There is not the smallest trace of affectation in anything which he either does or says; and it is surprising with what little appearance of exertion he brings all the powers of his mind into play. His points are put with so much brevity, simplicity, and clearness, that he has, of necessity, become a great favorite with the Judges, who give him a willing audience, because he is sure to be pertinent and short; and having said all that is fitting to be said, and no more, has immediately done. He is listened to the more readily, because he is apparently frank and artless; but he merely puts on a show of candor, for few possess more suppleness and craft. No man adapts himself with more felicity to the humors and the predispositions of the judges whom he addresses. Take, for example, the Exchequer, where, both on the law and equity sides of the court, he is in immense business. He appeals to the powerful understanding, and sheer common-sense, of Standish O'Grady,* in whom Rhadamanthus and Sancho * Of Standish O'Grady, Chief-Baron of the Irish Exchequer, from 1803 to 1831, a notice has already been given (vol i., p. 135), but an anecdote can scarcely be out of place here. He had a caustic wit, which was the more keen because ever unobtrusive. The quiet manner in which the Chief-Baron would insult a man, barbed the shaft. For example, a certain Mr. Burke Bethell was at the Irish bar. He had ability, learning, eloquence, and industry, but was one of the men who appeared as if born under an evil star, and never could get on. It was stated, and believed, that he took business at any rate-that is, he would initial a brief marked two, five, or ten guineas, as if he had received that amount (for without such proof of payment the taxingmaster would strike the item out of the attorney's bill of costs), and accept a fourth of the nominal sum. This had reached the ears of O'Grady, who had never known the want of money, and had a lofty idea of what is called "the dignity of the profession." On one occasion, Burke Bethell had the luck, by some accident, to receive a brief in some small case in which the Crown was seeking penalties, under the Excise laws, from some fiscal delinquent. The Court of Exchequer was the tribunal before which the case was to be tried, Bethell, determined to cut a figure, had somewhat Adonized his attire, and presented himself before the Chief-Baron, who, affecting not to recognise him (wearing the unusual disguise of a clean shirt), surveyed him through his eyeglass, and, stooping down, asked who the gentleman was—with an air like that which Brummell must have worn when he asked his companion, who stopped to speak to George IV., "Who is your fat friend ?"-Bethel, with an air of great importance, thus commenced: " My Lord, on this occasion, I have the honor to appear for the Crown." The Chief-Baron, interrupting him, in his Panza seem combined. He hits the metaphysical propensities of Baron Smith,* with a distinction, in which it would blandest manner, and with his sweetest smile, interjected, " And, sometimes, I believe, Mr. Bethell, for the half-crown!"--On the subject of taking less than the regulation fee or honorarium, I recollect an illustration or two. Fitzgibbon, father of Lord-Chancellor Clare, was a lawyer in good practice, and very fond of money. A client once brought him a brief and fee, that he might personally apologize for the smallness of the latter. Fitzgibbon, muttering that they should have intermediately reached him through the hands of an attorney, took both-but looked most gloomily on the very limited amount of the fee. The client sorrowfully admitted the cause for discontent, but added, that it was "all he had in the world."-"Well, then," said Fitzgibbon, "as that's the case, and you have no more, why, I must-take it." Which he did, no doubt. --To match this, there is an anecdote of a certain Mr. Sergeant Cockle, of the English bar, who was accused of the grave offence of having taken a half fee, and even of having accepted part of the money in the copper coin of the realm. The charge duly came before the bar-mess for adjudication, and was fully sustained by evidence. In defence, Cockle briefly said: "It is quite true that I took half a guinea, where the fee should have been a guinea, and that it was made up of a crown-piece, four shillings, two sixpences, and sixpence in copper." There was a great sensation on this confession of the charge. But Cockle went on: "But, gentlemen, before I took the money, I ascertained it was the last farthing the poor devil had, and I appeal to the honorable profession, whether, under such circumstances, taking his last penny from him, I was not quite justified, and have maintained the character of the bar?" It was unanimously agreed that he had done all that a lawyer could do, in such a case, and, honorably acquitting Cockle, the bar-mess inflicted the fine of a basket of claret upon his accuser-the grand rule at all mess-trials being that somebody must be mulcted in the generous juice of the grape!-- How different is this merely professional acquisitiveness from the generous feeling of the sailor at Gibraltar, during the early and warlike years of the present century. Landing at "the Rock," with his comrades, all agreed, having plenty of money, that it would be suitable and creditable for each to purchase a goldlaced cocked-hat. On reassembling at night, one man had a silver-laced hat and was immediately denounced (with a promise of early cobbing, when they were on board) as a shabby fellow. His protest had all the energy of truth. "Messmates," said he, "I scorn the charge. When I went to the man who sells the gold-lacers, I found that he had not one left. So, I took this silverlacer, but paid him for it all as one as if 'twere gold." Of course, Jack was honorably acquitted. -- M. * Sir William Cusack Smith, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Ireland, was a remarkable man. He was born in January, 1766, and died in August, 1836, in his seventy-first year. His father, Sir Michael Smith, was a great lawyer, and finally became Master of the Rolls. The younger Smith studied at Oxford, and there obtained the friendship of Edmund Burke, at whose 66 have puzzled St. Thomas Aquinas, without the aid of inspiration, to detect a difference: when every other argument has failed with Baron M'Cleland, he tips him the wink, and pointcountry-house, in a neighboring county, he passed all his leisure. In 1788, he was called to the Irish bar, and soon after became Doctor of Civil Law, to qualify him for practice in the Ecclesiastical Courts. In 1795, Mr. William Smith was made king's counsel, and entered Parliament in the same year. He strenuously supported the Union, not only by his votes and speeches, but as a pamphleteer. In 1800, he was made Solicitor-General, and in 1802, when his father, who then was a puisne Baron of the Exchequer, was raised to the higher dignity of Master of the Rolls (the second equity Judge in Ireland, and not removable as the Chancellor is, on a change of ministry), the younger Smith succeeded him. In 1808, by his father's death, he succeeded to the baronetcy. Sir William Smith, who had studied in the school of Burke, was what is called an old whig," and strongly advocated the justice and policy of Catholic Emancipation. When this was granted, and the Repeal agitation followed, Sir William Smith denounced it as impolitic, ungrateful, and illegal. Up to that time, he had been in high favor with the Catholic leaders. But, in February, 1834, Mr. O'Connell moved that the House of Commons should appoint a Committee to inquire into Sir William Smith's judicial conduct-mainly complaining that, in his charges to grand-juries at the Assizes, he largely introduced political subjects, and that his habits were singularly at variance with what ought to be the habits of a judge. It was stated by Mr. O'Connell (and not denied) that Baron Smith commonly came into the Court about half-past twelve at noon- -that he thus delayed the despatch of business-that, at Armagh, he had tried fourteen prisoners between six o'clock in the evening and six in the morning-that one of these trials had actually commenced long after midnight, and that his whole course was irregular. This primâ-facie case against Baron Smith was so strong, that (the whig ministry siding with Mr. O'Connell) the motion for inquiry was carried by a majority of 167 to 74. A week after, however, Mr. Peel and his party reopened the question, defended Baron Smith, accused O'Connell of personal and vindictive motives, and proposed that the vote for inquiry be rescinded--which was done, by a majority of 165 to 159. There is no doubt that Baron Smith's habits had latterly become very eccentric. As a judge he was impartial, and was humane even to a fault. He had a horror of sentencing a culprit to death, and "leant to mercy's side" on the trial of all capital offences. He was attached to letters, and published several pamphlets, chiefly on politics, which are forgotten. He also was author of an examination of the Hohenloe miracles. The only work by which he is likely to be remembered as an author, is a singular production called "Metaphysical Rambles."-- His second son, Thomas Berry Cusack Smith, Attorney-General under the Peel administration, conducted the O'Connell State Trials in 1844. He is now (1854) Master of the Rolls, as his grandfather was, and completes the singular instance of three out of one family having successively worn the ermine.-M. ing with his thumb to the opposite attorney, suggests the merits of the client, by a pantomimic reference to those of his representative; and with the same spirit of exquisite adaptation, plunges into the darkest abysses of black-letter erudition with Baron Pennefather, and provokes his Lordship into a citation from the Year-books (which excruciates the ears of Mr. Furlong) in Tipperary French. Mr. O'Loghlin is a native of Clare.* I had at first, and before I had made more minute inquiries, conjectured, from the omega in his name, that he must be lineally descended from some of the ancient monarchs of Ireland, or be at least collaterally connected with one of the Phenician dynasties. Upon investigation, however, I discovered that "the big O," the celebrated object of royal antipathy, was but a modern annexation; and that, as I have already intimated, Mr. O'Loghlin * The late Sir Michael O'Loghlin, it is scarcely too much to say, was one of the best judges that Ireland ever possessed. Able, acute, clear-headed, and thoroughly just, he towered above his fellows. He was born in October, 1789, and though he had immense practice at the bar, was excluded by his religion (he was a Catholic) from obtaining professional preferment as early as he deserved it. When the liberals came into power, after the granting of Emancipation, his talents obtained due recognition. He was made third Sergeant in 1831; second Sergeant in 1832; Solicitor-General in 1834; Attorney-Generai in 1835; and was made one of the Barons of the Exchequer in 1836 being, I think, the first Catholic judge for one hundred and fifty years. On the Bench he maintained and, if possible, increased the reputation he had won at the bar. All parties and all creeds honored and respected the upright judge, and the urbane and accomplished gentleman. There was a general feeling of gratification, at the bar, and among the public, when, in 1837, he was raised to the dignity of Master of the Rolls. In this capacity, he showed the great grasp of his mind, for, though his bar-practice had chiefly been at common law, his decisions in equity were irrefragable. In 1838, he was created a Baronet. Sir Michael O'Loghlin died, September, 1842, aged fifty-three. The legal profession of Ireland, who knew his value, raised a large sum for the purpose of erecting a monument to perpetuate their sense of his worth. It has been erected, and consists of his statue, by M'Dowall (an Irish artist), which is appropriately placed in the Hall of the Four Courts, Dublin the only other statue in that suitable situation being one of Justice, toward which it looks. - Sir Coleman O'Loghlin, educated at London University, and called to the Irish bar in 1840, is eldest son of the late Master of the Rolls, and has already obtained a high reputation. He was employed for the defence, in the State Trials of 1844 and 1848, and acquitted himself with great distinction.- M. is of a Danish origin. It has often been observed that the "Pursued o'er the high seas, his watery journey, |