ffed out his cheeks, blew out
his breath, twirled his thumbs as I twirled his figures, and grated
his teeth as he looked at me sideways, while I concluded a little
peroration I had got up for him, which was merely to this effect, that
if railway companies yielded to such extortionate demands as were made
by this attorney on behalf of the poulterers' company, they would not
leave their shareholders a feather to fly with.

The attorney looked very much like moulting himself, and the end of it
was that he got _two thousand pounds_ less than we had offered him in
the morning, and consequently had to pay all the costs.

As I have stated, John Horatio Lloyd was my principal opponent in
these great public works cases, and I remember him with every feeling
of respect. He was an advocate whom no opponent could treat lightly,
and was uniformly kind and agreeable.

Of course I had a very large experience in those times--I suppose,
without vanity, I may say the very largest. I was retained to assess
compensation for the immense blocks of buildings acquired for the
space now occupied by the Law Courts. In the very early cases the law.
officers of the Crown were concerned, but after that the whole of the
business was entrusted to my care, although for reasons best known to
themselves the Commissioners declined to send me a general retainer,
which would have been one small sum for the whole, but gave instead
a special retainer on every case. If my memory serves me, on one
occasion I had ninety-four of these special retainers delivered at
my chambers. This was in consequence of their refusing to retain me
generally for the whole, which would have been a nominal fee of five
guineas.

CHAPTER XXVI.

ELECTION PETITIONS.

Another class of work which gave me much pleasure and interest was
that of election petitions. These came in such abundance that I had to
put on, as I thought, a prohibitory fee, which in reality increased
the volume of my labour.

One day Baron Martin asked me if I was coming to such and such an
election petition.

"No," I answered, "no; I have put a prohibitory fee on my services; I
can't be bothered with election petitions."

"How much have you put on?"

"Five hundred guineas, and two hundred a day."

The Baron laughed heartily. "A prohibitory fee! They must have you,
Hawkins--they must have you. Put on what you like; make it high
enough, and they'll have you all the more."

And I did. It turne