N. XI.

THE ATTORNEY'S OFFICE.

"Here are two equal ways of gaining

By hind'ring justice, or maintaining."

BUTLER.

"My father had expressed a wish that I should devote myself to his profession, and I felt anxious to do so; believing that it would be in my power to contribute to the comfort of his old age. I, therefore, accompanied him to the different towns in which he had offices, where, on market-days, he attended for the purpose of being near his clients. Every thing was so new to me, that I occasionally experienced great amusement from the succession of variety which characterizes an attorney's office.

"When the quarter-sessions of the peace approached, our office was crowded to suffocation

with all descriptions of persons pressing forward with eager solicitude. What a contrast their anxious and distorted countenances presented to the quiet, business-like aspect of my father, who considered this as his harvest. A good lawyer makes but little difference between forming tangents for the designing to shoot away from the sphere of equity, and forcing the scoundrel before the tribunal of justice, so that he receives the reward of his legal advice.

"Alas!' I exclaimed, what is familiar to us does not excite our emotion. Were my father to behold the horrors of war, his feelings would be roused; and he might, perhaps, experience, as I do now, an alternation of pity and disgust.'

"Will your honour,' said a well-fed-looking, termagant-faced woman, after waiting till her patience was quite exhausted, hear me now, I say, sir?'

6

"State your business,' answered my father. "I shall not endeavour to amuse you by describing her vulgar garrulity. The sum of her complaint was, that Mr. Waddle, her master, had pushed her down stairs, because she had abused

her mistress for not giving her lump-sugar, instead of brown, with her tea.

"I called,' said a long sharp-faced pawnbroker, stretching over the desk, to settle this bill you have sent me for the judgment; will you take that?' and he turned his hand, from which a ten-pound note peeped.

666

No,' said my father; but you may have it taxed if you please; the charges are very moderate.'

666

Why,' answered the pledge-taker, 'you have charged for attendances and services here which astonish me; surely there must be some mistake; look over the whole again, I beg of you.'

"All is right, you may depend, Mr. Martin,' said the other; I took the items from the taxmaster's office; let it be submitted the fourth day in term: whom do you appoint?'

"Confound me if I understand it,' replied the pawnbroker; but I shall take good care before I go to law again;' and he marched down stairs

in a pet.

"Ah! Dr.

I am happy to see you,' said my father, soon after; while I placed a chair for a

reverend-looking old gentleman, who hobbled into the office.

"This father of religion' had three good churchlivings in County Louth; on one of which there was no church, and his parishioners had been advised to resist the payment of tithes on the ground that he had no duties to perform, for they were all Roman Catholics. In consequence of this, he had entered an action against them in chancery, which had already cost him about £2,000. The contortions which his countenance underwent, when my father explained the necessity of further advances, were truly grotesque. "Confound Counsellor Moore!' added he, as he limped down stairs, he put them up to it all."

"Our next client was a noble lord, who had involved himself by assignments to the sons of a frail fair one, to whom he was understood to be indebted; but, tiring of a troublesome connexion, he ousted them by taking forcible possession, for which they had brought an action.

"His lordship had scarcely taken his departure when a young country 'squire, who was agent for another nobleman, entered, with all the conse

quence which generally attends ignorant pride. He had taken a whim to make a sheep-walk of a mountain facing his romantic abode. All the tenants, along its side, were served with ejectments in the depth of winter, and dispossessed forthwith. One unfortunate woman died in the pangs of childbirth at the end of her own cabin. An old man, who begged in vain for permission to remain in his house till his daughter recovered from typhus fever, had the roof of his cabin cut down over the heads of his sick family. For this outrage he had brought an action, and received a decree for £300 damages; but the defendant had appealed, in the hope of defeating the award by a law quibble. When I heard this, and understood that the rich man had no chance of success in the superior courts, I rejoiced in the protection of our glorious laws. I was thrown, however, into profound melancholy upon learning that perhaps not a shilling would be left of the damages to reward the poor man for his trouble; so much would be consumed in costs between attorney and client, and in the innumerable extra expenses which a needy man incurs in a lawsuit. In short, I came