out ourselves
Wi' fists instead o' law;
Since Samson fit, there never was
Good fightin wi the jaw."

So _now_ Tom's not a thriving man,
He owns not cow or pig;
And evermore he'll be in debt
To Honest Lawyer Prigg.

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

Footnotes

{0a} Since the First Edition, "a bulky volume" of new rules has
appeared. No independent existence at present, and therefore anatomy
uncertain. I have peeped at it, and think if it reaches maturity it will
help the rich litigant very much; and, if it abolishes trial by jury, as
it threatens, we shall be, in time to come, a Judge-ridden people, which
God forbid. I am not afraid of a Judge now, but I should be then. The
choice in the future _might_ be between servility and a prison; and I
sincerely believe that if trial by jury should be abolished, this country
would not be safe to live in. Much _mending_, therefore, and
consequently the more holes. I wonder what the Liberalism of the future
will say when it learns that the Liberalism of Mr. Gladstone's Government
struck the first blow at _Trial by Jury_? Truly "the axe to laid to the
root of the tree," and, reversing the Divine order, "every tree that
_bringeth forth good fruit is_" in danger of being "hewn down."

R. H.

{22} This inscription, with the exception of the names, is a literal
copy.

{52} Modern pleaders would say the Court would take judicial notice of
the existence of Egypt: I am aware of this, but at the time I write of
the Courts were too young to take notice.

{138} The correctness of Mr. O'Rapley's views may be vouched for by a
newspaper report in the _Evening Standard_ of April 17th, 1883, which was
as follows:--"Mr. Justice Day in charging the Grand Jury at the
Manchester Spring Assizes yesterday, expressed his disagreement with the
opinion of other Judges in favour of the Commission being so altered that
the Judge would have to 'deliver all the prisoners detained in gaol,' and
regarded it as a waste of the Judge's time that he should have to try a
case in which a woman was indicted for stealing a shawl worth
three-and-ninepence, or a prisoner charged with stealing two mutton pies
and two ounces of bacon."

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUMOUROUS STORY OF FARMER
BUMPKIN'S LAWSUIT***

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