_Straw Bail._--Fielding, in his _Life of Jonathan Wild_, book i. chap. ii.,
relates that Jonathan's aunt
"Charity took to husband an eminent gentleman, whose name I cannot
learn; but who was famous for {86} so friendly a disposition, that he
was bail for above a hundred persons in one year. He had likewise the
remarkable humour[7] of walking in Westminster Hall with a straw in his
shoe."
What was the practice here referred to, and what is the origin of the
expression "a man of straw," which is commonly applied to any one who
appears, or pretends to be, but is not, a man of property?
Straw bail is, I believe, a term still used by attorneys to distinguish
insufficient bail from "justifiable" or sufficient bail.