Having lost it so nigh, we prepare for the summer,
And on the 12th of June presented a reclaimer;
But dreading a refuse, we gave Dundas[117] a fee,
And though it run nigh, it was carried ‘TO SEE.’[118]
In order to bring aid from usage bygone,
The Answers were drawn by _quondam_ Mess John.[119]
He united with such art our law with the civil,
That the counsel on both sides wished him to the devil.
The cause being called, my Lord Justice-clerk,[120]
With all due respect, began a loud bark:
He appealed to his conscience, his heart, and from thence
Concluded—‘TO ALTER,’ but to give no expense.
Lord Stonefield,[121] unwilling his judgment to pother,
Or to be _anticipate_, agreed with his brother:
But Monboddo[122] was clear the bill to enforce
Because, he observed, it was the price of a horse.
Says Pitfour,[123] with a wink, and his hat all a-jee,
‘I remember a case in the year twenty-three—
The Magistrates of Banff _contra_ Robert Carr;
I remember weel—I was then at the bar.
Likewise, my lords, in the case of Peter Caw,
_Superflua non nocent_ was found to be law.’
Lord Kennet[124] also quoted the case of one Lithgow,
Where a penalty in a bill was held _pro non scripto_.
The Lord President brought his chair to the plumb,
Laid hold of the bench, and brought forward his bum;
‘In these Answers, my lords, some freedoms are used,
Which I could point out, provided I choosed.
I was for the interlocutor, my lords, I admit,
But am open to conviction as long’s I here do sit.
To oppose your precedents, I quote a few cases;’
And Tait[125] _à priori_, hurried up the causes.
He proved it as clear as the sun in the sky,
That their maxims of law could not here apply;
That the writing in question was neither bill nor band,
But something unknown in the law of the land.
The question—‘Adhere,’ or ‘Alter,’ being put,
It was carried—‘To Alter,’ by a casting vote;
Baillie then moved—‘In the bill there’s a raze;’
But by this time their lordships had called a new cause.
A few additions to the notes, in a more liberal space, will complete
what I have to set down regarding the lawyers of the last age.
[Illustration: THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE.