Editorial Department'. Let no young lawyer be timorous because of stage fright on his first argument or jury address. We have it from Cicero thus : " When I was young at the forum, I was so faint at opening an im peachment, and so confused in utterance, that Quintus Maximus laid me under an infinite obli gation by dismissing the court as soon as he saw me totally debilitated and half dead from fear." John A. Collier along in the forties had become one of the most eminent jury lawyers in New York State, and renowned for ease in speech and eloquence, yet on first arguing a case in court at Binghamton he began by addressing the bench of judges as " gentlemen of the jury," changed it to " fellow citizens," and proceeded underpainful embarrassment. When he concluded what he had to say, he turned to the nearest lawyer and said audibly, " Do you know where I can charter a knot-hole for a few hours?" Which the Judge overhearing, smilingly and assuringly said, hav ing noticed Collier's embarrassment, " Never mind the knot-hole, young man, for you may have given us a loop-hole for a decision in your favor." Dunning, afterwards Lord Ashburton, the oppo nent of Webster in the diplomatic boundary affair, on his first speech entirely broke down and was obliged to retire, his opposing barrister saying aside, " Stage fright has undone young Dunning."
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Judge Martin Grover, a very witty member of the old Court of Appeals in New York, while he was a Supreme Court judge at nisi prius, neatly turned a sophistic point made by a lawyer and asked, " What do you think of that? " The latter was a man of great presumption and of rude humor, and he answered, " I think it's all in my eye, Betty Martin" — punning on the christian name of the Judge, who, without the slightest sign of annoyance at the vulgar familiarity, said, "The phrase you used has an ecclesiastic origin — do you know it?" Upon which the lawyer, recalled to his better self by the reproving silence in the room, responded that he did not. When Judge Martin Grover, with the humorous twang peculiar to his voice, added : " An English sailor at Gibraltar on a Sunday, which happened to be the saint's day of Saint Martin, attended the Catholic Cathedral, where was sung a mass in which continually recurred the refrain of the Latin hymn ' Ah mihi beati Martini,' which was intoned very frequently. When the sailor re turned to mess and was asked how he liked the service, he said ' there was too much all my eye Betty Martin ' — for so the Latin words had sounded to him. And practically you, in using the phrase, have called me the beatified Martin, for which compliment I thank you. Now pro ceed with your case."
It is not generally known to the legal pro fession that the poet Tom Moore, when the court in his day laid down the dictum "greater the truth, greater the libel," thus apostrophized it : —
Judge Benton of western New York, while walking towards the town court-house, was joined by a farmer who said, "My name is Benton, too, and I have a case before you to-day." A jury — saints all snug and rich, "Oh, in that case," said the Judge, at once And readers of virtuous Sunday papers — divining the object of the familiarity, " Oh, in Found for the plaintiff. On hearing which The devil gave one of his loftiest capers. that case, I shall have to excuse myself, for I For oh, it was nuts to the Father of lies must not preside over the case of a relative." (As this wily fiend has been named in the Bible) Later, when court opened, the litigant, who To find it thus settled by judgment so wise meanwhile had consulted with his attorney, sidled That the greater the truth, the worse is the libel. up to the Bench and softly said to Judge Benton, "I find after all, Judge, that our families are not related. The Judge, speaking out loudly, rejoined, j The Jarndyce suit commemorated by Dickens, "I am very glad to hear that, for I should greatly was, as he told his namesake son, suggested as to dislike to be a relative of a suitor mean enough its continuity by the Berkeley peerage case, that to attempt influencing a judge." Nevertheless, began in 14 16 and ended in 1609 — a contest the latter, during hearing of the chagrined man's over the castle and barony of Lord Berkeley. case, treated it with marked impartiality.
