“It is precisely because I am a man of action, and live in the world, and see things as they were meant to be seen, that I laugh at your theorists. Why, sir, this country, in my judgment, for the time being, could much better get along without preaching, than without hanging. I don’t say always; for there is no telling yet what is to be the upshot of preaching. It may turn out as many think; in which case human natur’ will undergo a change that will pretty much destroy our business. Such a state of things would be worse for the bar, ’Squire, than the Code, or the last fee-bill.”
“I’m not so sure of that, Timms; there are few things worse than this infernal Code.”
“Well, to my taste, the fee-bill is the most disagreeable of the two. A man can stand any sort of law, and any sort of practice; but he can’t stand any sort of pay. I hear the circuit is to be held by one of the new judges—a people’s man, altogether.”
“You mean by that, I suppose, Timms, one of those who did not hold office under the old system? It is said that the new broom sweeps clean—it is fortunate ours has not brushed away all the old incumbents.”
“No, that is to come; and come it will, as sure as the sun rises. We must have rotation on the bench, as well as in all other matters. You see, ’Squire, rotation is a sort of claim with many men, who have no other. They fancy the earth to have been created on a sort of Jim Crow principle, because it turns round.”
“That is it; and it explains the clamour that is made about it. But to return to this jury, Timms; on the whole, you like it, I should infer?”
“Not too well, by any means. There are six or eight names on the list that I’m always glad to see; for they belong to men who are friendly to me——”[me——”]
“Good God, man—it cannot be possible that you count on such assistants in a trial for a human life!”
“Not count on it, ’Squire Dunscomb! I count on it from an action of trespass on the case, to this indictment—count on it, quite as much, and a good deal more rationally, than you count on your law and evidence. Didn’t I carry that heavy case for the railroad company on that principle altogether? The law was lead against us they say, and the facts were against us; but the verdict was in our favour. That’s what I call practising law!”
“Yes; I remember to have heard of that case, and it was always a wonder with the bar how you got along with it. Had it been a verdict against a corporation, no one would have thought anything of it—but to carry a bad case for a company, now-a-days, is almost an unheard-of thing.”