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though you know every name on your circuit upside down. Now the traitor counts out the fee and wraps it up with slow and provoking formality. At length all being prepared he looks toward you to catch (as you suppose) your eye-You nod, and the brief comes flying; you pick it up, and find on it the name of a man three years your junior, who is sitting next to you; you curse the attorney's impudence, and ask yourself if he meant to insult you.-Perhaps not, you say, for the dog squints.

My maiden brief was in town.— How well do I recollect the minutest circumstances connected with the Case! The rap at the door! I am a connoisseur in raps.-there is not a dun in London who could deceive me; I know their tricks but too well; they have no medium between the rap servile and the rap impudent.-This was a cheerful touch; you felt that the operator knew he should meet with a face of welcome. My clerk, who is not much under the influence of sweet sounds, seemed absolutely inspired, and answered the knock with astonishing velocity. I could hear from my inner room the murmur of inquiry and answer; and though I could not distinguish a word, the tones confirmed my hopes;-1 was not long suffered to doubt: my client cutered, and the pure white paper, tied round with the brilliant red tape, met my eyes. He inquired respect fully and with appearance of anxiety, which marked him to my mind for a perfect Chesterfield, if I was already retained in The rogue knew well enough I ́never had had a retainer in my life. I took a moment to consider; and after making him repeat the name of his case. I gravely assured him I was at perfect liberty to receive his brief. He then laid the papers and fee upon the table, asked me if the time appointed for a consultation with the two gentlemen who were with me' would be convenient; and, finding that the state of my engagements would allow me to attend, made his bow and departed. That fee was sacred gold, and I put it to no vulgar use.

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Many years have now elapsed since that case was disposed of, and yet how fresh does it live in my memory; how perfectly do I recollect every authority to which he referred! how I read and re-read the leading cases that bore upon the question to be argued. One case I so bethumbed, that the volume has opened at it ever since, as inevitably as the prayer-book of a lady's-maid proffers the service of matrimony. My brief related to an argument before the judges of the King's Bench, and the place of consultation was Ayles's coffee house, adjoining Westminister Hall. There was I, before the clock had finished striking the hour. My brief I knew by heart. I had raised an army of objections to the points of which we were to contend, and had logically slain every man of them. I went prepared to discuss the question thoroughly; and I generously determined to give my leaders the benefit of all my cogitations-though not without a slight struggle at the thought of how much reputation I should lose by my magnanimity. I had plenty of time to think of these things, for my leaders were engaged in court, and the attorney and I had the room to ourselves. After we had been waiting about an hour, the door flew open, and in strode one of my leaders, the second in command, less in haste (as it appeard to me) to meet his appointment than to escape from his atmosphere of clients in which he had been enveloped during his passage from the court-just as the horseman pushes his steed into a gallop, to rid himself of the flies that are buzzing around him. Having shaken off his tormentors, Mr. walked up to the fire-said it was cold-nodded kindly to me-and had just asked what had been the last night's division in the house, when the powdered head of an usher was protruded through the half-open door, to announce that

"Jones and Williams was called on." Down went the poker, and away flew with streaming robes, leaving me to meditate on the loss which the case would sustain for want of his

assistance at the expected discussion. Having waited some further space, I heard a rustling of silks, and the great --, our commander-in-chief, sailed into the room.-As he did not run foul of me, I may not have been invisible to him; but he furnished me with no other evidence of the fact. He simply directed the attorney to provide certain additional affidavits, tacked about, and sailed away. And thus ended first consultation.

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it was a question of some interest; it was a dreadful moment; the ushers stilled the audience into an awful silence. I began, and at the sound of an unknown voice, every wig of the white inclined plane at the upper end of which I was standing suddenly turned round, and in an instant I had the eyes of seventy learned friends' looking me full in the face! It is hardly to be conceived by those who have not gone through the ordeal how terrific is this mute attention to the object of it. How grateful should I have been for any thing which would have relieved me from its oppressive weight, —a buzz, a scraping of the shoes, or a fit of coughing would have put me under infinite obliIgation to the kind disturber. What

I consoled myself with the thought that I had at least all my materials for myself, and that from having had so much more time for considering the subject than the others, I must infallibly make the best speech of the three.

--

At length, the fatal day came. never shall forget the thrill with which I heard open the case, and felt how soon it would be my turn to speak. Oh, how did I pray for a long speech; I lost all feeling of rivalry and would have gladly given him every thing that I intended to use myself, only to defer the dreaded moment for one half hour. His speech was frightfully short, yet short as it was, it made sad havoc with my stock of matter. The next speaker was even more concise, and yet, my little stock suffered again severely. I then found how experience will stand in the place of study; these men could not, from the multiplicity of their engagements, have spent a tithe of the time upon the case which I had done, and yet, they had seen much which had escaped all my research. At length, my turn came. I was sitting among the black rows in the old court of King's Bench. It was on the last day of Michaelmas term and late in the evening. A sort of darkness visible had been produced by the aid of a few candles dispersed here and there. I arose, but I was not perceived by the judges, who had turned together to consult, supposing the argument finished. B- was the first to see me, and I received from him a nod of kindness and encouragenent, which I hope I never shall forget. The court was crowded, for

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I said I know not; I knew not then; it is the only part of the tranaction of which I am ignorant; it was a phantasma or hideous dream.'They told me, however, to my great surprise, that I spoke in a loud voice, used violent gesture, and as I went along seemed to shake off my trepidation. Whether I made a long speech or a short one I cannot tell, for I had no power of measuring time. All I know is that I should have made a much longer one, if I had not felt my ideas, like Bob Acre's courage, oozing out of my fingers' ends. The court decided against us, erroneously as I of course thought, for the young advocate is always on the right side.

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We believe the work mentioned by Evelyn is defunct, and " English vengeance wars not with the dead;" we therefore refrain from replying to the stupid malice of the sapient editor, though in good truth he had laid himself so completely open to a home thrust, that a mere boy in literature might have annihilated him.-We shall give copperplates occasionally in future, as Truth recommends, but really our friends can scarcely expect anything of the kind very often the working of the plates is of it-elf a serious expense.-J. Godby shall hear from us at large in a week or two, with a final reply to his proposal.-J. L. is a kind fellow, but Dramatic Scenes" would not, we apprehend, interest the majority of our readers.

LONDON Printed and Published by T. Wallis, Camden Town.

No. 173.

THE NIC-NAC;

OR,

Literary Cabinet.

SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1826. VOL. IV.

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Church inconvenient to himself and family. On the side of Arnold's now stands Minchenden House, formerly occupied by the Duke of Chandos. By the sentence of consecration, the rights of the mother church at Edmonton were strictly respected, the use of the Chapel being limited to the residents at Arnold's, with the neighbouring inhabitants of Southgate and Bowes. The patronage was vested in John Weld, Esq his heirs and assigns, who were permitted (with the assent of the vicar and bishop) to nominate a fit person to officiate, and allow him a yearly stipend, not less than 131. 6s 8d. Mr. Weld, as appears by his epitaph in the Chapel, gave the sum of 5501. to purchase lands, the produce of which was to be thus distributed:-20 marks to the curate, 20 marks to poor kindred, 12d. weekly in bread, 10s. to the clerk, and the remainder in repairing the Chapel, or increasing the salary of the curate, who in the absence of application from " poor kindred, was to have the 20 marks allotted to them, and there has been no claim of that kind for many years. The original dimensions of the Chapel, which is a brick building, were only 42 feet by 20, but it was enlarged towards the beginning of the last century by the addition of a north aisle. The nave, which is evidently the oldest part of the edifice, contains several monuments, and in the chancel are those of the founder, who died 1622, and Sir David Hetchstellery, who died 1721.

THE

LAST WORDS OF PANGLOSS.

MR. EDITOR,It is my unpleasant duty to announce to you an event that will doubtless give you great concern; it is the death of your late correspondent PANGLOSS, who departed from this terrestial world last week. As he was in the habit of contributing to the amuse

ment of your numerous readers, some few particulars respecting his life aud death may not prove uninteresting.

He was I believe educated at college, where, like many other young men, he shamefully misspent his time, and became

"A dunce at Syntax, but a dab at taw." To say that he learnt nothing would be doing him an injustice, for although he would at any time sooner ride a race than deliver an oration, and rather decline Latin altogether than a single verb, yet he was not destitute of sense and understanding, and could upon an occasion exert more talent than he was generally supposed to possess. By dint of perseverence, and other means, with which I am not acquainted, he obtained the degrees of L.L.D. and A.S.S. Many have illiberally hinted that he had no just title to either of these distinctions; as to the former I will not be too positive, but his writings, some of which have appeared in the NIC-NAC, plainly evince his title to the latter degree. How he contrived to struggle through an existence of 84 years I cannot say, for I believe he never was a favourite of Fortune, though her daughter Miss Fortune kindly condescended to pay him very particular attentions. I shall now give you a short description of his last moments :-I called upon him at his lodging's in Tottenham Court Road, when his landlady told me he was not expected to survive a single minute; I made all the haste in my power to the bed-side of the A.S.S. whom I found gasping for breath; he soon perceived me:"Ah, my friend," cried he, pausing for breath at every word, "I am about to leave you all-the Nic-Nac, too;" he held his hand towards me, and I found within its grasp the last number of your work. "Endeavour as far as you can," cried he, "to supply my loss as a correspondent to this work." I promised I would, and by your leave I shall fulfil my promise as far as lies in my power. His last words were, "I am a poor

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