484 Sketch from the Irish Bench. (Now, 
Entitled to two or three thousand pounds, a'charge on the elder brother's 
estate; he was enabled. to enter at the Temple, and. in-due time he was 
admitted to that: bar,to which so many are called; but at which'so few 
are chosen. By what, course of preliminary study he had: prepared 
himself for ‘this step, in life, we are unable, to, states; and we: are too 
much his lordship’s admirers to cite against him the! great law maxim— 
de non apparentibus, &c. On the contrary, if he, gives, out but: few 
tokens of those solid acquirements for which juvenile applicatiom lays the 
foundation, we,are disposed to give him the more credit for what he thus 
avariciously keeps to himself. If he is more profuse of clinches than, of 
cases, more prodigal of puns than of points of law, we presume ‘merely 
that he knows the value of things, and acts accordingly. Thus much is 
certain, that his studies, whatever they were, were not of that austere 
nature which blanches the cheek and dims the lustre of youth, by forcing 
the blade to prey upon the scabbard: nor did they altogether estrange 
him from the rural haunts of his childhood, the hills and fields of Tippe- 
rary ; where he laid in that stock of rude health which has never deserted 
him; and where he braced and steeled his nerves for those keen en- 
counters of law and legislation, in which temperament is far more ser- 
viceable than intellectualendowment. That stentorian voice, which has 
since shaken the halls of the four courts, and reverberated from) the 
walls of the House of Commons, 
“ Wafting a pun from Indus to the pole,” 
while it struck terror into the hearts of prisoners at the dock, and 
astounded, if it did not convince the opposition members, was early 
perfected in its pitch and compass by the practice of the hunt: and if 
there be any so ungracious as to sneer at this branch of judicial edu- 
cation, let them be silenced by the reflection that the “ shrill tally- 
ho!” of the morning, and the protracted shake of ‘the jovial ‘chorus in 
the evening, are as well calculated to form an orator, as spouting to the 
sea with a mouthful of pebbles. The practice also is moré congenial ‘to 
the Irish character ; while the running down of a fox, it must'be ad- 
mitted, is no bad type of the prosecution of a law suit, and is a'still 
more appropriate image of that warfare, in which the enemies of an 
administration are driven from society as the foes of their country, and 
the followers of an oppressed and insulted religion harrassed into un- 
willing rebellion, to suit the purposes of their political opponents. 
Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, was also a hunter of men; 
and it was probably in the same school that Mr. Toler acquired the 
judicial predilection, of which his enemies accused him for being in at 
the death: The lawyers of Dublin have at all times been an influential 
and respected body ; and, in Ireland “ Counsellor” is as much a title of 
honour, as ‘ My Lord,” or “ Sir John.” Even Grattan, the patriot, the 
orator, and the statesman, was chiefly known in his own neighbourhood 
among the peasantry by this distinguishing appellative. “But at the par- 
ticular moment when Mr. Toler was called to the bar}''as a candidate 
for distinction, events were ripening to their crisis, which, though the 
ultimately gave a death blow to the legislative ambition and’politi¢al 
influence of the legal corps,* conferred upon it a temporary lustre and 
; 2 J20) eNecom oo 
* If the Trish bar still continues pre-eminent in society it is by tle depresdion bf aN 
other classes. The loss of legislative influence ‘has’ materially diminished the ¢onse- 
quence of the profession since the Union. * idseganpmoan tzom 
