ROBERT CROWLEY.

"The voyce of the laste Trumpet, blowen by the seventh Angel (as is mentioned in the eleventh of the Apocalips), callying al estate of men to the ryght path of theyr vocation; wherein are conteyned xii lessons to twelve severall estats of men; which, if they learne and folowe, al shall be wel, and nothing amis," is a book printed in London in 1550, and so scarce that I have never been able to find a copy in this country, and have become acquainted with it only by seeing a copy quoted in an old catalogue at fifteen pounds, and some extracts cited in Brydges' Restituta. The lessons are addressed respectively to beggars, servants, yeomen, lewd priests, scholars, learned men, physicians, lawyers, merchants, gentlemen, magistrates, and women. The following is a portion of "The Lawiar's Lesson:

"Nowe come hither, thou manne of Lawe,
And marcke what I shall to the saye;

For I intend the for to drawe
Out of thy most ungodly waye.
Thy calling is good and godly,

If thou wouldste walke theren aryght;
But thou art so passying gredy,
That God's fear is out of thy syght.

Thou desirest so to be alofte,

That thy desyre can have no staye:
Thou hast forgotten to go soft,

Thou art so hasty on thy way.

But now I call the to repent,

And thy gredines to forsake;
For God's wrath is agaynst the bent,
If thou wilt not my warnyng take.

1

Fyrst, call unto thy memorye

For what cause the Laws wer fyrst made;
And then apply the busily

To the same ende to use thy trade.

The Lawes were made, undoubtedly, .
That al such men as are oppreste,
Myght in the same fynde remedy,
And leade their lyves in quiet reste.
Dost thou then walke in thy callyng?
When for to vexe the innocent
Thou wilt stande at a barre, ballyng,
Wyth all the craft thou canst invente.
I saye ballyng-for better name
To have it cannot be worthye;
When lyke a beast, without al shame,
Thou wilt do wrong to get money."

JOSHUA SYLVESTER

dedicated the following sonnet to Chancellor Egerton :—

THE LAW.

Most humbly shewes to thy great worthiness
(Great moderator of our Britain lawes),

The muses abject (subject of distress)

How long wrong-vext, in a not needless cause,
Not at the King's Bench, but the Penny-less,
By one, I Want (the son of simpleness):
Unable more to greaze the scraping paws
Of his Attorney Shift, or oil the jaws
Of his (dear) counsell, Sergeant Pensiveness,
He is compell'd, in forma pauperis,
To plead himself, and shew his (little) law
In the free court of thy mild courtesies.

Please it, therefore, an Injunction grant,

To stay the Suit between himself and Want.
For thee and thine, for ay,

So he and his shall pray."

B. N.

These initials, probably those of Nicholas Breton, are subscribed to the prefatory address of a singular book entitled, "I Would, and Would Not," published in London in 1614. An idea of the author's plan, as well as his style, may be conveyed by the following stanzas applicable to our subject:

"I would I were a man of such deepe wit,

As might discerne the depth of every cause; That wheresoere I did in Judgement sit,

I might be held a Note-booke in the Lawes. My braine might seeme a kinde of miracle, And every word I spake an Oracle.

And yet I would not; for then, woe were me,

I should be troubled with a world of Cases:
Both rich and poore would then my Clients be,
Some with their pleasing, some with piteous faces;
And when the Rich had left their briberie,
I should not rest for Forma Pauperie."

FRANCIS QUARLES,

In "Emblems Divine and Moral," speaking of the "golden age," says,

"There was no client then to wait

The leisure of his long-tail'd advocate;

The talion law was in request,

And chanc'ry courts were kept in every breast;

Abused statutes had no tenters,

And men could deal secure without indentures.”

JOHN STEPHENS,

in 1615, published "Essayes and Characters, ironical and instructive. With a new Satyre, in defense of common Lawyers, mixt with reproofe against their common Enemy." The following extract is said to allude to Ruggles's Latin play of "Ignoramus," which was a severe attack on law and lawyers:

"It hath been tolde

Sound wits are modest, shallow wits are bolde;
And therefore did the law-tearme Poet weene
To please a publike eare with private spleene.
Now, O the pitty! that a misconceite

Of some, should all the Law and Lawyers baite.
Content yourselfe (saith Ignoramus), I
Am well acquainted with your pollicy:
You in the fencer's trick are deeply read;
And off'ring at the foot, you mean the head.
As doth a rebell who hath taken armes,
He promises to helpe his countries harmes,
But hath a meaning to surprise the towne,
And make the total regiment his owne,
Such was the meaning, to disgrace the Law
Under a colour'd trick, and wisely draw

That honor to yourselves which follows them."

He also gives the character of an honest lawyer: "He is a precious diamond set in pure gold; the one gives glory to the other; and being divided, they be lesse valuable. He knows Law to be the mistres of man, and yet he makes Honesty the mistres of the Law. He hath as much leasure to dispute with Conscience in the most

busie tearme as in the deadest vacation. He rails not against the vices of his profession, but makes his profession commendable by his owne practise of vertue. He may well be a president to the best physicians, for he undertakes no cure when he perceives it inclining to be desperate. He makes the cause, and not the client, the object of his labour. He hath no leasure to protract time, or save his client's opinion with jests premeditated, or windy inferences. He owes so much worship to desert and innocence, that he can as faithfully applaud sufficient worth, as not to insult over, or exclaime against, dull ignorance. He dares know and professe, in spight of potency: hee dares be rich and honest, in despight of custome.”

LYNDSAY.

While we are grubbing among ancient remains, it would be wrong to pass over Sir David Lyndsay's "Monarchie," in which a personage termed "Experience” thus speaks of Law:

"I would some Prince of great discretion

In vulgar language plainly causde translate
The needful Lawes of this Region:

Then would there not be halfe so great debate
Among us people of the low estate.

If every man the verity did know,

We needed not to treat these men of Law.

To do our neighbour wrong, we would beware,
If we did fear the Lawes punishment:

There would not be such brawling at the Bar,
Nor men of Law chine to such Royal rent,
To keep the Law if all men were content,
And each man do as he would be done to,
The Judges would get little thing adoe."