be denied, as far as his conduct has appeared before the public, that he has discharged his duty with great industry and devotedness. That he is a man of learning and experience is, I believe, equally incontrovertible; but this is nearly all-this is almost the utmost praise he can obtain, even from his warmest friends, unless indeed they add a certain portion of legal acuteness, independent of quickness, and not amounting to subtlety. He has not one spark of eloquence-indeed his voice and manner are both unfortunate-the one is asthmatic, and the other spasmodic; but if he had possessed physical powers for distinguishing himself as an orator, he never could have added to his reputation in this respect. He is a mere lawyer, though more deeply read than a good many of his rivals in this heavy and entangled walk of the profession. There are some men at the Bar, who, if they have degenerated from unavoidable necessity, the compulsion of circumstances,-into fags and drudges, came to the Bar with some expectation of gratifying laudable ambition by the display of popular talents; who have previously gained distin

guished honours at the University, for the ardour and success with which they entered into the pursuit of elegant literature, and have been admired for the ready and persuasive eloquence they displayed at an earlier period of their lives. Such, for instance, 1 believe, is Mr. Frederick Pollock, who, if a favourable opportunity were afforded, would still in all probability shew that he possessed very different, not to say more admirable talents, than those for which credit is now given him, as a shrewd and industrious pleader; but such undoubtedly is not Mr. RICHARDSON, who, if it be fair to judge of his youth by his more advanced age and by the opinion of those who have long known him, seems never to have had any desire to be more or better than he is; and he will most likely soon reach the topmost height to which his hopes and wishes have aspired.

Excepting as I have seen him in public, I know nothing of him: of his attainments out of his profession I am therefore not very competent to speak: he seems to be a very mild, gentlemanly, unassuming man, reluctant to

give offence to any body, and especially to the members of the Court. If, devoting himself entirely to the laborious part of the profession, it cannot be said of him that

"his delights

Are dolphin-like; they shew his back above
The element he lives in ;"

at least it cannot be complained, that, like Mr. Raine, he displays only its inferior extremity in bad puns and coarse jokes.

NOTE. As my object is to make these articles the vehicles of fair but free opinion, and as what I said respecting Messrs. E. Lawes, Holt, Rigby, and Starkie, has been in some degree misunderstood, I subjoin the present note to explain, that in stating that on the trial of Watson they did nothing but take laborious notes, I did not intend to imply that they could or ought to have done more: in fact it was out of their power; the prisoners for whom they were counsel were not tried, as the verdict in favour of Watson was followed by the acquittal of Thistlewood, Preston, and Hooper, by consent of the Crown. Mr. E, Lawes is a man of acuteness, though he may now and then be much too positive in insisting that he sees a point more clearly than other people. Mr. Holt is undoubtedly a cunning shrewd man, and gave one proof of it by dedicating a book to Lord Ellenborough, Mr. Rigby also bears the reputation among his friends of possessing talents; and Mr. Starkie, I have reason to think, is an industrious advocate and a good lawyer. What I meant to be understood, and what I still say, is, that I do not consider any of them equal to the great task they then undertook.

MR. BROUGHAM.

-Tell not me of times or danger thus !

To do a villany is dangerous;

But in an honest action my heart knows
No more of fear than dead men do of blows:
And to be slave to times is worse to me
Than to be that which most men fear to be.

G. Withers' Motto.

Ir may be said, that in order to arrive at the subject of the present article I have passed over many individuals, who, in point of seni ority at least, might claim precedence-that if I step behind the Bar, I am encountered by Messrs. Lawes, Barrow, and many others, who being omitted, may think they have some reason to complain of neglect: as however I am influenced not merely by the claims of rank and standing, but by those of talent and acquirement, those gentlemen perhaps may have more reason to rejoice, that though oc

cupying the front row in Court, as far as these articles are concerned, I have let them remain in the back ground. Undoubtedly they are men of great respectability in their line, but I am not aware that they deserve any particular remark-or, in other words, that any thing I could say regarding them and their practice would materially illustrate the subject upon which I am engaged: not that I affect to be influenced solely by considerations of public utility: it is not by being useful merely that a man now-a-days, or indeed at any time, can procure and fix attention; he must often be contented with making that a secondary and least obvious purpose: "utility is not a butt at which a man may appear to take a direct aim."

The friends of those gentlemen whom I think it proper to exclude from observation may also urge, that Mr. BROUGHAM can have but little expectation to find his name among criticisms upon those who practise at the Bar; and to a certain extent they are in the right: true it is that Mr. BROUGHAM seldom makes