interfere with
the due discharge of his sacred trusts, were the sovereign invested with
a memory; and it has, therefore, been decided, from time immemorial,
that his majesty is utterly without the properties of reason, judgment,
and memory, as a legitimate inference from his being destitute of a
conscience."

Mr. Attorney-General now directed the attention of the court and jury to
a statute of the 3d of Firstborn 6th, by which it was enacted that any
person attributing to his majesty the possession of any faculty, with
felonious intent, that might endanger the tranquillity of the state,
should suffer decaudization, without benefit of clergy. Here he rested
the case on behalf of the crown.

There was a solemn pause, after the speaker had resumed his seat. His
argument, logic, and above all, his good sense and undeniable law, made
a very sensible impression; and I had occasion to observe that Noah
began to chew tobacco ravenously. After a decent interval, however,
Brigadier Downright--who, it would seem, in spite of his military
appellation, was neither more nor less than a practising attorney
and counsellor in the city of Bivouac, the commercial capital of the
Republic of Leaplow--arose, and claimed a right to be heard in reply.
The court now took it into its head to start the objection, for the
first time, that the advocate had not been duly qualified to plead, or
to argue, at their bar. My brother Downright instantly referred their
lordships to the law of adoption, and to that provision of the criminal
code which permitted the accused to be heard by his next of kin.

"Prisoner at the bar," said the chief-justice, "you hear the statement
of counsel. Is it your desire to commit the management of your defence
to your next of kin?"

"To anybody, your honors, if the court please," returned Noah, furiously
masticating his beloved weed; "to anybody who will do it well, my
honorables, and do it cheap."

"And do you adopt, under the provisions of the statute in such cases
made and provided, Aaron Downright as one of your next of kin, and if
so, in what capacity?"

"I do--I do--my lords and your honors--I do, body and soul--if you
please, I adopt the brigadier as my father; and my fellow human being
and tried friend, Sir John Goldencalf, here, I adopt him as my mother."

The court now formally assenting, the facts were entered of record, and
my brother Downright was requested to proceed with the defence.

The counsel f