t as patients are still accustomed to fee their
doctors. To these personal applicants, and also to clients who
approached him by their agents, he was very liberal. "When those who
came to ask his counsel gave him a piece, he used to give back the half,
and to make ten shillings his fee in ordinary matters that did not
require much time or study." From this it may be inferred that whilst
Hale was an eminent member of the bar, twenty shillings was the usual
fee to a leading counsel, and an angel the customary honorarium to an
ordinary practitioner. As readers have already been told, the angel[11]
was a common fee in the seventeenth century; but the story of Hale's
generous usage implies that his more distinguished contemporaries were
wont to look for and accept a double fee. Moreover, the anecdote would
not be told in Hale's honor, if etiquette had fixed the double fee as
the minimum of remuneration for a superior barrister's opinion. He was
frequently employed in arbitration cases, and as an arbitrator he
steadily refused payment for his services to legal disputants, saying,
in explanation of his moderation, "In these cases I am made a judge, and
a judge ought to take no money." The misapprehension as to the nature of
an arbitrator's functions, displayed in these words, gives an
instructive insight into the mental constitution of the judge who wrote
on natural science, and at the same time exerted himself to secure the
conviction of witches. A more pleasant and commendable illustration of
his conscientiousness in pecuniary matters, is found in the steadiness
with which he refused to throw upon society the spurious coin which he
had taken from his clients. In a tone of surprise that raises a smile at
the average morality of our forefathers, Bishop Burnet tells of Hale:
"Another remarkable instance of his justice and goodness was, that when
he found ill money had been put into his hands, he would never suffer it
to be vented again; for he thought it was no excuse for him to put false
money in other people's hands, because some had put it into his. A great
heap of this he had gathered together, for many had so abused his
goodness as to mix base money among the fees that were given him." In
this particular case, the judge's virtue was its own reward. His house
being entered by burglars, this accumulation of bad money attracted the
notice of the robbers, who selected it from a variety of goods and
chattels, and carried it off u