gainst the sins and sinners of the courts. When simple
folk had expended their rage in denunciations of venal eloquence and
unjust judgments, they amused themselves with laughing at the antiquated
verbiage of the rascals who sought to conceal their bad morality under
worse Latin. 'A New Modell, or the Conversion of the Infidell Terms of
the Law: For the Better promoting of misunderstanding according to
Common Sense,' is a publication consisting of a cover or fly-leaf and
two leaves, that appeared about a year before the Restoration. The wit
is not brilliant; its humor is not free from uncleanness; but its comic
renderings[17] of a hundred law terms illustrate the humor of the
times.

More serious in aim, but not less comical in result, is William Cole's
'A Rod for the Lawyers. London, Printed in the year 1659.' The preface
of this mad treatise ends thus--"I do not altogether despair but that
before I dye I may see the Inns of Courts, or dens of Thieves, converted
into Hospitals, which were a rare piece of justice; that as they
formerly have immured those that robbed the poor of houses, so they may
at last preserve the poor themselves."

Another book touching on the same subject and belonging to the same
period, is, 'Sagrir, or Doomsday drawing nigh; With Thunder and
Lightning to Lawyers, (1653) by John Rogers.'

Violent, even for a man holding Fifth-Monarchy views, John Rogers
prefers a lengthy indictment against lawyers, for whose delinquencies
and heinous offence he admits neither apology nor palliation. In his
opinion all judges deserve the death of Arnold and Hall, whose last
moments were provided for by the hangman. The wearers of the long robe
are perjurers, thieves, enemies of mankind; their institutions are
hateful, and their usages abominable. In olden time they were less
powerful and rapacious. But prosperity soon exaggerated all their evil
qualities. Sketching the rise of the profession, the author
observes--"These men would get sometimes Parents, Friends, Brothers,
Neighbors, sometimes _others_ to be (in their absence) Agents, Factors,
or Solicitors for them at Westminster, and as yet they had no stately
houses or mansions to live in, as they have now (called Inns of Court),
but they lodged like countrymen or strangers in ordinary Inns. But
afterwards, when the interests of lawyers began to look big (as in
Edward III.'s days), they got mansions or colleges, which they called
Inns, and by the king's favor