(_FROM THE DOUBLE TRIAL_.)
Thurlow had travelled the ---- Circuit for some years with little
notice, and with no opportunity to put forth his abilities; when the
housekeeper of a Duke of N---- was prosecuted for stealing a great
deal of linen, with which she had been intrusted. An attorney of
little note and practice conducted the woman's case. He knew full well
that he could expect no hearty co-operation in employing any of the
leading counsel: it was a poor case, and a low case; and it could not
be supposed that they, "the foremost men of all the bar," would set
themselves, "_tooth and nail_," against the Duke, who in himself, his
agents, and his friends, made the greatest part of every high legal
and political assemblage in the country. The attorney looked round,
therefore, for some young barrister who had nothing to lose, and might
have something to win; and he fixed upon Thurlow. Thurlow read over
his brief with the highest glee, and had an interview with the
prisoner. As he entered the court, he jogged another briefless one
like himself, and said, in his favourite slang language--"Neck or
nothing, my boy, to-day! I'll soar or tumble!" The opening speech
of the eminent counsel for the Duke, and the evidence, completely
convicted the woman. The articles stolen were brought into court. When
Thurlow rose to cross-examine the leading witness, before he asked
a question, he merely, bending his black brows upon the man, turned
round, and desired to look at the things that were said to be stolen.
They were before him all the time, and were then presented to him;
and, without a word, he carelessly tossed them again upon the table
before him. He now closely questioned the witness, as to points of
honour and honesty; then, in a minute or two, again asked to see the
things. He was informed that he had already had them handed to
him, and that they were now before him. "I mean," said he, with
well-assumed ignorance, "the things that this unhappy woman is accused
of having stolen." The witness, with great sufficiency and knowledge,
as if to prove his own correctness, pointed them out upon the table
before him. "And what else?" said he. He was answered that they were
the whole. "And you, Mr. Witness," said he, with a sneer, "are the man
of great trust, of accredited honour and honesty; and, full of your
own consequence, and in high feather, you come here to follow up a
prosecution against a fellow-servant, and a confidential one (you
tell me), whom you have indicted as a felon, for taking these rags,"
exhibiting some cloth that happened to be torn; "and this is the sum
and substance of her offence! And all these witnesses," pointing to a
group, who had pushed themselves forward, "have been brought into this
honourable court, to affix the ownership of the high and mighty noble
Duke and Duchess to these cast-off, worn-out clothes! And here comes
this fine gentleman to swear to the robber of that," holding up the
garment, "which he himself would not accept as a gift! Shame, say I;
and I am certain every one of your hearts, Gentlemen of the Jury,
reechoes my indignant feeling! Shame, say I, on everyone of the
party," pausing to give one of his looks to each individual, "that
is concerned in such a business! Why, it is more like a conspiracy
against this poor destitute woman, against whom I lament to see my
very honourable and learned brethren," pointing to the other counsel,
"here arrayed--it is more like a conspiracy (not that my learned
friends have lot, or part, or feeling in the business)--more like a
conspiracy against this woman, than any, the least act of felony on
her part. These clothes! I pray you look at them, Gentlemen of the
Jury--these clothes!! Can you conceive, Gentlemen, that if you were
a Duke and Duchess of N----, you would have even offered to give a
housekeeper, a woman of credit and respectability--a fellow-servant of
this fine gentleman before you--such worn-out rags as these? Would you
have thought it worthy of consideration, if such a servant had thought
proper to appropriate to her own use a cart-load of this trumpery? If
the poor woman did remove out of sight such trash as this, all I say
is, that she seems to have had more respect for the credit and
honour of that noble house than any of the people whose ridiculous
pretensions to honesty have persecuted her and exhibited themselves
here. _Gentlemen and Ladies_, witnesses! I have done with you; you may
all leave the court!"
They were all glad to take him at the first word, and in a few minutes
not one of them was to be seen. "I have heard," he continued, "of the
pride of a noble house, and of its poverty, being nearly allied;
but here we have all the poverty and none of the pride!" Some one
unluckily said that the things were not all in that torn state.
"What," said he, with the utmost contempt, looking to the party, "is
there any one that wishes to exhibit his devoted baseness? Let him not
whisper here behind my back, but come forward and get into the box."
He paused, and had no further interruption. "To you, Gentlemen of the
Jury, I appeal. I ask you if you have seen enough of the rags of this
noble family?" and he pulled out the worst piece of the linen, and
held it at arm's length during the greater part of a taunting speech
of the same kind: then, throwing it contemptuously from him--"Away,
away, I say, with these rags of the noble family of N----!" (and some
one gathered up all together, and took them out of court)--"and God
grant that they may never rise up in judgment against them! Poor,
weak, foolish woman! she took them as her perquisite. Perquisite
indeed! her folly was her fault; for you have seen that they were not
worth the taking.
"Gentlemen of the Jury, I cannot believe that you will lend yourselves
to such a grovelling prosecution--_persecution_, as this. I pause not
to investigate where the evil spirit arose, in principles or agents,
against this injured and calumniated female. If the great ones of our
earth will disgrace themselves--if they will listen to the suggestions
of envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, I trust that
you, more humble members of the community, will not be partakers of
these evil passions. Where the prosecutor has sustained no personal
fear and no personal loss, it is impossible that any offence can have
been committed. You are not twelve despots sitting upon a case of
high treason against the game-laws, and are to have your consciences
racked, to bring in a verdict of trespass, where no damage can be
proved; you are not required to strain right against justice and
honesty. What is the offence? How is our Lord the King or his subjects
aggrieved? Those rags!--I know not what the splendid household of the
Duke may require for matches and tinder; for this is all the value
that can be attached to them. Shall we call for them back again, lest
the Duke and the Duchess should lose their recovered treasure? I
am not disposed to dispute their right; for even if they were the
perquisite of the housekeeper, I am convinced that she would not get
a farthing emolument for those tattered remnants of nobility. Of one
thing I am well assured, that there is not a sufficiency of sound
linen in the whole to make lint enough to cover the wound that the
reputation of the noble Duke and Duchess has sustained in this
disgraceful prosecution. Gentlemen, I will trouble you no further--I
confidently expect your verdict." And the woman was acquitted: and
from that day the powers of Thurlow, in voice, sarcasm, gesture, and
all the superior intonations of browbeating, which raised him to the
most dangerous pinnacle of legal greatness, became known, and rapidly
advanced him to fame,[14] and the grandchildren of his father to be
enrolled among the established peers of our realm.
[14] "The foregoing anecdote was told to the writer by the late
James Burton, Esq., of Lockeridge House, a seat of the Marquess of
Aylesbury's, near Marlborough. Mr. Burton married a daughter of
the celebrated actress, Mrs. Cibber, by _General Sloper,_ a man of
the highest fashion of _his_ day, from whom, I believe, Mr.
Burton received the account; the particulars of which, as I have
narrated, no doubt, many persons of Mr. Burton's acquaintance
still remember."
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