Part 45 (2/2)

'By no means!'

'As for his majesty, he, God bless him! by the nature of his office is _hic et ubique_: here, there, and every where He is borne in state before each Corporation Mayor, whether Mr or My Lord; and reposes peacefully in front of Mr Speaker, or the Lord High Chancellor: investing them by his sacred presence with all their power'

'How so?'

'How so! Do you forget the mace upon the table?'

'Authority then has that virtue that, like grace divine into a wafer, it can be transfused into wood'

'Yes A lord's white wand, a general's baton; a constable's staff It is thought necessary, I grant, in soilded'

'Well, the position is that, in _Banco Regis_, the King is always present'

'So says the law'

'But the law, it appears, tells a lie; and, from all that I have heard, I wish it were the only one that it told'

'Could the law hear, sir, it would take very grave offence at your language It only assumes a fiction'

'John Doe and Richard Roe, who are the pledges of prosecution, are twopardon I should have said fictions'

'Why, yes: considering that John Doe and Richard Roe never dom, were never once met, in house, street, or field, in public, or in private, nay had never yet the good luck to be born, they have really done a deal of business'

'They resee whole herds into the depths of destruction'

'Or, if you will, they are a kind of real yet invisible hob-goblins: by who is liable to be haunted It must however be allowed of them that they are a pair of very active and convenient persons'

'To lawyers But God help the rest of mankind! Are there many of these fictions?'

'More than I or any man, I believe, can at one time remember'

'Fro part of the profession'

'Not at all; if ill take things as we find them, and neither be more curious nor squeamish than wise I will state the process of a suit to you; and you will then perceive how plain and straight-forward it is We will suppose A the plaintiff: B the defendant A brings his action by bill Action you know means this: '_Actio nihil aliud est quaht of prosecuting to judgment, for what is due to one's self' B is and was _supposed_ to be in the custody of the Marshal Observe, _supposed to be_: for very likely B is walking unarden; or what not B ill say happens to live in Surrey, Kent, or any other county, except Middlesex; and is _supposed_ to have , and never have been out of his own door And then the latitat _supposes_ that a bill had issued, and further _supposes_ that it has been returned _non est inventus_, and moreover _supposes_ it to have been filed B lives in Kent, you know; and this latitat is addressed, in _supposition_, to the Sheriff of the county, greeting; though as to the Sheriff he neither sees, hears, nor knows any thing concerning it; and infor he is confined to his bed by a broken leg) runs up and down, in _supposition_, and secretes himself in the Sheriff's county of Kent: on which--'

'I beg your pardon: I cannot follow you through all this labyrinth of _supposes_'

'No! Then you will never do for a lawyer: for I have but just begun I should carry you along an endless chain of them; every link of which is connected'