puppies." Mr. Randolph, stepping widely to one side, and passing out, said with a bow, "I do, sir."
This closed the interview; there was no flogging, no hero; and Pleasants returned to Richmond with his feathers much ruffled and drooping.
He was afterward killed in a duel by Ritchie, an editor of opposite politics.
LEGAL ANTIQUITIES.
Origin of Solicitors.—This branch of the legal practice seems to have arisen, in great part, out of the suits in the Star-chamber. In its origin the calling appears to have been of doubtful legality, and the character of solicitors not over-good. Time has, at any event, established their right to practise, whatever may have been its effect upon their characters. "In our age," says Hudson (a barrister of Gray's Inn, in the reign of Charles I.), "there are stepped up a new sort of people called solicitors, unknown to the records of the law, who, like the grasshoppers in Egypt, devour the whole land; and these, I dare say (being authorized by the opinion of the most reverend and learned Lord Chancellor that ever was before him), were express maintainers, and could not justify their maintenance upon any action brought; I mean not where a lord or gentleman employed his servant to solicit his cause, for he may justify his doing thereof; but I mean those which are common solicitors of causes, and set up a new profession, not being allowed in any court, or at least not in this court, where they follow causes; and these are the retainers of causes, and devourers of men's estates by contention and prolonging suits to make them without end."—Treatise upon the Star-chamber.
"Many years ago," says Mr. Timbs, "men could easily be found to give any evidence upon oath that might be required; and some of these persons walked openly in Westminster Hall with a straw in one of their shoes, to signify that they wanted employment as witnesses; hence originated the expression 'He is a man of straw.' But the custom has high antiquity. A writer in the 'Quarterly Review,' on Greek courts, says: 'We have all heard of a race of men who used, in former days, to ply about our own courts of law, and who, from their manner of making known their occupation, were recognized by the name of Straw-shoes. An advocate or lawyer, who wanted a convenient witness, knew by these signs where to find one, and the colloquy between the parties was brief: 'Don't you remember?' said the advocate. The party looked at the fee, and gave no sign; but the fee increased, and the powers of memory increased with it. 'To be sure I do.'; Then come into court and swear it.' And the straw-shoes went into court and swore it. Athens abounded in straw-shoes."—Irish Law Times.
In the ancient Welsh laws cats appear to have been the object of legal solicitude. In the Dimetian Code (283) it is declared that if a man parts from his wife, he is to take away only one (cat), and leave the rest. And it is also declared that "whoever shall sell a cat shall answer for her not going a caterwauling every moon, and that she devour not her kittens, and that she have ears, eyes, teeth, and nails, and being a good mouser."
FACETIÆ.
At the conclusion of a nuisance case the judge summed up, enlarging at portentous length on a definition of the offence and the various elements that were required in proof of it, until the jury became thoroughly tired of listening to him. When he had concluded, he said,—
"I will retire while you are deliberating on your verdict, which requires much consideration; but I hope you understand the various points I have submitted to you."
"Oh, yes, my lord," said the foreman; "we are all agreed that we never knew before what a nuisance was, until we heard your lordship's summing up."
A student said to a distinguished lawyer one day, "I cannot understand how circumstantial evidence can be stronger than positive testimony."
"I will illustrate it," said the lawyer. "My milkman brings me a can of milk, and says, 'Sir, I know that is pure milk, for I drew it from the cow, washed the can thoroughly, strained it into the can, and nobody else has handled it.' Now, when I take the cover from the can, out leaps a bull-frog. Surely, the frog is stronger evidence than the man!"
