LEGAL PEARL-DIVERS.
Every barrister can "shake his head," and too often, like Sheridan's Lord Burleigh, it is the only proof he vouchsafes of his wisdom. Curran used to call these fellows "legal pearl-divers."—"You may observe them," he would say, "their heads barely under water—their eyes shut, and an index floating behind them, displaying the precise degree of their purity and their depth."
GRAMMATICAL LEARNING.
An author left a comedy with Foote for perusal; and on the next visit asked for his judgment on it, with rather an ignorant degree of assurance. "If you looked a little more to the grammar of it, I think," said Foote, "it would be better."—"To the grammar of it, Sir! What! would you send me to school again?"—"And pray, Sir," replied Foote, very gravely, "would that do you any harm?"
SWEARING BY PROXY.
Cardinal Dubois used frequently, in searching after any thing he wanted, to swear excessively. One of his clerks told him, "Your eminence had better hire a man to swear for you, and then you will gain so much time."