DCXCIV.—CRITICISING A STATUE.
Soon after Canning's statue was put up in Palace Yard, in all its verdant freshness, the carbonate of copper not yet blackened by the smoke of London, Mr. Justice Gazelee was walking away from Westminster Hall with a friend, when the judge, looking at the statue (which is colossal), said, "I don't think this is very like Canning; he was not so large a man."—"No, my lord," replied his companion, "nor so green."
DCXCV.—A COMPARISON.
During the assizes, in a case of assault and battery, where a stone had been thrown by the defendant, the following clear and conclusive evidence was drawn out of a Yorkshireman:—
"Did you see the defendant throw the stone?"—"I saw a stone, and I'ze pretty sure the defendant throwed it."
"Was it a large stone?"—"I should say it wur a largish stone."
"What was its size?"—"I should say a sizeable stone."
"Can't you answer definitely how big it was?"—"I should say it wur a stone of some bigness."
"Can't you give the jury some idea of the stone?"—"Why, as near as I recollect, it wur something of a stone."
"Can't you compare it to some other object?"—"Why, if I wur to compare it, so as to give some notion of the stone, I should say it wur as large as a lump o' chalk!"