THE EXPERIENCES OF A BARRISTER, AND Confessions of an Attorney. BY SAMUEL WARREN 1880 CONTENTS. THE MARCH ASSIZE THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT THE CONTESTED MARRIAGE THE MOTHER AND SON "THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS" ESTHER MASON THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT THE SECOND MARRIAGE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE "THE ACCOMMODATION BILL" THE REFUGEE THE LIFE POLICY BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY JANE ECCLES "EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER" THE CHEST OF DRAWERS THE PUZZLE THE ONE BLACK SPOT THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR A FASHIONABLE FORGER THE YOUNG ADVOCATE A MURDER IN THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES CONFESSIONS OF AN ATTORNEY. THE MARCH ASSIZE. Something more than half a century ago, a person, in going along Holborn, might have seen, near the corner of one of the thoroughfares which diverge towards Russell Square, the respectable-looking shop of a glover and haberdasher named James Harvey, a man generally esteemed by his neighbors, and who was usually considered well to do in the world. Like many London tradesmen, Harvey was originally from the country. He had come up to town when a poor lad, to push his fortune, and by dint of steadiness and civility, and a small property left him by a distant relation, he had been able to get into business on his own account, and to attain that most important element of success in London--"a connection." Shortly after setting up in the world, he married a young woman from his native town, to whom he had been engaged ever since his school-days; and at the time our narrative commences he was the father of three children. James Harvey's establishment was one of the best frequented of its class in the street. You could never pass without seeing customers going in or out. There was evidently not a little business going forward. But although, to all appearance, a flourishing concern, the proprietor of the establishment was surprised to find that he was continually pinched in his circumstances. No matter what was the amount of business transacted over the counter, he never got any richer. At the period referred to, shop-keeping had not attained that degree of organization, with respect to counter-men and cashiers, which now distinguishes the great houses of trade. The primitive till was not yet superseded. This was the weak point in Harvey's arrangements; and not to make a needless number of words about it, the poor man was regularly robbed by a shopman, whose dexterity in pitching a guinea into the drawer, so as to make it jump, unseen, with a jerk into his hand, was worthy of Herr Dobler, or any other master of the sublime art of jugglery.