sented a petition from the Tailors' Company at Glasgow against
Catholic Belief.

"What!" asked Lord Lyndhurst from the woolsack, in a low voice, "do the
_tailors_ trouble themselves about such _measures_?" Whereto, with
unaccustomed quickness, the old Tory of the Tories retorted, "No wonder;
you can't suppose that _tailors_ like _turncoats_."

As specimens of a kind of pleasantry becoming more scarce every year,
some of Sir George Rose's court witticisms are excellent. When Mr.
Beams, the reporter, defended himself against the _friction_ of passing
barristers by a wooden bar, the flimsiness of which was pointed out to
Sir George (then Mr. Rose), the wit answered--

"Yes--the partition is certainly thin--
Yet thick enough, truly, the Beams within."

The same originator of happy sayings pointed to Eldon's characteristic
weakness in the lines--

"Mr. Leach made a speech,
Pithy, clear, and strong;
Mr. Hart, on the other part,
Was prosy, dull, and long;
Mr. Parker made that darker
Which was dark enough without;
Mr. Bell spoke so well,
That the Chancellor said--'I doubt.'"

Far from being offended by this allusion to his notorious mental
infirmity, Lord Eldon, shortly after the verses had floated into
circulation, concluded one of his decisions by saying, with a
significant smile, "And here _the Chancellor does not doubt_."

Not less remarkable for precipitancy than Eldon for procrastination, Sir
John Leach, Vice-Chancellor, was said to have done more mischief by
excessive haste in a single term than Eldon in his whole life wrought
through extreme caution. The holders of this opinion delighted to repeat
the poor and not perspicuous lines--

"In equity's high court there are
Two sad extremes, 'tis clear;
Excessive slowness strikes us there,
Excessive quickness here.

"Their source, 'twixt good and evil, brings
A difficulty nice;
The first from Eldon's _virtue_, springs,
The latter from his _vice_."

It is needless to remark that this attempt to gloss the Chancellor's
shortcomings is an illustration of the readiness with which censors
apologize for the misdeeds of eminently fortunate offenders. Whilst
Eldon's procrastination and Leach's haste were thus put in contrast, an
epigram also placed the Chancellor's frailty in comparison with the
tedious prolixity of the Master of the Rolls--

"To cause delay in Lincoln's Inn
Two diff'ren