LAW 73 



veyancer, and, Avliat is more rare, a man of probity and 

 honour, to whom many of the neighbouring gentry 

 committed the management of their affairs, and whose 

 general practice did not descend to take j^art in those 

 disputes that, arising from the frailties, the vices, or the 

 misfortunes of mankind, give employment to the talents 

 and virtues of the greater part of the practitioners in 

 what is termed Common Law. 



He was also a man of an equable temper, not easily 

 provoked, of a kind and friendly disposition, devoted to 

 his family, and a most lenient master. He had, I 

 remember, an excellent library, in which I used to spend 

 my time out of, and frequently in, office hours ; for 

 there w^as more attraction for me in the perusal of 

 our English classics, particularly Dryden and Pope, than 

 in studying the dry disquisitions of Hale, Coke, or 

 Blackstone. 



But my progress, whether slow or otherwise, was 

 suddenly cut short. ]\Iy governor having stepped out 

 for a few minutes Avhile the other clerks had gone to their 

 dinner, and leaving me alone in the office, on his return 

 found me in one of the dreadful fits that had so long 

 afflicted me ; and wdiat made it worse, I was attacked so 

 near the fire, that, had he not returned as he did, I must 

 have been burned to death ; as it is, I carry the scars 

 of the wounds about me I received on that occasion to 

 this day. 



This had such an effect on the nerves of the good man, 

 that he requested my father to take me home, as he 

 dreaded the responsibility he had incurred by taking 

 charge of one in so precarious a state of health, and most 



