till nearly nine o'clock, and I think he talked a little about France,
and we compared notes together concerning Dublin and Edinburgh
Universities. I quitted him, musing upon his quaint manner, and his
solemn precision of language: but nothing that had passed between us
gave me the idea of his being a person of superior ability or
acquirements. He was, indeed, a very shy and modest man. It was not, for
instance, till after a seven years' intimacy, that I knew of the
distinction which he had obtained at college; and on my asking him, one
day, whether it was true that he had obtained the gold medal, he
blushed, slightly moved his head aside, and, after a pause, said, in a
tone rather even of displeasure than gratification, "Possibly I did!"
and we dropped the subject. In the year 1830, he entered the chambers of
Richard Grainger Blick, Esquire, one of the most eminent special
pleaders in the Temple, and who has assured me, that he always
considered Mr. John William Smith to be a remarkable man. Probably there
never before entered the chambers of pleader or barrister, in the
character of novice, a man of more formidable legal aptitude and
acquirements. We have already seen the substantial and extensive
character of his law-reading at college; but, between leaving it, and
entering Mr. Blick's chambers, Mr. Smith read carefully over "from cover
to cover"--such were his words to me--"Tidd's Practice," a standard
book, in two closely printed, large octavo volumes, and also "Selwyn's
Nisi Prius," in two similar volumes. He had not been long in chambers
before he found that "he had not a sufficient knowledge of pleading, to
get any benefit from the business, which he saw;" wherefore he absented
himself from chambers for some time, to enable him to read through the
first volume of "Mr. Chitty's Treatise on Pleading;" and some time
afterwards he again withdrew, for similar reasons, to read "Phillips on
Evidence." Having obtained such an acquaintance with these two works, as
to a person of inferior intellect or discipline might seem a complete