[79] For this he probably received a good sum of money.
[80] “By his zeal in the Protestant cause he gained for a while a universal applause throughout the whole nation.”—Athenæ, iv. 116.
[81] This profession of contempt for “vulgar noise” has lately been repeated in America by a judge whose manner and bearing on the bench come as near those of Scroggs as the present times will bear.—Ed.
[82] From this asseveration a suspicion arises of pecuniary corruption; but I believe that Scroggs was swayed in this instance by a disinterested love of rascality.
[83] Roger North, whose curious life of his brother is largely quoted in this memoir.—Ed.
[84] At that time not more than fifty volumes were required. Now, unfortunately, a law library is “multorum camelorum onus,” (a load for many camels.)
[85] This sort of practice on the weakness of judges, keeping them in good humor by flattery and complaisance, may possibly, as the text implies, be abandoned in England, but in America it is still sufficiently common.—Ed.
[86] The distinguishing badge worn by the king’s counsel. The barristers wear stuff gowns. The serjeants, (the highest rank of practitioners,) enjoying a monopoly of the practice of the Court of Common Pleas, which originally had exclusive cognizance of all civil actions, have or had, as their badges, a coif, or black velvet cap, (for which a wig was about this time substituted,) and parti-colored robes.—Ed.
[87] The hours then kept must have been very inconvenient for lawyers in Parliament, as all the courts and both houses met at eight in the morning and sat till noon.
[88] This early rising rendered it necessary for him to take “a short turn in the other world after dinner.”