t your business."

"May God strike me dead! my lord, if I did it," excitedly exclaimed a
prisoner who had been tried before the same justice for a serious
offence, and a verdict of "guilty" returned by the jury. The judge
looked grave, and paused an unusually long time before saying a word. At
last, amid breathless silence, he began: "As Providence has not seen fit
to interpose in your case, it now becomes my duty to pronounce upon you
the sentence of the law," &c. When somewhat excited over a very bad case
tried before him he would delay sentence until he felt calmer, lest his
impulse or his temper should lead him astray. On one such occasion he
exclaimed, "I can't pass sentence now. I might be too severe. I feel as
if I could give the man five-and-twenty years' penal servitude. Bring
him up to-morrow when I feel calmer."--"Thank you, my lord," said the
prisoner, "I know you will think better of it in the morning." Next
day the man appeared in the dock for sentence. "Prisoner," said the
judge, "I was angry yesterday, but I am calm to-day. I have spent a
night thinking of your awful deeds, and I find on inquiry I can sentence
you to penal servitude for life. I therefore pass upon you that
sentence. I have thought better of what I was inclined to do yesterday."

There are instances of brief summing up of a case by judges, but few in
the terms expressed by this worthy judge. "If you believe the witnesses
for the plaintiff, you will find for the defendant; if you believe the
witnesses for the defendant, you will find for the plaintiff. If, like
myself, you don't believe any of them, Heaven knows which way you will
find. Consider your verdict."

To Mr. Justice Maule a witness said: "You may believe me or not, but I
have stated not a word that is false, for I have been wedded to truth
from my infancy."--"Yes, sir," said the judge dryly; "but the question
is, _how long have you been a widower?_"

In the good old days a learned counsel of ferocious mien and loud voice,
practising before him, received a fine rebuke from the justice. No reply
could be got from an elderly lady in the box, and the counsel appealed
to the judge. "I really cannot answer," said the trembling lady. "Why
not, ma'am?" asked the judge. "Because, my lord, he frightens me
so."--"So he does me, ma'am," replied the judge.

He was as a rule patient and forbearing, and seldom interfered with
counsel in their mode of laying cases before a jury or the Bench,