This witness was a very pretty, modest-looking young woman, who seemed to suffer quite enough from the publicity in which she was placed by being brought to speak in open court. The temptation was too strong for the defendant’s counsel to resist; and he therefore took abundant pains to show his wit, by asking a long string of impertinent questions, and repeating the answers to those questions in a loud insulting tone. He and those who follow his example, are best able to say how far such a mode of proceeding can answer the ends of justice--how far it is consistent with the gravity and decorum of a court, and with the character of a gentleman--how far it is calculated to impress the multitude with a sentiment of reverence for the expounders of the law--and how far it is likely to advance those who adopt it, in their own esteem. The cross-examination of this young woman, who was the plaintiff’s niece, led to a re-examination, in which it was made manifest to the court, as it had been previously known to most then present, that the severity of the Hon. Philip Martindale towards poor old Richard Smith arose from the vigilance with which the old man guarded his niece, and preserved her from the artifices of the defendant. When this fact came out in evidence, there was an involuntary and indescribable expression of contempt in the court; and the honourable defendant endeavoured to smile away his mortification, but did not succeed, though he was countenanced by the high-sheriff on one side of him, and a clerical magistrate on the other. The contrast between impertinence and decorum was never so strongly manifested as in the cross-examination and re-examination above alluded to; and it has been said that the witty barrister himself was not quite at his ease, and that he broke down in an attempted jest upon gravity. The counsel for the defendant called no witnesses, but made a witty speech; in which he proved by arguments which made the multitude laugh, that it is a very slight inconvenience to be imprisoned for a few months; that seduction is a very venial offence, and highly becoming a gentleman; that it is a great condescension in a man of high rank to knock down a poor cottager; that gray hairs are a very ludicrous ornament; that it is very insolent in a poor man to interrupt a rich man in his pursuit of vicious pleasure; that the game-laws are so very excellent, that persons only suspected of violating them ought to be punished. Then he gave the jury to understand, that if they should be foolish enough to give a verdict for the plaintiff, they must award the least possible damages. Then he sat down, and took a great quantity of snuff, and winked at the high-sheriff. In spite of all the wit and coxcomical impertinence of this redoubtable advocate, the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff, giving him one hundred pounds damages.