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of standing, as I did that day, shamed and slandered by my husband in person,—before a wondering, curious crowd,—who no doubt, many of them, blessed Heaven, that their humbler homes were more "respectable" than that of this Lord's brother, and his insulted wife:—
In the insolence of the cross-examining counsel; accustomed as I have ever been to a most indulgent and high-bred courtesy, from men immeasurably Mr Needham's superiors; and to insult from none; except from those who have been fee'd for the task by the husband. who swore at God's altar to "protect me":—
In all this, what was there to excite—to grieve—to render desperate—to wring the hearty and bewilder the brain?
Nothing. It could only be acting.
So Mr Norton affirmed. Whether his counsel also was of that opinion, I do not know; but it is impossible for me to quit this part of my subject, without making some brief comments on what is termed the "licence of the Bar."
In this same year of 1853, much scandal was excited by a case in which a barrister having to defend a man for burglariously entering a house by night, suggested in behalf of his burglar, that he might perhaps have had a love-appointment with the lady of the house! This extraordinary insult being complained of the barrister pleaded "licence of the Bar."[1] Mr Needham
- ↑ The instance here referred to, is a remarkable illustration of what lawyers think permitted to them as advocates. I give the case from a brief note in one of the papers of the day:—"The Morality of the Bar.—In the Central Criminal Court, on Monday, a man named John Richards, aged twenty-two, was indicted for feloniously breaking and entering the dwelling-house of John Crossley, with intent to steal his goods. The prisoner was seen to loiter about the house, and to open the door with a latch-key. An alarm was instantly given, so that he had no opportunity to take anything; and he was tracked and found in the bedroom of a lady-lodger. On being asked to account for his being in the house, he said that he expected to meet a gentleman. Mr. Sleigh [we quote the words of the report], in his address to the jury for the prisoner, insinuated that he had gone into the room by appointment
