PERSEVERANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1574, 5 August 1882, Page 5

P E R S E V E RA N C E.

By Charles Reade. AUTHOR OF " FOCL I'LA.Y," " GRIFFITH GUJST," "HVRO CASH," KTC.

Ox a certain day in the year 1819, Mr. Chitty, an attorney in Shaftesbury, was leaving his office for a day. when he was met at the door by a respectable woman and a chubbyfaced boy with a bright eye. He knew the woman slightly — a widow that kept a small stationer's shop in the town. She opened her business at once. " Oh, Mr. Chitty, I have brought you my Robert ; he gives me no peace, his heart is so set on being in a lawyer's office. But there ! I have not got the money to apprentice him. Only we thought perhaps you could find some place or other for him, if it was ever so small." Then she broke off, and looked appealingly, and the boy's cheeks and eyes were fired with expectation. Most country towns at that time possessed two solicitors that might be called types ; the old established man. whose firm for generations had done the yacific and luci'ative business — wills, Fettlements, partnerships, mortgages, &c, and the sharp practitioner, who was the abler of the two at litigation, and had to shake the plum tree instead of sitting under it and opening his mouth for windfalls. Mr Chitty was No. 2. - But these sharp practitioners are very apt to be good-natured, and so, looking at the pleading widow and the beaming boy, he felt disposed to oblige them, and rather sorry he could not. Ho said his was a small office, and he had no clerk's place vacant ; " and indeed, if I had, he is too yeung — why, be is a mere child." 11 I ani twelve next so and so," said the boy, giving the month and the day. "You don't look it, then, said Mr Chitty, incredulously. "Indeed but he is, sir," said the widow : "he never looked his age, and writes a beautiful hand." " But I tell you I have no vacancy," said Mr Chitty, turning dogged. ' " Well, thank you, sir, all the same," said the widow, with the patience of her sex. "Come,, Robert, we mustn't detain the gentleman." So they turned away with disappointment marked on their faces, the boy's especially. Then Mr Chitty said, in a hesitating way, " To be sore, there is a vacancy, but it is not the sort of thing for you." • "What is. it, sir ?" asked the "widow. " Well, we want an office-boy.',' ' ' 'f An i office-boy !• What do you say, Robert. I suppose it is a beginning, sir. What , will he have to do;?V '.' Why, sTPfeep.the^ office,-* ran' errands/ carry papers ; and thai is not what ' he is after.! Look at.him— he;has ; got tha£ eye of, hisfixed on^counsellor'a wig, you may depend ; arid; sweeping; a 'country ney's officer is ■< not T , ,the j stepping-stone ;to s -^aril7, least,? there i%iwJprtQ^e»iiri;eDorted.t; *,■"£ " >j '

"La, no, eir," said the widow; "he only wants to turn an honest penny, and be among law papers." "Ay, ay; to write 'em and sell 'em, j but not to dust 'em." ■ u For that matter, sir, I believe he'd rather be the Dust itself in your office than bide at home with me, Here she turned angry with her offspring for half a moment. "And so I would," said young master, stoutly, indorsing his mother's hyperbole very boldly, though his own mind was not of that kind which originates metaphors, similes, and engines of inaccuracy in general. " Then I say no more," observed Mr Chitty ; " ouly mind, it is half a crown a week — that is all." The terms were accepted, and Master Robert entered on his humble duties. He was steady, persevering, and pushing. In less than two years he got promoted to be a copying clerk. From this in due course he became a superior clerk. He studied, pushed, and persevered, till at last he became a fair practical lawyer, and Mr Chitty's head clerk. And so much for Perseverance. He remained some years in this position, trusted by his employers, and respected too ; for besides his special gifts as a law clerk, ho was strict in morals and religious without parade. In those days country attorneys could not fly to the metropolis and back to dinner. They relied much on London attorneys, their agents. Lawyer Chitty's agent was Mr Bishop, a judge's clerk ; but in those days a judge's clerk had an insufficient stipend, and a\ as allowed to eke it out by private practice. Mr Bishop "was agent to several country attorneys. Well,* Chitty had a heavy case coining on at the assizes,, and asked Bishop to come down, for once in a way, and help him in person. Bishop did so, and in working the case, was delighted with Chitty's managing clerk. Before leaving, he told Mr Chitty he sadly wanted a managing clerk he coujil ' rely on. Would he oblige him; and part' with this young man ? Chitty riiadfe YatheV a Wry face and said the young man was' a pearl. "I don't know what 1 should" do 1 -without him ; why, he is" my altdr vyo." However, he ended by saying'geherously that he would not stand in the' young man's vay. Then they had the clerk in, and put the (j uestion to him ." ' ' " "Sir," said he, it is the ambition of my heart to go to London." Twenty-four hours after that our humble hero was installed in Mr Bishop's office, directing a large business in town and country. He filled that situation for many years, and got to be well known in the legal profession. A brother of mine, who for ycai s was one of the firm of solicitors in Lincoln's Inn Fields, remembers him well at the period, by meeting him sometimes in judge's chambers. My brother says he could not help noticing' him, for he bristled with intelligence, and knew a deal of law, though lie looked a bey. The best of the joke is that this clerk afterward turned out to be four years older than that solicitor who took him for a boy. He was now amongst books as well as lawyers, and studied closely the principles of law whilst the practice was sharping him. He was much in the courts, and every case there cited in argument or judgment he hunted out in the books, a,nd digested it, together with its (application in practice by the living judge, who had quoted, received, or evaded it. He was a Baptist, and lodged with a Baptist minister and his two daughters He fell in love with one of them, proposed to her, and was accepted. The couple were married without pomp, and after the ceremony the good minister took them aside and said ; l( I have only two hundred pounds in the world. I have saved it, a little at a time, for my two daughters. Here is your share, my children." Then he gave his daughter one hundred pounds, and she handed it to the bridegroom on the spot. The good minister smiled-approval, they sat down to what fine folks call breakfast, but they called it dinner ; .and it was. After dinner and the usual ceremonies the bridgeroom rose, and surprised them a little. He said : '"lain sorry to leave you, but I have a particular business to attend to. It will take me jiu»t one hour." Of course there was a look or two interchanged, especially by every female there present ; but the confidence in him was too great to be disturbed, and this was his first ecccntiicity. He left them, went to Gray's Inn, put down his name as a student for the bar paid away his wife's dowry in the fees, and returned within thp hour. Next day the married clerk M r as at the office as usual, and entered on a twofold life. He worked as a clerk till five ; dined in the hall of Gray's Inn as a sucking barrister, and studied hard at night. This was followed by a still" stronger example of duplicate existence, and one without a parallel in my reading and experience : he became a writer, and produced a masterpice, which, as regarded the practice of our courts became ot once the manual of attorneys, counsel, and judges. The author, though his book was entitled " practice,"' showed some qualities of a urist, and corrected, soberly but firmly, unscientific legislature and judicial blunders. So here was a student at Gray's Inn, supposed to be picking up at that Inn a small smattering of law, yet, to diversify his crude studies, instructing mature counsel, and correcting the judges themselves, at whose chambers he attended daily, cap in hand, as an attorney's clerk. There's an intellectual hotch-potch for you. All this did not qualify him to become a barrister ; but years and dinners did. After some weary years he took the oaths at Westminster, and by that act vacated his seat in Bishop's office, salary included, and was a pauper — for an afternoon. But work that has been long and tediously prepared can be executed quickly, and adverse circumstances, when perseverance conquers them, turn rouud and become allies. ThB ex-clerk and young barrister, had ploughed and sowed with fucb pain and labor that he reaped with comparative ease. Half the managing clerks in London knew him and believed in him. They, had the ear of their employers, and brought him pleading* to draw and motions to make. His book, too, brought him clients ; and he was soon in full career as a junior counsel and special pleader. Senior counsel soon found that they could rely upon his zeal, accuracy-, and learning. They began to request that he might be retained with them in difficult oases, and he became first junior counsel at the bar ; and so much ■ for Perseverance. • j : Time rolled its ceaseless course;. andW silk gown was at his disposal. <&i]ss!Bo& ;popular ? junior ,- can not , alwayaSapofd to-take:silkj as they call it. 4 IndMpPu-he is; learned but Wot, eloquent,, hjaptay sruinj .lumBelf'<^by>/,tKe'f '" quaflge.**'nßu{i c _ the'

remarkable man whose career I an epitomising did not hesitate ; he still pushed onward. And so one morning the Lord Chancellor sat foran hour in the Queen's Bench, and Mr Robert Lush was appointed one of her Majesty's counsel, learned in the law, and then aud there by the Chancellor's invitation, stepped out from amofig the juniora, and took his seat « ithin the bar. So much for Perseverance. From this point the outline of his career is known to everybody. He wa» appointed in 1865 one of the judges of the Queen, s Bench, and after sitting in th.it court some years, was promoted to be a Lord Justice of Appeal, A few days ago, he died lamented and revered by the legal profession, which is very critical, and does not bestow its respect lightly. I knew him only as Queen's Counsel. I had him against me once, but often er for me, because my brother thought him, even then the best lawyer and the most zealous at the bar. and always retained him if he could. During the period I knew him personally Mr Lunh had atill a plump, unwriukea cheek, and a singularly bright eye. His voice was full, mellow, aud penetrating ; it filled the court without apparent effort, and accorded well with his style of eloquence, which was what Cicero calls the tcmperatum ijcmts loqmudi. Reasoning carried to perfection is one of the fine arts. An argument by Lush enchained the ear aud charmed the understanding. He began, tit the beginnings and each succeeding topio was articulated and disposed of, and succeeded by its right successor, in language bo fit and order so lucid that he rooted and grow conviction in the mmd — tantum series Hcxitraqiwpollcnt. I never heard him at Nisi Prius, but should think he could do nothing ill, yet would be greater at convincing judges than at persuading juries riebt or wrong: for at this pastime he would have had to escape from the force of hi* own under* standing, wherew I hare known counsel, blatant aitd admired, whom native and flippant fluency hud secured against that difficulty. Ho was affable to clients, and I had more than one convocation with him, very interesting to roe ; but to intrude the." c would be egotistical, and disturb the just proportions of this short notice. I hope Boiiic lawyers who knew him well as counsel and judge will give us his di tinctive features, if it is only to correct those vague and colorless notices of him that have appeared. This is due to the legal profession. But after all, his early career interests a much wider circle. We can not all be judges, but wa can oil do great things by the perseverance which from an oilice-boy made this man a clerk, a counsel, and a judge. Do but measure the difficulties he overcame in his business with the difficulty of rising in any art, profession, or honorable walk, ami down with despondency's whine and the groans of self-deceiving laziness ! You who have youth and health, never you quail at "at those twin jailers of the daring heart, low birth and hon foitune." iSee M'hat becomes of those two bugboars when the stout champion SINGLE HEART and the giant PER.SK VERANCE take them by the throat. Why, the very year those chilling lines were fiist given to the public by Bulweraud Macready, Robert Lush paid his wife's dow ry away to Gray's Inn in fees, and never w hined, nor doubted, nor looked right nor left, but went straight on — and prevailed. Genius and talent may have their bounds, but to the power of singleheat ted Perseverance there is no known limitsNoil omitis mortuitb e.st — the departed judge still teaches from the tomb ; his dicta Avill outlive him in our English courts : his ges>ta are for mankind. An old man sends it to the young in both hemispheres with this comment : If difficulties lie in the way, never shirk t'lem, but think of Robert Lush and trample on, them. If impossibilities encounter you-, up hearts and at 'em. One thing more to those who would copy Robeit Lush in all essentials. Though impregnated from infancy with an honourable iimhition, he remembered his Creator in the days of his youth ; nor did he forget Hun when the world poured its honors on him, and tlio.se insidious temptations of prosperity which have hurt the soul far oftener than "low birth and iron fortune." He flourished in a sceptical age, yet he lived and died fearing God.

Professional infidels always had the. same antipathy to a minister as professional burglars hart to a policeman. It is not snch an awful thing to make a faihue in business, but it shows a lack of force when n man stays failed. — Jfiruin Given. A n:\v "days since a barber offered a reward 'o • instantly removing superfluous hair. Among the answers was one forwarded by a gentleman in Kingston. We. give it : '• Undertake to kiss a woman against her will." A Royal jcu if esprit comes to us, through the medium of private correspondence, from the Old Country. It is said that one of Queen Victoria's maids-of-honor particularly desired to learn to dance the Highland fling, and that, taking advantage of the opportunities sented during a recent visit of Her Majesty to Balmoral, she became quite a proficient in the mysteries and activities of the renowned dance. This coining to the cars of her good-natured mistress, on- c exhibition of her skill in the Royal pVesence was commanded. The damsel, , nothing loth, complied, and acquitted" herself so well as to quite charm the Queen. "You lia\c, indeed, danced beautifully, my dear,"' she said. " What shall I give you as a lewaid !'' Quick came the reply : "Gladstone's head in a charger, your Majesty." "I would with pleasure," as quickly responded the good Queen, " but, alas ! poor man, he lost it long ago." The new pure cash system now; being nitiated by G. and C. , will crtainly prove a benefit to the public. Jt has been a great success in Sydney and Melbourne, and when strictly carried out the customer who buys at an establishment where the goods are marked low to ensure a rapid sale must _ be a gn»at gainer. G. and C. sell their drapery, millinery, and clothing at such prices for cash as gives the buyer the advantages of 'a shareholder in a ro-opbrativcspcictjVMithouttherwkiOf being called upon to bearaportion ofthcloss'should the year's business prove unsatisfactory. Garlick and Cranwell will aim to retain the confidence which the public have hitherto shown them, and arc determined to give the pure cash. , system a fair trial; whether they gain or lose the first fear Country buyers on remitting cash with'ordet will be supplied with goods at co-opcratve prices ; just the same although they made apersonal se- - lection. Furnishing goods! , such as carpets^ flopr cloths, bedsteads, bedding and general house' furniture," the' largest portion- or which is turned out at our own factory, will be, marked at the lowest rcniuno^atjve prices; and a discount of five per cent.* will be allaweil to those wji<j;pay at .. ' the time of purchased ' G/hnd C. laving realised ._ ,tbc entire value of tbeir^stqek^during? th"e.jr late/'* cash sale, the pjcesent^tp/kj % j^ftw AS,p,,.gii kAM,y, • bought.—A n inspectioVrfnvited.— Garljck and » , CiiA^viJLtreii/ttaU'TßrnwHffig Arcade'Queea / 'siieet, Auckland' ■<£ '** y K ~. '/\