abroad without a copy of the acts of Parliament, from which he expounded the law to those who tried to get more than their share. He knew to a penny what the legal fare to various parts of the city was, and he was versed in all municipal reg ulations. If the cabbies tried to gouge him, as they frequently did, he hauled them before a magistrate and insisted that the law deal with them. He became the terror of all drivers in London, and gained the sobriquet of " the liti gant." He compelled the railways to provide everything which the law demanded and to grant every privilege which their charter called for. Many considered him a very disagreeable person by reason of his sturdy insistence in his rights, but he is responsible for many accommodations being granted to travelers and citizens generally which would never have been granted if it had not been for his severe sense of justice. The fact that he died of liver complaint is said by the I-ondon newspapers to explain much, but his irregular liver has done a great deal for his fellow citizens. SIR WALTER SCOTT had his share of curious ex periences shortly after being called to the bar. His first appearance as counsel in a criminal court was at Jedburg assizes in 1793, when he successfully defended a veteran poacher. "You're a lucky scoundrel," Scott whispered to his client when the verdict was given. "I'm just of your mind," returned the latter, "and I'll send you a m.iukin " — namely, a hare — " the morn, man." Lockhart, who narrates the incident, omits to add whether the "maukin" duly reached Scott, but no doubt it did. On another occasion Scott was less successful in his defense of a housebreaker, but the culprit, grateful for his counsel's exertions, gave him, in lieu of the orthodox fee, which he was unable to pay, this piece of advice, to the value of which he (the housebreaker) could professionally attest : First, never to have a large watchdog out of doors, but to keep a little yelping terrier within, and, secondly, to put no trust in nice, clever, gimcrack locks, but to pin his faith to a huge old heavy one with a rusty key. Scott long remem bered this incident, and thirty years later, at a judges' dinner at Jedburg, he recalled it in this impromptu rhyme : — Yelping terrier, rusty key, Was Walter Scott's best Jedburg fee.
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SIBERIA, by a recent ukase, is to have a new system of law courts, removing the inhabitants from the arbitrary rule of government officials. Justices of the peace will be appointed by the Crown; there will be superior courts at Tomsk, Tobolsk, Chita, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Blagovestchensk and Vladivostock, and a court of appeal at Irkutsk. The change is made, the decree states, on account of development of the country and the changes in civil life brought about by the Siberian railroad.
AMONG the early Greeks suicide was uncommon until they became contaminated by Roman influ ence. Their religious teaching, unlike that of their Asiatic contemporaries, was strongly opposed to self-destruction. While a pure and manly na tion, they regarded it as a heinous crime, and laws existed which heaped indignity upon the body of the suicide. By an Athenian law the corpse was not buried until after sunset, and the hand which had done the deed — presumably the right hand — was cut off and buried sepa rately, as having been a traitor to its owner. The only suicides ever spoken of with respect, or anything approaching commendation, by the early Greeks, were those of a purely patriotic character, like those of Themistocles and King Codrus, both of whom were considered patriots. The latter, when the Heraclidœ invaded Attica, went down disguised among the enemy with the intention of getting slain and, having picked a quarrel with some soldiers, succeeded in his ob ject. The reason for this act was that the oracle had pronounced that the leader of the conquer ing army must fall; and the king sacrificed his life in order that his troops might be victorious and his country saved. Themistocles is said to have committed suicide rather than lead the Per sians against his own people. — Lawrence Irwell, in July Lippincotfs.
A HIGHWAYMAN named Nevison — or Nicks, as he is more generally known — had a blood-mare, a splendid bay, whose courage and endurance were such that Nicks determined by means of these qualities to prove an alibi in case of danger. About four o'clock upon a certain morning he robbed a tiaveler on the road near Gadshill, then
