Serjeant Sayer went the circuit for some judge who was prevented by indisposition going in his turn. He was afterwards imprudent enough to move, as counsel, for a new trial in one of the causes heard by himself, on the ground of his misdirecting the jury as judge. Lord Mansfield said : " Brother Sayer, there is an Act of Parlia ment which, in such a matter as was before you, gave you discretion to act as you thought right." "No, my lord," said the Serjeant, " that is just it; I have no discretion in the matter." "Very true, you may be quite right as to that," said Lord Mansfield, "for I am afraid even an Act of Parliament could not give you discretion!" NOTES. Justice Buller used to say that his idea of heaven was to sit at Nisi Prius all day, and play whist all night. In "Anderson's Dictionary of Law " (p. 947), under the title, " Shelley's Case," we are told that that celebrated case was decided by " Lord Francis Coke." And now comes the Supreme Court of Nebraska, and, in a recent case (Omaha, etc. Ry. Co. v. Brady, 39 Neb. 27, 48), quotes a definition from the Commentaries of " Mr. Blackstone." When Sir Edward and Sir William are thus treated, we need not be surprised that Bacon has a few books attributed to him besides the Shakes peare plays. As the world is inclined to be so liberal with him in the matter of authorship, per haps he will not begrudge the loan of his Chris tian name to Coke. But the latter, who hated Bacon and his court, and all things pertaining to them, would not, if alive, be likely to accept the loan in a Christian spirit. The following story is told of Chief Justice Parsons. An old lawyer who practiced before him, falling ill, handed over his cases to a young lawyer, Mr. M , advising the latter to engage senior counsel, and also giving him a letter of introduction to the Chief Justice. The Judge being asked by Mr. M as to the merits of the different seniors, with a view to retain one, said : " I think, upon the whole, that you had better not employ anyone. You and I can do the business as well as any of them." This hint
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being acted on, Mr. M turned out to be very successful, and at the close of the sittings called on the Judge to pay his respects. A senior lawyer then leaving the Judge, on recognizing the caller, and suspecting the bond of union between him and the Judge, delivered this Parthian shot on retiring : " I'm not sure, Judge, of attending court at all next term. I think of sending my office boy with my papers. You and he together will do the business fully as well as I can." Lord Chancellor Westkury took upon the woolsack the lofty disdain that had characterized him as Sir Richard Bethell at the bar. In argu ing a celebrated appeal, one of the judges pinched him with an awkward question, to which he responded, " Before I answer, may I ask your lordship to reconsider your question, for I am sure, upon so doing, you will perceive that it in volves a self-evident absurdity." To a barrister arguing before himself, he said, "You are in error, and, inasmuch as its ways are devious and many, perhaps you can present me with a few more absurdities." "It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble. But how much nobler will be the sovereign's boast when he shall have it to say that he found law dear and left it cheap; found it a sealed book, left it a living letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it a twoedged sword of craft and oppression, left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence." — Lord Brougham. LITERARY NOTES. The first chapters of the " Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc " appear in the April Harper's, with illustrations by Frank Vr. Du Mond. The authorship is attributed to the historic Sieur Louis de Conte, but the real name of the writer is still a secret. The romance opens with unusual attractiveness, and shows Joan in her girlhood, marked among her peasant playmates by her nobility of mind, her courage, and her acute sympathies. The Century for April has almost as much variety in topic as in the number of its articles. Military warfare is represented by Prof. Sloane's Napoleon Life, naval warfare by Molly Elliot Seawell's article
