t
and incapable, and also as making some absurd mistakes.

It will be a surprise to most people to learn that this picture is no
more than an amusing caricature, and that the judge was really a person
of high character. He is described as "a very painstaking, upright
judge, and, in his private capacity, a worthy and benevolent man." Thus,
Mr. Croker, who, however, supplies a sound reason for his being the
subject of such satire. "With many admirable qualities both of head and
heart, he had made himself a legitimate object of ridicule by his
explosions on the Bench." Under such conditions, the Bar, the suitors
and the public had neither the wish nor the opportunity to search for
extenuating excuses in his private life. They suffered enough from the
"explosions" and that was all that concerned them. He had been fourteen
years on the Bench, and, like Stareleigh, belonged to the Common Pleas.
He was suffering too from infirmities, particularly from deafness, and
appears to have misapprehended statements in the same grotesque fashion
that he mistook Winkle's name.

Boz's fashion of burlesque, by the way, is happily shown in his treatment
of this topic. Another would have been content with "Daniel," the simple
misapprehension. "Nathaniel, sir," says Winkle. "Daniel--any other
name?" "Nathaniel, sir--my lord, I mean." "_Nathaniel Daniel_--_or
Daniel Nathaniel_?" "No, my lord, only Nathaniel, not Daniel at all."

"What did you tell me it was Daniel for, then, sir?"

"I didn't, my lord."

"You did, sir. _How could I have got Nathaniel in my notes_, _unless you
told me so_, _sir_?"

How admirable is this. The sly satire goes deeper, as Judges, under less
gross conditions, have often made this illogical appeal to "my notes."

Though not gifted with oratorical powers which were likely to gain him
employment as a leader, Gaselee's reputation for legal knowledge soon
recommended him to a judge's place. He was accordingly selected on July
1st, 1824, to fill a vacancy in the Court of Common Pleas. In that Court
he sat for nearly fourteen years "with the character of a painstaking
judge, and in his private capacity as a worthy and benevolent man." Thus
Mr. Foss, F.S.A.

The reader will have noted the Judge's severity to poor Groffin, the
chemist, who had pleaded the danger of his boy mistaking oxalic acid for
Epsom salts. Could it be that the Judge's experience as the son of a
provincial doctor, had shown what