The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-07


 sheriff of Lanarkshire, and acquired the estate of Braxfield, near LanafK. Robert, his eldest son, was first educa- ted there and served full term of ap- prenticeship with a writer to the Sls- net, during the latter part WhefeoI ne studied at the University for the scots bar, and at twenty-two was adInitted advocate, February fl, lf44.
 Maqueen's success was due to other than legal qualities. He was pooh companion of the choicest, maghln- cent topper, though on that strong heao' that iron frame, that seasoned stonl- ach, no potation took effect. His taiK was agreeably compounded or curses "sculduddery' and personalities. Le- gal consultation, like other business was done in the tavern. Here, over long succession of drams, the client told his story the agent made his sugses- tons, the advocate gave his opinion. One can imagine the delight with which the bonnet-laird, whose ganglng plea, in one shape or another, had tried the temper of "a the fifteen again and again, must have seen this jovial counsel seize, as by art-magic, on luS SSlltIl SL iii9 N'NN'N, SNA'N' SNN plain with admirable brevity and clear ness, in an accent broader than his own, and with delightful garnishment of oaths, exactly how things were, and exactly what things ought to be done; so that in the future all was plain sail ing. Nor did Macqueen's services stop here. Having supplied his client with indecent anecdote enough to feed the countryside for the next twelvemonth, he, like as not, closed the evening, or 1 the morning, by drinking both client and agent under the table just in time to allow him to repair to the Parlia- ment House to argue with his accus- 1 toned clearness and exactness before | their lordships until noon, when he and i his fellow-lawyers would repair in | quaint procession across the Parlia- ment Close for their meridian in Johns coffee house. No wonder that he rose to be the most popular advocate at the bar and had fifteen or twenty cases in one day before the Lord Ordinary! 1 In 1776 Macqueen, after some opposi- l ton on his part for the change meant Q reduced income, was raised to the bench as Lord Braxfield; in 17S0 he was made a lord of judiciary, and in 17SS, as Lord Justice Clerk, he became pract1- cally president of the Judiciary court. He died in 1T99, after a long illness, so 1 that ten years measure the time of his pre-eminence On the bench his char acteristics were accentuated, and made, of course, more noticeable Passable in young advocate, a fondness for cards, for wine, for bawdy talk, was scanda- lous in an elderly judge, and swearing was no longer considered "a great or nament to the conversation of gentle man" Yet Braxfield out -Heroded Her | od He cursed without provocation, like an ensign of. the last age in his l teens,' is theestrange simile of his con- temporary, Ramsay of Ochtertyre. l Weir of Hermiston is professedly a resuscitation of Braxfeld. But Steven son was too true an artist to repeat old l anecrdotes The sayings he put in Hermistons mouth are such as Brax- field might have uttered; butSnot one of them is Braxfields I note one or two points wherein Hermiston differs from Braxfield. The strangest Gas pointed out in MT Sidney Colvin's in teresting editorial note) is the later date. Weir is active in 1913, whereas 1 Braxfield had seemed the survival of an earlier age some twenty years before. Then, Braxfied was advocate depute, but never lord advocate, as Hermiston was.
 Stevenson (with proper delicacy) de- serted history altogether in his account of the Weir family other than their chief Mrs Weir is an admirable Scotch type exquisitely drawn, and one of the Braxfeld stories would fit her very well. His lordship had lady as a partner in some game of cards She played very badly, whereat The lows'd his thinker jaw" to the dame's great in- dignation. He had thought Che ex-
 plained) for the moment that he was
 addressing his spouse. There are two other wife stories about Braxfield. The
 first tells of his proposal to his lady
 elect: q am lookln' out for wife, and
 l thought you just the person that wad
 suit me Let me hae your answer off
 or on the morn and nae nlair aboot 1t.
 The second is a jewel of the first water His butler gave him notice, alleging
 that Mrs. Macqueen's temper was toe
 much for him. Man" returned his
 lordship, we've little to complain O; ye
 may be thankfu' we're no married upon
 her. Both these stories (true or false)
 refer to Braxfield's second wife. a
 daughter of the Lord Chief Baron ot
 the Exchequer in Scotland. His first
 Mary, an Agnew of Lochnaw, i'll Wig
 tonshire belonged to very old family
 which held the hereditary sheriffship of
 Galloway for centuries. In the days of