tries to look jaunty and unembarrassed. The
one great object which it is desirable for a
witness to attain is the power of keeping still.
Let him not writhe, let him not attitudinise,
let him by no means run his hand through his
hair, let him keep his eye fixed on the person
who is examining him, and haply he may
manage to avoid looking like a pickpocket.
Even at best there is so much in position, that
the writer was surprised, on meeting in the
street one or two of those witnesses whom he
had seen examined, to note that they really
looked like rather respectable men, and did not
appear, as they did in the witness-box, to have
two or three murders at least, weighing on their
minds. While on this subject, it may be as well
to mention that short witnesses have great
advantages over long ones, being more sheltered by
wood-work, and less bare and exposed in their
appearance than those gifted with taller proportions.

The Eye-witness saw some wonderful and
memorable things in connexion with the witness-
box in the Shire Hall, at Gloucester, to some of
which he now invites the reader's attention.
There was the carpenter and "jyner," as he
called himself, who moistened his palms as he
ascended the rostrum, as if he were going to
plane his way through his evidence. There was
the lady with gloves and a veil, who was in
business, and had no evidence to give on the
particular matter in hand, but was quite ready to
launch into many interesting statements on
things in general, and especially with regard to
her own affairs; and indeed in this, and in
protestations of future amendment and never doing
anything wrong again, all the witnesses were
profuse. Then, there was the disconsolate
witness, who sighed as if his heart would break
between each answer; the conceited witness,
who, seeing that his words were being taken
down by the short-hand writer, waxed eloquent,
and stopped long between his sentences, glancing
down at the writer aforesaid, to see that one
paragraph was finished before he began another.
In addition to these, there was the witness who
brought documents, and in the course of his
narrative, continually put his hand in his pocket
for appropriate and corroborative papers, but
never found them till his tale had got long past
the place where they would be of any use. Nor
must we omit the witness who would look at
anybody in court whom he happened to mention
in his evidence; and besides the witness whom
his friends in remote corners of the building
would prompt, there was the man who had
forgotten his part, and who deliberately appealed
to his friends for assistance, saying, "In the
year ——- I say, George, what year was it when
Lightpocket lost the election for mayor?"

It was a remarkable thing, and one which
perhaps proves that every man ought to have a
profession, that no man who after being sworn
was asked what he was, and answered that he
was a " gentleman," failed to look like an ass
when he said so. And this is indeed a wretched
way of describing a man who has nothing to do
implying that he who has a profession is not a
gentleman, and infinitely inferior, in every way,
o the Italian designation, " possedente," or the
French "rentier." It is noteworthy, too, that
a man sitting in court, and occupying a position
between the examiner and the witness who is
under examination, will not uncommonly look
dreadfully confused and infinitely wretched when
he hears his own name brought in in the
evidence, and his own affairs discussed over the
very top of his head. The Eye-witness hopes
it will not be misconstrued into want of respect
for the fair sex, if he says that, in addition to the
things already mentioned, he was also struck by
the extreme reluctance of those wives of voters
who had received a bribe for their husbands, to
hand the same over to their worser halves on
their return from business. The man whose
wife had declined to part with the money she
received, and who stoutly maintained in consequence
ihat he had not been bribed at all, was a sharp
fellow enough, and a close and astute reasoner.

There are some more witnesses yet, who
must not be dismissed without a word. There
was the man who did not know whom he had
voted for, and who, in the wildness of his
confusion, when he complained of the badness
of his memory, put his hand to his stomach, as
if that were the seat of the quality in question;
there was the man who asked to be examined to
relieve his mind, and who had had nothing to
do with the election at all; there was the
man who began an anecdote, and repenting
of it, gave it up as not connected with the
subject (an opinion in which the commissioners
entirely coincided); there was the man who
ascended the box like a clergyman coming into
the pulpit, pressing his papers down heavily,
arranging his handkerchief as if for a long speech,
and being cut short almost before he had begun;
lastly, there was the poor old attorney, all in
black, with black gloves, and a high black mohair
stock, whose appearance, as he held on to the
sides of the witness-box, moved to an excess the
pity of your Eye-witness, so that it was quite a
relief to him when he heard that the poor old
man had done no harm after all.

It would be an interesting thing to examine,
did space permit it, how the question of an
extended franchise is affected by what has recently
transpired in connexion with the subject of election
bribery, and how far, by increasing largely
the number of electors, we should be rendering
such bribery impossible. That the mere fact of
giving larger numbers of the humbler orders a
voice at elections will not be the means of
abolishing corrupt practices is rendered sufficiently
obvious by what has come out at Gloucester,
where witness after witness of the lowest class
proclaimed his own venality from the box, and
where the words with which this article begins rang
in one's ears all day. It may, indeed, be a question
whether this is the case to so full an extent in
our manufacturing towns, and whether the readiness
to sacrifice gain to a principle (however
mistaken) which has shown itself in the
circumstances of the " strike," does not indicate that,
in the class of intelligent workmen at any rate,