ick had shewn himself such a doughty and
unyielding fighter--going to prison rather than pay. Perhaps they
thought he might get the better of them again.

We have very little evidence as to what was the scale of fees in use in
these days. They were of course far lower than they are now, after
allowances even for the lower cost of living. To-day, the fees to
Counsel alone would have absorbed considerably more than Dodson and
Fogg's whole bill of costs. A nice point is, could Mr. Pickwick's
irregular interview with Serjeant Snubbin be considered something in the
way of a consultation? Here were Counsel, Solicitor and Client: the
Serjeant gave up a portion of his valuable time and, further, the junior
counsel was summoned specially from his chambers to supply his "advice
and opinion." Mr. Pickwick ought surely to have to pay for his whim.
And the bill of costs that these "sharks" of attornies sent in! It was
astonishingly moderate. For writ, service of subpoenas, hunting up
evidence, consultation, fees to counsel, fees for the day, retainers,
etc.,--the sum of 120 pounds was all that was asked.

Imagine Messrs. Lewis and Lewis sending in such a demand at the end of a
trial which it had taken them nearly a year to get ready. In our time it
could hardly be done under 1,000 pounds. Perker, by the way, told his
client that on payment of the costs both of Plaintiff and Defendent, into
the hands of "these sharks" he would get his release. With much
indulgence--the attornies--allowed him to leave the prison on his bare
undertaking to pay. And it is not clear why he should pay his own costs
to them, and not to Perker. And they were _not_ paid for sometime. Mr.
Pickwick's own costs must have been small. He had no witnesses. Perker
would not have made a hand of him, and I fancy he would have got off for
ninety pounds, or a hundred pounds. There was, however, the fees of the
Special Jury, so he would have to pay, say, 220 pounds.

THE COGNOVIT.

Perker, it has been shown, was not a very brilliant solicitor, and his
views on the trial were somewhat cloudy. When he was urging his client
to leave the Fleet he threw out some equally shadowy and ill-informed
notions as to what might be done in the way of punishing the nefarious
solicitors, Dodson and Fogg, "those Freeman's Court Sharks."

His great charge was that they had got a _cognovit_, or undertaking to
pay their costs out of Mrs. Bardell--their own clie