client's not having gone to trial at the
preceding assizes. Mr. Smith was lying in a state of great exhaustion on
the sofa; but mentioned the "rule." I told him that I had brought my
brief with me,--"A peremptory undertaking, I suppose," said he,
languidly, "to try at the next assizes?"--"Yes, and I will sign my own
papers, and yours too, to save you the trouble,--or your clerk
shall?"--"No, thank you," said he, and with difficulty raised himself.
"Will you oblige me by giving me a pen?" I did so, and with a trembling
hand he wrote his name on the briefs, saying, in a melancholy tone as he
wrote, "It is the last time I shall sign my name with yours. Even if you
_perform_ your undertaking, _I_ shall not be at the trial." About a week
afterwards I found him finishing the last sheet of a huge mass of
short-hand writer's notes of an important case in which he was
concerned, and he was grievously exhausted. It was in vain to
remonstrate with him! An early and devoted friend of his, and I, called
upon him daily two or three times, and sat with him as long as our
engagements would permit us. We found his mind always vigorous; and
though he could converse little, from weakness, and its irritating his
cough, his language was as exact and significant as ever, and he liked
to hear others talk, especially about what was going on at Westminster.
I was sitting silently beside him one afternoon, only a fortnight
before his death, when a friend came in, and, after we had sat some time
together, asked me a question which had just arisen in his practice.
"Don't you think," said he, "that, under these circumstances, we may
read the word '_forthwith_,' in this act of parliament, to mean, 'as
soon as reasonably may be?'" Our poor friend, who had not spoken before,
and lay apparently asleep, instantly raised his head, and with some
quickness observed, "Ah! if you could only read an act of parliament _in
any way you liked_, what fine things you could do!" The reader is not,
however, to suppose that Mr. Smith's mind was exclusively occupied with
business, and legal topics. On the contrary, I am certain that he both
read and thought much, and anxiously, on religious subjects. I saw the
Bible constantly open, and also one or two religious books; in
particular, Mr. Wilberforce's "Practical Christianity" lay on his table
and on his sofa. He seemed, however, to feel no disposition to
_converse_ on such topics, with any one. If any one attempted to l