remember your duty, or I shall be obliged to proceed in another manner." — E. : " Your Lordship may proceed in what manner you think fit; I know my duty, as well as your Lordship knows yours. I shall not alter my conduct." (Campbell, Ibid. p. 432.) The verdict was finally entered "Guilty, of publishing, but whether a libel or not we do not find." Valuable as this precedent is, the com ment of Campbell, himself a judge and Lord Chancellor, is equally precious : " The learned judge took no notice of this reply, and, quailing under the rebuke of his pupil, did not repeat the menace of commitment. This noble stand for the independence of the bar would of itself have entitled Erskine to the statue which the profession affection ately erected to his memory in Lincoln's Inn Hall. We are to admire the decency and propriety of his demeanor, during the struggle, no less than its spirit, and the felicitous precision with which he meted out the requisite and justifiable portion of defiance. The example has had a salutary effect in illustrating and establishing the rel ative duties of judge and advocate in Eng land." Another hot forensic mélíe is recorded about 1817 (2 Law and Lawyers, 357). Serjeant Taddy was examining a witness in the Common Pleas, and spoke of the plain tiff " disappearing " from that neighborhood. Park, J. : " That's a very improper question, and ought not to have been asked." — T.: "That is an imputation to which I will not submit. I am incapable of putting an im proper question to a witness." — P. (an grily) : " What imputation, sir? I desire that you will not charge me with casting imputa tions. I say that the question was not properly put, for the expression " disap pear" means 'to leave clandestinely.'" — T. : "I say that it means no such thing." — P. : "I hope that I have some understanding left, and, as far as that goes, the word cer tainly bore that interpretation, and therefore
was improper." — T. : "I never will submit to a rebuke of this kind." — P. : " That is a very improper manner, sir, for a counsel to address the court in." — T.: "And that is a very improper manner for a judge to ad dress a counsel in." — P. (rising, very warm ly) : " I protest, sir, you will compel me to do what is disagreeable to me." —-T. : " Do what you like, my Lord." P. (sitting down) : "Well, I hope I shall manifest the indul gence of a Christian judge." — T.: "You may exercise your indulgence or your power in any way your Lordship's discretion may suggest, and it is a matter of perfect indif ference to me." — P. : "I have the functions of a judge to discharge, and in doing so I must not be reproved in this sort of way." — T. : " And I have a duty to discharge as counsel which I shall discharge as I think proper, without submitting to a rebuke from any quarter." Serjeant Lens was about to interfere. Taddy protested against any in terference, but Lens said, " My brother Taddy, my Lord, has been betrayed into some warmth. ""I protest," said Taddy; " I am quite prepared to answer for my own conduct." — P. : " My brother Lens, sir, has a right to be heard." — T.: "Not on my account; I am fully capable of an swering for myself." — P.: "Has he not a right to possess the court on any subject he pleases?" — T.: " Not while I am in pos session of it, and am examining a witness." — " Mr. Justice Park then, seeing evidently that the altercation could not be advisably prolonged, threw himself back into his chair, and was silent." Lord Brougham mentions a strange scene, of which he was witness, amusing rather than of good example. At Durham (about 1810?) a cause was being tried before Baron Wood. " There was heard an undergrowl on the other side from the Serjeant (Cockell), abusing Topping for his insolence and in gratitude, and the Baron for his ignorance and partiality, and calling for his clerk to bring him some of the stomach tincture,
