And made me mount upon the bare ridge, T' avoid a wretcheder miscarriage." The lawyer approves his case, and would like to have it his own case. "But we that practise dare not own; Our taking bus'ness off men's hands; But make oath, that is, in plain terms, I thank you, quoth the Knight, for that, For Justice, tho' she's painted blind, Is to the weaker side inclin’d, Like charity: else right and wrong Cou'd never hold it out so long, And like blind fortune, with a sleight, Convey men's interest and right From Stiles's pocket into Nokes's, As easily as hocus pocus; Plays fast and loose, makes men obnoxious; And clear again, like hiccius doctius." His lawyer also counsels him to "Retain all sorts of witnesses, That ply i' th' Temple, under trees; Or walk the round, with knights o' th' posts, The pillar-rows in Lincoln's-Inn, T'expose to sale all sorts of oaths, Besides the Gospel, and their souls; Of the nature of an oath, Hudibras says, "Oaths were not purpos'd, more than law, In short, Hudibras bristles all over with accurate knowledge of law, and scathing sarcasms on its ministers and administration. Butler's correct use of law-phrases is not singular when we learn that he was for some years clerk to a justice, but nothing short of genius can account for his remarkable insight into the human mind and human motives. РОРЕ. Pope has immortalized one lawyer, Mr. Fortescue, to whom his First Satire is addressed :— "I come to counsel learned in the law: You'll give me like a friend, both sage and free, Fortescue was the author of the humorous report in Scriblerus, "Straddling versus Stiles," in which this nice. point is discussed with professional phraseology and due gravity: "Sir John Swale of Swalehall, in Swaledale, by the river Swale, knight, made his last will and testament, in which, among other bequests, was this; viz., 'Out of the kind love and respect that I bear unto my muchhonored and good friend, Mr. Matthew Straddling, gent., I do bequeath unto the said Matthew Straddling, gent., all my black and white horses.' The testator had six black horses, six white horses, and six pied horses. The debate, therefore, was whether or no the said Matthew Straddling should have the said pied horses by virtue of the said bequest." The case is ably debated, though not at such length as legal cases usually are, when it is suddenly terminated by a motion in arrest of judgment, that the pied horses were mares; and thereupon an inspection. was prayed! Fortescue in 1738 was master of the rolls, but he would never have been remembered by posterity had it not happened that he worked for a poet for nothing. BLACKSTONE, who had a great passion and genius for literature, gave up every thing for the law; but his legal acquirements and talents, although large, were not distinguished enough to have given him immortality, unless they had been joined with that elegant style which makes his Commentaries so delightful. The following is his melodious and playful "Farewell to the Muse," written in 1744: "As by some tyrant's stern command An endless exile from his home; Pensive he treads the destin'd way, Companion of my tender age, Then all was joyous, all was young, These scenes must charm me now no more: Me wrangling courts and stubborn Law Loose Revelry and Riot bold In frighted street their orgies hold; Shakespeare no more, thy sylvan son, Pope's heav'n strung lyre, nor Waller's ease, In furs and coifs around me stand: There, in a winding, close retreat, Oh, let me pierce the secret shade |