THE PLEADER’S GUIDE. 565 
Diffuse their sweets, unseen -by vulgar eye, 
Oft let me hear thee—while, like thee, I seek 
This lone retirement of our earliest days ; 
And let us join our rural notes, to speak 
The God of universal nature’s praise ; 
For ’tis his guardian hand us both sustains, 
His common bounty we in common share ; 
For us he cloth’d the woods and deck’d the 
lains, 
Adorn’d the meads, and scented all the air. 
wae thy dulcet throat the pow'rs of song, 
e breath’d the tuneful rapture through 
my byeast, 
He cast our lot those rustic shades among, 
Where meek simplicity has fix'd her rest. * 
Why then should I against thy life conspire, 
Or seek thy thraldom, while Tene secure? 
O, mild associate of the heayen-taught quire ! 
Dismiss thy fears—my presence yet endure. 
« But thou art Man !’ methinks such strains 
I hear, 
« Well then may we suspect the plausiye, 
lay, J 
Nor trust that those our feeble race should 
spare, : 
Whose faithless arts too oft their owy be- 
tray ve 
Arr. XXVII. The Pleader’s Guide, a didactic Poem, in tavo Parts, &S'c. By the late 
J.J, S, Esq. Special Pleader and Barrister at Law. {Anew edition.) 12mo. pp. 212. + 
THOUGH the wit of this singular 
production is almost exclusively techni- 
cal, a very superficial acquaintance with 
the profession will enable the reader to 
‘enjoy its pleasantry. ‘ 
«« The poem is divided into two parts, and 
the whole subdivided into eighteen lectures, 
being the substance of a course of instruc- 
tion in the practice of the courts, and the 
art of special pleading, originally intended 
by the author for the use of his kinsman, 
Mr. Job Surrebutter, to whom it is particu- 
larly addressed. "(he author, in the outset 
of his plan, professes to demonstrate to his 
pupil the decided superiority of the common 
aw over the civil, with respect to some pecur 
liar advantages, heretofore, perhaps, not fully 
considered ; and from thence proceeds to in- 
‘struct him inthe history of a suit at common 
jaw, commencing with the original writ, and 
conducting him regularly through the whole 
~-of the subsequent precess, in all its splendid 
varieties and modifications ; and finishing the 
first course of his lectures with the parties* 
final appearance in court, upon the return of 
the process to outlawry. 
«* The subsequent lectures, which com- 
pose the second part, resume the subject at 
» the point where it rested, preserving the epic 
and didactic character of the work, through 
the remaining stages of the pleadings and the 
trial.” 
* me > * * 2 © 
« OF legal fictions, quirks, and glosses, 
Attorney’s gains, and client's josses, 
Of'suits created, lost, and won, 
How to undo, 2nd be undone, 
Whether by common law, or civil, 
A man goes sooner to the devil, 
_ ‘Things which few mortals can disclose 
In verse, or comprebend in prose, 
1 sing—Do thou, bright Phoebus, deign 
~ Yo shine for once in Chanc’ry-lane ; 
_And, Clio, if your pipe you'll lend 
“To Mercury the lawyer's friend, 
That usher of the golden rod, 
~ Of gain and eloquence the god, 
‘Shall lead my step, with guidance sure, 
“Safe through the palpable obscure, 
. 
And take my parchments, for his labour, 
To coyer your harmonious tabour.” 
After this exordium the poet or lec- 
turer calls upon all members of the law 
to listen to him and laugh. This appeal 
rather unpleasantly disturbs that tone of 
irony which runs through the work, and 
which should not in any instance have 
been laid aside. He then addresses his 
kinsman, for whose benefit these mstruc- 
tions are chiefly designed. 
« But, chicfly thou, dear Job, my friend, 
My kinsman, to my yerse attend ; 
By education form'd to shine 
Conspicuous in the pleading line, 
For you, from five years old to twenty, 
Were cramm’d with Latin words in plenty, ; 
Were bound apprentice to the muses, 
And fore’d with hard words, blows, arid 
bruiges, 
To labour on poetic ground, | 
Dactyls and Spondees to confound, 
And when become in fiction wise, 
In Pagan histories and lies, 
Were sent to dive at Granta’s cells, 
For truth in dialectic wells, 
There duly bound for four years more 
To ply the philosophic oar, 
Points metaphysical to moot, 
Chop logic, wrangle, and dispute ; 
And now, by far the most ambitious 
fall the sons of Bergersdicius, 
Present the law with all the knowledge 
You gather’d both at school and college, 
Still bent.on adding to your store 
The graces of a pleaecr’s lore ; 
And, better to improve your taste, 
Are by your parents’ fondness plac’d 
Among the blest, the chosen few, 
(Blest, if their happiness they knew,) 
Who for three hundred guineas paid 
To some great master of the trade, , 
Have, at his rooms, by special favour, 
Lis leave to use their best endeavour 
By drawing pleas, from nine till four, 
To earn him twice three hundred mere, 
And, after dinner, may repair, 
To ‘foresaid rooms, and hen and there 
008 
