Leaves from an English Solidfor s Noie Book. belonging was a solicitor, I must not say a brother solicitor, for I was then but in statu piipillari. Captain Briggs was a most efficient officer, punctual at drill, and a ver itable enthusiast in the cause in which he laid aside the toga to take up arms; but his heart was stronger than his brain, his progress in the profession of the law was slow; though a good officer of volunteers he was not a shining luminary in the legal firmament, and he was a gullible subject, and the victim of many a practical joke. Moreover, he was ambitious, and he earnest ly coveted one of the few small prizes of the profession which were then open to solicit ors, I think it was the appointment of clerk to some local bench of magistrates, and, being of good family, he hoped to secure in fluence in high quarters to get him the ap pointment. At that time Edward Geoffrey, Earl of Derby, was Prime Minister of Eng land, and the most popular man in the whole of the County of Lancaster, and with great generosity he opened his beautiful Park of Knowsley for a grand field day of the vol unteers of the county. Captain Briggs's ex citement knew no bounds; night after night and every Saturday afternoon he was at the post of duty, and drilled his men to a point little short of perfection, in preparation for the great day. Alas for the vanity of all human speculation! Three days before the appointed field day he sickened with the measles, and instead of leading his corps to the field of mimic battle, he had to betake himself ingloriously to bed. Now the gen ial character of Lord Derby was a house hold word in the whole county, and made a slight stretch of lively imagination form the basis of a perfectly credible fiction. On Captain Briggs's first appearance at drill after recovering from his attack of measles, he was solemnly assured that when our corps marched past the saluting point Lord Derby was heard to exclaim : " Surely that is Cap tain Briggs's corps, but where is Captain Briggs? " and that as the genial Prime Min
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ister was informed of his absence, his Lord ship had been heard to say " I am really very sorry to hear it. I have heard that he is a most efficient officer, and should have liked him to be presented to me." And a still prouder man was Captain Briggs when the next morning's post brought him a letter dated from Knowsley and signed " Derby," expressing his Lordship's deep regret at missing Captain Briggs from his place at the head of his corps, and his admiration for the way in which his men had acquitted them selves, and his sincere hope that the gallant Captain was again convalescent. Am I bound after the lapse of forty years to admit that I was the perpetrator of the joke? the wicked forger of the name of England's great Prime Minister? The bait took; worst of all, I myself was the first to whom the gallant soldier solicitor confided the news. It was a trying position forme, more especially when in the moment of triumph he told me that the great ambition of his heart seemed clearly within his reach, that he felt confident that with his Lordship's good offices he could rely on getting the ap pointment which he so earnestly coveted. Hard work had I to argue with him that a communication such as he had received could not be looked upon as personal, and ought not to be acknowledged by an immediate re ply; still harder work had I to dissuade him from rushing off to the newspaper offices and putting forth to the public the letter which he had received (as he believed) from so august a personage as England's great Prime Minister. Do what I could, say what I would, arguments were unavailing, and I had, at last, to my own shame, and to his utter confusion to admit my forgery of the great man's name. After this there was only one course open to me, to leave the corps and hide my dimin ished head in non-combatant obscurity. It made no great difference to me, as I was bound to go up to London to prepare for my final examination; so, bidding farewell
