"And which chain is frequently strong enough to bind and imprison both plaintiff and defendant."
"Certainly: or the law would be as dead in its spirit as it is in its letter."
"I fear I shall never get all the phrases and forms of law by rote."
"Why, no. If you did, heaven help you! it would breed a fine confusion in your brain. You would become as litigious and as unintelligible as our friend Stradling."
"Mr. Stradling," said Hilary, "is one of my clients: an unfortunate man who, being a law-printer, has in the way of trade read so many law-books, and accustomed himself to such a peculiar jargon, as to imagine that he is a better lawyer than any of us; so that he has half-ruined himself by litigation. He is to dine with us, and will soon be here."
"I will provoke him," continued Trottman, "to afford you a sample of his gibberish; you may then examine what degree of instruction you suppose may be obtained from a heterogeneous topsy-turvy ma.s.s of law phrases."
"But why irritate your friend?"
"You mistake. He has it so eternally on his tongue that, instead of giving him pain to shew the various methods in which he supposes he could torment an antagonist at law, it affords him the highest gratification."
"Our friend Hilary here is better qualified for the task of instruction; but he feels some of your qualms; and is now and then inclined to doubt that there is vice in the glorious system which regulates all our actions."
"I deny that it regulates them," said Hilary. "If people in general had no more knowledge of right and wrong than they have of law, their actions would indeed be wretchedly regulated!"
This was a sagacious remark. It made an impression upon me that was not forgotten. It suggested the important truth that the pretensions of law to govern are ridiculous; and that men act, as Hilary justly affirmed, well or ill according to their sense of right and wrong.
Mr. Stradling soon after came; and Trottman very artfully led him into a dispute on a supposed case, which Trottman pretended to defend, and aggravated him, by contradiction, till Stradling roundly affirmed his opponent knew nothing of conducting a suit at law.
The volubility of this gentleman was extraordinary; and the trouble I thought myself obliged to bestow, at that time, on the subject could alone have enabled me to remember any part of the jargon he uttered, in opposition to Trottman: which in substance was as follows.
"Give me leave to tell you, friend Trottman, you know nothing of the matter; and I should be very glad I could provoke you to meet me in Westminster-hall. If I had you but in the Courts, d.a.m.n me if you should easily get out!"
"I tell you once more I would not leave you a coat to your back."
"You! Lord help you! I would _traverse_ your indictment, _demur_ to your plea, bring my _writ of error, nonsuit_ you. Sir, I would _ca sa fi fa_ you. I would _bar_ you. I would _lat.i.tat_ you, _replevin_ you, _refalo_ you. I would have my _non est inventus_, my _alias_, and _pluries_, and _pluries_, and _pluries, ad infinitum_. I would have you in _trover_; in _detinue_; I would send your loving friend Richard Roe to you. I would _eject_ you. I would make you _confess lease entry and ouster_. I would file my _bill of Middles.e.x_; or my _lat.i.tat_ with an _ac etiam_. Nay, I would be a worse plague to you still: I would have my bill filed in B.R. I would furnish you with a special original for C.P. You talk! I would sue out my _capias_, _alias_, and _pluries_, at once; and outlaw you before you should hear one word of the proceeding."
Bless me, thought I, what innumerable ways there are of reducing a man to beggary and destruction according to law!
Trottman thus provokingly continued.
"My dear Mr. Stradling, your brain is bewildered. You go backward and forward, from one supposition to another, and from process to process, till you really don"t know what you say. If I were your opponent, in any Court in the kingdom, I should certainly make the law provide you a lodging for the rest of your life."
"Bring your action! That"s all! Bring your action, and observe how finely I will _nonpros_ you: or reduce you to a _nolle prosequi_. You think yourself knowing? Pshaw. I have nonsuited fifty more cunning fellows, in my time; and shall do fifty more."
G.o.d help them! thought I.
"I have laid many a pert put by the heels. You pretend to carry an action through the Courts with me! Why, sir, I have helped to ruin three men of a thousand a year; and am in a fair way, at this very hour, of doing as much for a Baronet of five times the property."
I listened in astonishment.
"And do you take a pleasure in remembering this?" said Hilary.
"Pleasure!" answered Stradling; staring. "Why, do you think, Mr.
Hilary, I should have taken a pleasure in ruining myself? What did I do but act according to the laws of my country? And, if men will oppose me, and pretend to understand those laws better than I do, let them pay for their ignorance and their presumption. Let them respect the law, or let their brats go beg."
"The law I find, sir," said I, "has no compa.s.sion."
"Compa.s.sion, indeed! No, sir. Compa.s.sion is a fool; and the law is wise."
"In itself I hope it is: but I own I doubt the wisdom of its practice."
"But this practice, you must know," said Trottman, with a wink to Stradling, "Mr. Trevor means to reform."
"Oh," replied Stradling, "then I suppose, when the gentleman is at the bar, he will never accept a brief, till he has first examined the equity of the case."
"That, sir," I replied, "is my firm intention."
"Ha, ha, ha! Mr. Trevor, you are a young man! You will know better in time."
"And do you imagine, sir, that I will ever hire myself to chicanery, and be the willing promoter of fraud? If I do, may I live hated, and die despised!"
"Ay, ay! Very true! I don"t remember that I ever met with a youth, who had just begun to keep his terms, who did not profess much the same. And, which is well worthy of remark, those that have been most vehement in these professions have been most famous, when they came to the bar, for undertaking and gaining the rottenest causes."
"You shall find however, sir, that I shall be an exception to this rule."
"Excuse me, Mr. Trevor, for not too hastily crediting hasty a.s.sertions. I know mankind as well as I know the law. However, I can only tell you that if your practice keep pace with your professions, you will never be Lord Chief Justice."
"Do the judges then encourage barristers, who undertake the defence of bad and base actions?"
"To be sure they do. They sometimes shake their heads and look grave: but we know very well they defended such themselves: or, as I tell you, they would never have been judges. If two men have a dispute, one of them must be in the wrong. And who is able to p.r.o.nounce which, except the law?"
"My dear Mr. Stradling," said Trottman, "you are again out of your depth. When two men dispute, it almost always happens that they are both in the wrong. And this is the glorious resource of law; and the refuge of its counsellors, and its judges."
Trottman and Stradling were accustomed to each other"s manner; and, notwithstanding the language they used, nothing more was meant than a kind of jocular sparring: which would now and then forget itself for a moment, and become waspish; but would recollect and recover its temper the next sentence.
I replied to Trottman--"It is true that, when two men dispute, it generally happens they are both in the wrong. But one is always more in the wrong than the other; and it should be the business of lawyers to examine, and of the law to decide upon, their different degrees of error."
"What, sir!" exclaimed Stradling. "If you were counsel in a cause for plaintiff A, instead of exposing the blunders and wrongs of defendant B, would you enquire into those of your own client?"
"I would enquire impartially into both."
"And if you knew any circ.u.mstance which would infallibly insure plaintiff a nonsuit, you would declare it to the Court?"
"I would declare the truth, and the whole truth."
"Here"s doctrine! Here"s law!"
"No," said Trottman; "it is not law. It is reform."
"It ought to be law. As an advocate, I am a man who hire out my knowledge and talents for the avowed purpose of doing justice; and am to consider neither plaintiff nor defendant, but justice only.
Otherwise, I should certainly be the vilest of rascals!"
"Heyday!" thundered Stradling: and, after a pause, added--"It is my opinion, those words are liable to a prosecution, Mr. Trevor; and, by G----, if you were to be cast in any one of our Courts for them, it would be no fault either of the bench or the bar if the sentence of the law, which you are defaming, did not shut you up for life!"