that illustrate
the close union of Law and Literature in past times. To lengthen the
list would but weary the reader; and no pains would make a perfect
muster roll of all the literary lawyers and _legal litterateurs_ who
either are still upon the stage, or have only lately passed away. In
their youth four well-known living novelists--Mr. William Harrison
Ainsworth, Mr. Shirley Brooks, Mr. Charles Dickens, and Mr. Benjamin
Disraeli--passed some time in solicitors' offices. Mr. John Oxenford was
articled to an attorney. Mr. Theodore Martin resembles the authors of
'The Rejected Addresses' in being a successful practitioner in the
inferior branch of the law. Mr. Charles Henry Cooper was a successful
solicitor. On turning over the leaves to that useful book, 'Men of the
Time,' the reader finds mention made of the following men of letters and
law--Sir Archibald Alison, Mr. Thomas Chisholm Anstey, Mr. William
Edmonstone Aytoun, Mr. Philip James Bailey, Mr. J.N. Ball, Mr. Sergeant
Peter Burke, Sir J.B. Burke, Mr. John Hill Burton, Mr. Hans Busk, Mr.
Isaac Butt, Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, Sir E.S. Creasy, Dr. Dasent, Mr.
John Thaddeus Delane, Mr. W. Hepworth Dixon, Mr. Commissioner
Fonblanque, Mr. William Forsyth, Q.C., Mr. Edward Foss, Mr. William
Carew Hazlitt, Mr. Thomas Hughes, Mr. Leone Levi, Mr. Lawrence
Oliphant, Mr. Charles Reade, Mr. W. Stigant, Mr. Tom Taylor, Mr.
McCullagh Torrens, Mr. M.F. Tupper, Dr. Travers, Mr. Samuel Warren, and
Mr. Charles Weld. Some of the gentlemen in this list are not merely
nominal barristers, but are practitioners with an abundance of business.
Amongst those to whom the editor of 'Men of the Time' draws attention as
'Lawyers,' and who either are still rendering or have rendered good
service to literature, occur the names of Sir William A'Beckett, Mr. W.
Adams, Dr. Anster, Sir Joseph Arnould, Sir George Bowyer, Sir John
Coleridge, Mr. E. W. Cox, Mr. Wilson Gray, Mr. Justice Haliburton, Mr.
Thomas Lewin, Mr. Thomas E. May, Mr. J.G. Phillimore, Mr. James Fitz
James Stephen, Mr. Vernon Harcourt, Mr. James Whiteside. Some of the
distinguished men mentioned in this survey have already passed to
another world since the publication of the last edition of 'Men of the
Time;' but their recorded connexion with literature as well as law no
less serves to illustrate an important feature of our social life. It is
almost needless to remark that the names of many of our ablest anonymous
writers do not appe