story of a noble lord in the course of one of his
speeches saying, "I ask myself so and so," and repeating the words "I
ask myself." "Yes," quietly remarked Lord Ellenborough, "and a d--d
foolish answer you'll get."

* * * * *

The comparison of a father and son who have both ascended the Bench has
afforded a good story of a famous Scottish advocate which is told later,
and the following is an equally cutting retort from the Bench to any
assumed superiority through such a connection. A son of Lord Chief
Justice Willes (who rose to the rank of a Puisne Judge) was checked one
day for wandering from the subject. "I wish that you would remember,"
he exclaimed, "that I am the son of a Chief Justice." To which Justice
Gould replied with great simplicity, "Oh, we remember your father, but
he was a sensible man."

* * * * *

When hanging was the sentence, on conviction, for crimes--in these days
termed offences--which are now punished by imprisonment, some judges
from meting out the sentence of death almost indiscriminately came to be
known as "hanging judges." Justice Page was one of them. When he was
decrepit he perpetrated a joke against himself. Coming out of the Court
one day and shuffling along the street a friend stopped him to inquire
after his health. "My dear sir," the judge replied, "you see I keep just
hanging on--hanging on."

A Chief Justice of the "hanging" period, whose integrity was not above
suspicion, was sitting in Court one day at his ease and lolling on his
elbow, when a convict from the dock hurled a stone at him which
fortunately passed over his head. "You see," said the learned man as he
smilingly received the congratulations of those present--"you see now,
if I had been an _upright judge_ I had been slain."

* * * * *

[Illustration: LLOYD KENYON, BARON KENYON, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE.]

Some of the stories respecting Lord Kenyon's historical allusions and
quotations are surely greatly exaggerated, or are pure inventions. In
addressing a jury in a blasphemy case, he is reported to have said that
the Emperor Julian "was so celebrated for the practice of every
Christian virtue that he was called 'Julian the Apostle'"; and to have
concluded an elaborate address in dismissing a grand jury with the
following valediction: "Having thus discharged your consciences,
gentlemen, you may return to your homes in peace,