"Now, my man, attend: _Rari nantes in gurgite vasto_. You understand that, do you not?"
"Yes, my lord," answered the witness, stroking his chin.
Tindal, trying all he could to suppress his laughter, said:
"Mr. Thesiger, the witness says he understands the quotation, and as you have no evidence to the contrary, I do not see how I can help you." Of course, there was a renewal of the general laughter, but Thesiger, in his reply, turned it on Platt.
This was my first appearance on circuit, and my first lesson from a great advocate in the art of caricature.
No man at the Bar can forget the joy of his first brief--that wonderful oblong packet of white papers, tied with the mysterious pink tape, which his fourth share of the diminutive clerk brings him, marked with the important "I gua."
I speak not to stall-fed juniors who have not to wait till their merits are discovered, and who know that whosoever may watch and wait and hope or despair, they shall have enough. All blessings go with them; I never envied them their heritage. They are born to briefs as the sparks fly upwards. I tell my experience to those who will understand and appreciate every word I say--to men who have to make their way in the world by their own exertions, and live on their own labour or die of disappointment. There is one consolation even for the wretched waiters on solicitors" favours, and that is, that the men who have never had to work their way seldom rise to eminence or to any position but respectable mediocrity. They never knew hope, and will never know what it is to despair, or to nibble the short herbage of the common where poorer creatures browse.
A father never looked on his firstborn with more pleasure than a barrister on his first brief. If the Tower guns were announcing the birth of an heir to the Throne, he would not look up to ask, "What is that?"
It was the turning-point of my life, for had there been no first brief pretty soon, I should have thought my kind relations" predictions were about to be verified. But I should never have returned home; there was still the Stage left, on which I hoped to act my part.
Strange to say, my first brief, like almost everything in my life, had a little touch of humour in it.
I was instructed to defend a man at Hertford Sessions for stealing a wheelbarrow, and unfortunately the wheelbarrow was found on him; more unfortunate still--for I might have made a good speech on the subject of the _animus furandi_--the man not only told the policeman he stole it, but pleaded "Guilty" before the magistrates. I was therefore in the miserable condition of one doomed to failure, take what line I pleased. There was nothing to be said by way of defence, but I learnt a lesson never to be forgotten.
Being a little too conscientious, I told my client, the attorney, that in the circ.u.mstances I must return the brief, inasmuch as there was no defence for the unhappy prisoner.
The attorney seemed to admire my principle, and instead of taking offence, smiled in a good-natured manner, and said it was no doubt a difficult task he had imposed on me, and he would exchange the brief for another. He kept his word, and by-and-by returned with a much easier case--a prosecution where the man pleaded "Guilty." It was a grand triumph, and I was much pleased.
Those were early days to begin picking and choosing briefs, for no man can do that unless he is much more wanted by clients than in want of them; but I learned the secret in after life of a great deal of its success.
I was, however, a little chagrined when I saw the mistake I had made.
Rodwell was leader of the sessions, and ought to have been far above a guinea brief; judge then of my surprise when I saw that same brief a few minutes after accepted by that great man--the brief I had refused because there was nothing to be said on the prisoner"s behalf. My curiosity was excited to see what Rodwell would do with it, and what defence he would set up. It was soon gratified. He simply admitted the prisoner"s guilt, and hoped the chairman, who was Lord Salisbury, would deal leniently with him.
I could have done that quite as well myself, and pocketed the guinea.
From that moment I resolved never to turn a case away because it was hopeless.
I subjoin a copy of my first brief for the prosecution.
It must be remembered that in those days the gallows was a very popular inst.i.tution. They punished severely even trivial offences, and this case would have been considered a very serious one; while a sentence of seven years" transportation was almost as good as an acquittal.
_Herts.
No. 10_.
Michaelmas Sessions, 1844.
Regina _v_.
Elizabeth Norman.
Brief for the Prosecution.
Mr. Hawkins.
I Gua.
_H. Hawkins_.
Plea--Guilty.
H.H.
Oct. 14, 1844.
Transported for 7 years.
H.H.
_Cobliam_.
Ware.
These are my notes:--
_Sep_. 20.
Mr. Page.
Silk shawl.
Apprehension.
Various accounts.
Exam. before J---- J----.
Propy found.
Mrs. Stevens,} Mr. Johnson, } Witnesses.
I made a rule throughout my professional life to note my cases with the greatest care.
CHAPTER IV.
AT THE OLD BAILEY IN THE OLD TIMES.
It is a vast s.p.a.ce to look back over sixty years of labour, and yet there seems hardly a scene or an event of any consequence, that is not reproduced in my mind with a vividness that astonishes me.
In my earlier visits to her Majesty"s Courts of Justice my princ.i.p.al business was to study the Queen"s Counsel and Serjeants, and they were worthy the attention I bestowed on them. They all belonged to different schools of advocacy, and some knew very little about it.
I went to the Old Bailey, a den of infamy in those times not conceivable now, and I verily believe that no future time will produce its like--at least I hope not. Its a.s.sociations were enough to strike a chill of horror into you. It was the very cesspool for the offscourings of humanity. I had no taste for criminal practice in those days, except as a means of learning the art of advocacy. In these cases, presided over by a judge who knows his work, the rules of evidence are strictly observed, and you will learn more in six months of practical advocacy than in ten years elsewhere. The Criminal Court was the best school in which to learn your work of cross-examination and examination-in-chief, while the Courts of Equity were probably the worst. But I shall not dwell on my struggles in connection with the Old Bailey at that early period of my life. What will be more interesting, perhaps, are some curious arrangements which they had for the conduct of business and the entertainment of the Judges.
These are a too much neglected part of our history, and when referred to in reminiscences are generally referred to as matters for jocularity. They exercised, however, a serious influence on the minds and feelings of the people, as well as their manners; more so than a hundred subjects with which the historian or the novelist sometimes deals.
In all cases of unusual gravity three Judges sat together. Offences that would now be treated as not even deserving of a day"s imprisonment in many cases were then invariably punished with death.
It was not, therefore, so much the nature of the offence as the importance of it in the eyes of the Judges that caused three of them to sit together and try the criminals.
They sat till five o"clock right through, and then went to a sumptuous dinner provided by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. They drank everybody"s health but their own, thoroughly relieved their minds from the horrors of the court, and, having indulged in much festive wit, sometimes at an alderman"s expense, and often at their own, returned into court in solemn procession, their gravity undisturbed by anything that had previously taken place, and looking the picture of contentment and virtue.
Another dinner was provided by the Sheriffs; this was for the Recorder, Common Serjeant, and others, who took their seats when their lordships had arisen.
I ought to mention one important dignitary--namely, the chaplain of Newgate--whose fortunate position gave him the advantage over most persons: for he _dined at both these dinners_, and a.s.sisted in the circulation of the wit from one party to another; so that what my Lord Chief Justice had made the table roar with at five o"clock, the Recorder and the Common Serjeant roared with at six, and were able to retail at their family tables at a later period of the evening. It was in that way so many good things have come down to the present day.
The reverend gentleman alluded to of course attended the court in robes, and his only, but solemn, function was to say "Amen" when the sentence of death was p.r.o.nounced by the Judge.
There were curious old stories, too, about my lords and old port at that time which are not of my own reminiscences, and therefore I shall do no more than mention them in order to pa.s.s on to what I heard and saw myself.