(JConnell as a Legal Raconteur. 'And what is his general character?' said Keller. ' Ogh, the devil a worse.' ' Why, what sort of witness is this you have brought,' said Keller, passionately flinging down his brief and looking at Checkley, ' he has ruined us.' ' He may prove an alibi, however,' returned Checkley; ' examine him as to an alibi, as instructed in your brief.' "Keller accordingly resumed his examina tion. 'Where was the prisoner on the ioth instant?' said he. ' He was near Castlemartyr,' answered the witness. ' Are you sure of that?' 'Quite sure, counsellor.' 'How do you know with such certainty?' 'Be cause upon that very night I was returning from the fair, and when I got near my own house I saw the prisoner a little way before me. I'll swear to him anywhere. He was dodging about, and I knew it could be for no good end. So I slipped into the field and turned off my horse to grass, and, while I was watching the lad from behind the ditch, I saw him pop across the wall into my garden and steal a lot of parsnips and carrots, and what I thought a great deal more of, he stole a bran-new English spade I got from my landlord, Lord Shannon. So, faix, I cut away after him, but as I was tired from the day's labor and he being fresh and nimble, I wasn't able to ketch him. But next day my spade was seen surely in his house, and that's the same rogue in the dock. I wish I had a hoult of him.' ' It is quite evident,' said the judge, ' that we must acquit the prisoner. The witness has clearly established an alibi for him. Castlemartyr is nearly sixty miles from Bantry, and he certainly is anything but a partisan of his. Pray, friend,' address ing the witness, ' will you swear information against the prisoner for his robbery of your property?' 'Troth, I will, my lord, with all the pleasure in life, if your lordship thinks I can get my satisfaction out of him. I'm tould I can for the spade, but not for the carrots and parsnips.' ' Go to the Crown Office and swear information,' said
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the judge. The prisoner was of course dis charged, the alibi having been clearly estab lished. In an hour's time, when inquiry was made as to whether Checkley's rural witness had sworn information at the Crown Office, that gentleman was not to be heard of. The prisoner had also disappeared imme diately on being discharged, and of course resumed his bad practices forthwith." It needs hardly to be told that Lord Shannon's soidisaut tenant dealt a little in fiction, and that the whole story of the farm from that nobleman and of the prisoner's thefts of the spade and of the vegetables was a pleasant dream of Mr. Checkley's. "I told this story," continued O'Conncll, " to a coterie of Eng lish barristers with whom I dined, and it was most diverting to witness their astonishment at Mr. Checkley's unprincipled ingenuity." "Lord Norbury," said O'Connell, "was in deed a curious judge. He had a consider able parrot sort of knowledge of law. He had upon his memory an enormous number of cases, but he did not understand, nor was he capable of understanding, a single princi ple of law. To be sure, his charges were the strangest effusions. I was once en gaged before him upon an executory de mise, which is a point of the most abstract and difficult nature. I made a speech of an hour and a half upon the points, and was ably sustained, and as ably opposed, by brother counsel. We all quoted largely from the work of Fearne, in which many authorities and cases in point are collected. The case was adjourned till next day, when Lord Norbury charged the jury in the fol lowing terms : ' Gentlemen of the jury, my learned brethren of the bench have care fully considered this subject and have re quested me to announce their decision. It is a subject of the most difficult nature, and it is as important as it is difficult. I have the highest pleasure in bearing witness to the delight, yes, the delight, and, I will add, the assistance, the able assistance, we have received from the masterly views which the
