Robert Lush

Mr. Chit'y, an attorney in Shaftesbury, was leaving his office for the day, wben he was met at the door by a respectable womau and a chubbyfaced' boy with a bright eye. He knew the woman slightly - a widow tbat kept a small stationer's shop in the town. She opeued her business at once. "Oh, Mr. Chitty, I have brought you my Robert; bc gives me no peace, his heart is so set on being in a lawyer's office. But, there! I have not got the iconey to apprentice him. Oaly we thougíit parhaps you could finrt some place or other for hitn, if it was ever so amall." Then she broke off, and looked appsaliagly, and the boy's cheeks and eycs were üred with expecíation. Most country towns at that time poseessed two solicitors that might be called types; the old established man, whose firin for generations had doue the pacific aud luyrative business - wille, isettlements, partnerships, mortgages, etc. - and the sharp practitioner, who was the abler of the two at liiigation, and had to shake the plum tree instead of sitting under it and opening his mouth for windfalls. Mr. Chitty was No . 2. Uut these sharp practitiouera are very api to be good-cat urcd, and so, looking at the pieading widow aud the beaming boy, he feli dispoeed to oblige them, and rather sorry he could not. He said his was a small office and he had 110 clerk's place vacant; "and indeed if I had, he is too young- why, he is a mere chiid." "I am 12 next so and so," said the boy, giving the month and the day. "Yu dou't look it, then," said Mr. Chitiy, iucreduously. "iiideed bot he is, sir," said the widow; "he never looked his age, aud write3 a beautiful hand." "But I teil you I have no vacancy," said Mr. Chitty, turning dogged. "Wel!, I thank you, eir, all the jame," said the widow, with a patience of her sex "Come, Robert, we muetu't detain the gentleman." So they turned away with disappointmeut marked ou their fapes, the boy's especially. Then Mr. Chitty said, in a hoditatiug waj: "To be sure, there ia a vacancy, but it is not the sort of thingfor you." "What ia it, sir?" asked the widow. "Well.we wantan office boy." "An office boy! What do you say, Robert? I suppoaa it is a beginning, 8ir. Wbat will he have to doi" "Why, weep tho office, run erranda, carry papers; and that is not what he is after. Look at him - he has got that eye of hia fixed on a counsellor's wig, you may depend; and sweeping a country attorney's office is not the stepping-stone to that." He addöd, warily, "At least there ia no precedent reported." "La, no sir," said the widow; "he only wants to turn an honest peuny, and be among law papers." "Ay, ay ; to wnte cm and sell em, but not to dust 'em." "For that matter, air, I believe he'd ratber be the dust itself in your office than bide at home with mo." Here she turned angry with her offspring for half a moment. 'And so I would,'' said the young master, stoutly, iudorsing bis mother'a hyperbole very boldly, thnugh hia own mind was not of that kind "yhich originatea metaphors, simles, and engines of inaccuracy in general. "Then I say no more," observed Mr. Chitty; "only mind, it is half a prown a week -that is all." The terms werc accepted, and Master Robert enttred on his humble duties. He was steady,persevering, and puahing. In less than two years he got promoted to be a copying clerk. From this in duo course he became a superior clerk. He studied, pushed, and perscvertd, till at last be became a fair practical lawyer, and Mr. 's head clerk. And so inuch for severance. He remained some years in tliis position, f.rusted by bis employers, and respectad, too; for besides his special gif ta as a law clerk, he was strict in moráis and religions without parade. In those days country attorueys could not fly to the metropolis and back to dinner. They relied much on London attorney?, their agents. Lawyer Chitty'a agent was Mr. Bishop, a judge's clerk; but in tliose days a judge'a clerk had an icsuffioient stipend, and was allowed to eke it out by private practice. Mr. Bishop was agent to eeveral country attorneys. Well, Chitty had a heavy case coming ou at the assizes, and asked Bishop to come down, for oüce in a way, and help him in person. Bishop did so, and in working the case was delighted with Chilty's r.ianagiüg clerk. Before leaviug, he told Mr. Chitty he sadly wanted a mauaging clerk he could rely on. Would he oblige him, and part with this young raam? Chitty made rather a wry face, and said that young man was a pearl. "1 don't know what I should do without him; why, he is ray alter ego." However, he ended by saying generous'y that he would not stand in the young man's way. Then they had the clerk iu, and put the questioa to him. "Sir," said he, "it is the ambitiou of my heart to go to London." TVenl.y-four hours after that our huruble hero was installed iu Mr. Bishop's office, directiug a large business in town and country. He fiiled that situation for many years and got to be well known in tho legal profession. A brother of mine, who for years was one of a firin of solicitors in Liuculn's Inn Fields, remeinbera him well at this period, by meeting him sometimes in his own ehambera, and sometimes in judges' chambers. My brother says he c.mld not hslp noticing him, for he bristled with intelligence, and knew a deal of law, tbough he looked only a boy. Tbe beat of this joke is that this clerk afterward turned out to be four ) ears older than the Eolicitor who took him for a boy. He was now amongst books as well as lawyers, aud stuclied closely the principies of law. He was much in the courts, and every case there cited in argument or judgment he huated out in the books and digested it, together with this application in practice by the living judge, who had quoted, received, or evaded it. He was a Baptist, and lodged with a Baptist minister r.-.d his two daughters. He feil in love with one of them, proposed to her, and was accepted: The couple were married without pomp, and after the ceremony the good minister took them aside, and said: "I have only L200 in the world. I have saved it, a little at a time, for ray two daughter?. Her'e is your aliare, my children." He then gave his daughter L100, and she handed it to the bridegroom on the spot. The good minister sniiled approval, and they sat down to what fiao folkj cail breakfast, but they called it dinner, and it was. After dinner, an d the usual ceremonies, the bridegroom rose, and sarprised them a little. He said : "I am sorry to leave you, but I have a particular business to atteud to. It will take me just one hour." Of course there was a look or two interchauged, especially by every female there present; but the eonfidence in him was too great to be disturbed, and this was his first eccentricity. He left thein, went to Gray's Inn, put down his name as student for the bar, paid away his wife's dowry iu the fees, and returned within the hour. Mext day the married ckrk was at the office as usual, and entered on a two-fold Ufe. He worked as a clerk until five; dined in the hall of Gray's Iun as a sucking barrister, and &tudied hard at night. This was followed by a siill strouger exataple of duplícate existence, atid ODf without a parallel in my reading ai:d experience, He becaine a writer and produoed a maaterpiece, whicb as regarded the practice of our courts became at once the manual of attorney3, counsela, and judges. The author, thoagh his book was entitled "rractice," showcd some qualities of a jurist, and corrected soberly but firmly unscientific legislation and judicial blunders. 80 here was a student of Gray's Iun, aupposed to be pieking up in tbat inn 9, small smattering of law, yet, to diversify his crude studies, instructing mature counsel and correcting the judges themselves, at whpse chambers he attended daily, cap in hand, as au attorney's clerk. There's an intellectual notchpotch for you. ÁU this did not in his inn qualify hita to b. a barrister, but years and dinners did. After some weary years he took the oaths at Westminster, and -"ated by that act his place in Bishop's oflice, salary included, and was a pauper - for an afternoon. But work tkat has been long and tcdiouely prepared can be executed quickly, and adverse circumstauces, when perseverance conquers them, turn round and become ames. The cx-clerk and youug baniijter had ploned and eowed with such pain and labor that he reaped with comparativo ease. Half the managing clerks in Loadon knew him and believed in hira. They had tha eay of their employerg, and brought him pleadicgs to draw and motions to make. His book, too, brought him cliente; and he was soon in full career a junior counsel and special pleader. Senior counsel soon found that they could rely upon his zeal, accuracy and learning. They began to request tht he might be retained with them in difficult cases, and he became first junior counsel at the bar; and so much for perseverauce. Time rolled its ceaseless conrse, and a 8Ük gown was at his disposal. Now a popular junior oannot always aöbrd totake silk, as they cali ít. Indeed, if he is learned but not eloquent, he may ruin himself by the change. But the reniarkable man whoso career I am epitomiziiig did not he9Ítate; he atill puslied onward. And so one morning the lord chancellor sat for an hour in the queen's bench, and Mr. Robert Lush was appointed one of her majesty's counsel, learned in the law, and then iiud there, by the chancellor's invitation, stepped out from ainong the junior?, and took his seat within the bar. So much for perseverance. From thia point the outline of his career is kuown to everybody. He was jOppointed in 1865 one of the judges of the queen's bench, and after sittiog iu that court some years, was promoted to be a lord justice of ap peal. A few days ago he died, lamented and revered by the legal profcssiou, which ia very critical and does not bestow its respect lightly. I knew hiai only as queen's counsel. I had him against me once, but oftener for ma, because my brother thought him even then the best lawyer and most zealous at the bar, and always retained him if he could. During the poriod I knew him peraonally Mr. Lush had slill a pltimp, unwrinkled cheek, and a singularly bright eye. His voice was full, mellow and penetrating; it filled the court without apparent effort, and accorded well with his style of eloquence, which was what Cicero calis the temperatum gemts loquendi, Reasoning carried to perfection is one of the fiue arts. Au argument by Lush enchained the ear and charmed the understanding. He began at the beginning, and each succeediug topic was artieulated and disposed of, and succeeded by its right successor, in lauguage so fit and rder so lucid that he rooted and grew conviction in the mind - tantum series nexuraque pollent. I nev_er heard him in nisi prins, but should think he could do nothing ill, yet would be greater at convinoing judges thanat persuadiog juries right or wrong; for at this pastime he would have had to escape from the force of his own understanding, whereas I have known council, blatant and adtnired, whom native and flippant flueiicy had secured against that difficulty. He was affable to cliente, and I had more than one conversation wilh him, very interesting to me; but to intrude these would be egodatical, and disturb the juat proporties of this short notice. I hope some lavryer who knew him well as counsel and iudge will give us his distinctive features, if it is only to correct thuss vague and colorless notices of him that have appaared. This is due to the legal profession. But after all, his early career interests a much wider circle. We cannot all be judges, but wo can all do great things by the perseverance whioh from an office boy made this man a clerk, a counsel, and a judge. Do but measure the difficulties he over came in his business with the difficulty of rising in any art, profession or honorable walk, and down with despondency's whine and groans of selfdeceiving laziness! You who have yonth and health, never you quail at "those twin jailors of the daring heart, lovv birth and iron fortune.'1 See what becomes of those two bugbcara when the stout champion single heart and giant perseverance take them by the throat. Why, the very year thsse chilling Unes weie first giyeu to the public by Biuwer and Slaeready, Robert Lush paid b'n wife's dowry away to Gray's inn in fees, and never whintd, nor doubted, nor looked right nor left, but went straight 011 - ana prevailed. Uemug and talent may have their bounds, but to the power of the singlehearted perseverance there ia no known limita. Non omnis mortuus est - the departed judgestil! teaches from his tomb; his dicta will outlive him in our English courta; his gesta are for mankind. Such an iüStance cf single-heartedness, perseverance, and prpportionate success in spite of odds, is not for osip narros? island, but the globe. An old man seuds it to the young in both hemispheres with this comment; If difficulties lie in the way neer shirk them, but think of Robert Lush and trample on them. If impossibilities encounter you, up hearts and at 'em. One thing more to those who would copy Robert Lu3h in all essentials. Thougn iinpregnated from infancy with an honorable ambition, he remembered hia Creator in the days of his youth; nor did ho forget him when the world poured its honors on him, and those insidious temptations of prceperity which have liurt the soul far oftener than "low birth and iron fortune." He flourished in a skeptical age, yet he lived and died fearing God. - Charles Jïeade in Horper's Weekly. Certaia fislies ia the Berlín aquarium have been observed to remain in a given position for hours, and only to be disturbed by repeated blows ; henee the conjecture that they were asleep. Human saliva injected under the kin of a bird acts as a poison and will produce death aliuc?t as quick as the bite of a venomous snake. A handful of quick lime dissolyed in water, let stand a half hour, and Uien painted on parts poisoned with dew, poison-oak, ivy, etc, is said to have autidotal power. Tnree or four applications are accredited with being suffleient to effect a cure. Californians pretend to fear that if Congress does not at once put a limitation upon Chinese emigration, 40, 000 Chinese will be landed in San Francisco within the next six weeks. Madame Ko, the widow of the late Harvard professor, has no longings for lier native land. She prefers and will probably remain in Boston. The base of all clay is aluminum, a beautiful, wbite, light, tough metal of i great value.