Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-05-24


will presently search cause to the quick, and
find GU, the preccant humor, the little lurking
cheat, though masked in never so fair prelen-
ces one that practises law sos as not 10 forget
the gospel; but always wears a conscience as
well as grown; he weighs the cause more thar
gold and if that will not bear the touch, in
generous scorn puts back the fee.
Though he knows all The criticisms of his
faculty, and the nice snapperahoes Of practice,
yet he never useth them unless in defensive
way, to countermine the plots Of knavery, for
he affects not the devilish skill of out-baffiing
right, nor aims at the shameful glory Of making
bad cause good, but with equal contempt,
hates the VOLTS study and the dogs eloquence
and disdains to grow great by crimes, or build
him self fortune on the spois OF the oppres-
sed, or the ruin of the widow and orphan. He
has more reverence for his profession, than to
debauch it 10 unrighteous purposes, and had
rather be dumb, than suffer bis tongue to pimp
for injustice, OF club his parts TO bolster up 4
cheat with the legerde-main Of law.craft
He is not faced like Janus, to take retaining
fee from plaintiff, and afterwards hackhanded
bride from the defendant, nor so doublctongued,
that one may purchase his pleading, and the
other at the same larger price, his silence;
but when he undertakes a business he espouses
il in earnest, and does not follow cause, but
manages it. A modifying letter from the adver-
sory's potent friend, noble treat, or the rsmora
of lusty present from the great, has no infu-
ence 10 make him slacken his proceedings; for
he is so Jealous for his clients interest that you
may sooner divorce the sun from the elliptic than
warp him from his integrity, vet still is his pa
tron only asgue nG aras Gas far as just;) for if
once he finds The business smells rank, ST. Marks
treasure, or the mines of Potosi, are too small a
fee 10 engage him one step further.
AS his profession is honorable, so his educa-
ton has been liberal and ingenious, FAR differ
ferent from that Of some ji!ting pettifoggers
and purse milking law drivers, whose breeding,
like the cuckoo's, is in the nest O! another trade,
where they learn wrangling and knavery III
their own causes, to spoil other men, and, with
sweetened ingredients Of mechanic fraud, COM
pound themselves (thoush simple enough) fit
instruments for villainy. But his greener years
were seasoned with literature, and can give
better proofs Of his university learning, than
his reckoning up the colleges, and Boosting his
name in the buttery-book; he understands logic
the method Of right reasoning,) and rhetoric,
the art Of persuasion,) is well seen in history
the free-school of prudence and no stranger
TO the ethics and politics of the ancien,s. He
is skilled in other languages besides declaration
Latin, and Norman CHERISH: he read Plato and
l'ullv before he saw either Little.on or the Sta
tute book, and grounded in the principles Of
nature, and customs OF nations, came (tc.i5 md
niJus) to tie study Of our common municipal
law, which he found 10 be multorum Qnnorum
opus, a task that requires all the nerves OF in
dustry, and therefore employed his time at the
Inns of Court, better than in hunting after new
fashions, starting fresh mistresses, haunting
the play-honses, acquiring the other little
town accomplishments, which render their ad-
mirers fine men in the opinion of foo.s, but
egregious fops in the judgment the wise
In his study, he trafics not only with the in
fan,ry of epitomes, abridgmen,s, and dimimu-
nutive collectors in decimo scx'o, but draws
his knowledge from the original springs. d.
costing the whole body Of the law, in q !aborious
and regular method, but especially aims to the
well versed. in the practice Of every court, and
rightly to understand the art Of good pleading,
as knowing them TO be the most useful to unra-
| vel the knotty intrigues Of the cause, and re-
duce to an issue, yet hates to poster the court
with circuities negative pregnants, departures
and multiplied inconveniencies.
He never goes about with feigned allegations
to cast mist before the eyes Of justice, that
she may mistake her road, and assign the child
| to the wrong mother: endeavors not to pack a
Jury by his interest to the under sheriff; nor to
balk an evidence with multitude Of sudden
ensnarsng in,errogatories; nor maintains any
correspondence with the Knights Of Asatia. or
Ram-alley vouchers. He can prosecute suit
| in equity, without seeking to create a whirlpool,
where one order shall beget another, and the
poor Client be swung round 0ike cat before
execution,) from decree to rehearsin from re-
port to exception & rice uerSa, till his fortune is
shipwrecked, and himself drowned, for want of
white and yellow earth to wade thro' on. He ne
yer studies delays TO the ruin of family, for the
lucre of ten groats, nor by drilling quirks, spins
out suit more lasting than buff, depending
whole revolution Of Saturn, and entaicd on The
third and fourth generation. He does rot play
the empiric with his client, and put him on the
wrack TO make him bleed more freely, casting
him into swoon with rights Of judgment,
and then reviving him again with cordial s.
writ Of error, The dear elixir of an INDUCTION,
to keep the brange (quarreD alive as long as
there are any vital spirits in the pouch. He
can suffer his neighbors 10 live quiet about
him, without perpetual alarms of actions and
indictments, or conjuring up dormant titles 10
every commodious seat, and making the fall
FIVE years purchase, merely for lying within
ten miles Of him.
He delights TO be an arbitrator, not an ncen
diary and has beQfus DnriGcus oftener =, he