When people go to law about an uncertain title, and have spent their
whole estate in the contest, nothing is more common than for some little
pettifogging attorney to step in and secure it to himself. The very name
of law seems to imply equity and justice, and that is the bait which has
drawn in many to their ruin. Others are excited by their passions, and
care not if they destroy themselves, so they do but see their enemy
perish with them. But, if we lay aside prejudice and folly, and think
calmly of the matter, we shall find, that going to law is not the best
way of deciding differences about property; it being, generally
speaking, much safer to trust to the arbitration of two or three honest
sensible neighbours, than, at a vast expense of money, time, and
trouble, to run through the tedious, frivolous forms, with which, by the
artifice of greedy lawyers, a court of judicature is contrived to be
attended. It has been said, that if mankind would lead moral virtuous
lives, there would be no occasion for divines; if they would but live
temperately and soberly, that they would never want physicians; both
which assertions, though true in the main, are yet expressed in too
great a latitude. But one may venture to affirm, that if men preserved
a strict regard to justice and honesty in their dealings with each
other, and, upon any mistake or misapprehension, were always ready to
refer the matter to disinterested umpires, of acknowledged judgment and
integrity, they never could have the least occasion for lawyers. When
people have gone to law, it is rarely to be found but one or both
parties was either stupidly obstinate, or rashly inconsiderate. For, if
the case should happen to be so intricate, that a man of common sense
could not distinguish who had the best title, how easy would it be to
have the opinion of the best counsel in the land, and agree to determine
it by that? If it should appear dubious even after that, how much better
would it be to divide the thing in dispute, rather than go to law, and
hazard the losing not only of the whole, but costs and damages into the
bargain?