When Lord Hardwicke’s marriage bill was in the House of
Commons, Fox, afterward Lord Holland, saying that one clause
gave unheard-of power to parents on the marriage of minors,
proceeded to lay open the chicanery and jargon of the lawyers,
and the pride of their mufti, and drew a most severe picture
of the Chancellor under the application of the story of a
gentlewoman at Salisbury, who, having a sore leg, sent for a
country surgeon, who pronounced that it must be cut off. The
gentlewoman, unwilling to submit to the operation, sent for
another more merciful, who said he could save her leg without
the least operation. The surgeons conferred. The ignorant one
said: “I know it might be saved, but I have given my opinion; my
character depends upon it, and we must carry it through.” The
leg was cut off. (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of
Law and Lawyers.”
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