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quondam charm for us. Macklin makes one of the charac- 

 ters in his Love a la Mode say : " The law is a sort of. a hocus- 

 pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer 

 pocket." Listen to old Georo;^e Stevenson's lampoon on the 

 law : " Law is law — law is law ; and as in such, and so forth, 

 and hereby and aforesaid, provided always, nevertheless and 

 notwithstanding. Law is like a country dance : people are 

 led up and down in it till they are tired. Law is like a book 

 of surgery : there are a great many desperate cases in it. It 

 is also like physic : they that take the least of it are best off. 

 Law is like a homely gentlewoman : very well to follow. 

 Law is also like a scolding wife : very bad when it follows us. 

 Law is like a new fashion : people are bewitched to get into 

 it ; it is also like bad weather : most people are glad when 

 they get out of it." Here is a story illustrative of Peter the 

 Great's contempt for the legal profession. Being at West- 

 minster Hall in Term time, and seeing a great number of 

 people swarming about the courts, he inquired : " Who are 

 all these busy people ? " " Lawyers," was the reply. "Law- 

 yers !" cried the great monarch, " Why, I have but four in 

 my whole kingdom, and I purpose to hang two of them as 

 soon as I get home." Henry Fox, in the course of a philippic 

 against Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, exclaimed : " Touch but 

 a cobweb in Westminster Hall, and the old spider of the law 

 is out upon you with all his vermin at his heels." Douglas 

 Jerrold, too, is not without his fling at our unhappy science : 

 " Self-defense," he remarks, " is the clearest of all laws ; and 

 for this reason — the lawyers didn't make it !" Even the 

 sober and sedate Benjamin Franklin, who, as a statesman, 

 ought really to have done better by us, cannot forbear to 

 launch a satirical shaft at the hard-beset quarry. This is his 

 characterization : " A country-man between two lawyers is 

 like a fish between two cats." And, lastly in this connection, 

 let us quote a piece of proverbial philosophy by Josh Billings: 

 " Every man should know something of law. If he knows 

 enough to keep out of it, he is a pretty good lawyer !" 



