Far from the worthy members of the law, A rogue in grain, he ever kept aloof : From learn'd bum-bailiff learn'd his briefs to draw, And where he could not find, he coin'd a proof. Yet doth this wretch, illiterate as proud, With low-life homage, low-life bus'ness meet, And pick the pockets of th' unhappy crowd, Mur'd in the Compters. Newgate, and the Fleet. Bound by their creditors in durance fast! In plaintive murmurs they bewail their fate, And many an eager, wistful eye they cast, Whene'er the turnkey opes and shuts the gate. For who to dull imprisonment a prey, From Thehome, pleasing fromthoughts wife, from of freedom children e'er dragg'd resigned, away, Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind. Some sharp Attorney must the captive hire, Who knows each secret winding of the laws, Some previous fees th' attorney will require, Before he ventures to conduct his cause.
HIS CHARACTER.
Vulture, the arrant'st rascal upon earth, At length is caught and into Newgate thrown. Fair honesty disclaim'd him at his birth, And villainy confess'd him for her own. Grown old in sin, at no one crime dismay'd, 'Gainst Nature's cries he arm'd his callous heart; For when his father was to death convey'd, He growl'd — and damn'd the slowness of the cart Jack WillKetch, soon confirm to show ithiswith dutythetostrongest his friend.tie, But A on rogue suchheties liv'd, what andmortal like a would rogue depend. he'll die.
Now prest with guilt, he feels its sharpest sting. Great his transgressions, and but small his hope, He gave the sheriff (all he had) a ring, He gain'd from justice (all he fear'd) a rope. No farther seek his vices to disclose, There But let leave himtherest, culprit till breaking to his dark his abode, repose The hangman summons him to Tyburn road.
For you, who traverse up and down this shrike, And lounge, and saunter at your wonted rate, If in some future chat with arch design, Some wag should ask this pettifogger's fate
The attorney was dirty, illiterate, poor, a rogue in grain; but to say this was not enough. Mr. Woty felt so strongly on the theme that he lavished upon it an illustra In sneering mood some brother quill may say, "I've seen him oft at alehouse table sit, tion—the only one in the volume—and the Brushing with dirty hands the crumbs away, poem concludes with a rough drawing of the And eye the mutton roasting on the spit. gallows. The last thirty years of the eighteenth "There in the snug warm corner of the bench Part stain'd with grease, and part defil'd with beer, century are rich in references to the profes sion. This was, indeed, the period when His thirst with cooling porter would he quench, And bend his noddle o'er the gazetteer. popular attention was first effectively directed to its affairs. Earlier attempts at regulation "Hard by yon steps, now grinning as in scorn, had been only partially and temporarily suc Now Mutt'ring hanginghisdown oathshisand pate, quibbles like one would forlorn, he stand, cessful, but the Act of 1734 had reduced the body to small and manageable dimensions As if some dread commitment was at hand. and laid the foundation of modern rules af "One morn I miss'd him in this custom'd Hall, fecting the class. After nearly half a cen And at the Oak,' where he was wont to be, tury's experience of its work, further changes His clerk came down and answer'd to my call, were seen to be necessary. The better men But by yon steps, nor at the Oak was he. in the profession were petitioning Parliament to take steps to exclude from it men unquali "The next I heard (oh melancholy tale! fied by lack of education or character. Of On our profession what a foul reproach! That he for forgery was confin'd in jail, external critics the judges were amongst the And dragg'd (oh shameful! ) there without a coach." most severe, and the attorneys, once the fav orites of the courts, now had little chance of 1 The Royal Oak, a public house near the Hall.
