er
resting till he had completely exhausted the subject, and contemplated
it from every point of view. Even at this time, however, it would be
incredible to what an extent he obliged his friends at the bar,
principally by preparing for them arguments, and sketching for them
"opinions" on their cases, and these, too, generally of special
difficulty and importance. Some of the most admirable arguments
delivered by others of late, at the bar of the House of Lords, had been
really prepared by Mr. Smith. In one instance, indeed, I recollect
hearing the ablest living lawyer and advocate mention, that in a
particular cause of great magnitude, not having found it possible even
to open his ponderous brief before he was called upon to argue, he had
time, before he rose, barely to glance over a very brief "epitome" of
the facts, and of the _real_, though unsuspected point in which the case
ought to be decided, which had been prepared for his assistance by Mr.
Smith. In confident reliance upon his accuracy in matters both of fact
and law, the counsel in question boldly opened the case, implicitly
adopting, and ably enforcing Mr. Smith's view of it, and succeeded in
obtaining the judgment of the House. Mr. Smith never spoke, however, of
these his subsidiary labours to others, nor liked ever to have any
allusion made, to the subject. It was impossible that he could get
through all this business without sitting up during most of the night;
and I know that, for the last three or four years of his life, he was
rarely in bed before two, and sometimes three, and even four o'clock,
having to be, nevertheless, at Westminster or Guildhall as early as ten
o'clock, or half-past nine, on the ensuing morning. While thus arduously
engaged, he kept a constant eye upon the progress of the decisions of
the various courts, as bearing upon his "Mercantile Law," and "Leading
Cases," interleaved copies of which always lay on his table before him,
and received almost daily MS. additions. Thus it was that he was able,
in 1841 and 1843, to present new editions of his "Leading Cases," and
"Mercantile Law," greatly enlarged and improved, and in many instances,
especially in the "Leading Case," entirely remodelled. Nor was he, with
all this, so absorbed as to forget literature; for, amidst his piles of
opened law-books, you might often see a well-used copy of some classic
English, French, Spanish, or Italian author, either prose or poetry,
which he would read