some knew very little about it.

I went to the Old Bailey, a den of infamy in those times not
conceivable now, and I verily believe that no future time will produce
its like--at least I hope not. Its associations were enough to
strike a chill of horror into you. It was the very cesspool for the
offscourings of humanity. I had no taste for criminal practice in
those days, except as a means of learning the art of advocacy. In
these cases, presided over by a judge who knows his work, the rules of
evidence are strictly observed, and you will learn more in six months
of practical advocacy than in ten years elsewhere. The Criminal Court
was the best school in which to learn your work of cross-examination
and examination-in-chief, while the Courts of Equity were probably the
worst. But I shall not dwell on my struggles in connection with
the Old Bailey at that early period of my life. What will be more
interesting, perhaps, are some curious arrangements which they had for
the conduct of business and the entertainment of the Judges.

These are a too much neglected part of our history, and when referred
to in reminiscences are generally referred to as matters for
jocularity. They exercised, however, a serious influence on the minds
and feelings of the people, as well as their manners; more so than a
hundred subjects with which the historian or the novelist sometimes
deals.

In all cases of unusual gravity three Judges sat together. Offences
that would now be treated as not even deserving of a day's
imprisonment in many cases were then invariably punished with death.
It was not, therefore, so much the nature of the offence as the
importance of it in the eyes of the Judges that caused three of them
to sit together and try the criminals.

They sat till five o'clock right through, and then went to a sumptuous
dinner provided by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. They drank everybody's
health but their own, thoroughly relieved their minds from the horrors
of the court, and, having indulged in much festive wit, sometimes at
an alderman's expense, and often at their own, returned into court
in solemn procession, their gravity undisturbed by anything that had
previously taken place, and looking the picture of contentment and
virtue.

Another dinner was provided by the Sheriffs; this was for the
Recorder, Common Serjeant, and others, who took their seats when their
lordships had arisen.

I ought to mention one important dignitary--name