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Darby. Give up the title! yer Grace? and not be called Sur! after all?—I thought the hundred and fifty pounds a-year was to keep up my style as a true and loyal knight.

"Duke. No, faith! you sha'n't have place and title too so choose without delay.

"Darby. (pausing.) Well, yer Grace, if yer Excellency plaises, I'd rather keep the title: for, d'ye see, it'll be such a wonderment for a punch-house to be kept by Sir Darby Monaghan, that I'll soon have all the custom of Dublin city; and that'll be better than a tide-waither's place, any how.

"Duke. (laughing.) Well, then, without more argument about the matter, you shall have a place of two hundred and fifty pounds a-year, and you must give up your knighthood this instant.

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Darby. (going out.) Plase yer Excellency, then, I'll just step up-stairs and ax her Ladyship's advice; and, I dare say, she'd rather have the money. So, I'll inform your Honour's Grace in a twinkling.

"Her Ladyship was accordingly consulted on

this important question; and she wisely, and without hesitation, voted for the income of two hundred and fifty pounds, which they enjoyed for many years. The title, too, stuck by them till the last; for, after the Duke's departure from his Viceroyalty, the affair was bruited abroad, to the great amusement of the middle and lower orders in Dublin, who never failed to address the fortunate couple by the appellations of Sir Darby and Lady Monaghan.'"

X.

COUNSELLOR DUNNING.

SOON after the commencement of Mr. Brougham's popularity in the House of Commons, Sir Thomas Stepney, speaking of him one evening at Brookes's, said that he put him greatly in mind of Lord Ashburton, formerly Mr. Dunning, whom, he said, he resembled, both in person, and as a speaker at the Bar and in the Senate. Besides describing the great talents of this lawyer, he related several characteristic anecdotes of him, as follow:

Dunning was a short, thick man, with sallow complexion and turn-up nose; he had a constant shake of the head, and latterly a

hectic cough, which gave him great interruption whilst speaking; but even these physical disabilities he overcame by the splendour of his genius, and the extent of his knowledge, not only of the law, but of almost every other subject. Although an excellent common lawyer, his elocution, which was flowing and classical, partook more of the spirit than of the letter of the laws in this respect he greatly resembled Lord Erskine; and in what is termed the Copia Verborum, he was the very prototype of Mr. Pitt. He was, moreover, a complete master of various kinds of style; and not only in many cases set the court in a roar of laughter, by the effervescence of his wit and humour, but likewise delighted in drawing a smile even from the gravity of the Bench itself.

He was exceedingly sarcastic, and, with all his learning and eloquence, (like many of the fraternity of the bar,) too often indulged, in the latitude of cross-examination, in the low vice of punning upon the names and occupations of witnesses and others; as if he had had no other means of ensuring respect and fame, than

by endeavouring to raise them on the diffidence, the weakness, or the modesty of persons, who, perhaps, never entered a court of law before. For this hateful practice, however, he received several severe rubs from his brother counsellors, and even from the witnesses themselves.

One morning, he was telling Mr. SolicitorGeneral, (the famous Jack Lee,) that he had just bought several good manors in Devonshire, near his native village, Ashburton.

"I wish, then," said Jack, "that you would bring some of them (manners) into Westminster Hall; for, by heaven! you often deserve to be kicked for your impertinence."

In a case of crim. con., a good-looking young woman was interrogated by Dunning in a very rude manner. He made her take off her bonnet, as he said, "to have a view of her countenance, in order to see whether the truth came from her lips!" but in reality to confuse her in her evidence, which he knew was conclusive against his client.—Having asked her many questions, in the hope that she would