fer to him; that his speech in the Camberwell
poisoning case lasted a day and a half, and is acknowledged to be a
masterpiece of forensic eloquence, fit to rank with the best efforts
of ERSKINE; that his fees always exceed ten thousand pounds a year and
that his book on _Fines and Recoveries_ is a monument of industry. All
this I shall hear from some member of the outside public, who does not
know his FIGTREE. But the fact remains. FIGTREE is the most indolent
being alive. I doubt if he can be induced to read a brief before he
goes into Court. Many are the tales told by those who have been his
juniors of the marvellous skill and address with which FIGTREE has
time after time extricated himself from awkward situations into which
he had been led by his ignorance of the details of the case in which
he happened to be engaged. In the sensational libel case of _Bagwell_
v. _Muter_, FIGTREE, as you must remember, appeared for the defendant.
When the plaintiff's Junior Counsel had opened the pleadings, FIGTREE
actually got up, and, had not his own Junior pulled him down, he would
then and there have opened the case for the plaintiff. Yet FIGTREE's
cross-examination of that same plaintiff, travelling as it did over
a long period of time, and dealing with a most complicated story, in
which dates were of the first importance, is still cited by those who
heard it as the most remarkable display of its kind which the English
Courts have afforded for years past. Whether the unfortunate BAGWELL,
whom it showed conclusively to be a swindler and an impostor, has an
equal admiration for it, I know not, nor is he, I fancy, likely to
tell us, even when he returns from the prison which is now the scene
of his labours. How FIGTREE, who at the outset did not even know on
which side he appeared, managed in the time at his command to master
this intricate case, must ever remain a mystery. HARRY ADDLESTONE,
his Junior, is accustomed to talk darkly of a marvellous chronological
analysis of the case which he had prepared for his leader, and
evidently wishes me to believe that he, rather than FIGTREE, is to be
credited with the success achieved. But the Solicitors have not yet
withdrawn their confidence from FIGTREE to transfer it to ADDLESTONE.

Here, then, is an instance of a perfectly indolent man rising higher
and higher every year on the ladder of professional advancement. I
can only attribute it, my dear LAZINESS, to your beneficent influence,