Comp. Yes, and a Lawyer told me, it shou’d have been an Action of the Case, did he not, Wife?
Peg. I have no Skill in the Law you know Husband, but the Gentleman did say so.
Pett. Aye, but your Action of the Case in this Point is too ticklish.
Comp. Well, but pray tell me, do you think I shall overthrow my Adversary?
Pett. Without all doubt, the Child he says is none of yours, What of that! I marry a Widow, and am by Consequence possess’d of a Ward. Now shall not I have the Management of that Ward? Now Sir you lie at a stronger Ward, for Partus sequitur ventrem, says the Civil Law: So that if you were within the Compass of the four Seas, as the Common Law goes, the Child must be yours, that’s certain.
Comp. Say you so, Sir? Why then the Child’s my own, for I have been a Coaster these five Years and more; and so my Service to you: [Drinks]. O your Attorneys in Guild-hall have a rare time on’t, by the Lord Harry.
Peg. They are as it were both Judg and Jury themselves.
Comp. And O how they will laugh at their Clients when they sit in a Tavern, and call them Fools, Blockheads and Coxcombs, and then whip up their Causes as nimbly as a Barber trims his Customers on a Christmas-Eve; a Snip, a Wipe and away.
Pett. That’s very common, you shall have the like at a Nisi-prius.
Enter Drawer.