A LETTER TO AN Honourable Member OF PARLIAMENT, Showing The Abuses committed by Attorneys, Solicitors, etc. Containing REASONS for passing a Bill for the Regulation and Retrenchment of that Profession.  
SIR,  
AFTER such signal Instances of the good effects the Councils of your Honourable House have produced, there is no hearty Lover of his Country but must believe, that God designs great Blessings for this Nation, and seems to make you his Ministers for the execution of his Purposes: And I should be wanting in my Duty, did I not honour you in particular, for the active Zeal you have constantly shown for the Good and Welfare of your Native Country, which should illustrate itself in a more public manner, did not your Modesty force the contrary.  
The last time I had the Honour of your Conversation, you was pleased to complain to me of the strange and unaccountable Cheats and Knaveries practised by the Attorneys, Solicitors, etc. of your Neighbourhood in the Country, of their excessive Numbers and daily Increase. You seemed to have made a Resolution to endeavour the redressing the Grievances the poor People lie under upon their account; and likewise to retrench their Numbers, and lay such a Foundation, that for the future, that Profession may not be a grievance, but of use to this Nation.  
It would seem presumptuous, Sir, in me to moot your Purposes, and to give but a faint Applause of what your judgement has Stamped for good, would injure my parcel of Reasons, and therefore, since I cannot sufficiently commend this your charitable Resolution, I will forbear to say any thing farther in Commendation of it.  
And, Sir, If I have met with any thing that may be thought worthy of your Consideration, I should esteem myself wanting in that Duty which I own, if I should not lay it before you. And if there be (as some tell us) certain Lineaments in the Face of Truth, with which one cannot be deceived, because they are not to be counterfeited. I hope the Considerations which I herein presume to offer to you, may so far resemble it as to meet with your Approbation. And I do not doubt but in a few Months, this Office, by your Councils, will be brought back to its purest and most refined State, be purged from its gross Abuses, its Defects supplied, and superfluous Branches lopped off; That the worthy Members of it as well as the generality of the Kingdom, may have Reason to thank the Honourable House for so great a Good.  
A Man, Sir, of a very small Intelligence can give you large Accounts of their Knaveries and Cheats, (which are in every body's Mouth) but especially if he has had the ill Luck to fall into some of their Clutches, for they are so tenacious of a good Prize, that they seldom leave him till his Pockets are empty, and then the Cause comes to an end: The two Makebates bring their Clients to a view, and soon make up the matter: But this is after no more can be gotten out of them, when the Life of the Cause is gone, and when more Money is spent in Law than the value of the thing quarrelled for: But in promptu Causa est, the Reason is very obvious, and a Man with half an Eye may see the occasion of this Abuse, viz. the Number of the present Attorneys, for the Clerk of the Warrants of the Court of Common Pleas informs me, that there is above 1400 belonging to that Court; and I believe there is few less of the King's-bench, and then, Sir, to consider so many Men striving to get their Live, setting honest People together by the Ears, that so they may pick their Pockets, and practising other Villainies to enrich themselves, will make the Words of a Reverend Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, (viz. That a Country Attorney is worse than a wild Beast) almost Morally demonstrable; and if they were as bad in the time of Ed. 4. as they are now Septies viginti were too many, and half the number would have been more than enough: Nay, 6 Attorneys in former Days, were thought sufficient for a whole County. And if 6 good ones were enough for a County formerly, surely 60 are too many now. Our Ancestors were careful how they harboured these sort of Creatures amongst them, as being sensible what bad Neighbours they were.  
But, Sir, they are not all Attorneys who go under that Denomination, but a Pack of Rascals, who are the Authors of more villainous Practices; a parcel of poor pitiful knavish Solicitors, Pettifoggers, and Makebates, whose Profession it is to promote differences, to pick flaws in Titles, and to advance the chicanery or wrangling part of the Law; and it would amaze a Man of Integrity and Honesty, to hear them in their Clubs make their brags, and value themselves upon their knavish Performances. Sir, The Number of this Rank is very great, I do not pretend to make an exact Computation, but I may reasonably affirm, that it exceeds that of the Attorneys of both the other Courts joined together above five times. This, Sir, (give me leave to mention it to you) is insufferable, forasmuch as their Practice is an encroachment upon both King and People; and I dare affirm (and you have often concurred with me in my Opinion) that were all those that practice in this sort forced to become Attorneys, 'twould raise the King a very considerable Sum of Money. But this, Sir, with humble submission, will be no way to promote the Cause in hand, and it would be a great hardship upon the honest Attorneys, for these Men who never served as Clerks, according to the Rules of the Courts, to be thus advanced into the same Rank with those who have: And I think a broken Tradesman, a blockheadly Scrivener, or a poor Vagabond, ought not to intermeddle in so Honourable a Profession; for with your leave, Sir, I give it that Character, it having been so accounted in former Days, and no doubt would be so again, could it once receive the Honour of coming under the care of your Honourable House, altho' perhaps these may think their Case a little hard to be debarred from getting some Money by that Profession now, by which they have lost so much formerly, but, Sir, fiat Justitia si ruat Caelum, and they themselves cannot but choose but confess, (did not Interest rule) but that their Practice is a great hardship upon the others who have paid for, and laboured to obtain what these usurp. I could, Sir, say much more upon this Point; but that I fear I shall be too prolix and troublesome, for I have a great deal yet behind to trouble you with.  
Another great Abuse committed by Attorneys, is their taking such a Multitude of Clerks, that I dare affirm, there is not two in ten of twenty Years practice, but what have had fifteen Clerks, this, Sir, give me leave to call a great Abuse, since I believe not one Attorney in 40 has sufficient Practice to employ 2 Clerks; but granting they had, the Abuse would be the same, because the evil is the increase, and over stocking the Profession: Whereas, on the contrary, was every Attorney allowed but one Clerk, and he to serve him seven Years, the Number would not increase so prodigiously, and besides, there would then be Work for a parcel of poor Men, who make it their Employment, and live by Copying and Engrossing other Persons overplus Business. But, Sir, I believe I shall not be mistaken, if I tell you, that some Attorneys live by it, and their Clerks keep them, and I think 150, and 200 l. a piece, (which most Attorneys take with their Clerks) is an intolerable Price, not, Sir, that all pay after that rate, for then so many poor People could not afford to put their Children to this Practice; some are taken as Footboys, and from holding a Stirrup, advance by degrees to this pitch, and indeed it will be found upon Examination, that too many of the Members of this Profession are those whom their Parents intent shall live upon their Wits, and generally set forward into the World with but a small beginning and portion of their Father's Estates; But this, Sir, I account an abuse, and it is only the Scandal it now lies under, that possesses People with such mean thoughts of it, and I believe you will concur with me, if I say, that 'tis as necessary that one of this Profession should have as good a fortune to begin with, as is requisite in most other Employments. And therefore, Sir, I humbly think that it would not be amiss if none were allowed to put their Children to this practice but who were able, and likewise would give them enough to subsist without being Knaves, for nothing brings so much scandal upon a Profession as the sordidness and poverty of its Professors.  
Besides all this, Sir, the Attorneys are so negligent in giving Instruction to the Clerks they take, that it must be one of some Ingenuity, who can profit by their Instructions, they think they perform their Duty, if they barely let them see their Business, but never take care to inform their Understandings, and show them those things which do not fall in the way of their Practice, how this stands with their Consciences they know best, But, Sir, this is not only a private Damage, but a public Evil; 'tis this makes so many Good Causes miscarry, and the Law be accounted but as a Lottery, wherein the Knave may sooner win than the honest Man, be the Cause good or bad.  
I do not intent this, Sir, as an Argument against Youngmen; no, on the Contrary they ought to be encouraged, and I have abundance more to say against the Old ones; those who by their long and constant Practice have learned more ways to Cheat than they will impart to their Clerks, and according to the Proverb, A Young Lawyer and an old Physician are always best, for he is not so used to Cheating, and therefore must stand upon his Guard, and is likeliest too, to take the most care of a Cause, because he is beginning to live and must strive for a Reputation, but the old lazy Attorneys, who have feathered their Nests well, are loath to move and Cuckoo, like, leave their Eggs to be hatched by other Birds, commonly trusting their business with their Clerks while they drink at the Tavern, and take their Pleasure in the Country.  
By this means, Sir, we come to have such an increase of Attorneys, and they by their Tricks and Knaveries such a decrease of Business, that in truth half of them follow such as does not belong to their Profession; and amongst the rest, one way by which some of the worst sort of them live, is by being Commissioners in Statutes of Bankrupt. You may easily suppose, Sir, That making this their Profession they strive to get as much by it as they can, and by their means those good Laws which our Parliaments have made for the Advantage of Creditors are so ordered, that they really turn more to the Advantage of the Commissioners than any else; whereby the Creditor loses his Money, or at least the greatest part of it, and the poor Debtor (be he a Knave or an honest Man, 'tis all the same thing) is ruined, and all this by the Practice of the Commssioners, who lull the Creditors on to a vigorous Prosecution of the Bankrupt, and under an Insinuation that the Bankrupt is a Knave, blind the Creditors Eyes from perceiving that they themselves are really the greatest. These Practices of theirs are as light as Day; and I profess I have often wondered that your Honours have not been often besought for Relief in this Matter; but I believe Fear has been an active cause of the contrary, the poor Debtor almost lying at their Mercies and dare not adventure so far as to seek Redress from your Honourable House. If all were sensible of this Abuse, certainly Compassion would cause an effectual Provision to be made for it; for while such mercenary Men have a hand in the Commissions, not only Justice will be bought and sold, and he that bids most shall certainly have most, but the poor Debtor is in a fair way to be ruined, not by having his Estate divided amongst his Creditors (for that would be no hard case) but eat up by the King's Commissioners, and I believe there is no necessity for proving the badness of their Title to it.  
I have one word concerning the Oath which the Attorneys take when they are admitted: This, Sir, pardon me If I call useless: (as indeed are most of the present customary Oaths) For as it is now worded, there is not one Attorney in a hundred that keeps it. And therefore my humble Motion is, that a way may be found out, that since an Oath will not bind them some thing should be provided that would; and I believe nothing would be so obligatory and difficultly broken, as if, besides a new Oath, their Duty was enforced by a Bond to his Majesty, and the new Oath to be so drawn as to be more expressive, such a one as the Wisdom of the House of Commons shall prepare; this is sometimes found to be more binding than that Ceremony called an Oath, (as some Gentlemen are pleased to term it) which they think is of so little use, that ten to one they forget it before they go to Sleep.  
Should I set about it, Sir, (not to mention their Practices upon Juries and Witnesses) I could give you so large an Account of the Knaveries practised by Country Attorneys, that if you heard it all, it would be tiresome to you, and so out of good Manners I will forbear to recite such mean and numerous Rogueries. But to give you a Specimen of them, I would not have you surprised if I affirm that they have their Men on purpose to create and promote Quarrels and Controversies in their Neighbourhoods, and then to employ them in patching them up again. These are surprising Villainies, such as are hardly credible but their Agents here in Town can give a strange Account of them, and the little pitiful Actions which they Commence and Prosecute; and how frequently they are employed to prosecute Assaults and Batteries, (which are generally brought about by their forementioned Officers, Nay, the very Officers of the Courts (which is strange; because they act herein against their own Interest) have often declared themselves ashamed to sign their Proceed, the Causes of Action have been so very trivial. And the Ingenious Author of the second Letter to a Member of Parliament, concerning the Growth of Popery, the last Session, did not without reason complain of the Abuses the Papists committed under the mask of this Office. And I believe, Sir, I could give you convincing Arguments (but I will not trouble you with an Argument upon a Matter of which you are already convinced) that if it was but barely for this Reason, a scrutiny ought to be made into the probity of the Members of this Profession: And I dare say, Sir, that if a Committee were appointed to hear and take Depositions, You and the whole House would be throughly satisfied of the great necessity there is of your care in this Matter. 'Tis not, I'll assure You, Sir, a Melancholy utinam of my own, but the Desire of sounder Judgements, that your House would take some order about this Profession. And if what I have before told you be true, and I do assure you, Sir, you may depend upon my Word that it is, than I hope I may call them Abuses, and such as come within the Care of your House, for unless some Remedy be applied, I see no end of them. And this, Sir, seemed to be the sense of the last Session, by twice reading a Bill for retrenching their Numbers; which you have informed me would have gone nigh to have passed into an Act, had not the more important business of the Irish Forfeitures taken up so much of your time, and the Session been so near a Conclusion.  
I would not have you, Sir, to Imagine that what you find in this Paper is half of what might be alleged against them; No, this is but the substance of some of my own superficial Observations. 'Tis not for me, Sir, To offer a Model to the House of Commons, The Fountain of Good Counsel and Wisdom, Power and Redress, but humbly to hope they will take this important business into their Honourable Consideration; and when they shall be pleased so to do, I cannot but expect to see a good and solid Foundation laid, which can be displeasing to none but those who by their evil Practices have rendered themselves obnoxious to, and deserve the utmost Severity.  
And Pardon me, Sir, If I make bold to request you in particular to employ your Interest in this Affair; 'twill be a Work of Charity as well as Justice, to lend a helping hand to it. I am not Insensible, Sir, how I interrupt You, and I should stand in need of an Appology, was this not for the Common Good, which to you is a good Excuse: I shall always importune Heaven to furnish me with so happy a Power as may render me in some acceptable Service, Worthy Sir, not only Your faithful, but  
Your Grateful Humble Servant, A. B.   

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