MAYHEW V , SPOONER. 
163 
Chief Baron Pollock. — I will adjourn the case, and take another 
one, and then these gentlemen can consider it. 
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins. — I am afraid I shall have no alternative. 
I do not know how to act in the case. 
Chief Baron Pollock. — Then the cause will go on. 
Mr. Cockburn. — At the same time, as a member of the pro- 
fession, I do enter my protest, most emphatically, against any mem- 
ber of this profession of the bar coming to a distinct arrangement 
with his opponent, and with the court and jury, in the face of 
the court and jury, taking the chance of your lordship’s judgment, 
and putting himself in your lordship’s hands, as my friend did. His 
attorney and his client are close under him, and hearing the whole 
proceeding ; they take the chance of your lordship’s decision : and 
I undertake to say, if your lordship had said, we ought to be satis- 
fied with the verdict without the costs, they would have been quite 
content, and would not have objected to it. 
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins . — I feel the force of what Mr. Cockburn 
says. There is a duty I owe to myself, as far as I am concerned, 
a duty which I owe to you, my lord, and to the rest of my brethren 
here ; and painful as it may be, and involving some sacrifices as it 
will to me and others, if the agreement that I suggested and sub- 
mitted to be not carried out, I must respectfully beg to retire from 
this cause. I have no other choice. The honour of the bar requires 
I should do so, and I must do so. 
Mr. Cockburn. — I will tell you what I will do. I feel very 
much for the position that my learned friend is in. I will do one 
of two things : my friend has acted most honourably, and I feel 
very much for the position in which he is placed. I have the au- 
thority of my clients, persons of respectability, whom everybody 
knows in this court, to say, they will be satisfied with the costs 
out of pocket; or, if they refuse that, I will release my learned 
friend from the engagement he entered into, and let the case go 
on. I have full instructions from my clients to take the costs out 
of pocket, or go on and have the cause tried, and release my friend, 
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, from the engagement he has entered into, 
feeling much for the position in which he is placed. 
Chief Baron Pollock . — I was desirous, brother Wilkins, that 
there should be some further consideration, because I saw the po- 
sition in which you were placed. I felt it, and I knew what you 
would feel it to be your duty to do, and I knew that the defendant 
would be placed in a very painful position, being without counsel 
at all ; for no man who instructs a gentleman of honour could 
hardly expect him to go on with the cause after what had occurred ; 
and I wished that the defendant should have an opportunity of 
instructing other counsel, or of taking the advice which you pro- 
