riveting the attention of any one whom he was addressing, particularly
in public. You felt him to be a man whom you could neither neglect nor
trifle with; who was addressing your intellect in weighty words,
fathoming your intentions, and detecting your inclinations and
prepossessions, and leading you in some given direction with gentle but
irresistible force. He would often startle you with the boldness of his
propositions, but never till he had contrived, somehow or other, to
predispose you in favour of that view of the case which he was
presenting. He had a most seductive smile; truth, candour, and
gentleness seemed to beam from it upon you; and you were convinced that
he felt perfect confidence in the goodness of his cause. He evinced a
sort of intuitive sagacity, in adapting himself to the character and
mode of thinking of those whom he addressed. If he were standing before
four judges, all of different but decided characters--and all
continually interrupting him with questions and suggestions, a close
experienced observer could detect, in full play, in this wily advocate,
the quality which has just been mentioned. He was never irritable, or
disrespectful to the bench, however trying their interruptions; but calm
determination was always accompanied with courteous deference for
judicial authority. It is believed that no one ever heard a sharp
expression fall on Sir William Follett from the bench. Foreigners coming
to our courts, have frequently expressed admiration at his tone and
bearing, as calm, graceful, and dignified, even though what he said
could not be understood by them. His language was chaste, simple, and
vigorous, but never ornate. He always came direct to the point; and the
severest critics could find no fault in his diction. If he had read
extensively, his speeches never bore witness of that fact; for he was,
perhaps, never heard to use a quotation, either in verse or
prose--except, of course, in the latter instance, books of legal
authority, treatises, and reports of cases. Of fancy, of imagination, he
appeared quite destitute. If originally possessed of any, it must for
many years have been overpowered and extinguished, by the incessant and
exclusive exercise of his memory and reasoning powers, for the purposes
of business. Yet was he capable, on great and interesting occasions,
when addressing either the full court or a jury, of riveting the
attention and exciting the emotions of his hearers. Trickery, however
compact and strong its meshes, he tore to pieces contemptuously, and
with scarce an effort; nothing could escape his penetrating eye; it
detected those faint vanishing traces of fraud, which were invisible to
all other eyes. If there be genius in advocacy, Sir William Follett was
undoubtedly a man of genius; and genius may perhaps be taken to signify
great natural powers, accidentally directed--or, a disposition of
nature, by which any one is qualified for some peculiar employment. What
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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