Produced by Hunter Monroe, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net RES JUDICATÆ _IN UNIFORM BINDING_ =ANDREW LANG= Letters to Dead Authors $1 00 =AUGUSTINE BIRRELL= Obiter Dicta--First Series 1 00 Obiter Dicta--Second Series 1 00 Res Judicatæ 1 00 =W. E. HENLEY= Views and Reviews--Literature 1 00 RES JUDICATÆ _PAPERS AND ESSAYS_ BY AUGUSTINE BIRRELL AUTHOR OF 'OBITER DICTA,' ETC. 'It need hardly be added that such sentences do not any more than the records of the superior courts conclude as to matters which may or may not have been controverted.'--_See_ BLACKHAM'S _Case I. Salkeld 290_ NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1892 COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. PREFACE The first two essays in this volume were composed as lectures, and are now printed for the first time; the others have endured that indignity before. The papers on 'The Letters of Charles Lamb' and 'Authors in Court' originally appeared in _Macmillan's Magazine_; and the short essays entitled 'William Cowper' and 'George Borrow' in the _Reflector_, a lively sheet which owed its existence to and derived its inspiration from the energy and genius of the late Mr. J. K. Stephen, whose too early death has not only eclipsed the gaiety of many gatherings, but has robbed the country of the service of a noble and truth-loving man. The other papers appeared either in _Scribner's Magazine_ or in the columns of the _Speaker_ newspaper. Although, by the kindness of my present publishers, I have always been practically a 'protected article' in the States, I cannot help expressing my pleasure in finding myself in the enjoyment of the same modest rights as an author in the new home of my people as in the old. A. B. LINCOLN'S INN, LONDON. CONTENTS PAGE I. SAMUEL RICHARDSON 1 II. EDWARD GIBBON 39 III. WILLIAM COWPER 84 IV. GEORGE BORROW 115 V. CARDINAL NEWMAN 140 VI. MATTHEW ARNOLD 181 VII. WILLIAM HAZLITT 224 VIII. THE LETTERS OF CHARLES LAMB 232