University of Virginia Library

LETTER XI.

The insult which the foresters
supposed to be put on them by the obstruction
of the road, as mentioned in my
last, caused a serious alarm, and induced
them to call a meeting of the heads of the
several families to consult for their own
safety. The result of this meeting was to
endeavour by all peaceable means in their
power to effect an accommodation; but
if that should fail, to prepare, in the best
manner they could, to assert and maintain
their rights, possessions and properties.

In prosecution of the former part of
their plan, they wrote letters to Mr. Bull,
and to several members of his family;
and with respect to the latter part, they
came to a resolution to buy nothing more
of him till he should change his mode of
conduct, and treat them as he had formerly
done.

In the letters which they wrote on this
occasion, though they professed a great
deal of respect and affection for the old
gentleman himself; they omitted to send
their compliments to his wife. This was
more than madam could bear. She
therefore, after consulting with her gambling
companions, determined upon the
two following points; first, that no answer
at all should be given to the letter;
and secondly, that an action at law should
be entered, and the tenants ejected from
their possessions. She would not however
have come to this latter determination,
if she had not been assured by persons

who pretended thoroughly to understand
their family secrets, that the foresters
would not dare to defend their title in
law; but on the first appearance of a legal
process, would submit to any terms of
accommodation which her ladyship might
think proper to impose. Full of this
idea, she roundly swore that she would see
them prostrate at her feet, before she
would make up the matter with them on
any terms whatever.

Influenced by her passions, Mr.
Bull's choler rose to the highest pitch.
As lord of the manor, he placed bailiffs
and blood hounds in the high way, and
denied all passage to any persons without
his license. He then called upon all the
counsellors and attornies to whom he had
given a retaining fee, and who were very
numerous, to exert all their learning and
eloquence in maintaining his cause, promising
them not only a regular payment of
their sees, but a generous allowance for

disbursements and incidental charges, to
be paid at sight by a draught on his
banker.

These sagacious gentlemen, many of
whom were of Madam's own junto, finding
that they had a fat client, contrived
to husband the job, and spin out the cause
secundum artem. They were old prosicients
in the science, and knew very well
how to take double receipts of their stationers,
bailiffs, messengers, and other retainers,
i. e. one receipt for the exact sum
paid, and another for double the same
sum; these latter were always produced
as vouchers in the settlement of accounts,
and in the glorious uncertainty of the law
were admitted under the name of duplicates.
It would divert you to see the
numberless items which they crouded into
their bills of costs, and the various pleas
and pretences which were formed for demurring
and continuing the cause from
one session to another; while they were

feeding their client with the hope that in
every next session it would be decided.

On the other hand, the foresters finding
that Mr. Bull had retained so many
learned counsellors, sergeants and barristers
in his service, and that he had by far the
longest purse, were obliged to use the
greatest economy in conducting their defence.
On looking round to see who was
the most prudent, the most deliberate, and
the most determined among them, and to
whom they might with safety commit their
cause, they unanimously pitched upon
Walter Pipeweed's grandson George; who,
being elected their chief attorney, modestly
accepted the office on this generous condition,
that they should not insist on his receiving
any fee or reward, because he conceived
that in serving them he was doing
no more than his duty. This instance of
magnanimity was interpreted by them as
a sure omen of success.

George was a man of good understanding
and true spunk; he had made
considerable progress in the study of the
law for his own amusement, and had practised
at the bar in the defence of his own
family claims against the encroachments
of old Lewis. His abilities were of such
a nature as to rise and shine with the opportunities
which called them into action.
This was also the case with divers other
persons in the families of the foresters;
who would perhaps never have thought
of engaging in the study of the law, had
not this controversy been agitated; but
would have remained in the state which is
thus elegantly described by the poet.

This circumstance was predicted in the
hearing of Mr. Bull's wife, by a very
learned and honest gentleman, who would

have dissuaded her from giving her husband
such bad advice as to plunge himself
into that “deep ditch,” the law, out
of which there is no coming till the last
farthing be paid. “If there are any seeds
of genius, said this faithful adviser, they
are drawn into action by public ferments
and troubles; but might have remained
in time of tranquillity forever useless and
unknown, perhaps at the plough, under a
shed, or among the lowest class of mechanics.”[1]
This sage hint was totally
disregarded, because, as I before observed,
too much confidence was placed in a
set of advisers, who pretended to know all
the family secrets of the foresters. But
the prediction was fully verified when this
lawsuit brought to the bar one from his
farm, and another from his merchandise,
one from his shed, and another from his
shop,[2] till in fact they became a match,
in point of numbers at least, for the
whole host of Mr. Bull's attornies.

The first action was brought against
John Codline, who was deemed the most
surly and refractory of the whole number.
It was thought if he could be cast, the
others would of course submit. In this
way of proceeding, Mr. Bull acted like that
species of dog which bears his name, and
which is known to attack his enemy by the
head.

The cause was learnedly argued at the
Court of Bunker hall, and the arguments
in favour of the foresters made a very unexpected
and very deep impression on the
managers for Mr. Bull. They found it a
much more serious affair than they had
imagined, and thought it best to stop
short and have the case hung up, that they
might consult their books over again, and
prepare themselves by better authorities
and allegations at the next hearing. After
a long time they contrived to shift their
ground,[3] and let John alone. They advised
Mr. Bull to send for some lawyers
out of Germany, who had been more used
to this game, and to lay an attachment on
the estate of Peter Bullfrog, and the farm
called Cæsarea; where they expected to
gain some greater advantage, partly because
the tenancy was different, being
founded on courtesy and not on lease, and
partly because of the diffentions which
they heard were subsisting in these families.

In this interval also Madam Bull's
resentment was raised so high, that she
swore point blank that not one of these
refractory scoundrels should enter her
husband's doors nor have the least connection
with him, but that she would drive
them off from the land, and repeople the
forest with another set of men.

When they had heard of this resolution,
the heads of all the families in one
of their consultations, came to a determination
to publish an advertisement, setting
forth the various abuses and grievances
which they had suffered from Mr. Bull,
his wife, and her junto; and declaring
that they looked upon the country as their
own, and themselves as free from any obligations
to him, and at liberty to look out
for other markets, and invite other merchants
to form connexions with them.
This transaction was so important an era
in the controversy, that the fourth of July,
the day on which the advertisement was

dated, has ever since been celebrated as a
day of festivity. The morning of that
anniversary is ushered in with a firing of
guns and fluttering of pigeons. At noon
you may hear some young lad spouting
a declamation in favour of free trade;
which is generally followed by a bowl of
punch and a rump of beef, and the day is
concluded with a song and a dance.

In the progress of the action, several
points of law were argued at different
times with much skill and learning. On
one of these occasions George was reducto
a dilemma, and his opponents thought
him absolutely silenced; but suddenly
recollecting himself, he rose superior to
them,[4] and compelled them again to
move for a continuance. Thus the cause
was kept suspended till the third year was
almost closed. At length a vaunting
braggadocio of a barrister on Mr. Bull's
side, who thought to carry all before him,

was so completely answered and confuted
in an obstinate argument, that a verdict
was given at Saratoga hall in favour of
those plantations, which had been sued
for in the northern part of the manor.
This verdict relieved the foresters in some
degree, and it was hoped would prove a
good precedent for the decision of the
other suits which were meditating against
their brethren in the southern
part.

The unfortunate barrister was severely
reflected on by Mr. Bull's wife, for not
doing his duty; and he was obliged to
justify himself by producing his instructions,
and by telling a number of serious
truths respecting the forest and the foresters,
which Mrs. Bull had often heard before
but would not believe. The relation
of these truths was so very offensive,
that she influenced her husband never
more to employ him; and as he could get:

no other business in the law, he has since
betaken himself to writing plays and romances.