then unknown, whose special knowledge of Italian law evoked a very high compliment from the judge. "That man's fortune is assured; let us find out who he is," said my companion. We found that it was Mr. Henry Matthews, who made a rapid rise at the bar, though never to the position of a great leader, but he afterwards became Home Secretary, and more recently still was created Viscount LlandafF. It was as vice-chancellor that Wood made his great reputation; as for his judgments, are they not recorded in Kay and Johnson's Reports? As Lord Chancellor (taking office when Lord Selborne left the Cabinet upon Mr. Gladstone's bringing in Irish Disestab lishment) he did not fulfil all expectationsIt was in his blameless private life, and in his untiring support of every good scheme for the higher welfare of the working classes that the memory of Lord Hatherley will be kept green in the hearts of Englishmen. He wrote the life of Dr. Hook, of Leeds, his life-long friend. In Stuart's court the leaders were Bacon and Malins, "long-winded Malins" (both judges in later years), but his uncertainty as a lawyer made his court a bye-word. Once poor Stuart was inveighing against the pro lixity of a marriage settlement of some great nobleman, and he was heard to say that it was a disgrace to the conveyancing bar of the country; that he would like to send the deed to one of the conveyancing counsel of the court with directions to cut it down to one fifth of its length, whereupon counsel quietly replied that the original draft was settled by Sir E. Sugden (Lord St. Leon ards). Poor Stuart! I suppose it was from him that Malins learned the habit of inces sant and frivolous chatter, which made one of the counsel who practised in his court threaten to pay a stenographer to take down and publish every word spoken in the court during a whole morning. Before we leave Lincoln's Inn, let me men tion one or two men who rose to be good
judges, but after 1870, Mr. Pearson, Mr. Charles Hall (who might have sat for a like ness of Mr. Punch), Sir H. M. Jackson (who was appointed a judge but died suddenly be fore having taken his seat), Mr. F. North, Mr. Fry, — I remember them all as juniors in the " sixties." I have seen a sight which very few, I think, can. say they have seen. It was in Wood's court, but after Wood's time. I saw Joshua Williams (the greatest of real property lawyers, and greatest in two senses, for he stood over six feet six high), and Sir William Vernon Harcourt, in wig and gown, arguing a case of copyhold law. I fancy very few can say they ever saw Har court in court. One more very able man I remember in Wood's court, Mr. Druce, Q. C., whose career, which should have been so brilliant, was cut short by a fall from his horse on an early morning ride round Kennington Oval. He was a favorite with every one, judge, brother-barristers and solicitors; he was just getting into an enormous practice, and had everything be fore him, when the end came so suddenly and so sadly. Now we must leave Lincoln's Inn, cross Chancery Lane and visit the old Rolls Court, where Sir John Romilly is sitting, facing a large oil painting of his predecessor, Lord Langdale. Lord Romilly never greatly impressed me after I had seen him once in his ordinary and rather shabby clothes, on a penny steamboat going from the Temple to West minster; but his court was the nursery of great men. Foremost of all, Mr. Roundell Palmer, holding a brief on one side or the other, in every case in the court. A some what supercilious expression of self-satisfied superiority spoiled what would otherwise have been a pleasing face, and was in marked contrast with that of his chief com petitor in that court, Mr. Sclwyn, whose kindly face betokened the geniality and friendliness of disposition which made him immensely popular at the bar, and after
