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PREFACE. 



IN sending forth tliis little volume, a few words may be deemed 

 necessary to explain why its author, a Junior Barrister of the 

 Western Circuit, should venture to inscribe his name upon the title- 

 page. Does he not fear that his merits such as they are as a 

 sportsman, will tell to his disadvantage, by inducing an impression 

 of his ignorance or indifference to the more important pursuits, 

 whereby alone he must obtain the reputation to which he aspires ? 

 My answer is, emphatically, in the negative. I am ardently attached 

 to the learned profession, and delight in the toil and devotion it 

 demands ; and if an English public could think the less of a man 

 for duly mingling the utile with the dulce, his professional friends 

 have too high an appreciation of such distribution of time between 

 study and relaxation; and are actuated by sentiments of too noble and 

 generous a nature, to seek to discover a flaw where none exists. 



Only a year and half has yet elapsed since I had the honour of 

 being enrolled among the juris consulti of the realm ; and whilst 

 waiting for briefs, I have devoted by far the larger portion of my 

 time to the study of the law ; whilst a small part only, by way of 

 remunerative recreation, has been turned to literary pursuits. The 

 result of the latter has been, the production of the present volume. 

 I have not been guilty of writing a book of fiction, but of facts 

 gathered from the experiences of early life : and having done so, and 

 placed them in the hands of the public, I would throw the gauntlet 

 to the man who asserts that I have done anything derogatory to 

 myself or my profession, 



