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LEAVES FROM AN ENGLISH SOLICITOR'S NOTE BOOK. X. NEMESIS OF A PRACTICAL JOKE. BY BAXTER BORRET. (Registered at Ottawa in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act.)

WITH some persons the temptation to play practical jokes is irresistible; there is, however, a Nemesis which may be, for the time, lost sight of, but which surely dogs the footsteps of the practical joker. If, like Ishmael of old, his hand is against every man, every man's hand is surely against the player of practical jokes. Probably few of the readers of the " Green Bag" remember the early days of the Vol unteer movement in England. In one of the years immediately following the close of the Crimean War, Lord Lyndhurst made a notable speech in the House of Lords, one of his last great efforts, calling attention to the unprotected state of the coast of England in the event of any sudden invasion. It was that speech of the venerable ex-chancellor which roused the military ardour then dor mant in the breasts of the peaceable citizens of England, and led to volunteer corps be ing formed in every important town. The County of Lancaster was the foremost in the field, and the old fogy who now pens these lines was among the earliest of enrolled vol unteers. This was in 1858; very soon the whole country was fired with zeal for the de fense of old England against all foes, a zeal which has continued to the present day, and has shown that there is still, even in the closing year of this century, fruit on the old tree ripe for the gathering when the supply is demanded. But at the commencement of the movement cruelly sarcastic remarks were hurled at the heads of the first recruits; John Leech was then in his prime, and his weekly contributions to Puncli displayed the ardent volunteer in many a ludicrous

caricature, as he donned his new uniform to the dutiful admiration of the wife of his bosom, or strutted along the street to the irreverent sport of the crowd of small boys who, in London at least, have a keen per ception of the ludicrous. I am not sure, but I fear, that with the passing of the Ele mentary Education Act this sense has not become deadened somewhat. I think it was Mr. Bernai Osborne, the Grimalcli of the British House of Commons, who drew a striking picture of the late Mr. Bodkin, Q. C. (the general contour of whose figure certain ly belied his name,) as a newly recruited member of the Inns of Court Volunteer Corps, (now commonly known as " the Devil's own") crawling on his stomach through the under growth of Yimbledon Common in the exe cution of some strategic movement, and com mended him to lay to heart the maxim " in medio tntissimus ibis" which the speaker freely translated " you will be far safer walk ing in the Middle Temple." Closely follow ing on the Volunteer movement came the Beard movement; till then the members of the Bar were, to a man, close shaven. This latter movement spread to the clerks in the Bank of England, of whom it is told that the Court of Governors of the Bank issued a circular to the effect that while they were of course at liberty to please themselves out of- bank hours, beards and moustaches could not be permitted to be worn during bank hours. And now the Beard movement has extended to the ranks of the clergy of the Church Militant, nay even to the Right .Reverend occupants of the Bench of Bishops. In the corps to which I had the honor of