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copied this gentleman's fashion of defence; and laboured hard to prove it was somehow my fault and my shame, that I had been cheated. When the case was over, he tendered me a sort of apology, saying, that " however impertinent I might consider his questions, they were within the limit of his legal instructions."
Those instructions proceeding from Mr Norton, I am willing to believe the truth of this assertion: but I will venture to tell Mr Needham, that a lawyer who has the soul of a gentleman, does not consider he pawns it for the day, when he takes his barrister's fee; or that donning his wig and gown, transforms him into a creature taken out hunting in a leash, to let slip upon the prey at the will of his employer. Refinement of manner depends upon the society a man happens to live in; but refinement of mind depends on those high instincts of honour and delicacy which belong to no class, but to the truest nobility of nature. The hired soldier is bound to draw his sword against the foe, but no man can compel him to mangle the wounded. The "hired Masters of the Tongue-fence"—as Milton calls lawyers—should do their trade more nobly. I depended that day, as to the legal decision, on a legal quibble: but for the manner in which that quibble was sustained, I depended on the courtesy of the English Bar; in the person of whoever represented it for the hour; I hold therefore, that Mr Needham insulted, not me, but his brethren
with the lady who was the occupier of it; and on that ground he called upon them to acquit him. The Recorder, in his charge, told the jury that there did not appear in evidence the slightest foundation for such an imputation; and the verdict of guilty was at once pronounced. A certificate of a former conviction for felony was then put in; whereon Mr Sleigh intimated that, if he had been aware of the existence of a previous conviction, he should not have suggested the defence he did to the jury. The Recorder expressed his opinion that the defence was most unjustifiable. The prisoner said 'it was not suggested in his brief.' Mr Sleigh admitted that the defence was not suggested to him in his brief, but said that it occurred to him as a legitimate one to offer to the jury upon the facts of the case!"
