not elude; who can work by the most insignificant and invisible instruments; who can make guilt apparent by the most subtle agency; who can unravel the most complex villany; and whose language to the trangressor of every grade is the same-" Be sure thy sin will find thee out."

CHAPTER XIX.

MURDER FOR ONE WORD."

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Barbot, the irascible Attorney. /Í

"Mr. Sage. I have never read of a duel among the Romans, and yet their nobility used more liberty with their tongues than one may do now without being challenged.

"Sir Mark.—Perhaps the Romans were of opinion, that ill-language and brutal manners reflected only on those who were guilty of them; and that a man's reputation was not at all cleared by cutting the person's throat who had reflected on it but the custom of those times had fixed the scandal in the action; whereas now it lies in the reproach."

THE catalogue would be instructive and not brief, of men over whom the grave has closed suddenly and prematurely for a word.

The tongue stabs as sharply as the sword. Its scars are as deep, and its wounds are not unfrequently as long in healing.

Some rankle through life. Others are not forgiven even in the full view of Eternity. Does Barbot's fate teach no lesson to the captious and the quarrelsome?

John Barbot, born in London A. D., 1728, was, at the age of fourteen, articled to Mr. Delaporte, an attorney of Staple's Inn, London, with whom he remained for the usual term of five years, at the expiration of which time he quitted England for Antigua, having obtained a clerkship in that island, which situation he retained two years. During this short period Barbot contracted debts to the amount of £200 or £300, and became in other respects so embarrassed that he was compelled to leave the island for Nevis, where his idle habits and reckless extravagance soon exhausted the resources which yet remained to him. He was thus driven to St. Kitts at a time when very few attornies had reached it, and consequently obtained admission into the court of common law, where he practised with such success, that the first year's receipts enabled him to discharge every liability, and pocket a handsome balance. His conduct so far was fair and business-like, but unfortunately his avarice urged him to buy up desperate debts, which he commonly made good in the end, by obtaining a heavier security whenever he sued for them, increasing the original sum each time by adding the interest

and costs. This conduct disgusted many of his clients, who declined any further connexion with him, and employed other persons of less questionable reputation. His practice was thus greatly reduced, and yet by one means or another he had accumulated about £800, when the fatal event took place for which he suffered. It appears from the evidence given on his trial, that on the 7th of November, 1753, an estate called Bridgewater's was offered for sale at Charlestown, Nevis. Barbot was present at the sale, and offered the sum of £2500 for it. Mr. Mills, a gentleman who had a great interest in the sale, having a considerable demand on the purchase-money, and who was, with many others, surprised to hear Barbot bid a sum of money so far beyond his ostensible means, desired that " so much child's play might not be used. The estate had been sold once before, and the purchase-money not paid." To this observation, Barbot, with an insolent air, replied, "He expected to be treated like a gentleman." Mills merely answered,

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'Sir, I shall treat you and all mankind as such." Nothing further occurred after this conversation, nor does it appear that the

parties ever met again, until the 19th of the same month, (November), when the murder was committed. In the interim, Barbot was rendered so blind and incautious by the sense of injury these few words had excited, that he actually declared in the street, "There was a certain gentleman in the island whom he would either kill, or be killed by, in less than a fortnight." What induced Barbot to make this strange and unnecessary declaration is difficult to say. It appears, however, that in the interval between the 10th and 19th, when the deed was perpetrated, Barbot took every opportunity to practise with pistols at a mark, and, as the event proved, with no little success. On Sunday, the 18th November, Mr. Barbot executed his last will at a public tavern in Charlestown, Nevis, and delivered the document to Dr. James Webbe, who was mentioned in it as a legatee. At this gentleman's house Barbot was to pass the night. Accordingly, between nine and ten o'clock he bade the doctor and his family "good night," and retired to the chamber allotted to him, under pretence of going to bed. In the morning the doctor discovered his guest had disappeared, nor did he return until