idable condition of their existence; and this incessant warfare
gives a merciless asperity to their language, even when it does not
infuse their hearts with bitterness. Duty enjoins the barrister to leave
no word unsaid that can help his client, and encourages him to perplex
by satire, baffle by ridicule, or silence by sarcasm, all who may oppose
him with statements that cannot be disproved, or arguments that cannot
be upset by reason. That which duty bids him do, practice enables him to
do with terrible precision and completeness; and in many a case the
caustic tone, assumed at the outset as a professional weapon, becomes
habitual, and, without the speaker's knowledge, gives more pain within
his home than in Westminster Hall.

Some of the well-known witticisms attributed to great lawyers are so
brutally personal and malignant, that no man possessing any respect for
human nature can read them without endeavoring to regard them as mere
biographic fabrications. It is recorded of Charles Yorke that, after his
election to serve as member for the University of Cambridge, he, in
accordance with etiquette, made a round of calls on members of senate,
giving them personal thanks for their votes; and that on coming to the
presence of a supporter--an old 'fellow' known as the ugliest man in
Cambridge--he addressed him thus, after smiling 'an aside' to a knot of
bystanders--"Sir, I have reason to be thankful to my friends in
general; but I confess myself under particular obligation to you for
the very _remarkable countenance_ you have shown me on this occasion."
There is no doubt that Charles Yorke could make himself unendurably
offensive; it is just credible that without a thought of their double
meaning he uttered the words attributed to him; but it is not to be
believed that he--an English gentleman--thus intentionally insulted a
man who had rendered him a service.

A story far less offensive than the preceding anecdote, but in one point
similar to it, is told of Judge Fortescue-Aland (subsequently Lord
Fortescue), and a counsel. Sir John Fortescue-Aland was disfigured by a
nose which was purple, and hideously misshapen by morbid growth. Having
checked a ready counsel with the needlessly harsh observation, "Brother,
brother, you are handling the case in a very lame manner," the angry
advocate gave vent to his annoyance by saying, with a perfect appearance
of _sang-froid_, "Pardon me, my lord; have patience with me, and I will
d