us the principal towns. I will go South and East, do you between you take the North and West. At each place we must address the people in the plainest possible manner. And, with God's help, we will be prepared with such an overwhelming testimony to the Truth of our cause, as shall make all England ring again, and prevent even a promise-breaking Government from turning a deaf ear any longer to our remonstrances."

This may be said to have been the first inauguration of the infant society. Thenceforth as numbers increased, their proceedings took the shape of more formal and deliberative meetings; and they removed to a hired room, which had itself in former years formed part of one of those inferior Inns of Court which are numerously scattered in the neighbourhood of the Strand, but which, diverted long since from their original purposes, and parceled out into private dwelling-houses, are now passed by the stranger without a recognition of their former fame as legal seminaries. Thither by the light of the

flickering oil-lamp which dangled above the strong iron gate that railed the premises from the main street, did the unknown triumvirate repair on many a summer evening, leaving the tempting scenes which others hurried to, to frame the principles of Jurisprudence which were to rule an empire.

Their audience on these occasions was not so limited as might have been supposed. The neighbourhood, composed principally of the lower orders, gradually got tidings of the object of their meetings, and as they were open to all, many a man who at first came to while away an hour from curiosity, was led at length to lay permanently to heart, and circulate, what he heard. The attendance of those too who opposed the movement was invited and courted; and their speeches listened to with attention and candour. It was by this attrition of opinion that they gained more confidence in the rectitude of their own views, and added to their stock of knowledge; their strong points were rendered more unassailable, and their weak ones detected, by

this hand-to-hand conflict with equal or superior minds. And thus, though one day mortified, and another defeated, and perchance on a third derided, they swerved not from keeping steadily in view the great principles which they had bound themselves solemnly to maintain, yielding when their zeal had outrun their prudence, and admitting at all times their liability to error; yet demanding from their opponents a confession, if any thing which they themselves had advanced, was unanswerable: and regardless of the imputations of youth and presumption, so long as the cause, of which they were the unworthy advocates, triumphed and justified itself.

CHAPTER XVII.

"Where the fair columns of St. Clement stand,
Whose straiten'd bounds encroach upon the Strand;
Where the low penthouse bows the walker's head,
And the rough pavement wounds the yielding tread ;

*

Summon at once thy courage, rouse thy care,
Stand firm, look back, be resolute, beware.”

GAY.

THER causes besides the professional loss, which he anticipated from the

success of their scheme, contributed to set Plowden against the Reformers. Lord Harbottle, the present Master of the Rolls, was one of his earliest friends. They had been school-fellows, and had afterwards, and at the same time, embarked on the same branch of the profession, Lord Harbottle being almost a single instance of an Attorney who had attained

that dignity. Nor had his elevation interrupted their intimacy. Plowden always found a welcome at his Lordship's mansion in Queen's Square: whose countenance and patronage was of course invaluable for one in Plowden's position. Now the Judge was violently opposed to any thing approaching to Progress. And his house was at this time a sure rendezvous for every inveterate supporter of the old school. He was fond of entertaining a few of the professional élite at his dinner-table, and it is on one of these occasions that, in the due course of our tale, we have now to introduce the reader to his Lordship's niece, a remarkable character in her way, who for many years had presided over domestic affairs in his semi-aristocratic establishment. We say advisedly, semi-aristocratic, for although undoubtedly Lord Harbottle was as much a Peer, and as truly entitled to all the privileges of Peerage, as any nobleman in the country, yet, in common with many other ennobled élèves of the Law, there was an external dinginess about his Home Department, which