The boast of sov'reignty, the rod of power,
And all the sway that judges ever have,
Await alike the inevitable hour

When all must yield to some designing knave.

Nor you, ye vain, impute to such the fault,

If mem'ry o'er his deeds no trophies raise,

Where, thro' the long drawn hall and fretted vault,
The well-fee'd lawyer swells his note of praise.

Can counsel's loud and animated voice,

Back to that mansion call the sleeping cause;
Without an order make such process rise,

Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of laws?

Perhaps in some neglected spot is laid

A cause once pregnant with celestial fire,
Such as the wily C[orbe]t might have pled,
Or waked to extacy Scott's living lyre.

For knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did oft' enrol;
No penury repress'd their noble rage,

Nor froze the genial current of their soul.

The epithet" Wily," which the author has applied to Mr. Corbet, is not very appropriate, for he had not, at least in his latter days, the slightest claim to such an appellation. He was a bold and sarcastic pleader in his early days, as the following anecdote sufficiently demonstrates. Lord President Campbell, after the fashion of those times, was somewhat addicted to browbeating young counsel; and as bearding a Judge is not a likely way to rise in favour, his Lordship generally got it all his own way. Upon one occasion, however, he caught a His Lordship had what are termed little pigs eyes, and his voice was thin and weak. Corbet had been pleading before the Inner-House, and, as usual, the President commenced his attack, when his intended victim thus addressed him: "" My Lord, it is not for me to enter into any altercation with your Lordship, for no one knows better than I do the great difference between

tartar.

66

us; you occupy the highest place on the Bench, and I the lowest at the Bar; "and then, my Lord, I have not your Lordship's voice of thunder, I have not

46

your Lordship's rolling eye of command."

Full many a deed, amid such bustling scene,
The clerk's unfathom'd and dark cells oft' bear;
Full many a process lies too long unseen,

Neglected by the judges and the bar.

Some village lawyer, that, with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
May have a mute and glorious process rest,

Tho' great his wrongs, and tho' his cause be good.

Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of power and ruin to despise,
To scatter justice o'er a smiling land,

And read its history in a nation's eyes,

Their lot inclined. Nor circumscrib'd alone
Their growing talents, but their crimes confin'd;
Forbade to wade through discord widely sown,
And shut the gates of justice on mankind.

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride,

With incense kindled at some holy flame.

Far from the bustling crowd's ignoble strife,
Their humble wishes never learned to stray;

Along the rough litigious vale of life

They kept the noisy tenor of their way.

Their client's fame from insult to protect,
Some frail Memorial they would often try,
With uncouth prose and shapeless language deck'd,
T'implore the passing tribute of a sigh.

For who to careless folly e'er a prey,
Their legal rights unguarded have resign'd,
Given up a cause as clear as the noon-day,
Nor cast a longing ling'ring look behind.

On some dear cause each client oft relies;

Some pious tears, when lost, it oft' requires:
Ev'n from the bar the voice of justice cries;
Ev'n lawyers weep when such a cause expires.

For thee, who mindful of each agent's deeds,
Dost in these lines their artful ways relate;
If chance, or lonely contemplation leads

Some kindred spirit to enquire thy fate;

-

Haply some hoary headed sage may say,-
Oft' have we seen him, at the peep of dawn,
Brushing, with hasty steps, the dews away,
To meet the judges, at the court in town.

There, at the foot of some frequented bench
In th' Outer-House, and to the side bar nigh,
Molested by the agents filthy stench,

He'd pore on books with many a piteous sigh.*

In yonder hall, now smiling as in scorn,

Mutt'ring his wayward fancies, he would rove;
Now drooping, woeful, wan, like one forlorn,

Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

One morn I miss'd him in th' accustomed hall,
Upon the boards, and near his favourite seat;

Another came, and answered to the roll:

Nor at the bar nor in the court he sate.

The next, with dirges due, in sad array,

Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne: Approach and read, for thou cans't read the lay

Grav'd on his stone, beneath yon aged thorn.

Mr. M'Laurin had very fair prospects at the time he entered the Faculty of Advocates, and he made—it is said-one or two very good appearances. His unfortunate malady, which came on at an early period of life, effectually prevented his rising at the Bar. The description of himself in the ensuing stanza is pretty accurate, excepting that he was (at least at the time he wrote it) very unlike one "cross'd in hopeless love."

EPITAPH.

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to Business and to Law well known ;
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Litigation marked him as her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send:

He gave to Mis'ry (all he had), a tear;

He gain'd from Heav'n, ('twas all he wished), a friend.

No further seek his merits to disclose,

Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode ; (There they, like many a lawyer's, now repose) The bosom of his Father and his God.

Colintown, 12th May 1814.

COLIN M'LAURIN.*

* This very strange production seems to have been composed during one of the author's periodical fits of insanity. Its absurdity is amusing enough, and it has been preserved as the only existing memorial of the son of that distinguished lawyer, Lord Dreghorn, and the grandson of the still more distinguished mathematician, Colin Maclaurin.

XXII.

DECISIONES PROVINCIALES CUM NOTIS VARIORUM ET FUSTY. WHYGGII.

These curious decisions were privately printed some years ago, and strange as it may appear, they are actually genuine, having been veritably pronounced by a provincial judge, now no more, the only liberty taken having been to alter the names and vary the dates.

ΤΟ

PETER NIMMO, L.L.D. M.D. A.S.S.

Professor of Law, Medicine and Divinity,
Attorney-General to his Serene High-
ness the Peishwa, Accoucheur to

that Sublime Potentate the
Black Princess of Mullyga-

tawny, Protestant

Chaplain to his

Excellency the

Turkish Am-
bassador.

&c. &c.
&c.

This Volume is respectfully inscribed by
THE EDITOR.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

The acquisition of a competent knowledge of the jurisprudence of the country in which we live, is an indispensible requisite in the education of every man of birth and fortune. Nay, even to persons in the inferior ranks of life, a certain degree of legal knowledge is absolutely indispensible. The