Judge Pyncheon

“ It did but increase the difficulty, that Judge Pyncheon was under a delusion as to the secret which he supposed Clifford to possess. Men of his strength of purpose, and customary sagacity, if they chance to adopt a mistaken opinion in practical matters, so wedge it and fasten it among things known to be true, that to wrench it out of their minds is hardly less difficult than pulling up an oak. ”

“ Another nephew had become the heir, and was now a judge in an inferior court. The only members of the family known to be extant, besides the judge and the thirty years' prisoner, were a sister of the latter, wretchedly poor, who lived in the House of the Seven Gables by the will of the old bachelor, and the judge's single surviving son, now travelling in Europe. The last and youngest Pyncheon was a little country girl of seventeen, whose father--another of the judge's cousins--was dead, and whose mother had taken another husband. ”

“ Being better (which I insist it is) than 'The Scarlet Letter,' I have never expected it to be so popular (this steel pen makes me write awfully) . —— —— Esq., of Boston, has written to me, complaining that I have made his grandfather infamous! It seems there was actually a Pyncheon (or Pynchon, as he spells it) family resident in Salem, and that their representative, at the period of the Revolution, was a certain Judge Pynchon, a Tory and a refugee. This was Mr. ——'s grandfather, and (at least, so he dutifully describes him) the most exemplary old gentleman in the world. ”

“ So craftily had he arranged the circumstances, that, at Clifford's trial, his cousin hardly found it necessary to swear to anything false, but only to withhold the one decisive explanation, by refraining to state what he had himself done and witnessed.
Thus Jaffrey Pyncheon's inward criminality, as regarded Clifford, was, indeed, black and damnable; while its mere outward show and positive commission was the smallest that could possibly consist with so great a sin. This is just the sort of guilt that a man of eminent respectability finds it easiest to dispose of. ”

“ The people are apt to be merged into the dense shadows that lurk in the gloomy passages, but when the sun shines on them they stand out with arresting distinctness. The heroic figure of Hepzibah Pyncheon, a little ridiculous and a little forbidding of aspect, but cherishing through weary years a passionate devotion to her brother, is described with a gentle blending of humour and pathos. Clifford Pyncheon—the sybarite made for happiness and hideously cheated of his destiny—is delineated with curious insight and sympathy. ”

“ Pyncheon's full-dress sword of that gentleman's aristocratic pretensions. A glow of artistic approval brightened over Alice Pyncheon's face; she was struck with admiration—which she made no attempt to conceal—of the remarkable comeliness, strength, and energy of Maule's figure. But that admiring glance (which most other men, perhaps, would have cherished as a sweet recollection, all through life) the carpenter never forgave. ”

“ They ought not to hang any man on such evidence as there is against him, even though there were no moral doubt of his guilt. There is nothing really to connect Mr. Phineas Finn with the murder,—nothing tangible. But there is no saying nowadays what a jury will do. Juries depend a great deal more on the judge than they used to do. If I were on trial for my life, I don't think I'd have counsel at all."
"No one could defend you as well as yourself, Mr. Chaffanbrass." ”

“ They have been indulging, sir, until the top of your head has fallen over backwards, and your whiskers act as though they belonged to somebody else. The sight confuses me, sir, and in my present state of mind I can't bear it."
Coughing from the lemon tea, and greatly amazed by his hasty dismissal, Mr. CLEWS followed Judge SWEENEY from the room and house in precipitate haste, and, when they were fairly out of doors, remarked, that the gentleman they had just left had surprised him unprecedentedly, and that he was very much put out by it. ”

“ Noon came and passed unnoticed. The down train snorted by, and he did not look up. Then the long afternoon went slowly. He stayed where he was, scarcely moving. Afternoon merged into twilight. Darkness crept into the courtroom.
The banging of the unfixed section of the rickety sidewalk roused the Judge at last. And as the loose boards nearer at hand flapped and creaked under a light tread he sat up and got stiffly to his feet.
The knob of the front door turned and a slender figure in white appeared in the doorway. Then, “Gid!” called an anxious voice—a girl’s voice. “Gid! Are you there?” ”

“ But the glory of this trial would not depend chiefly on the array of counsel, nor on the fact that the Lord Chief Justice himself would be the judge, so much as on the social position of the murdered man and of the murderer. Noble lords and great statesmen would throng the bench of the court to see Phineas Finn tried, and all the world who could find an entrance would do the same to see the great statesmen and the noble lords. The importance of such an affair increases like a snowball as it is rolled on. Many people talk much, and then very many people talk very much more. ”

“ Higginson's congratulatory eloquence, this appeared to be the one thing which Colonel Pyncheon, provident and sagacious as he was, had allowed to go at loose ends. So far as the prospective territory was concerned, he unquestionably died too soon. His son lacked not merely the father's eminent position, but the talent and force of character to achieve it: he could, therefore, effect nothing by dint of political interest; and the bare justice or legality of the claim was not so apparent, after the Colonel's decease, as it had been pronounced in his lifetime. ”

“ After that—the Judge being generally considered the most matter-of-fact old hard-head on the State bench—Squire Phin reflected that probably all men, if one but knew it, nurse little notions of their own. ”

“ A "court of appeal," such as the false Hugh Peters had indicated, with assassination for its sanction, would be an uncomfortable institution for a "hanging judge" like the Honourable Justice Harbottle. That sarcastic and ferocious administrator of the criminal code of England, at that time a rather pharisaical, bloody and heinous system of justice, had reasons of his own for choosing to try that very Lewis Pyneweck, on whose behalf this audacious trick was devised. Try him he would. No man living should take that morsel out of his mouth. ”

“ In 1894, Judge Fell went to the Supreme Court and for a year Theodore F. Jenkins took his place. Jenkins was a Democrat, who began his career as a boy in the Law Library, and who, turning his attention to the books he carried to the lawyers, became later a skilled lawyer himself and made a success in his profession. While he sat on the bench there came before us “Melon Street,” a novel and complicated land damage case, which before it was finally decided had the unique distinction of having been heard before seventeen judges, and another case, which I called my “Slam-bang” case. ”

“ The Attorney-General seemed to think that it would be his duty to ask the judge to call upon the jury to acquit Phineas Finn, and that then the matter must rest for ever, unless further evidence could be obtained against Yosef Mealyus. It would not be possible to hang a man for a murder simply because he had fabricated a key,—even though he might possibly have obtained the use of a grey coat for a few hours. ”

“ It’s up to you to make good.”
He had from time to time been casting angry glances at the lawyer.
“If you’ve got any bus’ness here, Mr. Lawyer Look,” he said insolently, “I wish you’d ’tend to it and get out. My father and I don’t want audiences when we talk over family matters, and we don’t usually have audiences, either.”
Squire Phin understood the dumb appeal in the eyes of the Judge. This unruly son had hold of one end of his secret and was tugging away vigorously. The father realised that the son had the right to demand certain explanations. ”

“ TRACEY CLEWS, bowing again to Judge SWEENEY. "Not to wound our friend further by discussion of the fair sex, may I ask if Bumsteadville contains many objects of interest for a stranger, like myself?"
"One, at least, sir," answered the Judge. "I think I could show you a tombstone which you would find very good reading. An epitaph upon my late better-half. If you are a married man you can not help enjoying it." ”

“ Pynsent."
"Why, Sir John, there is but a right and wrong way of doing things—if a man does right, he goes on very well; and if he does wrong, why, he will be damned for it!"
The voices of Julia and Lord Ennismore, in playful tones, echoing through the hall, at this moment reached Tom Pynsent's ears. He became alarmed and nervous.
"I wish it was over, Sir John. I could wish to see Miss Julia now, and hear my fate at once. A man gets very awkward and nervous in this situation, I declare!" and Tom Pynsent's red face became ashy pale.
Lady Wetheral undertook to make his burthen an easy one. ”

“ Justice Winters said; “there’s no use trying to get the better of a man like Judge West. Which would you prefer to do; accept the money, or have me hold you on a technical charge of appropriating a rag dummy, until I can notify the Judge?”
“You’d—you’d better take the check, Harry,” Pee-wee piped up; “it wouldn’t be safe to try to foil a man like Judge West—safety first, Harry—we’d better take the check.” ”

“ Personally appeared before me, the undersigned, judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, William P. Peniston, and makes oath that he has good reason to believe, and that he verily does believe, that there is now collected and embodied in the County of Daviess, a large body of armed men, whose movements and conduct are of a highly insurrectionary and unlawful character ”

“ One day I was at the rooms of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania when a man appeared who said he had been sent by the Record to show me a paper, and he asked me to read it. The paper purported to be signed by “A Lawyer” and it set forth “that Governor Pennypacker's appointment of Judge Thompson was prompted wholly by the selfish desire and indecent purpose of Governor Pennypacker to get the place for himself as soon as he can,” and “He, therefore, stooped to a plot that is absolutely without precedent or parallel in all the history of intrigue and corruption in Pennsylvania politics.” ”

“ You can choose another judge, and another leader, for I shall act no longer as either. I thought you were men, not savages."
"What matter?" called out several voices, "he is not the only man that lives. Let him slide, and out with the prisoner."
The crowd surged forward and surrounded the table, yelling and growling like wild beasts. For a moment it seemed as if Poynter meditated resistance, as he drew himself up and grasped the back of his chair, but if such was his intention, it was changed. ”

“ Nay, nay, chide me not, Judge Boompointer. I will marry John Jenkins!"
The Judge was evidently affected. Seating himself at the table, he wrote a few lines hurriedly upon a piece of paper, which he folded and placed in the fingers of the destined bride of John Jenkins.
"Mary Jones," said the Judge, with impressive earnestness, "take this trifle as a wedding gift from one who respects your fidelity and truthfulness. At the altar let it be a reminder of me." And covering his face hastily with a handkerchief, the stern and iron-willed man left the room. ”

“ The Judge Williams mentioned as having presided at Batavia, N. Y., is no myth, but an eminent jurist at present sitting upon the bench of one of the most important courts in the country. He has not only furnished a copy of his scathing remarks to the Winslow-Lyon jury upon their disagreement, as related, but will vouch for the correctness of much of this narrative, as most of the facts mentioned came under his personal observation. ”

“ Hynes, "down in that notorious valley."
"I don't think," remarked Judge McConnell, in a mildly expostulating tone, "that we ought to refer to that, or draw any inference from it."
"I think," responded Mr. Hynes, "I have a right to speak about the locality from where a party comes, but I bow to your honor's suggestion in the matter. At any rate, gentlemen of the jury, I can argue from dates. He arrived here on the 3d of April, but on your honor's suggestion I withdraw anything of that kind and wish the jury not to consider it. ”

“ When she was gone the Judge slid down in his chair until he was again seated upon the small of his back, and from across the top of his desk he fixed solemn eyes upon Luce. “Jim,” he said, “you cut out that little bunch at the Occidental. Them fellers have forgot more about poker than you ever learnt.”
The other’s face took on a deeper hue. He squirmed under the searching glance. “They don’t git nothin’ away from me,” he declared.
“An’ cards,” went on the Judge evenly, “is a blamed poor excuse when a man’s bein’ sued.”
“Oh, you’re dead right there, Gid.” ”

“ Major William Judd, Joseph Sluman, Esq., and about eighty others arrived at Vincent’s September 23, and two days later Judd and Sluman wrote a jointly signed letter to Judge William Plunket, in which they acknowledged they had come with a view of settling, and stated that as this might be a “matter of much conversation among the inhabitants, we are willing to acquaint you with the principles on which we are come. In the first place, we intend no hostilities ”

“ With finger in ear to allay the tickling sensation, JUDGE SWEENEY declares that this young man smelling of cloves is a person of great intellectual attainments, and understands the political genius of his country well enough to make an excellent Judge of Election.
Walking slowly near the churchyard on this particular freezing December evening, with his hands behind his bank, and his eyes intent for any envious husband who may be "with a rush retiring," monumentally counselled, after reading the Epitaph, Judge SWEENEY suddenly comes upon Father DEAN conversing with SMYTHE, the sexton, and Mr. ”