When fools fall out, for ev’ry flaw, They run horn mad to go to law, A hedge awry, a wrong plac’d gate, Will serve to spend a whole estate, Your case the lawyer says is good, And justice cannot be withstood; By tedious process from above From office they to office move; Thro’ pleas, demurrers, the dev’l and all, At length they bring it to the _hall_; The dreadful hall by Rufus rais’d, For lofty Gothick arches prais’d. The FIRST OF TERM, the fatal day, Doth various images convey; First from the courts with clam’rous bawl The _criers_ their _attorneys_ call; One of the gown, discreet and wise, By _proper_ means his witness tries; From _Wreathock’s_ gang--not right or laws H’assures his trembling client’s cause; _This_ gnaws his handkerchief, whilst _that_ Gives the kind ogling nymph his hat; Here one in love with choiristers Minds singing more than law affairs. A _serjeant_ limping on behind Shews justice lame, as well as blind. To gain new clients some dispute, Others protract an ancient suit, Jargon and noise alone prevail, While sense and reason’s sure to fail; At _Babel_ thus _law terms_ began, And now at Westm----er go on. The advocate, whose subornation of perjury is hinted at, is in the foremost group; he is offering money to one of “Wreathock’s gang.” This Wreathock was a villainous attorney, who received sentence of death for his criminal practices, and was ordered to be transported for life in 1736. It is a notorious fact, that many years ago wretches sold themselves to give any evidence, upon oath, that might be required; and some of these openly walked Westminster-hall with a straw in the shoe to signify that they wanted employment as witnesses; such was one of the customs of the “good old times,” which some of us regret we were not born in. The “choirister” in a surplice, bearing a torch, was probably one of the choir belonging to Westminster-abbey. To his right hand is the “limping serjeant” with a stick; his serjeantship being denoted by the _coif_, or cap, he wears; the _coif_ is now diminished into a small circular piece of black silk at the top of the wig, instead of the cap represented in the engraving. The first shop, on the left, is occupied by a bookseller; the next by a mathematical instrument maker; then there is another bookseller; beyond him a dealer in articles of female consumption; beyond her a bookseller again; and, last on that side, a second female shopkeeper. Opposite to her, on the right of the hall, stands a clock, with the hands signifying it to be about one in the afternoon; the first shop, next from the clock, is a bookseller’s; then comes a female, who is a map and printseller; and, lastly, the girl who receives the barrister’s hat into her care, and whose line appears to sustain the “turnovers” worn by the beaus of those days with “ruffles,”