_ca sa_ was short for a writ of _Capias ad Satisfaciendum_, which gave
a warrant to the officers to seize the goods. There were various kinds
of this machinery, but what affected Mr. Pickwick was a _Capias ad
Satisfaciendum_, to enforce attendance at the Court. The _ca sa_ also
came after judgment, giving authority to imprison the defendant till the
claim was satisfied.

The appearance of such great guns as the two Serjeants is accounted for
by a curious rule that Serjeants only were permitted to lead in cases
read in the Court of Common Pleas. {84} This strange monopoly recalls
that other one, in the Court of Arches, where the advocates and judges
used to exchange places and decide on cases in which perhaps they had
been advocates. These illiberal and unaccountable restrictions have been
swept away, with the Courts themselves.

Very unusual indeed at this time was the appearance of a lawyer of
Serjeant Snubbin's class in court, and there is a well-known story how,
when Charles Butler made his appearance on a special occasion, all the
Bar crowded in to hear him, and he had, I think, to get a gown for the
occasion.

One is sorry to think that there are no Serjeants now, though at the
Irish Bar there is one solitary survivor--Serjeant Hemphill. Gone too,
are their "coifs" and other paraphernalia. With the abolition of the
separate courts they were found superfluous. We like to hear of Serjeant
Parry, Serjeant Ballantine, Serjeants Warren and Talford, all four
literary men. {85}

Having made this initial blunder, Perker did not even instruct a good,
smart and ready junior, but chose instead the incapable Phunky who really
brought out that fatal piece of evidence from Winkle, which "did for" his
case altogether. He had no business, as Boz tells us.

This junior, we are told, had been just called, that is to say, he had
been only eight years at the Bar. Snubbin had never heard of him. The
little judge, in court, also said "that he never had the pleasure of
hearing the gentleman's name before," a sneer he would not have ventured
on to a counsel in good practice. Snubbin's remark is amusing and
sarcastic; but now-a-days any barrister who had been at the Bar eight
years would not be considered as just called, for if he has been passed
over for that time, he is likely never to make a figure. The rude and
unbecoming sneers, both of Snubbin and the little Judge, seem amazing in
our present code of legal manners.