Attornies fees amount to ten or fifteen pounds by suing a debtor to execution, and by making terms to avoid it as many shillings only; it is therefore absurd to suppose an attorney would advise an amicable adjustment.
As I have in the course of these confused and indigested observations pointed out the several abuses of attornies and bailiffs, with their several remedies, I shall endeavour to shew the reason why these remedies remain unapplied, and why such atrocious offences escape the vigilance, energy, and force of so many statutes framed for their detection, and upon a strict enquiry we shall find the evil under two general heads.
These outrages are mostly practised on such objects as are in a defenceless situation, and constrained to silence from their inabilities to complain. If, per contra, the oppressed person saves enough out of the wreck to make application, it is made under these disadvantageous circumstances. An attorney of integrity and reputation as studiously shuns a contest with miscreants, so loaded with infamy, as they would an epidemical contagion; on the other hand, an attorney of the same stamp renders the remedy infinitely worse than the disease. The relief obtained from such an advocate serves but to involve and plunge the complainant in a more horrid gulph of distress, by picking his pocket of every shilling he can procure, and afterwards selling his cause to the infamous defendant. This is a truth fatally felt by one half of the world, and acknowledged by the other.
Surely then the interest and honor of the profession is deeply engaged in the extirpation of these disgraceful nuisances to THEIR community; a small degree of THEIR exertion would brush these asps from the face of the earth, which now buzz and sting, to the annoyance of every less offensive member of society.
To say that this great end is not easy to accomplish, is folly and cowardice in the extreme. A proper knowledge in the laws, joined to a little spirit and resolution, would absolutely bring the whole artillery of pettyfoggers to capitulate at least, and we should see them reduced to the alternative of living by the fair practice, or seeking some other profession.
Is it not enough to put the whole body of law out of countenance, when I positively aver to their teeth, that, with the assistance of the laws now in force, and an able attorney of spirit and character, I would undertake to render these horrid transactions impracticable, with impunity, for the future.
But what can we expect, when our most eminent pleaders will view a monstrous gigantic villany stalking on the verge of his brief, and will not step out of his methodical path to catch it? Have we not heard an orator exclaim, Your lordships are well acquainted with the abilities of this man, this quire of affidavits are of his manufactory, the credit of which, my lords, will render an explanation of the matter unnecessary?
Notwithstanding the known and established character of the solicitor in question, the very next cause we see the same eloquent gentleman take up the trowel and plaister of logic, and completely cover the egregious blacking he bestowed on him half an hour before.
It is not all the rhetorical eloquence, muttered from the force of language, that can reconcile this absurdity to common sense. The man who was all infamy half an hour ago cannot make so quick a transition; but on such paradoxes in law does the safety and support of these Jeofails depend.
Much having been said about the peculiar qualifications and abilities of a pettyfogging attorney, I shall conclude this Letter with a portrait of the most eminent one in this metropolis.