present most gracious Majesty, and had the honour to hear him announce
himself as _King Edward of England_ by the title of _Edward the
Seventh_!

Arrived in London, full of good advice and abundance of warnings as
to the fate that awaited me, I entered as a pupil the chambers of
a famous special pleader of that time, whose name was Frederick
Thompson. This was in the year 1841.

I have the right to say I worked very hard there for several months,
and studied with all my might; nor was the study distasteful. I
was learning something which would be useful to me in after-life.
Moreover, being endowed with pluck and energy, I wanted to show that
my uncles--for the godfather warned me as well--and my father were
false prophets. So I gave myself up entirely to the acquisition of
knowledge, this being absolutely necessary if I was to make anything
of my future career. "Sink or swim," my father said, was the
alternative, so I was resolved to keep my head above water if
possible.

After being at Thompson's my allotted period, I next went to Mr.
George Butt, a very able and learned man, who afterwards became a
Queen's Counsel, but never an advocate. I acquired while with him
a good deal of knowledge that was invaluable, became his favourite
pupil, and was in due course entrusted with papers of great
responsibility, so that in time it came to pass that Mr. Butt would
send off my opinions without any correction.

These are small things to talk of now, but they were great then, and
the foundation of what, to me, were great things to come, although I