'The gentlemen of the jury want none of the impressions on your mind, Mr. Winkle, which I fear would be of little service to honest, straightforward men,' interposed Mr. Skimpin. 'You were on the staircase, and didn't distinctly hear; but you will swear that Pickwick _did not make use_ of the expressions I have quoted? Do I understand that?' 'No, I will not,' replied Mr. Winkle; and down sat Mr. Skimpin, with a triumphant countenance. This "Will you swear he did _not_," etc., is a device familiar to cross examiners, and is used when the witness cannot be got to accept the words or admit that they were used. It of course means little or nothing: but its effect on the jury is that they come to fancy that the words _may_ have been used, and that the witness is not very clear as to his recollection. How well described, too, and satirised, is yet another "common form" of the cross examiner, to wit the "How often, Sir?" question. Winkle, when asked as to his knowledge of Mrs. Bardell, replied that "he did not know her, but that he had seen her." (I recall making this very answer to Boz when we were both driving through Sackville Street, Dublin. He had asked "Did I know so-and-so?" when I promptly replied, "I don't know him, but I have seen him." This rather arrided him, as Elia would say.) Skimpin went on: 'Oh, you don't know her, but you have seen her.' 'Now have the goodness to tell the gentlemen of the jury what you mean by _that_, Mr. Winkle.' 'I mean that I am not intimate with her, but that I have seen her when I went to call on Mr. Pickwick, in Goswell Street.' 'How often have you seen her, Sir?' 'How often?' '_Yes_, _Mr. Winkle_, _how often_? I'll repeat the question for you a dozen times, if you require it, Sir.' And the learned gentlemen, with a firm and steady frown, placed his hands on his hips, and smiled suspiciously to the jury. _On this question there arose the edifying brow-beating_, _customary on such points_. First of all, Mr. Winkle said it was quite impossible for him to say how many times he had seen Mrs. Bardell. Then he was asked if he had seen her twenty times, to which he replied, 'Certainly,--more than that.' And then he was asked whether he hadn't seen her a hundred times--whether he couldn't swear that he had seen her more than fifty times--whether he didn't know that he had seen her at least seventy-five times, and so forth; the satisfactory conclusion which was arrived at, at last, being--that he had better take care of himself, and mind what he was about. The witness having been, by these means, reduced to the requisite ebb of nervous perplexity, the examination was concluded. How excellent is this. Who has not heard the process repeated over and over again from the young fledgeling Counsel to the old "hardbitten" and experienced K.C.?