when excessive tenderness rather than mercilessness is the characteristic of the age. To us Jeffreys cannot appear otherwise than as a ruthless brute. There can be no harm in regarding Jeffreys as the type of all that is worst in judgeships, but he ought to be regarded as the type to which his fellows and predecessors conformed." We can strongly recommend Mr. Irving's book to all who desire a vivid picture of those perturbed times, and the proceedings in the Courts of Justice, and who wish for a dramatic description of the career of an ambitious lawyer. We are thankful for many reasons that we live in these quieter times, and one cause for our thankfulness is that we can never be called upon to hold up our hand before a Judge Jeffreys.

REGINALD TALBOT.

VII. THE ATTORNEY IN THE POETS.

(Continued from p. 178.)

OR an attorney to have but a share in vituperation

FOR

at large was a fate too good for him; but Mr. William Woty put this right. Mr. William Woty's is not one of the most famous names in English literature; even the volumes of selections now pass him by unheeded. He lives, perhaps, only by a chance reference in Boswell as part owner of a miscellany to which the great Doctor contributed. But in his day he must have been well-known, for when his poetical works, in two volumes, were published in 1770, by subscription ("All hail! Subscription! 'Tis to thee we owe, The plenteous fruits, which from invention grow"), more than 550 copies had been subscribed, and the list included names still well remembered. Dr. Johnson, himself, is there, and SO are James Boswell, Esq., Mr. Garrick, George Coleman, Esq., Mr. Atterbury, Canon Seward, C. Phillips, and J. Phillips and Mrs. Horneckperhaps the mother of the Jessamy bride. Now Mr. Woty misplaces no mercy in his judgment; the attorney is a

pettifogger, and the pettifogger he proceeds, in a borrowed

strain, to depict :

:

THE PETTIFOGGER.

A PARODY,

WRITTEN IN WESTMINSTER HALL IN THE LONG VACATION.

The Courts are shut-departed ev'ry judge,

Each greedy lawyer gripes his double fee,
In doleful mood the suitors homeward trudge
And leave the hall to silence and to me.
Now not a barrister attracts the sight,
And all the dome a solemn stillness holds,
Save at the entrance, where with all her might
The quean of apples at the porter scolds.
Save that at fives a group of wrangling boys

At intervals pursue the bounding ball,

Some ghost of Jefferies will this floor parade,

Some daring pettifogger, stern of brow,

Who might have done due honour to the spade,

Whirl'd the tough flail, or grasp'd the peaceful plough.

The upstart thing some useful trade to learn,

By far more suited to his shallow head.

Some trade, by which he might have known to earn,

With honest industry, his daily bread.

False pride forbade: nor to himself alone

Confines his views, but to his son extends;
Forbade the youth, to quirks already prone,
To mind the means, so he could gain the ends.

* An author and bookseller there,

Forbade to bind him 'prentice to a trade,
Behind a compter all the day to stand,
His birth by work mechanic to degrade,
Or wait on customers with cap in hand.

Far from the worthy members of the law,

A rogue in grain, he ever kept aloof;

From learn'd bum-bailiff learn'd his briefs to draw,
And where he could not find, he coin'd a proof.

Yet doth this wretch, illiterate as proud,
With low-life homage, low-life bus'ness meet,
And pick the pockets of th' unhappy crowd,
Mur'd in the Compters, Newgate, and the Fleet.

Bound by their creditors in durance fast!
In plaintive murmurs they bewail their fate,
And many an eager, wishful eye they cast,
Whene'er the turnkey opes and shuts the gate.
For who to dull imprisonment a prey,
The pleasing thoughts of freedom e'er resigned,
From home, from wife, and children dragg'd away,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind.

Some sharp Attorney must the captive hire,
Who knows each secret winding of the laws,
Some previous fees th' attorney will require,
Before he ventures to conduct his cause.

For you, who traverse up and down this shrine,
And lounge, and saunter at your wonted rate,
If in some future chat with arch design,
Some wag should ask this pettifogger's fate.

In sneering mood some brother quill may say,

"I've seen him oft at alehouse table sit,

"Part stain'd with grease, and part defil'd with beer,

"His thirst with cooling porter would he quench, "And bend his noddle o'er the gazeteer.

"Hard by yon steps, now grinning as in scorn,

VULTURE, the arrant'st rascal upon earth,
At length is caught and into Newgate thrown.
Fair honesty disclaim'd him at his birth,

And villainy confess'd him for her own.

Grown old in sin, at no one crime dismay'd,
'Gainst Nature's cries he arm'd his callous heart;
For when his father was to death convey'd,

He growl'd and damn'd the slowness of the cart.
Jack Ketch, to show his duty to his friend,
Will soon confirm it with the strongest tie,
But on such ties what mortal would depend.
A rogue he liv'd, and like a rogue he'll die.
Now prest with guilt, he feels its sharpest sting,
Great his transgressions, and but small his hope,
He gave the sheriff (all he had) a ring,

He gain'd from justice (all he fear'd) a rope.

No farther seek his vices to disclose,

But leave the culprit to his dark abode,

There let him rest, till breaking his repose

The hangman summons him to Tyburn road.

The attorney was dirty, illiterate, poor, a rogue in grain ; but to say this was not enough. Mr. Woty felt so strongly on the theme that he lavished upon it an illustration-the only one in the volume-and the poem concludes with a rough drawing of the gallows.

The last thirty years of the 18th century are rich in references to the profession. This was, indeed, the period

* The Royal Oak, a public-house near the Hall.

when popular attention was first effectively directed to its affairs. Earlier attempts at regulation had been only partially and temporarily successful, but the Act of 1734 had reduced the body to small and manageable dimensions and laid the foundation of modern rules affecting the class. After nearly half a century's experience of its work, further changes were seen to be necessary. The better men in the profession were petitioning Parliament to take steps to exclude from it men unqualified by lack of education or character. Of external critics the judges were amongst the most severe, and the attorneys, once the favourites of the courts, now had little chance of success there. The very highwaymen were like-minded, if one may trust a modern interpreter. "I had no more liking for Baverstock,' says Mr. Marriott Watson's hero, Dick Ryder,* " than I should spend upon an Attorney, save that he was a fellow of spirit." The poets, then, only followed a fashion when they wrote as did Mr. Woty. The full-blooded denunciation of attorneys by the gentleman who concealed himself under the name of "Expertus" doubtless represents fairly the general feeling. "The Lawyers,' a poem, which has survived only in The Muses' Mirrort is set "to the tune of the Georgians."

Of all professions on the Globe,
The coifed gown and scarlet robe
Most mis'ry do create;

Instead of soothing down your cares,
They serve but to perplex affairs,
And bring them to debate.

Whether your cause be good or bad,
Whilst there is money to be had,

They'll still your suit maintain :

It is the bus'ness of their life

'Twixt greatest friends to stir up strife
Whose quarrels are their gain.

*

Galloping Dick, p. 174.

+ Vol. I., p. III (A.D. 1778).