when, as an advocate, he was engaged in a case
before Lord Young, he mentioned that his client was a Free Church
minister. "Well," said Lord Young, "that may be, but for all that he may
perhaps be quite a respectable man."

And there is the story that when Mr. Young was Lord Advocate for
Scotland a vacancy occurred on the Bench and two names were mentioned in
connection with it. One was that of Mr. Horne, Dean of Faculty, a very
tall man, and the other Lord Shand. "So, Mr. Young," said a friend,
"you'll be going to appoint Horne?"--"I doubt if I will get his length,"
was the reply. "Oh, then," queried the friend, "you'll be going to
appoint Shand?"--"It's the least I could do," answered the witty Lord
Advocate.

* * * * *

"What is your occupation?" asked Lord Ardwall of a witness in a case. "A
miner, sir."--"Good; and how old are you?"--"Twenty, sir."--"Ah, then
you are a minor in more senses than one." Whereat, no doubt, the Court
laughed. "Now, my lord, we come to the question of commission received
by the witness, which I was forgetting," said a counsel before the same
judge one day. "Ah, don't commit the omission of omitting the
commission," replied his lordship.

An unfortunate miner had been hit on the head by a lump of coal, and the
judges of the First Division of the Court of Session were considering
whether his case raised a question of law or of fact. "The only law I
can see in the matter," said Lord Maclaren, "is the law of gravitation."

In a fishing case heard in the Court of Session some years ago, a good
deal of evidence was led on the subject of taking immature salmon from a
river in the north. The case was an important one, and the evidence was
taken down in shorthand notes and printed for the use of the judge and
counsel next day. The evidence of one of the witnesses with respect to
certain of the salmon taken was that "some of them were kelts." When his
lordship turned over the pages of the printed evidence next morning to
refresh his memory, he was astonished to find it stated by one of the
witnesses in regard to the salmon that "some of them wore kilts."

Many other stories, particularly of the older judges, might be given,
were they not too well known. We may therefore close this chapter with
the following epigram by a Scottish writer, which is decidedly pointed
and clever, and has the additional merit of being self-explanatory:

"He was a burglar stout a