attorney in the County Hall at Lincoln where his lodgings were situated.

Mr. Reynolds presents Mr. Denman for puffing his great classical and etymological learning before divers -to wit 700,000-attorneys in the Crown Court at Lincoln, in saying that suesco is evidently derived from sus, owing to the domestic habits of the sow, the chief evidence against a prisoner indicted for stealing a pig being the animal's recollection of its own sty.

"Mr. Reynolds also congratulates Mr. Denman on having been three times puffed by Mr. Justice Vaughan' in Rex v. Rhodes.

"Mr. Reynolds further presents Mr. Denman for being publicly puffed and encouraged by one Lockett, an attorney, in open court at Derby, as deserving much more than a bad eighteen-penny piece for a speech just then made by the said Mr. Denman.”

"1813. March 1, Lincoln.-Mr. Marriott congratulates Mr. Denman on a high panegyric from Mr. Justice Gibbs (Sir Vicary Gibbs), at Derby, in the case of Rex v. Mason and others, A gentleman (meaning thereby the said Mr. Denman) whose accuracy of mind I am perfectly acquainted with.

"1815. Spring Circuit.—Mr. Denman is congratulated on being attended by his wife to Northampton, and condoled with on her departure thence.-Fine (as usual), one guinea."

It is in the course of the spring assizes at Lincoln, on March 12, 1811, that the first mention occurs in Denman's correspondence of Brougham, with whom he was destined to form so memorable and life-long an intimacy.

Mr. Brougham," he writes to his wife, "has given us a better speech to-day than he did in town; notwithstanding which, his client was found guilty."

The reference here to Brougham's defence of John

1 This must refer to some occasion on which Vaughan, owing to pressure of judicial work or to the illness of one of the regular judges, presided in his place, for Vaughan was not raised to the Bench till 1827, fifteen years after the date of this entry.

Drakard, the proprietor of the "Stamford News," who was tried at the Lincoln spring assizes of 1811 for an alleged seditious libel contained in an article in that paper reprobating in strong terms the practice of flogging then in force in the army. Brougham, whose circuit was the northern, had been specially retained for the defence, and the speech he made, which will be found reported in his collected speeches, was a most forcible and admirable one. The other speech, referred to as having been made in town, was his defence of Messrs. Hunt, the proprietors of the "Examiner," against whom a criminal information had been filed for copying into that paper the article from the "Stamford News." The London speech, notwithstanding a very strong adverse charge from Lord Ellenborough, was successful, the Messrs. Hunt having been acquitted. The Lincoln speech, though truly characterized by Denman as better than the other, failed owing, no doubt, to the strong local prejudices and inferior intelligence of the provincial jury to which it was addressed.

Denman was himself somewhat disappointed, and his friends were still more so, at his not having been retained for the defence in this case. Merivale, writing to him later in the same year, makes a passing allusion to this feeling:

"I never felt joy at an event turning out contrary to my political inclinations but once, and that was on a late occasion at Lincoln. I need not explain myself further. In general, I heartily wish for the getting off of all political libellers, except such as have not sense enough to see the absurdity of going 200 miles out of their way to look for a defender."

In the latter part of 1811 Merivale had a dangerous illness (typhus fever), which kept him long a prisoner to his bed, at Cockwood, near Exeter, the residence of his father-in-law, Dr. Drury, the late head-master of Harrow.' After his recovery (November 22, 1811), he writes to Denman in a strain which pleasantly shows the deep affection subsisting between these old friends:

Dr. Drury retired from the head-mastership and was succeeded by Dr. Butler in 1805.

"My mother had a letter the other day from a friend who had seen you at Lincoln [no doubt at the October Quarter Sessions], and gave an account of your being in a state of wretched despondency owing to the danger of a friend whose name she heard was Merivale. She proceeds to compliment both, and says it is no longer a matter of wonder to her that I am so very accomplished and amiable, seeing that I have such a companion and friend as you.

"Yours ever most affectionately,

"J. H. MERIVALE. "Herman is in coat and breeches, very proud of being taken for Tom."1

In the year 1812 Denman's uncle, Dr. Joseph Denman, died, aged 82, leaving to his nephew a reversionary interest in the bulk of his property, including the house and grounds of Stony Middleton and an estate near Lynn, in Norfolk.

Mrs. Baillie, in her memoir, tells an anecdote in connection with the later years of Dr. Denman's life which deserves insertion here, as there can be little doubt that the fact it relates made a strong impression on the future Chief Justice, and led to his being very cautious in relying, in serious charges, on mere circumstantial evidence, however apparently conclusive.

"An uncle of his," writes Mrs. Baillie, "upon whose death he had reason to expect some property, had agreed to divide with him a pipe of wine, and the present Chief Justice, being then young and without much occupation, had undertaken to superintend the bottling of the wine himself. While thus employed, one of his children [the present Admiral Denman], a little boy of three or four years old, who was playing near him, threw down one of the bottles which had just been filled, and broke it to pieces. In gathering up the fragments, his father perceived a sediment of white powder, and, upon minutely observing the other bottles, some of them filled and others prepared to be so, a similar powder was found in them. They were consequently sent for examination to

1 Present Under-Secretary of State for India, and present Lord Denman.

a chemist, when it was discovered that this powder was sugar of lead, these bottles having been previously filled with a mixture of this kind, and most unpardonably sent in this state to be used for other purposes.

"The horror with which this discovery was made could be equalled only by thankfulness for the escape, in which indeed the hand of Providence seems to have interfered in a manner the most direct and remarkable, choosing for its instrument a little child, and this child the uncle's godson, christened after him by the name of Joseph.

"But for this discovery, the catastrophe must have been dreadful! Dreadful enough even without legal condemnation; but I have heard the Chief Justice say that he thought in almost every court of law the proofs of guilt would have been considered as sufficient, all the circumstances being taken into consideration. For, In addition to those already mentioned, it would have been proved that the uncle at that very time was preparing another will, considerably detrimental to the nephew's interests, of which intention the nephew was aware; and it would also have been proved that the very bottles in which this sediment had been found had been intended solely for the uncle's use, the other portion of the wine having been bottled previously, and already placed in the nephew's cellar.

"As the person assisting him in the bottling had perceived their appearance upon the breaking of the bottle, concealment could then hardly have been practicable, had it been desired."

The great war did not come to a close without leaving its impress of near and familiar sorrow on Denman's household. A brother of his wife's, Lieutenant Charles Vevers, as bold and dashing a young naval officer as ever paced a quarter deck, was shot dead on the last day of August, 1813, at the terrible storming of San Sebastian, a service on which, with characteristic gallantry, he had volunteered. Denman, who was very much attached to this brother-in-law, had been with his wife and her sister Ann at Leamington when the first intelligence reached England. He at once hastened up to London to learn fuller particulars, whence he wrote as follows to his wife : "Oh, my dearest love, how can I address you on this

melancholy occasion, or how pretend to offer you that consolation which I so much need for myself? Notwithstanding all the preparations which his known danger gave, and all the melancholy forebodings with which I pursued my journey, still I could hardly persuade myself that my eyes were not deceiving me when I saw the fatal truth in the paper. Gallant and daring as he was, his exposure was but too certain. His fellow sufferers and our fellow mourners are numerous, indeed; but to your gentle and feeling heart this is but an aggravation of sorrow. But we must derive some comfort from reflecting that his death has been most glorious, and that his life. was not worn away by the painful and lingering disorders produced by fatigue and wounds. But, indeed, I have no talent for consolation. I can weep with you, but I cannot pretend to tell you that your tears ought not to flow. Never did they more deservedly fall or embalm a memory more justly beloved. But I well know, when the first edge of affliction is taken off, you will exert yourself for the sake of all, and you and dear Ann will be a mutual support to each other. I must fear lest my confidence that no particulars could have been yet received may have betrayed her into a situation more painful than in any case it must have been, for the first shock of such intelligence in a public room would be overpowering. I believe Fetzer [newsagent near Queen's Square], from motives of humanity, did not send the Gazette," which would otherwise have reached us sooner. I found it was known in the neighborhood as soon as I arrived. Of course I have been nowhere and done nothing; but I shall return the moment I can wash my hands of the business that brought me to London. I have made up my mind to return with you, and postpone my journey into the country [for the Michaelmas sessions] till the latest possible moment. I wish I could flatter myself that the dreadful blow will not affect your health.

"I have nothing more to say, and yet am loath to conclude it seems like another parting at this heartrending moment. God bless and sustain you, and under all trials assure yourself of the warmest and tenderest affection of your faithful and adoring husband. Adieu!" The following letter, written in the spring of next year