to partake of the Feast of the Lamb, and to comply with the dying injunction of the Redeemer? - and whether your abstaining from the duty was the result of absolute tenderness of conscience, or the mere determination of an unwilling and negligent mind? I leave it with you to consider what reply it will best become you to make upon that fearful occasion, and shall only recall to your memory the treatment of that servant who knew his Lord's will, and would not obey it, that he was beaten with many stripes.""

The Doctor now rose to depart, when Mr. Armstrong, impressed with the earnestness of manner in which he had been addressed, said, "Doctor, I fear that I may have given offence; but, believe me, my error proceeds from ignorance, and not intention; I must confess I can make no reply to what you have advanced, and I assure you that I will devote my mind thoroughly to investigate this matter, and will seriously reflect upon all that you have now so powerfully adduced; and if I do not immediately promise to present myself at the communion table, upon the next occasion of a Sacrament, I at least pledge myself never again wilfully

to abstain from attending the services of that day: indeed, I am not only open to conviction, but it is my anxious desire to arrive at truth, and to practise zealously, and with earnestness, the duties of a Christian."

The Doctor and his Curate now took their leave and departed.

242

THE ASSIZES.

SOON after the Assizes had commenced, Dr. Freeman received an invitation from his neighbour, Mr. Hawke, to dine with him on the following day, to meet some of the barristers on the circuit, who had just promised him the pleasure of their company. This invitation the Doctor felt in no way disposed to refuse, as it promised to throw him into the society of welleducated men; men, generally, of enlarged minds, who, from their talents and reading, were esteemed acquisitions to every circle, and from whom, upon subjects of literature and current intelligence, much information was at all times to be derived. The same invitation had also been given to Mr. Deacon, who, together with the Rector, was received by their host with all that good breeding for which he was justly distinguished. Serjeant Standforth, one of the leading counsel at the bar, who was there also,

had been contemporary with the Doctor at college; and of Mr. Lyttleton and Mr. Shereblock, two junior counsel, the latter had been a school-fellow with Mr. Deacon; so that the party in every way promised an agreeable meeting. After partaking of an elegant repast, to which one and all paid no very limited devotion; for exercise of mind awakens the functions of appetite perhaps more powerfully than that of the body, the cloth was removed, and discussion became free and animated. After the conversation had been brought from the common politics, and thence to the common pursuits of the day, the current of it was turned to the general business of the Assizes. It is upon such occasions that a stranger picks up the opinions entertained of the peculiar talents of the Judges, as well as of the characters of the leading men at the bar, "the Bother'ems and the Bore'ems" of the day, from their own brethren; painted, to be sure, after the taste of the biologist, whose sentiments, therefore, are to be received not on the strength of what he advances, but in respect to the station and rank which he himself fills in the estimation of the profession. In the present instance, it was not

unamusing to observe how the younger counsel approved or censured the discernment, or the want of it in their presiding superiors, though it required no great depth of penetration to see that they commonly spoke from the impressions made upon them by the failure or success of the suits which they had conducted.

"Did you not observe," said Lyttleton, "the pains and trouble it cost me to make old Nestor perceive the point on which my case hung today? how, when he got impatient at my perseverance in maintaining, that both Coke and Hale had, in similar circumstances, confirmed the decision at which I was aiming, (which, by the bye, I rather suspect he had either never seen or could not understand,) I was compelled to tickle him like a trout into good humour again; and though at last I got him upon the very scent I wished him to follow, we came suddenly to a check, and he gave his opinion point blank against the authorities I had produced? No: I admit that he is perfectly the Gentleman, but certainly not a great Lawyer !"

"And yet," rejoined the Serjeant, "I think he showed some little acumen, when he suggested a case to you which bore directly upon