Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by GRANT THORBURN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. BORN AND BUCKINGHAM PRINTERS, PREFACE. WHEN a man of small abilities, who has never been inside of a college, sends forth a book into the world, he is branded as an absurd egotist, or a consummate, proud upstart. Again, if the world see a man grovelling along without a spark of ambition to raise him among his fellows, they say he is a meanspirited mortal, and ask him-" Man, why don't you have more pride?" Just such a world of contradiction we live in. Once in a while, when we see a coachmaker, shoemaker, or sailmaker, and sometimes a currier of jackass hides, set up for 1 aldermen, assemblymen, and even for congressmen, the world again says, its their pride that prompts them to aspire to those offices of emolument, honour and trust. But the world don't consider that the public will is the guide of these men, and the public good their aim; for my own part, I think this would be but a poor world, were it not for pride; but then there is so many kinds of pride, that a body can hardly tell which to choose there is, for instance, an honest pride, an honourable pride, a family pride, a dandy's pride, and a develish pride; and there is yet another pride, lately got up amongst us, which, in my opinion, is worse than any of the others, not even excepting the last-this is the lawyer's pride, and the pride of the bar. By-the-by it would be well if these gentlemen of the gown and wig would define what they mean by the bar. If this thing had been properly understood, it might have prevented the following awkward catastrophy. On a late occasion, when a meeting was advertised for the gentlemen of the bar to meet at the hall, it was rather ludicrous to see these sons of the law met together, and another set of bar-keepers also come among them. There were the bar-keepers of the Columbian and Hibernian, the United, the Independent, and the Jackson Hotels-all very decent men no doubt; indeed I saw very little difference between the gentlemen, only that the men who bar out justice wore black coats, and the men who bar in whiskey wore coats of many colors. I thought it no wonder that these illiterate men mistook the meaning of the advertisement, as most assuredly they were all gentlemen of the bar. But to return to the pride of the law; it is an innovation coming in like a flood, and it 1 threatens to overturn all the decencies of life, or, perhaps, I ought rather to say, of death. The thing is this: of late years it has become the practice of these brethren of the brief, that whenever any of their number departs from this life, you may see one of them hurrying into court, his eyes swelling with importance, squeezing up to the bench, whispering something in the ear of the judge; the judge rises, rolling his eyes on the ceiling, his face as long as a pelican in the wilderness. He lets the woful tidings drop, viz. that our worthy brother Caption has just taken leave of the world, and therefore, that you may have time to shed crocodile tears, the court stands adjourned to Monday next, at 11 of the clock; this was on Friday. The Revised Statutes do not empower the judge to stop the wheels of justice, and pocket two days salary of the people's money on any such occasion. Next day a meeting is held, reso |