A story is told of one of her Majesty's judges who is as remarkable for the quickness of his eyes and ears as for the keenness of his intellect. The other day a stranger in court, espying a friend, addressed him in a stage whisper with : — "Halloa, old man! I haven't seen you lately, Are you all right?" The remark was hardly heard beyond the near est bystanders, and there was, consequently con siderable bewilderment among those engaged in the case before the court when the judge looking up from his notes, observed : "If the old man is all right, he had better go outside and say so."
"Suppose a witness, that you yourself had called in a case, failed to testify as you believed he would, and, in fact testified the other way, what would you say? " asked an examiner. Various emotions passed over the face of the student, who, at last, taking in the enormity of the treachery of the witness, cried out indignantly, " I should say it was misplaced confidence!" — N. Y. Law Journal.
of John Randolph, in which that gentleman had some time before designated certain active politi cians as partners under the firm name of " James Madison, Felix Grundy, John Holmes and the Devil," and asked Mr. Holmes with the view of making a severe cut, what had become of that celebrated firm. Mr. Holmes immediately sprang to his feet, and said, " Mr. President, I will tell the gentleman what has become of that firm : the first member is dead, and the second has gone into retirement, and the last has gone to the Nullifiers, and is now electioneering among the gentle man's constituents! and thus the partnership is legally dissolved." The laugh produced on the occasion was wholly at the expense of Mr. Tyler.
Judge William E. Clarke of Marengo County, Alabama, is a man of marked individuality, and conducted the court in the Mobile circuit with promptness and decision. During one of the many trials of a famous insurance case in Mobile, some years ago, a juror was objected to as an agnostic. He was excused at the request of both sides. At recess for dinner, a juror going down the steps with the Judge said that he had observed a man was excused because an agnostic, and asked, At Ithaca, New York, a number of years ago, "What is an agnostic, Judge?" Judge Clarke a prominent citizen was under arrest for the vio took the matter under advisement for a moment, lation of the excise law. The case had been put and then replied sententiously, " An agnostic is a over once or twice and it was discovered on the d—d fool! " In some theological quarters this opening of the Court that the plaintiff's attorney definition would probably be accepted as strictly was not ready to go on nor was he in Court. correct. The District Attorney arose and moved that the case be dismissed. Hardly had he made the motion for dismissal, when a voice was heard, " I NOTES. second the motion, Mr. Judge." The one who It is seldom that locality disintegrates crime, had so energetically seconded the motion of dis missal was no other than the eccentric defendant but a New York penal statute now makes shaving the beard on Sunday on one side of the Brooklyn in the suit. Bridge a penal while it is allowable on the other side. Why it should be unnecessary for one One of the ablest and most brilliant lawyers at citizen to employ a tonsorial artist in one place the York County (Maine) Bar was John Holmes of during church time but necessary for another Alfred who was widely known for his wit and sar citizen is a question soon to be considered by an casm. An opportunity was seldom lost by him appellate judge. A Brooklyn barber was caught of exhibiting his opponent in a ridiculous position. " red handed " by the police while lathering a cus An instance of this kind occurred while a mem tomer on a Sunday morning and haled before a ber of the Senate of the United States, in the dis justice of the peace, who said " this is indeed a cussion on Nullification. Mr. Tyler of Virginia, barber-ous statute, but I must enforce it with a afterwards President, alluded to a satirical remark small fine. But, Mr. Policeman, hereafter don't ar
