University of Virginia Library

It is not a little surprising to observe, that the best treatise upon the British constitution was written by the French gentleman above named; while the history of England, from whence every later writer has composed his work, has uniformly been that of Rapin de Thoyras, who also owed his birth to France, and which work, although prolix, is completely void of prejudice, and full of learned and amusing annotations.

Although Sir Scribblecumdash has advanced so much in praise of this subject, I must beg leave to remark, that however good the laws themselves may be, it is far otherwise with their Limbs; wherefore that no reader, judging from the above couplets, may be prompted to run headlong into danger, I shall trouble him with the following statements, which having perused, “let him then go to law with what appetite he may.”

Mr. Selwyn, a very sagacious and experienced citizen, (who was formerly a candidate for the office of chamberlain of London, and missed it only by seven votes out of 7000), used to say, that a man who deliberates about going to law should have 1. A good cause. 2. A good purse. 3. An honest and skilful attorney. 4. Good evidence. 5. Able counsel. 6. An upright judge. 7. An intelligent jury. 8. Good luck; without which, with all the other seven, it is odds but he miscarries in his suit.

In Burton on Melancholy, p. 50, he states as follows: “He that goes to law, as the proverbe is, holds a wolfe by the eares, or, as a sheepe in a storme, runs for shelter to a brier. If he prosecute his cause, he is consumed; if he surcease his suit, he looseth all. What difference?”

An advocate of Strasbourg being suddenly taken ill, sent for a brother lawyer to make his will, by which he bequeathed 72,000 florins to the Hospital of Idiots in that city. His brother advocate, expressing his surprise at this bequest, “Why not bestow that sum upon them?” (said the dying man) “You know I got my money by fools, and therefore to fools it ought to return.”