Page:Memoirs James Hardy Vaux.djvu/49

26 neat private lodging, and regulated my mode of life conformably to the state of my finances. I breakfasted at home, dined at a tavern or genteel eating-house, and in the evening took my tea and read the papers at a coffee-house: after which I sometimes passed the night in reading at home, but most commonly went to one of the theatres at half-price, where I gratified my violent passion for the drama, which at once improved my understanding and amused my mind.

This course of life, though it rapidly weakened my purse, was rational, compared to that which I soon after led, and I might have supported it with credit, by the indulgence of my friends, for a considerable time. As the business of our office was of a various nature, I soon gained great experience in the different branches of common law, and conveyancing: I became by practice, an expert and correct copyist; and I delighted much in studying the most approved law books, reading reports of cases, &c. I became familiar with Burn's Justice, and soon gained a pretty correct knowledge of the criminal law, and of those minute points, of which an able counsel or attorney can avail himself, in order to rescue a client from the claws of justice, howsoever glaring and palpable his guilt may be. Such is the glorious uncertainty of the English law! Little did I then conceive how useful this knowledge might one day prove to