property to her brother and sister. What
does this pleasant surgeon, on the death of the
maundering old lady, but prove the will, get
in the property, make out a bill for
professional attendance to the tune of two or
three hundred pounds, which absorbs it all;
cry to the brother and sister, "Boh!
Chancery! Catch me if you can!" and live
happy ever afterwards.

JOKE AGAINST SOME UNLUCKY CREDITORS.

Certain creditors being left altogether
without mention in the will of their deceased
debtor, brought a suit in equity for a decree
to sell his property. The decree was obtained.
But, the property realising seven hundred
pounds, and the suit costing seven hundred
and fifty, these creditors brought their pigs to
a fine market, and made much amusement
for the Chancery Bar.

JOKES UPON INFANTS.

An application to the Court of Chancery, in
a friendly suit where nobody contested
anything, to authorise trustees to advance a
thousand pounds out of an estate, to educate
some infants, cost a hundred and three
pounds, fourteen, and sixpence; a similar
application for the same authority, to the
same trustees, under the same will, in behalf
of some other infants, costs the same; twenty
similar applications, under the same will, for
similar power to the same trustees, in behalf
of twenty other infants, or sets of infants, as
their wants arise, will cost, each the same.

A poor national schoolmaster insured his
life for two hundred pounds, and made a
will, giving discretionary power to his
executors to apply the money for the benefit
of his two children while under age, and then
to divide it between them. One of the
executors doubted whether under this will,
after payment of debts and duty, he could
appropriate the principal (that word not
being used in the instrument) to buying the
two small children into an orphan asylum.
The sanction of the Court of Chancery would
cost at least half the fund; so nothing can be
done, and the two small children are to be
educated and brought up, on four pounds ten
a year between them.

JOKE AGAINST MRS. HARRIS.

Mrs. Harris is left the dividends on three
thousand pounds stock, for her life; the
capital on her decease to be divided among
legatees. Mr. Spodger is trustee under the
will which so provides for Mrs. Harris. Mr.
Spodger one day dies intestate. To Mr.
Spodger' s effects Mr. B. Spodger and Miss
Spodger, his brother and sister, administer.
Miss Spodger takes it into her head that
nothing shall ever induce her to have
anything to do with Mrs. Harris's trust-stock.
Mrs. Harris, consequently unable to receive
her dividends, petitions Court of Equity.
Court of Equity delivers judgment that it
can only order payment of dividends actually
due when Mrs. Harris petitions; that, as
fresh dividends keep on coming due, Mrs.
Harris must keep on freshly petitioning; and
that, Mrs. Harris must, according to her
Catechism, "walk in the same all the days of
her life." So Mrs. Harris walks, at the
present time; paying for every such application
eighteen pounds, two, and eightpence; or
thirty per cent on her unfortunate income.

I am of opinion that it would be hard to
invent better practical jokes than these, over
which I have laughed until my sides were sore.
They are neatly and pointedly related by Mr.
GRAHAM WILLMORE, queen's counsel and a
county court judge, in his evidence, given in
May of the present year, before a committee
of the House of Commons appointed to
inquire into the state and practice of the
county courts. But, I am pained to add,
nevertheless, that my learned friend Willmore
has not the slightest sense of humour,
and is perfectly destitute of any true
perception of a joke.

For, what does he recommend in this same
evidence of his? Why, says he, these cases
involve "an absolute denial of justice;" and,
if you would give the county court judges a
limited jurisdiction in Equity, these things
could not possibly occur; for, then, such
cases as the Witty Trustee's, and the Medical
Choice Spirit's, would be determined on their
merits, for a few pounds: while such
applications as those in behalf of the Infants
would be disposed of for a few shillings. But,
what, I ask my learned friend, would become
of the cream of the jokes? Are we to have
no jokes? Would he make law and equity a
dull, dreary transaction of plain right and
wrong? I shall hear, next, of proposals to
take our wigs off, and make us like common
men. A few pounds too! And a few shillings!
Has my learned friend no idea that hundreds
of pounds are far more respectable—not to
say profitable—than a few pounds and a few
shillings? He may buy sundry pairs of boots
for a few pounds, or divers pairs of stockings
for a few shillings. Is not Equity more precious
than boots? Or Law than stockings?

I am further of opinion that my learned
friend Willmore falls into all his numerous
mistakes before this committee, by reason of
this one curious incapacity in his constitution
to enjoy a joke, for instance, he relates the
following excellent morsel:

JEST CONCERNING A SEA-CAPTAIN.

A sea-captain ejected from his ship a noisy
drunken man, who misconducted himself; and
at the same time turned out certain
pot-companions of the drunken man, who were as
troublesome as he. BIBO (so to call the
drunken man) bringeth an action against the
captain for assault and battery; to which
the captain pleadeth in justification that he
removed the plaintiff "and certain persons
unknown," from his ship, for that they did
misbehave themselves. "Aye," quoth the
learned counsel for Bibo, at the trial, "but