ion of the
respective and relative merits and demerits of prisoners, to do what
no other Judge that I am aware of ever did, which was to put convicted
prisoners back until the whole calendar had been tried, then to bring
them up and pass sentence after deliberate consideration of every
case. I thus had the opportunity of reading over my notes and forming
an opinion as to whether there were any circumstances which I could
take into consideration by way of mitigation, or, in the same manner,
as to whether there were matters of aggravation, such as cruelty or
deliberate, wilful malice. The result of this plan on one occasion at
Stafford Assizes, which I remember very well, was this. Two men were
convicted of bigamy. The offence was the same in law as to both the
prisoners. The one was altogether, physically and morally, a brute,
cruel and merciless. The other man found guilty had been a bad husband
to his wife before he went through the form of the second marriage;
but as he had been already punished for his misconduct in that
respect, I thought it fair that he should not be punished again for
the same offence. Such is my idea of the law of England, although I
fear it is sometimes forgotten. I therefore treated this man's crime
as one of a very mitigated character, no harm having been done to the
second woman, and released him on his own recognizances to come up for
judgment if he should be called upon. I would not revisit upon him
his past misdeeds. The other man I sent into penal servitude for five
years.

CHAPTER XXXII.

ON THE MIDLAND CIRCUIT.

"That's Orkins hover there," said a burly-looking sportsman as I
arrived one day at Newmarket Heath--"'im a-torkin' to Corlett. See
'im? Nice bernevolent old cove to look at, ain't 'e? Yus. That didn't
stop 'is guvin' me _five of his wery best_, simply becorze by accident
I mistook someb'dy else's 'ouse and plate-chest for my own. Sorter
mistake which might 'appen a'most to henybody. There 'e is; see 'im?
That's Orkins!"

I need not say I was frequently spoken of in this complimentary manner
by persons who had been introduced to me at the Bar. I was once
leading a little fox terrier with a string, because on several
occasions he had given me the slip and caused me to be a little late
in court. I led him, therefore, in the leash until he knew his duty.

On this day, however, as the crowd was waiting for me on the little
platform of a country station, my fox terrier