“In this wise, my Lord. You have always held your libellers so cheap that you actually encourage their assaults. You, in the full vigor of your faculties, alive to the latest events, interested in all that science discovers or invention develops, persist in maintaining, both in your mode of living and your companionship, a continued reference to the past. With a wit that could keep pace with the brightest, and an imagination more alive than the youngest men can boast, you vote yourself old, and live with the old. Why, my Lord, is it any wonder that they try you on the indictment you have yourself drawn up? I have only to ask you to look across the Channel and see the men--your own contemporaries, your colleagues too--who escape these slanders, simply because they keep up with the modes and habits of the day. Their equipages their retinues, their dress, are all such as fashion sanctions. Nothing in their appearance reminds the world that they lived with the grandfathers of those around them; and I say, my Lord, if these men can do this, how much easier would it be for you to do it? You, whose quick intellect the youngest in vain try to cope with; you who are readier in repartee,--younger, in fact, in all the freshness of originality and in all the play of fancy, than the smartest wits of the day. “My Lord, it has not been without a great effort of courage I have dared to speak thus boldly; but I have so often talked the subject over with my wife, and she, with a woman's wit, has so thoroughly entered into the theme, that I felt, even at the hazard of your displeasure, I ought to risk the telling you.” After a pause, he added: “It was but yesterday my wife said, 'If papa,'--you know, my Lord, it is so she calls you in secret,--'if papa will only cease to dress like a church dignitary, he will not look above fifty,--fifty four or five at most.'” “I own,” said the Judge, slowly, “it has often struck me as strange how little animadversion the Press bestowed upon my English colleagues for their advanced years, and how persistently they commented on mine; and yet the history of Ireland does not point to the early decline of intellectual power. They are fond of showing the characteristics that separate us, but they have never adduced this one.” “I hope I have your Lordship's forgiveness for my boldness,” said Sewell, with humility. “You have more, sir,--you have my gratitude for an affectionate solicitude. I will think over what you have said when I am alone.” “It will make me a very proud man if I find that my words have had weight with you. I am to tell Beattie, my Lord, that you are engaged, and cannot see him?” said he, moving towards the door. “Yes. Say that I am occupied with my reply to this slander. Tell him if he likes to dine with me at six--” “I beg pardon, my Lord--but my wife hoped you would dine with us to-day. We have a few young soldiers, and two or three pretty women coming to us--”