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 Exemplified and Detected; and a Remedy ProposedHolloway, Robert, active 1771-1808
History
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 Exemplified and Detected; and a Remedy Proposed
Holloway, Robert, active 1771-1808
Crime; Extortion; Freedom; Sheriffs
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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