him to write to Best, who would be very good-humoured, and would give an answer.-Moore's Mem.

HANGING JUDGES AND THEIR REASONS.

Justice Buller was said always to hang for sheepstealing, avowing as a reason that he had several sheep stolen from his own flock. Justice Heath, acting more on principle, used to hang in all capital cases, because he knew of no good secondary punishments. Said he, "If you imprison at home, the criminal is soon thrown upon you again, hardened in guilt. If you transport, you corrupt infant societies, and sow the seeds of atrocious crimes over the habitable globe. There is no regenerating of felons in this life, and for their own sake, as well as for the sake of society, I think it is better to hang." When sitting in the Crown Court at Gloucester, Buller asked a lying witness from what part of the county he came, and being answered, " From Bitton, my lord," he exclaimed, "You do seem to be of the Bitton breed, but I thought I had hanged the whole of that parish long ago."-6 Camp. Chanc., 154.

MORE HANGING JUDGES.

Justice Page was well known by the name of the hanging judge. One day Crowle, the punning barrister, was on circuit, and being asked by a friend if the judge was not just behind them, at once replied, "I don't know, but I am sure he never was just before."

When this old judge was decrepit, he perpetrated an excellent joke upon himself. As he was coming out of court shuffling along, a friend stopped him and inquired after his health, "My dear sir," the judge replied, “you see I keep just hanging on-hanging on."

Counsellor Grady, of the Irish Bar, said he heard of a relentless judge who was known by the name of the hanging judge, and who was never known to have shed a tear but once, and that was at a representation of the Beggars' Opera, when Macheath got a reprieve!

As a criminal judge, Lord Ellenborough was reputed severe. During one day at an assize dinner, some one offered to help him to some fowl. "No, I thank you,” said his lordship, "I mean to try that beef." "I am sure you'll like it, my lord," said Jekyll, "it is wellhung beef."

Lord Kenyon was not such a "hanging judge" as some of his colleagues. A barrister once related the following anecdote, in a debate in the House of Commons:

"On the Home Circuit a young woman was tried for stealing to the amount of forty shillings in a dwellinghouse. It was her first offence, and was attended with many circumstances of extenuation. The prosecutor came forward, as he said, from a sense of duty; the witnesses very reluctantly gave their evidence; and the jury still more reluctantly their verdict of guilty. The judge passed sentence of death. The unhappy prisoner instantly fell lifeless at the bar. Lord Kenyon, whose sensibility was not impaired by the sad duties of his office, cried out in great agitation from the bench, "I don't mean to hang you, good woman,-I don't mean to hang you. Will nobody tell her I don't mean to hang her?

A HANGING JUDGE FOILED.

When Hone had been acquitted on his first trial for blasphemy, and this was related to the enfeebled Chief Justice Ellenborough, the judge's energy was revived, and he swore that at whatever cost he would preside in court next day himself, so that conviction might be certain, and the insulted law might be vindicated. Accordingly he appeared in court pale and hollowvisaged, but with a spirit unbroken, and more stern than when his strength was unimpaired. As he took his place on the bench, "I am glad to see you, my Lord Ellenborough," shouted Hone; "I know what you are come here for; I know what you want." "I am come to do justice," retorted the noble and learned lord; "my only wish is to see justice done." "Is it not rather, my lord," said Hone, " to send a poor bookseller

to rot in a dungeon?" The Chief Justice had the mortification to hear the words "Not guilty" pronounced, followed by a tremendous burst of applause, which he could not even attempt to quell. Bishop Turner, who was present at the trial, and accompanied the Chief Justice home in his carriage, related that all the way he laughed at the tumultuous mob who followed him, remarking that "he was afraid of their saliva, not of their bite; and that passing Charing Cross he pulled the check-string, and said, "It just occurs to me that they sell the best redherrings at this shop of any in London: buy six." The popular opinion, however, was, that Lord Ellenborough was killed by Hone's trial, and he certainly never held up his head in public after.-3 Camp. C.J.s, 225.

Another version is that the article was not " herring," but "black pudding," which was obviously a much more natural diet for a hanging judge.

RISKS OF A HANGING JUDGE.

Aubrey says that Sir Miles Fleetwood, who was Recorder of London when James I. came to England, once harangued the City merchants to this effect: "When I consider your wealth I do admire your wisdom, and when I consider your wisdom I do admire your wealth." Sir Miles was also noted for being a severe hanger of highwaymen, so that the fraternity resolved to make an example of his worship. So they lay in wait for him one day not far from Tyburn, as he was on his way from his house in Buckinghamshire. They had a halter in readiness, brought him under the gallows, tied his hands behind his back, and then left him to the mercy of his horse, which he called Ball. But the good horse Ball stood still instead of running away. So Sir Miles was saved, for somebody soon came along the road and released him, and out of gratitude to Ball he kept that horse as long as he lived.

A JUDGE UNEASY AT SENTENCING A PRISONER.

Justice Willes about 1780 sentenced a boy at Lancaster to be hanged, with the hope of reforming him by frighten

ing him, and he ordered him for execution next morning. The judge awoke in the middle of the night, and was so affected by the notion that he might himself die in the course of the night, and the boy be hanged, though he did mean that he should suffer, that he got out of his bed and went to the lodgings of the High Sheriff, and left a reprieve for the boy, or what was to be considered equivalent to it, and then, returning to his bed, spent the rest of the night very comfortably.

JUDGES AND SURE-FOOTED HORSES.

When Lord Campbell was Attorney-General, Chief Justice Tindal, a most amiable as well as witty friend, used to tell the following story of him:-“I had a stumbling horse that had come down with me several times, to the great peril of my life, and many of my friends strongly advised me to get rid of him; but he was very quiet, and a great favourite, so that I continued to ride him, till one day I met Campbell as I was dismounting at Westminster, who said, 'That is a nice horse you have got, Chief Justice.' I answered, 'Yes, but he has come down with me several times, and I am advised to part with him.' 'Don't, my dear Chief Justice,' cried Mr. Attorney; 'I'll warrant you he is very sure-footed for all that. I walked home, and sold the animal next morning."-6 Camp. Chanc., 139.

JUDGES' CENSURE OF FRIVOLOUS QUESTIONS.

The last day Lord Tenterden ever sat in court (which was on the trial of the magistrates of Bristol)—to rebuke a counsel who was wasting time by irrelevant questions respecting a journey performed by the mayor in a postchaise and four-he observed with much solemnity, "Sir, you have forgot to ask him the colour of the jackets of the postilions." He was taken dangerously ill the same night; and having in his delirium still dreamed of the trial, he expired with these words on his lips: "Gentlemen of the jury, you will now consider of your verdict."3 Camp. C.J.s, 580.

Justice Maule was trying a case, and was much per

plexed by the confused way in which the counsel was opening it. The judge at last interrupted him: “I wish you would put your facts in some kind of order. Chronological order is one way, and perhaps the best; but I am not particular: any order you like-alphabetical order if you prefer it!"

COUNSEL FRIGHTENING A YOUNG JUDGE.

O'Connell had to defend a prisoner for a capital crime, and the defence was said by the attorney to be hopeless. Serjeant Lefroy happened to be acting for the judge, who had been suddenly indisposed, and being then young and his character known to O'Connell, the latter purposely put several inadmissible questions to the witness, which of course were objected to by the opposite counsel. The Serjeant at last rather peremptorily stopped further questions of the same kind. O'Connell then with great warmth said, "As you refuse me permission to defend my client, I leave his fate in your hands,—his blood be on your head if he be condemned." He left the court at once with majestic stride, in a huff, and paced up and down outside the court for half an hour. At the end of that time his attorney rushed out of court, exclaiming, "He's acquitted! he's acquitted!" This stratagem was successful, and O'Connell with complacency told his friends, that he had intended to throw the responsibility of the conviction on the judge.

A JUDGE REBUKED FOR HIS REBUKE.

Lord Ellenborough presided at a trial of the publishers for a newspaper libel, Mr. Brougham being their counsel, who made a fervid address on their behalf. The judge in summing up remarked that the defendant's counsel had imbibed the noxious spirit of his client, and had inoculated himself with all the poison and virus of the libel. Mr. Brougham, when his client was brought up for judgment, thus complained of these animadversions: "My lord, why am I thus identified with the interests of mv client? I appear here as an English advocate, with the privileges and responsibilities of that office; and no man