90 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



Stay at home ; and intellect, instead of advancing, had better remain 

 stationary. Instead of education raising those in society who seek to 

 make it the means of earning a livelihood, it only sinks them lower in 

 the scale. 



Ingenious Equivocation. — At the Middlesex Sessions, held on the 

 17th ultimo, a person named Sheering was cross-examined relative to an 

 information he had laid against a publican, for selling beer during the 

 hours of divine service. The following is part of the dialogue which 

 took place on the occasion, between him and the opposing counsel : — 



Mr. PrenderKast. — You have been often in this Court, I believe ? 



Sheering. — Yes, many times (giving a glance towards the dock). 



Mr. Prendergast. — Ah, I see you are looking towards the bar. 



Sheering. — Yes, I was brought up to the bar. 



Mr. Prendergast. — What do you mean by that, fellow ? 



Sheering.— Why, I was brought up to the bar when I was drinking in the de- 

 fendant's house. 



Mr. Serjeant Andrews.— What did you mean when you said you were brought 

 up to the bar ? 



Sheering. — Mr. Prendergast made an observation about — 



Mr. Sergeant Andrews. — And you meant to give him a pert answer ? 



Sheering. — No, I did not, sir. 



Mr. Serjeant Andrews. — Take care how you answer, then, as your answers may 

 affect your credit with the Court. 



Mr. Prendergast.— Have you never stood within that bar [pointing to die dock] ? 



Sheering. — Never. 



Mr. Prendergast. — Do you mean to swear you were never tried in this Court ? 



Sheering. — No. 



Mr. Prendergast. — Then what did you mean by your former answer ? 



Sheering —1 never stood behind that bai ; it was a different one when I was 

 tried. 



Mr. Flower indignantly asked how he dared equivocate thus with his oath ? 



Mr. Prendergast. — What were you tried for ? 



Sheering. — You ought to know, for you defended me. 



Mr. Prendergast. — I insist on an answer. I can't be your witness, and if I 

 could I would not. 



Sheering. — It was for rescuing a fellow-creature from the grave. 



Mr. Serjeant Andrews. — Was it not for stealing a dead body ? 



Sheering. — Yes. 



There is clearly a mistake in the destiny of this person, who is said by 

 the newspaper reports to be a common informer. Nature obviously 

 intended him for a lawyer; and had not some "untoward affair" 

 thwarted her purposes, he would have been " brought up to the bar " in 

 a professional sense, instead of to the bar of a public-house or a criminal 

 court. In that case he would unquestionably have raised himself to emi- 

 nence. As it is, there is every probability that he will raise himself, or 

 be raised by others, to a certain kind of eminence, though one of a very 

 different description, before he goes out of the world. The ingenuity of 

 the fellow's equivocation about " the bar," could only be equalled by the 

 cool effrontery with which he parried the questions of Mr. Prendergast. 

 The equivocation about the old and new bar was also good. But de- 

 cidedly the most ingenious of the three grand equivocations, and indeed 



