He then had another golden opportunity. Fatigued with waiting for fortune, he was on the point of leaving London, and taking up his abode at Newcastle, of which he was offered the recordership. A house was even taken for him, when, one morning at six o'clock, Mr, afterwards Lord, Curzon, and four or five other gentlemen, came to his door, mentioning that the Clitheroe election case was to come on that morning at ten before a committee of the Commons; that one of their counsel was detained at Oxford by illness, and their second was unprepared and would not appear; and that they were sent to him as a young and promising counsel. Scott told them that, on so short a notice, all he could do would be to give a dry statement of facts. The cause thus put into his hands went on for fifteen days. "It found me poor," said Lord Eldon, "but I was to be rich before it was done. They left me fifty guineas at the beginning; then there were ten guineas every day, and five guineas every evening, for a consultation--more money than I could count. But, better still, the length of the cause gave me time to make myself thoroughly acquainted with the law." After all this, the side on which Scott was, was beaten by a single vote. But Mansfield, (afterwards Sir James,) on hearing his speech in the committee, came up to him in Westminster Hall, and strongly advised him to remain in London. Scott answered that an increasing family compelled him to leave London. Wilson, a barrister, advised as Mansfield had done, and even generously offered to make up his income to L.400 a-year. He received the same answer. "However," said the chancellor, with natural selfgratulation, "I did remain, and lived to make Mansfield chief justice of the common pleas, and Wilson a judge." Moreover, his sagacity gave him additional triumphs on the northern circuit, where he soon took the lead. He was counsel in a cause which depended on his being able to make out who was the founder of an ancient chapel in the neighbourhood. "I went to view it," said Lord Eldon. "There was nothing to be observed which gave any indication of its date or history. However, I remarked that the ten commandments were written on some old plaster, which, from its position, I conjectured might cover an arch. Acting on this, I bribed the clerk with five shillings to allow me to chip away a part of the plaster; and after two or three attempts, I found the keystone of an arch, on which were engraved the arms of an ancestor of one of the parties. This evidence decided the cause. Here was an instance of good-luck, undoubtedly, but also of great diligence and great sagacity. A negligent counsel would never have thought of examining the chapel in person; a dull counsel would never have thought of examining the arch; but it happens that the sagacious are generally lucky, and that, therefore, the first quality is sagacity."