RANK AND TALENT;
A NOVEL.
BY THE
AUTHOR OF “TRUCKLEBOROUGH-HALL.”
Why, Sir, ’tis neither satire nor moral, but the mere passageof an history; yet there are a sort of discontented creatures,that bear a stingless envy to great ones, and these will wrestthe doings of any man to their base malicious appliment.
Marston.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1829.
The Summer assizes for the county of ——, inthe year 18—, excited in the county-town wherethey were held rather more than the usual sensation;but in the remote and smaller town ofBrigland, they roused a stirring interest. Longbefore the day of the trial, every vehicle which[2]could be hired was engaged to carry the curiousto the assizes, to hear the action brought by poorold Richard Smith against the Hon. PhilipMartindale, for an assault and false imprisonment.The defendant was by no means popularat Brigland, and there were circumstances,which rendered the injury done to the plaintiffpeculiarly hard and oppressive; and wheneverthe sympathy of the multitude is with the pooroppressed against the rich oppressor, that sympathyis very strong, and indignation is notchoice in the terms of its expression, nor doescool deliberation precede judgment. It was thecommon, and almost universal wish, that thedefendant might have to pay heavy damages;and that he might hear from the lips of theplaintiff’s counsel some home truths, whichmight mortify his pride, and abate his arrogance.
In addition to the excitement which thisaction produced, there was also another, thoughsmaller stimulus to curiosity, in the first appearanceon the circuit of a young barrister, whowas a native of the town in which the assizes[3]were held. These two circumstances, therefore,filled the court at an early hour with anxiousand curious expectants.
The plaintiff’s attorney had put his brief intothe hands of the young barrister; the defendanthad retained a more experienced advocate, onewell versed in the theory of the law, and, whatis far more to the purpose, deeply skilled in theways of the world, and the practice of courts—onewho had the professionally desirable art ofmystifying a jury, and of persuading twelvemen out of their senses—one who would be sureof every cause he undertook, were it not for thesumming up of the judge—one who, by meansof a loud voice and swaggering manner, was aterror to nine-tenths of the simpletons whoentered the witness’ box—one who never cross-examineda female witness without making herblush, or terrifying her to tears—one who