the other side of the hedge, leaped upon her back, who, running furiously away with him, he could not by any means stop her, until he came to the next town, in which town the owner of the mare lived, and there he was taken and here arraigned." (Bacon's Apothegms.)

LORD MANSFIELD.

The following character of Lord Mansfield is from the pen of Mr. H. Hawkins.

"Of lord Mansfield's intellectual powers, his great comprehension, or his eloquence, it is needless to say a word, as the concurrent testimony of all who could form a judgment of him, has already placed him among the first men of his time; but of the wise and honourable use of those talents it may be permitted to one who perfectly well remembers him, though but in his latter days, to mention that of which he was an ear-witness. Many a time I have heard him deliver the decision of the court on abtruse points of law, with a profundity of reasoning, where scarcely even a well-informed mind could follow him, and with an accuracy and precision of judgment, so satisfactory, as to induce the parties in the cause, when apprised of the issue of their law-suit, to instruct their counsel to make their acknowledgments to the court, as having been the means of restoring peace and harmony to private families, and hav

ing done every thing the parties desired. He was not what was considered a profound lawyer, when the term is applied to technical niceties in pleading, nor did he seem to have any very elevated opinion of that species of knowledge, or of those who possessed it. Mr. Wallace, who had been Attorney-General, and who was deeply versed in that department of legal information, and Mr. Howarth, who, however honourable and praiseworthy his conduct might be, was infinitely inferior to Wallace, happened to die at the same time. When lord Mansfield was told of their death, he scarcely expressed any concern for Mr. Wallace, but very great regret for Mr. Howarth.

"His disregard of the lawyers of the description above mentioned, led him to treat lightly those legal ceremonies which were connected with such attainments. At the making of a Sergeant, he has been known to laugh so heartily, that he was scarcely able to do that which his office required him to do.

"In addition to this instance of lord Mansfield's light estimation of those who were considered, by such as could best judge, as the most skilful, we might subjoin his treatment of Mr. Sergeant Hill, whose name has already been mentioned in this work. I have seen the Sergeant standing up in the court, immoveable as a

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statue, and looking at no object, and arguing in support of his client's cause, so wrapt up in the workings of his own mind, as, seemingly at least, to be insensible to any objects around him. la the midst of his argument, which was frequently so perplexed by parenthesis within parenthesis, as to excite the laughter of the whole court, lord Mansfield would interrupt him with, Mr. Sergeant, Mr. Sergeant;' he was rather deaf,-the words were repeated without effect; at length, the counsel sitting near him, would tell him that his lordship spoke to him: this roused him. Lord M. would then address him with, The Court hopes your cold is better.' All this was done with a tone, and in a manner which showed that he wished to make the object of his apparent civility in fact an object of ridicule; and so far it must be considered as having succeeded. How far it was perfectly decorous in a judge, sitting in his Court, to indulge this little mischief, for we do not wish to call it by a harsh name, others may decide; but certainly he was very agreeable to the bar in other respects. Indeed, whenever this foible did not show itself, his patient attention, his assisting questions, if I may be allowed the term, and his intuitive comprehension of what was submitted to his understanding, made him an exceedingly pleasant judge to those who were called to argue deep questions before him.