, of the Italian
interest.

Though there was the same throng in the court as on the Monday,
there did not seem to be the same hubbub on the opening of the day's
proceedings. The barristers were less busy with their papers, the
attorneys sat quite at their ease, and the Chief Justice, with an
assistant judge, who was his bench-fellow, appeared for some minutes
to be quite passive. Then the Solicitor-General arose and said that,
with permission, he would occupy the court for only a few minutes.
He had stated on Monday his belief that an application would be made
to the court on behalf of other interests than those which had been
represented when the court first met. It appeared that he had been
wrong in that surmise. Of course he had no knowledge on the subject,
but it did not appear that any learned gentleman was prepared to
address the court for any third party. As he, on behalf of his
client, had receded from the case, his Lordship would probably say
what, in his Lordship's opinion, should now be the proceeding of
the court. The Earl Lovel abandoned his plea, and perhaps the court
would, in those circumstances, decide that its jurisdiction in the
matter was over. Then the Lord Chief Justice, with his assistant
judge, retired for a while, and all the assembled crowd appeared to
be at liberty to discuss the matter just as everybody pleased.

It was undoubtedly the opinion of the bar at large, and at that
moment of the world in general, that the Solicitor-General had done
badly for his client. The sum of money which was at stake was, they
said, too large to be played with. As the advocate of the Earl, Sir
William ought to have kept himself aloof from the Countess and her
daughter. In lieu of regarding his client, he had taken upon himself
to set things right in general, according to his idea of right. No
doubt he was a clever man, and knew how to address a jury, but he was
always thinking of himself, and bolstering up something of his own,
instead of thinking of his case and bolstering up his client. And
this conception of his character in general, and of his practice in
this particular, became the stronger, as it was gradually believed
that the living Italian Countess was certainly an impostor. There
would have been little good in fighting against the English Countess
on her behalf;--but if they could only have proved that the other
Italian woman, who was now dead, had been the real Countess when the
Cumberland marria