"You silly old fool, you don't even know the alphabet of your own silly old business."

“An enactment for the favour and liberty of the subject ought to have a liberal construction.”

“As the crow flies"—a popular and picturesque expression to denote a straight line.”

“After a hard frost a man might wake in the morning and find he was breaking a covenant.”

“Nominal damages are in effect, only a peg to hang costs on.”

“My lords, we are vertebrate animals, we are mammalia! My learned friend's manner would be intolerable in Almighty God to a black beetle.”

“If a man go into the London Docks sober without means of getting drunk, and comes out of one of the cellars very drunk wherein are a million gallons of wine, I think that would be reasonable evidence that he had stolen some of the wine in that cellar, though you could not prove that any wine was stolen, or any wine was missed.”