Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1

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[252] a charlatan, who knew nothing of principles, and who was very much disliked by his brother professors; Oudot, also, whom I had heard this morning, was a charlatan,—and this I believe; M. Rossi, an able man, but paresseux.

All were kind enough to remark this evening that I had gained a great deal of French; that they were astonished at my progress. I just begin to enjoy conversation, and the sensation is delightful. My greatest difficulty is promptly to command the proper form of salutation when I enter a room. After I am once started, I find myself able to run on with some comparative facility, but of course with constant blunders.

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Journal.

Feb. 15, 1838. In the morning before breakfast, heard Berriat Saint-Prix at the Law School. He did not appear less venerable this time than when I saw him before. He held his snuff-box in his hand during all his lecture, and occasionally rapped with it for silence, calling out, Un peu de silence! About the middle of his lecture, he stopped for a moment, rose, and walked backwards and forwards,—to rest, perhaps, his ancient limbs,—and then proceeded. After his lecture, he said he would attend to examinations; and about half-adozen students came forward, handed their names, and then resumed their seats, when the professor called them, one by one (Monsieur A., &c.), and proposed questions, apparently in the law of Procedure, upon which he lectured. Each student answered to four or five questions. I presume that this examination is one of the many which a student undergoes preparatory to admission to the bar.