the law courts, where the majesty of the law
was to be vindicated. Nor did my demand for
a supper and a bed at the Family and Commercial
Hotel, to which I next directed my footsteps,
create an overwhelming impression. I suffered
a hint of my important office to drop upon the
ear of the solitary individual whom I found the
occupant of the coffee-room, but it had no
further effect upon him than extracting from his
lips an indefinite ejaculation, and he soon after
gloomily retired, and left me in lonely meditation
over my glass of negus and the local directory.
Thus driven back on my own resources,
I sought to improve my knowledge of the names
of the traders in the town, to the end that I
might the more readily connect them with any
circumstances that might afterwards transpire
before me officially; but the monotony of the
loud-ticking clock, the drowsy winking of the
gaslight, and the want of a sustained interest
in the pages I perused, very soon engendered
sleepiness. I thought it advisable to encourage
this sensation in a place more conducive to
personal comfort than an arm-chair that was
gradually becoming all angles, and developing in
its cushion a luxurious undergrowth of pins
and needles.

A hasty toilet and a hurried breakfast, and I
had just time to reach the assize hall at the
appointed hour. The usual crowd of policemen,
witnesses, and friends of the prisoners, were
collected at the entrance; with a bustling
barrister or two darting rapidly amongst them and
disappearing suddenly through doors beyond.
A functionary in a cocked-hat and a very stiff
blue coat, trimmed with red cloth, and who will
not feel personally offended, I hope, if I designate
him by the honourable name of Beadle, was
standing on the threshold and pointing
indefinitely up the stone staircase in answer to all
inquirers. With a due sense of our mutual
dignity, I ventured upon addressing him. The
outstretched arm turned abruptly from the
staircase, and I was sharply told to go to the
right, which I did accordingly. Opening the
door at the extremity of half a dozen stone
steps, down which I descended, I became aware
that I had penetrated to the region of the
court coal-cellar. Convinced that I had not
been summoned to serve my country by investigations
in this quarter, I retraced my steps, and
preferred the guidance of my own reasoning
faculties. These, and a happy combination of
chances, led me to the place where I was
wanted.

The court is by this time tolerably full, and
some two dozen of us, in what appears to me to
be a pew of a small country church, are soon
listening to a profoundly inaudible discourse. A
droning sound pervades the building as if a
quantity of bees had made a hive out of the glass
dome, and the constant fluttering and hurrying
in and out, and through the passages below,
help to strengthen the suggestion. Considered
from a good point of view by a cool and
unconcerned spectator, I am afraid we all of us in the
pew would look as if we were about to receive
sentence for some appalling crime that we had
individually and collectively committed. At last
we are relieved by being called upon to answer
to our respective names. After having
prematurely cried out "Here!" once or twice
simultaneously with a dozen other gentlemen, and
after venturing upon a mild effort at ventriloquism,
which, when my own name really was
called, caused my presence to be sought for in
quite a different part of the building, I am
summoned with the rest into a little alley below, and
we are told off in threes to be sworn in. In my
own little triangular confederacy is a ruddy-
faced personage, palpably connected with the
agricultural interest, who never desists from
smiling benignantly on the presiding official and
the two strangers with whom he has become
linked. We are asked if any of us have served
on the Grand Jury before, and it being discovered
that only one has had that honour, and that he
is the ruddy-faced agriculturist, he is appointed
our foreman, and smiles no more.

There is some difficulty in administering the
customary oath, by reason of a rather confused
notion that seems to prevail about right and left
hands, and an impetuous inclination to smack
the lips in wrong places; but we are all duly
sworn at last, and are marched off under the
guidance of an usher into a large upper apartment,
lighted with spacious windows which
overlook the approaches below and the distant
country. It has a long table strewed with pens,
inkstands, and paper, extending down the centre.
As I am rather anxious to receive instruction
in my new office from one who has previously
gone through the duty, I sit next to the ruddy-
faced foreman, and reverentially watch his
movements. We all arrange ourselves at the long
table with becoming gravity, but with a general
restless feeling of anxiety concerning what will
happen next, when our meditations are
interrupted by a message from the landlord of the
adjacent tavern, who presents his compliments
to the Grand Jury and begs to know if they
will be pleased to order dinner? This
unexpected communication enlivens us greatly. We
begin to grow more sociable; and an interesting
discussion springs up as to the relative merits of
chops, or steaks, as opposed to veal and ham,
with an occasional argument dexterously thrown
out in support of the nutritious qualities of
roast beef. We recognise the invitation,
however, as indicating an exceeding thoughtfulness
on the part of the authorities, and we accept it
as a courteous compliment to our national
importance. The desirability of a dinner is put to
a show of hands and carried unanimously; but
we presently find that the expenses are to be
defrayed by ourselves, and not by the country,
and that refreshment can only be taken at the
close of the day's labours; whereupon we
unanimously agree to postpone the question. A
magnificent intimation that the Grand Jury,
having given the subject their deliberate attention,
will think about it in due time, is accordingly
given; the intruding messenger who was
hailed with cordiality is frowningly repulsed;