stories of Hale's squeamishness, Lord Campbell tells
the following good anecdote of Baron Graham: "The late Baron Graham
related to me the following anecdote to show that he had more firmness
than Judge Hale:--'There was a baronet of ancient family with whom the
judges going the Western Circuit had always been accustomed to dine.
When I went that circuit I heard that a cause, in which he was
plaintiff, was coming on for trial: but the usual invitation was
received, and lest the people might suppose that judges could be
influenced by a dinner; I accepted it. The defendant, a neighboring
squire, being dreadfully alarmed by this intelligence, said to himself,
'Well, if Sir John entertains the judge hospitably, I do not see why I
should not do the same by the jury.' So he invited to dinner the whole
of the special jury summoned to try the cause. Thereupon the baronet's
courage failed him, and he withdrew the record, so that the cause was
not tried; and although I had my dinner, I escaped all suspicion of
partiality."

This story puts the present writer in mind of another story which he has
heard told in various ways, the wit of it being attributed by different
narrators to two judges who have left the bench for another world, and a
Master of Chancery who is still alive. On the present occasion the
Master of Chancery shall figure as the humorist of the anecdote.

Less than twenty years since, in one of England's southern counties, two
neighboring landed proprietors differed concerning their respective
rights over some unenclosed land, and also about certain rights of
fishing in an adjacent stream. The one proprietor was the richest
baronet, the other the poorest squire of the county; and they agreed to
settle their dispute by arbitration. Our Master in Chancery, slightly
known to both gentlemen, was invited to act as arbitrator after
inspecting the localities in dispute. The invitation was accepted and
the master visited the scene of disagreement, on the understanding that
he should give up two days to the matter. It was arranged that on the
first day he should walk over the squire's estate, and hear the squire's
uncontradicted version of the case, dining at the close of the day with
both contendents at the squire's table; and that on the second day,
having walked over the baronet's estate, and heard without interruption
the other side of the story, he should give his award, sitting over wine
after dinner at the rich man's