A brief interval now passed over, after my connection begun with

Mr. Edgerton, in which time the world went on with me more smoothly,

perhaps, than ever. My patron--for so this gentleman deserves

to be called--was as indulgent as I could wish. He soon discerned

the weaknesses in my character, and with the judgment of an old

practitioner, he knew how to subdue and soften, without seeming to

perceive them. I need not say that I was as diligent and industrious,

and not less studious, while in his employ, than I had been in that

of my mercantile acquaintance. The entire toils of the desk soon

fell upon my shoulders, and I acquired the reputation among my

small circle of acquaintance, of being a very good attorney for a

young beginner.

It is true, I was greatly helped by the continued

perusal of an admirable collection of old precedents, which a long

period of extensive practice had accumulated in the collection of

my friend. But to be an attorney, simply, was not the bound of my

ambition. I fancied that the forum was, before all others, my true

field of exertion. The ardency of my temper, the fluency of my speech,

the promptness of my thought, and the warmth of my imagination, all

conspired in impressing on me the belief that I was particularly

fitted for the arena of public disputation. This, I may add, was

the opinion of Mr. Edgerton also; and I soon sought an occasion

for the display of my powers.

It was the custom at our bar--and a custom full of danger--for

young beginners to take their cases from the criminal docket.

Their "'prentice han'," was usually exercised on some wretch from

the stews, just as the young surgeon is permitted to hack the

carcass of a tenant of the "Paupers' Field," the better to prepare

him for practice on living and more worthy victims. Was there a

rascal so notoriously given over to the gallows that no hope could

possibly be entertained of his extrication from the toils of the

evidence, and the deliberations of a jury, he was considered fair

game for the young lawyers, who, on such cases, gathered about him

with all the ghostly and keen propensities of vultures about the

body of the horse cast out upon the commons.

The custom was evil, and is now, I believe, abandoned. It led to

much irreverence among thoughtless young men--to an equal disregard

of that solemnity which should naturally attach to the court

of justice, and to the life of the prisoner arraigned before it.

A thoughtless levity too frequently filled the mind of the young

lawyer and his hearers, when it was known that the poor wretch

on trial was simply regarded as an agent, through whose miserable

necessity, the beginner was to try his strength and show his skill

in the art of speech-making. It was my fortune, acting rather in

compliance with the custom than my own preference, to select one

of these victims and occasions for my debut. I could have done

otherwise. Mr. Edgerton freely tendered to me any one of several

cases of his own, on the civil docket, in which to make my appearance;

but I was unwilling to try my hand upon a case in which the penalty

of ill success might be a serious loss to my friend's client, and

might operate to the injury of his business; and, another reason

for my preference was to be found--though not expressed by me--in

the secret belief which I entertained that I was peculiarly gifted

with the art of appealing to the passions, and the sensibilities

of my audience.




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