Part 12 (1/2)

Having lost it, so now we prepare for the summer, And on the 12th of June presented a reclaimer; But dreading a refuse, we gave Dundas[16] a fee, And though it run nigh it was carried to see.

In order to bring aid from usage beyond, The answers were drawn by quondam Mess John;[17]

He united with such art our law the civil, That the counsel, on both sides, would have seen him to the devil.

The cause being called, my Lord Justice-Clerk,[18]

With all due respect, began a loud bark; He appeal'd to his conscience, his heart, and from thence, Concluded to alter, but give no expence.

Lord Stonefield,[19] unwilling his judgment to podder, Or to be precipitate agreed with his brother; But Monboddo[20] was clear the bill to enforce, Because, he observed, 'twas the price of a horse.

Says Pitfour[21] with a wink and his hat all agee, I remember a case in the year twenty-three, The magistrates of Banff contra Robert Carr, I remember well, 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[22] also quoted the case of one Lithgow Where a penalty in a bill was held _pro non scripto_.

Lord President brought his chair to the plum, Laid hold of the bench and brought forward his b.u.m; In these answers, my Lords, some freedoms have been used, Which I could point out, provided I chus'd.

I was for this interlocutor, my Lords, I admit, But am open to conviction as long's I here do sit; To oppose your precedents I quote you some clauses, But Tait[23] _a priori_ hurried up the causes.

He prov'd it as clear as the sun in the sky That the 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 carried to alter by a casting vote: Baillie then mov'd.--In the bill there's a raze, But by that time their Lords.h.i.+ps had called a new case.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Wight: a well-known advocate of the period.

[2] Baillie: Lord Palkemmet.

[3] Afterwards Lord Eskgrove.

[4] The father of James Boswell.

[5] Afterwards Lord Braxfield.

[6] Lord Covington.

[7] Andrew Pringle.

[8] Henry Home, who was notorious for the use of the epithet in the text.

[9] Sir David Dalrymple, author of the _Annals of Scotland_.

[10] George Brown of Coalston.

[11] Alexander Fraser of Strichen.

[12] James Erskine, who changed his t.i.tle to Lord Alva.

[13] James Veitch.

[14] Francis Garden, who founded the town of Laurencekirk in Kincardines.h.i.+re.

[15] Robert Dundas, first Lord President of that name.

[16] Henry, first Viscount Melville, the friend of Pitt.

[17] A nickname for John Erskine of Carnoch.

[18] Sir Thomas Miller of Glenlee.

[19] John Campbell, raised to the Bench in 1796.