for shew,
Like nest-eggs, to make clients lay, And for his false, opinion pay: To
whom the knight, with comely grace, Put off his hat to put his case,
Which he as proudly entertain'd As the other courteously strain'd; And
to assure him 'twas not that He looked for, bid him put on's hat."

Under Victoria, the needy junior is compelled, for the sake of
appearances, to furnish his shelves with law books, and cover his table
with counterfeit briefs. Under the Stuarts, he placed a bowl of spurious
money amongst the sham papers that lay upon his table.

[11] In the 'Serviens ad Legem,' Mr. Sergeant Manning raises question
concerning the antiquity of _guineas_ and half-guineas, with the
following remarks:--"Should any cavil be raised against this jocular
allusion, on the ground that guineas and half-guineas were unknown to
sergeants who flourished in the sixteenth century, the objector might be
reminded, that in antique records, instances occur in which the
'guianois d'or,' issued from the ducal mint at Bordeaux, by the
authority of the Plantagenet sovereigns of Guienne, were by the same
authority, made current among their English subjects; and it might be
suggested that those who have gone to the coast of Africa for the origin
of the modern guinea, need not have carried their researches beyond the
Bay of Biscay. _Quaere_, whether the Guinea Coast itself may not owe its
name to the 'guianois d'or' for which it furnished the raw material."

CHAPTER XIII.

RETAINERS GENERAL AND SPECIAL.

Pemberton's fees for his services in behalf of the Seven Bishops show
that the most eminent counsel of his time were content with very modest
remuneration for advice and eloquence. From the bill of an attorney
employed in that famous trial, it appears that the ex-Chief Justice was
paid a retaining-fee of five guineas, and received twenty guineas with
his brief. He also pocketed three guineas for a consultation. At the
present date, thirty times the sum of these paltry payments would be
thought an inadequate compensation for such zeal, judgment, and ability
as Francis Pemberton displayed in the defence of his reverend clients.

But, though lawyers were paid thus moderately in the seventeenth
century, the complaints concerning their avarice and extortions were
loud and universal. This public discontent was due to the inordinate
exactions of judges and place-holders rather than to the conduct of
barristers and attorneys; but popular