before he was called to the bar, he said to me, with a timid, dejected
air, "It is a bold step; but I really don't see what else is to be done.
Why should I sit any longer perishing in chambers? Besides, my
'Mercantile Law' will be out in a month or two, and if it succeed, it
may _possibly_ give me a lift--so I shall try it." He was accordingly
called to the bar on the 2d May, 1834, selecting the Oxford Circuit and
the Hereford and Gloucester Sessions. "There are only two ways," I heard
him say, (quoting the well-known dictum of a late able judge,) "of
getting on at the bar, Pleading or Sessions. I have failed in the
former, I shall now try the latter. _Flectere si nequeo superos,
Acheronta movebo!_" I was, I confess, amongst those of his friends who
were not sanguine as to his prospects of success at the bar, regarding
him as unlikely to attract favourable notice in court practice. Shortly
after he had attended at the Sessions, however, he began to obtain a
little employment in petty cases there; and, contrary to expectation,
became very successful in defending prisoners: his acuteness, vigilance,
ingenuity, and legal knowledge--particularly of the law of
evidence--became more apparent in every succeeding case intrusted to
him. In spite of the dry formality of his manner, he soon attracted the
_understanding_ of his hearers, exhibiting great caution and judgment in
dealing with the evidence, his tenacious memory here standing him in
great stead. His start at sessions, however, seemed likely to lead to
nothing, on the civil side at the assizes--where his reception was
sufficiently disheartening. He attended regularly, nevertheless, both
assizes and sessions; during his stay in town labouring with
indefatigable energy in the acquisition of law. In 1835, he composed a
lucid little treatise on the Law of Practice, entitled, "An Elementary
View of the Proceedings in an Action at Law," distinguished by
simplicity, correctness, and condensation, and calculated to give
students a perspicuous view of an extremely dry and troublesome subject.