Although a man born a judge, simply considered, is as ridiculous as a man born a watchmaker, yet, to place the British house of lords, considered in their judicial capacity, in the fairest light, we should rather compare them to a cast, or family, devoted for ages, by the laws and constitution, to the fabrication of watches. It is obvious, although such a family, or cast, may contain many members who would be bungling workmen, and even idiots who could not count the hours, yet, in the main, it is probable they would conduct the business of watch-making to great advantage, as the whole tenor of their education and converse would lead to an acquaintance with that art. With this view, I sat with some impatience to hear the opinions of these hereditary judgesgrounded, as I anticipated, upon the profoundest investigation, and delivered in the best style of Blackstone and Mansfield. I had therefore to exercise all my patience while the advocates were mooting the

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points in the cause, in the bald style of the English reports, which our friend, Joseph D*****, used to say, seemed to be literal translations of law Latin. You recollect those joyous vigils when, to enliven our wine and cigars, we used to call upon our friend to give us a dissertation upon the classical elegancies of the Term Reports, which he would illustrate by apt quotations from Bracton, Fleta, and the elder English jurists-or those enchanting strictures of my Lord Coke upon the statute de donis conditionalibus, the beauties of which, he declared, were always flotsam, jetsam, and ligan in his memory, and which, he gaily asserted, in neatness and force of expression, could only be surpassed by that memorable and delectable definition of a man-milliner, given by a modern English lawyer of refined taste. "A man-milliner, is a person exercising "the art, trade, occupation, business, la"bour, work, and mystery of a milliner66 BEING A MAN."

One of the advocates was very profound and very dull; indeed, he was so tedious that a young Scotch lawyer, near me, expressed some very unequivocal signs of impatience-but a companion checked him with "hoot mon, when a mon speaks in character ye should na' withhold

praise do na' ye ken the mon is an "advocate of the English sessions ?"

The counsel for the defendant replied: but if the argument of the first was infused with poppy, that of his learned brother was saturated with opium. If the first was Somnus, the second was father Nox himself; eldest night-ere Satan, that Brindsley of Milton, had canalled chaos, and built a bridge and rail-way o'er the "wide abyss," for the transportation of original sin into paradise.-Pardon the magnificence of my metaphor, my excellent friend; remember I am in training for the honours of a blue-stocking cluband when I sometimes adopt the gorgeous metaphor or quaint epithet, consider them

as specimens of my progress in the elegant art of modern English fashionable fine writing.-By the aid of the Scotch gentleman's snuff-box, I kept awake until the arguments were concluded.

The Lord Chancellor, who presided, prepared to collect the opinions of the noble judges. Now was a moment of anxious expectation. As I expected he would begin with the youngest, I felt not a little solicitous to discover how the young peers would acquit themselves on a subject abstruse in itself, and rendered more so by the eloquence of the learned counsel. The Lord Chancellor seemed to comprehend the subject, and stated the main and collateral points with clearness and precision-and called upon the noble lords for any thing they might have to offer. One of the law lords (as they are styled here—that is, a lord who has acquired a knowledge of the law in the good old, vulgar, democratic way of study and practice) gave his opinion. He was

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followed by several others of the same class. The Lord Chancellor then stated the main point concisely, and said—“ my lords, is it your opinion that the judg "ment of the court of king's bench be "affirmed?"-casting his eyes hastily, and cursorily, and I fancied rather contemptuously, over the hereditary judges-and, without waiting, or, indeed, having any time, to estimate the votes, said "it is "affirmed." His lordship then gave his own opinion seriatim, and adduced several arguments in favour of the defendant in error, of greater weight, I thought, than any which had been advanced by the counsel—and, finally, supported the judg ment of the court of king's bench, and the present opinion of the house, handsomely. Now, I thought this very considerate in his lordship; as he appeared, manifestly, to have formed and pronounced the judgment of the house for them, it was certainly very kind in his lordship to show