to the conclusion that a poor man should seldom attempt to obtain civil satisfaction for oppression from the rich; for he stands like the lamb in the fable. Facile est opprimere innocentum,' is generally translated, in the language of experience, 'The weakest goes to the wall.' "This was all public business, and there is no breach of confidence in sketching it for general amusement and reflection. There never was, I believe, a more honourable attorney than my father; and on several occasions, when I had an opportunity of witnessing his disinterestedness, integrity, zeal for his clients, and indignation at their villany, I felt proud of being his son; but Sterne's beautiful remark to Corporal Trim, Thou didst very right as a soldier,-but certainly very wrong as a man,' is not less applicable to the law than the army. If obedience be the first duty of a soldier, certainly that of a lawyer is to go as far for his client as the law will permit. But strict law is often great injustice, and military command is sometimes great tyranny. In both professions the heart of man is apt to forget the sympathies of his nature. "There was, however, closet business, which I knew nothing of, except what I could guess from appearances, or learn afterwards in open court. The weeping wife sometimes came to demand the security of law against the barbarity of her husband; the blushing young female was sometimes seen in our office, anxious to explain what modesty would not permit her to avow; fathers were sometimes seen to take refuge behind the shield of justice from their sons and daughters, and sons from their fathers. I clearly perceived that selfishness in full operation destroys all the charities. "I was sometimes so much affected with the external marks of these private griefs, that my curiosity hunted after information which pained my heart; for it often happens, that a case of a very simple and uninteresting nature to an attorney is quite a tragedy to the parties concerned. Let the following brief description speak for itself : " JESSY "Miss, the daughter of a respectable farmer belonging to the Presbyterian congregation of came to our office with her father, respect ing an action then pending against a neighbour, in her own walk of life, for breach of promise of marriage, and seduction. She had been educated with considerable care, and her appearance evinced a mind of much sensibility. Her blue eyes, which had once sparkled with hope and life, were now dim and seemingly dead to pleasure—a hollow, death-like gloom surrounded them. Her face, which discovered the features of exquisite beauty, was now tinged with a sallow hue, instead of the roses and lilies which her once gay and innocent heart produced in that sweet garden-all animation had fled, and the deep melancholy look of despair, seated in her countenance, communicated awful tidings to the eye of observation. Her person was perfect symmetry, and so delicate in texture, or rather so much weakened by grief, that her bonnet had to be taken off in the office to prevent her fainting, which exposed some of the finest auburn hair in the world, altogether neglected, but bearing the marks of once having been the object of care. "Her father was an aged venerable-looking man, supported under a load of sorrow by the hand of religion. This lent a stern character of fortitude to all he said and looked. He told the tale for his youngest of twelve children. She had been the little darling of his declining years, and her faltering tongue, and tears, refused utterance to the tortures of her heart. The simple circumstances I thus gathered from the circumlocution of old age. "Jessy had been the favourite of her lover in childhood, and a tender intimacy subsisted between them, when reason taught her how to use the veil of modesty. He, however, allured by fortune, married another, and the hopes which young imagination had cherished, though nipped by the frost of disappointment, flourished again with the spring of youth, and promised delicious fruit. Another assiduous wooer had presented himself, and Jessy, considering her first affection in its grave, was beginning to lend her willing ear to the delightful voice of love, when the typhus fever deprived her not only of her new sweetheart, but of the guardianship of a careful mother. The same dreadful disease left her youthful friend a widower, and in the course of time, being a neighbour, frequently dropping in, attentions were renewed on his part, which formed the resurrection of her hopes. In time he made a formal proposal in presence of her sister, and repeated promises afterwards, which completely assured her fond heart of having a protector for life, in the man she had secretly adored. "It was necessary, however, not to hurry into the married state till the dead had been mourned for a long period; and in that interval, pregnant with the fate of this unhappy girl, a moment of passionate weakness left her, the victim of affection, at the mercy of a villain's generosity. "Poor Jessy soon found that she should be a mother; and, falling on her knees before her seducer, she implored his pity to redeem her from being the cause of steeping her aged father's couch in tears. All she said reminds me of her namesake, whose case is immortalized by the feeling Shenstone. She thought more of her lover than she did of herself-poor, fond, credulous creature! "Thus for your sake I shun each human eye; To die I languish, but I dread to die, Lest my sad fate should nourish pangs for you.' “But he had not even the pity of Shenstone's |