A Letter to John Wilkes, Esq; Sheriff of London and Middlesex / In Which the Extortion and Oppression of Sheriffs Officers, With Many Other Alarming Abuses, Are Exemplified and Detected; and a Remedy Proposed

Transcribed from the 1771 S. Bladon edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
Sheriff of LONDON and MIDDLESEX;
IN WHICH
The EXTORTION and OPPRESSION of Sheriffs Officers, with many other alarming Abuses, are ex- emplified and detected; and a Remedy proposed:
The infamous Practice of Attornies CLEARLY POINTED OUT;
And many other real Grievances which the Common People have long groaned under without Relief.
ILLUSTRATED WITH
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE POLICY and Advantage of Arrests in general, &c. &c.
Careless of censure , nor too fond of fame , Still pleas’d to praise , yet not afraid to blame . Pope.
By ROBERT HOLLOWAY, Gent. Of Gray’s-Inn.
LONDON: Printed for S. Bladon, in Pater-noster Row. M DCC LXXI.
A Dedication seems as necessary to a publication as legitimacy to a child; but as I have no blown-up fool to flatter, no private end to answer, no itch to become an author, thirst for praise, nor dread of censure, I shall therefore commit the annexed sheets to your protection; in the course of which the reader will find my pen a most faithful amanuensis to truth. And if so weak a monitor contributes but a mite to general utility, the end is fulfilled; if no, the intention is equally laudable. I have sowed the seeds of reformation; it is you must manure the land, and give the increase. The task is undertook at infinite peril; an accumulation of enemies enemies is the certain consequence, whilst a creation of friends amounts not to a glimmering hope. To raise a party or private emolument, I have quitted the turnpike-road, and omitted every thing necessary for the purpose; viz. libelling the most respectable characters in the nation, and giving scurrility and falshood a preference to truth.