CAUTEL' HE MAY NOT CARVE FOR HIMSELF.' 43

The clause derogatorie of the power of making testaments is utterly voide in law, neither can a man renounce the power or libertie of making testaments, neither is there any cautele under heaven to prevent this libertie; which also indureth whiles any life indureth, as hath bene aforesaid. -Swinburn, 266.

So large and ample is the libertie of making testaments, that a man may as oft as hee will make a newe testament, even untill the last breath, neither is there any cautele under the sunne to prevent this libertie. - Swinburn, 263.

In the alphabetical table of the particular contents of this treatise of Swinburn's are these words, No cautell can take away the libertie of making a testament.'

6

Laertes says, no soil nor cautel doth besmirch the virtue of his will,' and Swinburn 'there is no cautele under heaven, whereby the libertie of making or revoking his testament can be utterly taken away.' Again Laertes says,

He may not, as unvalued persons do
Carve for himself.

And according to Swinburn, it is not lawful for legataries to carve for themselves, taking their legacies at their own pleasure, but must have them delivered by the executors.' (Swinburn, 50.)

If the legatarie of his owne authoritie without the consent of the executor, do apprehend and occupie the legacie to him bequeathed, he loseth his right and interest thereunto: For he may not be his own carver in this case, but ought to receive his legacie at the handes of the executor: which executor ought first to have all the goods and cattels in his hands, for the paiment and discharge of the testator's debts, which debts ought to be paid before legacies. - Swinburn, 289.

APPENDIX A.

Dogberry. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.-Much Ado About Nothing, Act v. Sc. 1.

'SHAKESPEARE A LAWYER' was published the first week in August 1858. It was an attempt to illustrate some obscure passages, and to show that Shakespeare had acquired a general knowledge of the principles and practice of the Law of Real Property, of the Common Law and Criminal Law, that he was familiar with the exact letter of the Statute Law, and that he used law terms correctly; and Lord Campbell says, page 107:- Having concluded my examination of Shakespeare's judicial phrases and forensic allusions,-on the retrospect I am amazed, not only by their number, but by the accuracy and propriety with which they are uniformly introduced. There is nothing so dangerous as for one not of the craft to tamper with our free masonry.'

Long after 'Shakespeare a Lawyer' had been much and favourably reviewed, and was well known in England, Scotland, and Germany, the following paragraph appeared in a literary paper in London :-

A new illustrator of Shakspeare has entered the field in the person of the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, Lord Campbell. During a recent vacation in Scotland, he turned his attention again to our great dramatic poet, and reading over his plays consecutively, he was struck by the vast number of legal phrases and allusions they contain, and by the extreme appropriateness and accuracy of their application. He began noting them, giving them such explanations and elucidations as his vast experience and knowledge of the law enabled him readily to furnish. He has since put them into more regular form and order, and is printing them in the shape of a familiar letter to Mr. Payne Collier.

Soon after this announcement was made, Lord Campbell's book was published, and reviewed in several of the London papers, some of them contrasting it with my pamphlet, as the following extracts will show :

Were we to put faith in circumstantial evidence and give no weight to evidence of character, we probably should find Lord Campbell guilty upon the charge of having robbed a mare's nest. Robbery of a mare's nest by the Lord Chief Justice is, however, an impossible offence. We are content then simply to remark upon the accidental fact that for all pertinent citations produced by the Chief Justice from Shakespeare's plays in confirmation of Malone's theory that the poet picked up law in an attorney's office, his lordship, when he wrote his letter to Mr. Collier, might have referred to the then extant pamphlet of a Liverpool attorney.* Mr. Rushton's little publication was already in print when, on the fifteenth of last September, Lord Campbell dated the first lines of the argument which he now

publishes. In 'Household Words' about three months ago, attention was directed to the argument of Mr. Rushton in an article that, under the head of 'Mr. W. Shakespeare, Solicitor,' treated it with friendly ridicule. Unluckily, the existence of the previous publication, which contains all his discoveries, did not become known to Lord Campbell. - The Examiner, London, January 29, 1859.

The greatest error that can be laid to his lordship's charge is, that he completely ignores the existence of a little book which runs pari passu with his own inquiry. It is scarcely three months since a Mr. W. L. Rushton, of Liverpool, published a very modest pamphlet, entitled 'Shakespeare a Lawyer,' and in this unpretending work may be found all, and more than all, the quotations in Lord Campbell's work, with a full and able comment upon the arguments to be derived from them. In illustration, we need only point out the way Mr. Rushton commentates on the passage relating to præmunire, in which he dilates on the peculiarly legal mode in which Shakespeare uses his legal phraseology. He claims for the poet a knowledge not only of the principles and practice of the law of real property, bnt also of the common law, and a thorough intimacy with the exact letter of the statute law. - The Critic, London, February 5, 1859.

After these reviews appeared, the London Times contained a long and laudatory notice of Lord Campbell's work, which did not mention my pamphlet or my name. Then two works on Shakespeare's various knowledge were brought out, which praised highly Lord Campbell and his book, but said nothing of me or my pamphlet. In some of the biographical notices of Shakespeare, published in England and Scotland at the time of the Tercentenary, and in many of the addresses delivered on that occasion, Lord Campbell and his work were mentioned, but none of them spoke of W. L. Rushton, or Shakes