. Justice Stareleigh did. It is, in fact, now the tone
for a judge to affect a sort of polished courtesy, and to impart a sort
of light gaiety to the business he is transacting. All asperity and
tyrannous rudeness is held to be out of place. Hectoring and bullying of
witnesses will not be tolerated. The last exhibition was perhaps that of
the late Dr. Kenealy in the Tichborne case.

All the swearing of jurymen before the court, with the intervention of
the judge, has been got rid of. The Master of the Court, or Chief Clerk,
has a number of interviews--at his public desk--with important
individuals, bringing him signed papers. These are excuses of some
sort--medical certificates, etc.--with a view to be "let off" serving.
Some--most, perhaps--are accepted, some refused. A man of wealth and
importance can have little difficulty. Of course this would be denied by
the jurists: but, somehow, the great guns contrive not to attend. At ten
o'clock this officer proceeds to swear the jury, which is happily
accomplished by the time the judge enters.

SERJEANT BUZFUZ.

Mr. Pickwick, considering the critical nature of his case, was certainly
unfortunate in his solicitor, as well as in the Counsel selected by his
solicitors. The other side were particularly favoured in this matter.
They had a pushful bustling "wide-awake" firm of solicitors, who let not
a point escape. Sergeant Buzfuz was exactly the sort of advocate for the
case--masterful, unscrupulous, eloquent, and with a singularly ingenious
faculty for putting everything on his client's side in the best light,
and his adversary's in the worst. He could "tear a witness to pieces,"
and turn him inside out. His junior, Skimpin, was glib, ready-armed at
all points, and singularly adroit in "making a hare" of any witness who
fell into his hands, _teste_ Winkle. He had all the professional devices
for dealing with a witness's answers, and twisting them to his purpose,
at his fingers' ends. He was the Wontner or Ballantyne of his day. Mr.
Pickwick's "bar" was quite outmatched. They were rather a feeble lot,
too respectable altogether, and really not familiar with this line of
business. Even the judge was against them from the very start, so Mr.
Pickwick had very poor chances indeed. All this was due to that
old-fashioned and rather incapable "Family Solicitor" Perker.

[Picture: Serjeant Buzfuz, K.C.]

Serjeant Buzfuz is known the wo