering should be removed from the face." The Chief Justice then ordered her hat to be taken off, and she covered her head with her handkerchief.

PRIVILEGE OF KING'S ADVOCATE IN SCOTLAND.

Sir Thomas Hope, King's Advocate in Scotland, during part of the reign of Charles I., though he was never himself elevated to the bench, had the singular pleasure of seeing three of his sons advanced to be senators of the College of Justice, one of whom, of the same name with himself, was afterwards raised to the high office of Justice General. It being thought indecorous to allow a man of his reverend age to stand uncovered, when in his pleadings he addressed a court in which so many of his own children sat as judges, he was permitted to be covered whenever he pleased. This was the origin of a privilege which the King's advocates are said still to enjoy, of pleading before the Court of Session with their hats on; a privilege, however, of which we need hardly say, they have uniformly too much politeness to avail themselves.

RIGHT OF APPEAL.

About the middle of the seventeenth century, the Lords of Session in Scotland, reverting to the origin of their institution, when they consisted of a select

number of Members of Parliament, and were, in fact, a Committee of Parliament, took it into their heads to revive their pretensions to the supremacy of a court of last resort, although they could no longer lay claim in any respect to a parliamentary character, and although statutes had intervened, establishing a right of appeal from their decisions to Parliament. In this unconstitutional attempt to stretch their power, they met with a spirited and manly resistance from the faculty of advocates, who contended for the right of the subject on all occasions to appeal to parliament, from the decrees of the Session. The Judges finding both law and reason to fail them in the contest, had recourse to another and a worse stretch of power, to sustain them in their usurpation. An order was procured from the king and council discharging all appeals, and commanding the advocates to submit to the Lords of Session. The faculty, indignant at such an arbitrary assumption of dispensing power, immediately withdrew in a body from court; and refusing to act in any proceeding before their lordships, brought the legal business of the country to a complete stand. The Judges, incensed at this resolute proceeding, procured a second order from the king and council, banishing the whole of the refractory barristers to a distance of twelve miles from Edinburgh.

Sir George Mackenzie, afterwards so distinguished as Lord Advocate, during a very troubled period of Scottish history, was among the number of the exiled; and to this gentleman the Judges were, after a short time, pleased to give permission to appear before them, and vindicate, if he could, the conduct of himself and brethren. Sir George appears to have ac

quitted himself well; he spoke with much warmth ; and produced such an impression on their lordships, that they were content to enter into a compromise, which, whatever might have been the saving clauses attached to it, put an end for ever to their pretensions to supremacy, and restored to the bar a body of gentlemen, whose patriotism and spirit would have done honour to the brightest periods of its history.

SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

In 1674, Sir George Mackenzie, to whom his country was so much indebted in the question of Appeal, was appointed his Majesty's Advocate for Scotland. Being called to the office in troublesome and rebellious times, when the minds of contending parties were inflamed with political, as well as religious zeal, he could scarcely be expected to full the duties of it, without incurring the hatred of those, whose friends or relatives suffered under the severity of the law, and provoking a torrent of calumny and abuse on his character. It is quite true, that his political principles accorded singularly well with the sort of work which was required of him, being a zealous advocate for the doctrines of passive obedience and conformity; yet with all this furniture for persecution, there is certainly nothing in his conduct to warrant the application of such epithets as "bloodthirsty advocate," "persecutor of the Saints of God," and others equally coarse, by which we find him sometimes designated. The great care which he took in regulating the forms used in trials for treason, was far from savouring of any desire for a rigour be