nd strong,
Who held, 'It surely can't be wrong,
To open trunks and rifle shelves,
For God helps those who help themselves.'
But when before the Court he came,
And boldly rose to plead the same,
The judge replied--'That's very true;
You've helped yourself--_now God help you!_'"

CHAPTER SIX

THE ADVOCATES OF SCOTLAND

"Ye lawyers who live upon litigants' fees,
And who need a good many to live at your ease,
Grave or gay, wise or witty, whate'er your degree,
Plain stuff, or Queen's Counsel, take counsel from me,
When a festive occasion your spirit unbends,
You should never forget the profession's best friends;
So we'll send round the wine and a bright bumper fill
To the jolly Testator who makes his own will."

NEAVES: _Songs and Verses_.

CHAPTER SIX

THE ADVOCATES OF SCOTLAND

Since days when Sir Walter Scott gathered round him at the fireplace in
the Parliament Hall of Edinburgh a company of young brother advocates to
hear the latest of Lord Eskgrove's eccentric sayings from the Bench,
that rendezvous has been the favourite resort for story-telling among
succeeding generations of counsel. While the Court is in session, they
vary their daily walk up and down the hall by lounging round the spot
where the future Wizard of the North proved a strong counter-attraction
to many an interesting case being argued before a Lord Ordinary in the
alcoves on the opposite side of the hall, which was then the "Outer
House." It is even asserted that this same fireplace is the hatchery of
many of the amusing paragraphs daily appearing in a column of a certain
Edinburgh newspaper. But of all the witticisms that have enlivened the
dull hours of the briefless barrister in that historic hall during the
past century, none will stand the test of time or be read with so much
pleasure as those of that prince of wits, the Hon. Henry Erskine.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE HON. HENRY ERSKINE, LORD ADVOCATE AND DEAN OF FACULTY
OF ADVOCATES.]

Hairry, as he was familiarly called both by judge and counsel, was in an
eminent degree the "advocate of the people." It is said that a poor man
in a remote district of Scotland thus answered an acquaintance who
wished to dissuade him from "going to law" with a wealthy neighbour, by
representing the hopelessness of being able to meet the expenses of
litigation. "Ye dinna ken what ye're