Transcribed from the 1771 S. Bladon edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Public domain cover] 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 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. * * * * * TO THE PUBLIC. 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.