scrutinized with eager anxiety in vain for any sign of the sort of
judgments which they had come prepared to deliver. The traversers'
leading counsel, Sir Thomas Wilde and Mr Hill, both stood at the bar of
the House in a state of very perceptible suspense and anxiety. The
Attorney-General for Ireland sat in his usual place--almost motionless,
as usual, from first to last--very calm, and watching the proceedings
with deep attention, seldom uttering more than a passing syllable to
those who sat next to him, _i. e._ the English Solicitor-General, and Mr
Waddington, and Mr Maule of the Treasury. After judgment had been
briefly given in Gray's case, a few moments' interval of silence
elapsed--the silence of suppressed anxiety and expectation. At length
the Lord Chancellor, who had been sitting with a very thoughtful air for
a few moments, slowly rose from the woolsack, and advanced to his proper
post when addressing the House, viz. at about a couple of yards'
distance to the left of the woolsack. Finding that his robes, or train,
had in some way got inconveniently disarranged, so as to interfere with
the freedom of his motions, he occupied several seconds in very calmly
putting it to rights; and then his tall commanding figure stood before
you, in all that tranquil grace and dignity of appearance and gesture,
for which he has ever been so remarkably distinguished. During the whole
time--exactly an hour--that he was speaking, his voice clear and
harmonious as usual, and his attitude and gesture characterized by a
graceful and easy energy, he never once slipped, or even hesitated for
want of an apt expression; but, on the contrary, invariably hit upon
_the very_ expression which was the most accurate, appropriate, and
elegant, for conveying his meaning. He spoke with an air of unusual
decision, and entirely _extempore_, without the assistance of a single
memorandum, or note, or law-book: yet the greater portion of his speech
consisted of very masterly comments on a great number of cases which had
been cited, in doing which he was as familiar and exactly accurate, in
stating not only the principles and distinctions involved, but the
minutest circumstances connected with them, as if the cases had been
lying open before him! His very first sentence put an end to all doubt
as to the conclusion at which _he_ had arrived. These were his precise
words--the last of them uttered with peculiar emphasis:--"My lords, I
have to move your lor