very critical, and does not bestow its respect lightly. I knew him only as Queen's Counsel. I had him against me once, but oftener for me, because my brother thought him even then the best lawyer and the most zealous at the bar, and always retained him if he could. During the period I knew him personally Mr. Lush had still a plump, unwrinkled face, and a singularly bright eye. His voice was full, mellow, and penetrating; it filled the court without apparent effort, and accorded well with his style of eloquence, which was what Cicero calls the temperatum genus loquendi. Reasoning carried to perfection is one of the fine arts; an argument by Lush en chained the ear and charmed the under standing. He began at the beginning, and each succeeding topic was articulated and disposed of, and succeeded by its right suc cessor, in language so fit and order so lucid, that he rooted and grew conviction in the mind. Tantum scries nexitraque pollent. I never heard him at Nisi Prius, but should think he could do nothing ill, yet would be greater at convincing judges than at per suading juries right or wrong; for at this pas time he would have to escape from the force of his own understanding, whereas I have known counsel blatant and admired, whom Nature and flippant fluency had secured against that difficulty. He was affable to clients, and I had more than one conversation with him, very inter esting to me. But to intrude these would be egotistical, and disturb the just proportions of this short notice. I hope some lawyer, who knew him well as a counsel and judge, will give us his distinctive features, if it is only to correct those vague and colorless notices of him that have appeared. This is due to the legal profession. But, after all, his early career interests a much wider circle. We cannot all be judges, but we can all do great things by the persever ance, which, from an office boy, made this
man a clerk, a counsel, and a judge. Do but measure the difficulties he overcame in his business with the difficulties of rising in any art, profession, or honorable walk; and down with despondency's whine, and the groans of self-deceiving laziness! You who have youth and health, never you quail "At those twin jailers of the daring heart, Low birth and iron fortune!" See what becomes of those two bugbears when the stout champion Single-heart and the giant Perseverance take them by the throat! Why, the very year those chilling lines were first given to the public by Bulwer and Macready, Robert Lush paid his wife's dowry away to Gray's Inn in fees, and never whined nor doubted nor looked right nor left, but went straight on-— and prevailed. Genius and talent may have their bounds, but to the power of single-hearted perse verance there is no known limit. Non omnis mortuus est; the departed judge still teaches from his tomb; his dicta will outlive him in our English courts; his gesta are for mankind. Such an instance of single-heartedness, perseverance, and proportionate success in spite of odds is not for one narrow island, but the globe; an old man sends it to the young in both hemispheres with this com ment : If difficulties lie in the way, never shirk them, but think of Robert Lush and trample on them. If impossibilities encoun ter you, — up hearts and at 'em. One thing more to those who would copy Robert Lush in all essentials. Though im pregnated from infancy with an honorable ambition, he remembered his Creator in the days of his youth; nor did he forget Him, when the world poured its honors on him, and those insidious temptations of prosperity, which have hurt the soul far oftener than "low birth and iron fortune." He flourished in a sceptical age; yet he lived and died, fearing God.
