is undertaking _to tell_ Henry Clay how to vote?" The
Speaker answered that such was the purport of the resolution.
At which the member from the mountains, throwing up his arms,
exclaimed "Great God!" and sank into his seat. It is needless
to add that the resolution was immediately rejected by unanimous
vote.

Two-thirds of a century ago the Hon. John P. Kennedy wrote of
the lawyers of his day:

"The feelings, habits, and associations of the bar in general, have
a very happy influence upon the character. And, take it altogether,
there may be collected from it a greater mass of shrewd, observant,
droll, playful, and generous spirits, than from any other equal
numbers of society. They live in each other's presence like a set
of players; congregate in courts like the former in the green room;
and break their unpremeditated jests, in the intervals of business,
with that sort of undress freedom that contrasts amusingly with
the solemn and even tragic seriousness with which they appear in
turn upon the boards. They have one face for the public, rife with
the saws and learned gravity of the profession, and another for
themselves, replete with broad mirth, sprightly wit, and gay
thoughtlessness. The intense mental toil and fatigue of
business give them a peculiar relish for the enjoyment of their
hours of relaxation, and, in the same degree, incapacitate them
for that frugal attention to their private concerns which their
limited means usually require. They have, in consequence, a
prevailing air of unthriftiness in personal matters, which, however
it may operate to the prejudice of the pocket of the individual, has
a mellow and kindly effect upon his disposition. In an old member
of the profession, one who has grown gray in the service, there is
a rich unction of originality that brings him out from the ranks
of his fellowmen in strong relief. His habitual conversancy with the
world in its strangest varieties and with the secret history of
character, gives him a shrewd estimate of the human heart. He
is quiet, and unapt to be struck with wonder at any of the actions
of men. There is a deep current of observation running calmly
through his thoughts, and seldom gushing out in words; the confidence
which has been placed in him, in the thousand relations of his
profession, renders him constitutionally cautious. His acquaintance
with the vicissitudes of fortune, as they have been exemplified in
the lives of individua