n of
any kind, that the highest estate known to the law of England is an
estate in fee simple." Whereupon Sir Vicary, according to his own
account, interrupted the sergeant with an air of incredulity and
astonishment. "What is your proposition, brother Vaughan? Perhaps I did
not hear you rightly!" Flustered by the interruption, which completely
effected its object, the sergeant explained, "My lord, I mean to contend
that an estate in fee simple is _one of the highest estates_ known to
the law of England, that is, my lord, that it may be under certain
circumstances--and sometimes is so."

Notwithstanding his high reputation for wit, Lord Ellenborough would
deign to use the oldest jests. Thus of Mr. Caldecott, who over and over
again, with dull verbosity, had said that certain limestone quarries,
like lead and copper mines, "were not rateable, because the limestone
could only be reached by boring, which was matter of science," he
gravely inquired, "Would you, Mr. Caldecott, have us believe that every
kind of _boring_ is matter of science?" With finer humor he nipped in
the bud one of Randle Jackson's flowery harangues. "My lords," said the
orator, with nervous intonation, "in the book of nature it is
written----" "Be kind enough, Mr. Jackson," interposed Lord
Ellenborough, "to mention the page from which you are about to quote."
This calls to mind the ridicule which, at an earlier period of his
career, he cast on Sheridan for saying at the trial of Warren Hastings,
"The treasures in the Zenana of the Begum are offerings laid by the
hand of piety on the altar of a saint." To this not too rhetorical
statement, Edward Law, as leading counsel for Warren Hastings, replied
by asking, "how the lady was to be considered a saint, and how the
camels were to be laid upon the altar?" With greater pungency, Sheridan
defended himself by saying, "This is the first time in my life that I
ever heard of special pleading on a metaphor, or a bill of indictment
against a trope; but such is the turn of the learned gentleman's mind,
that when he attempts to be humorous no jest can be found, and when
serious no fact is visible."[31] To the last Law delighted to point the
absurdities of orators who in aiming at the sublime only achieved the
ridiculous. "My lords," said Mr. Gaselee, arguing that mourning coaches
at a funeral were not liable to post-horse duty, "it never could have
been the intention of a Christian legislature to aggravate the grie