Part 1

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Transcribed from the 1771 S. Bladon edition by David Price, email [email protected]

[Picture: Public domain cover]

A LETTER TO JOHN WILKES, Esq;

SHERIFF OF LONDON AND MIDDLESEX;

IN WHICH

THE EXTORTION AND OPPRESSION OF SHERIFFS OFFICERS, WITH MANY OTHER ALARMING ABUSES, ARE EX- EMPLIFIED AND DETECTED; AND A REMEDY PROPOSED:

THE INFAMOUS PRACTICE OF ATTORNIES CLEARLY POINTED OUT;

AND MANY OTHER REAL GRIEVANCES WHICH THE COMMON PEOPLE HAVE LONG GROANED UNDER WITHOUT RELIEF.

ILLUSTRATED WITH

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE POLICY AND ADVANTAGE OF ARRESTS IN GENERAL, &c. &c.

* * * * *

_Careless of censure_, _nor too fond of fame_, _Still pleas'd to praise_, _yet not afraid to blame_.

POPE.

* * * * *

By ROBERT HOLLOWAY, Gent. Of GRAY'S-INN.

* * * * *

LONDON: Printed for S. BLADON, in Pater-noster Row. M DCC LXXI.

* * * * *

TO THE PUBLIC.

A DEDICATION seems as necessary to a publication as legitimacy to a child; but as I have no blown-up fool to flatter, no private end to answer, no itch to become an author, thirst for praise, nor dread of censure, I shall therefore commit the annexed sheets to your protection; in the course of which the reader will find my pen a most faithful amanuensis to truth. And if so weak a monitor contributes but a mite to general utility, the end is fulfilled; if no, the intention is equally laudable. I have sowed the seeds of reformation; it is you must manure the land, and give the increase. The task is undertook at infinite peril; an accumulation of enemies enemies is the certain consequence, whilst a creation of friends amounts not to a glimmering hope. To raise a party or private emolument, I have quitted the turnpike-road, and omitted every thing necessary for the purpose; viz. libelling the most respectable characters in the nation, and giving scurrility and falshood a preference to truth.

It may be said with more envy than justice, that the subject matter is but the consequence of a private quarrel between the author and ONE of the parties alluded to. Such squibs of malice, and other obstacles of the like nature, I am well aware of, and am provided with proper artillery to combat all such opposition. It is therefore necessary to declare, that I took chambers in Gray's-Inn with a settled purpose of detecting the numerous and enormous abuses and cruelties contained in the following treatise.

How I came to fail in the undertaking, my Letter to the Citizens of London fully explains.

The seizing my furniture, books, papers, and every thing I was possessed of, under PRETENCE of debt, and the more flagrant PRETENCE of EXECUTION, together with the dispossessing me of my habitation, will neither serve to prevent the subscribing myself of Gray's-Inn, or continuing there, if a GRAIN of JUSTICE or EQUITY is to be found in a TON of LAW.

I am,

With some degree of faithfulness, The public's devoted servant, ROB. HOLLOWAY.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE originals from whence these copies are most exactly drawn, being WHOLE LENGTH pieces, in a Letter to the CITIZENS of LONDON, the publication has been SUPPRESSED on account of their MONSTROUS MIEN. Notwithstanding the _Dignity_ and _Gracefulness_ of their personages, I shall make bold to exhibit them to that part of the public who have curiosity enough to know the NAMES, FIGURE, and CHARACTER of the most ILLUSTRIOUS SCOUNDRELS this century has produced.

*** The publisher of this Letter will give a direction to the author

ROB. HOLLOWAY.

TO JOHN WILKES, Esq;

SIR,

THERE is an innate satisfaction in human nature that will ever manifest itself when occasion presents the tribute of praise to our actions, and a generous mind feels an equal degree of pleasure in paying that tribute in the coin of truth; but the ambiguity of your actions renders their construction so doubtful, there is much hazard in giving or denying them approbation. Whilst the boisterous malevolence of your enemies load you with vices foreign to your heart, the fanatic adulation of your zealots as fervently extol you for virtues WE know not of. Opinions diametrically opposite in general are but hyperboles created and cherished by the violence of party, and at best leave an hypothesis too intricate to draw any conclusion of real principles or motives from. It is therefore not altogether unpardonable if a writer should err in the portrait of a character so equivocal. In two things however the people of all degrees, interest, and principles seem to concur; namely, that the advantage derived from your conduct has heretofore been merely accidental, and that if your integrity could keep pace with your abilities, this nation might justly boast an ornament unknown to others; whether either or both these conjectures bear the testimony of truth your own heart can best determine; nevertheless it is indisputably evident that we have not witnessed one premeditated or intentional benefit, independent of your own personal and private interest, flowing from a course of eight years patriotism; how far your endeavours may have fell short of your assiduity and inclination in the pursuit of any public good, I will not contest. The multitude have long been taught to consider you as an oracle pregnant with miracles eventually as their different imaginations represented them; as yet those sanguine expectations are totally unanswered: it is therefore absolutely necessary to do something either to SERVE or DECEIVE, no matter which. Credulity is the characteristic of Englishmen, who as greedily swallow the deception as the service. They have entertained a most sovereign respect for the hacknied and prostituted word LIBERTY, without a comprehension of any property or meaning peculiar to that admirable substantive more than the bare found; to evince this truth we need only look back and view the innumerable stabs given to the vitals of Liberty in those very moments they meant to celebrate her triumph over Tyranny. The seizure of your person and papers with a general warrant furnished us with one instance of ministerial oppression, or rather ministerial ignorance; to remedy which we have seen the misguided advocates of Liberty committing every species of violence without any warrant at all, spurning the authority of magistrates, and attempting a total subversion of that order and government so absolutely necessary to GENUINE LIBERTY, the certain effects of a bigoted enthusiasm. Liberty in itself is the balm of life to an Englishman; but, like physic prescribed for our health, if treated with judgment, preserves the frame; if not, turns to poison and destroys it.--Our excellent constitution has rendered this inestimable jewel the birth-right and inheritance of the meanest subject, not in proportion to our other enjoyments, but in such equal lots, that the peasant shares with the prince. The thing itself is the same in king or subject, the difference only subsists in the mode of obtaining and using it. A due reverence to the laws of the land on which Liberty is founded, and a proper respect to the ministers acting judicially under lawful authority, is the most eligible method of preserving our privileges, whilst an impartial distribution and faithful interpretation of those laws will most assuredly prove a sufficient bulwark against all infringements or attacks of tyranny. Nor need we have any _apprehensions_ for contrary events, but from a spirit of sedition amongst ourselves. When anarchy supersedes order and subordination, when the laws become trampled on and violated, when right and wrong have lost their distinction, and justice and injustice are melted down into the same mass, Liberty will perish in the confused chaos, and we shall inevitably become slaves unpitied, inasmuch that we have voluntarily sapped the foundation of freedom, and forged the chains of our own bondage.

Thus much, Sir, I held absolutely necessary by way of introduction, and for two special reasons; first, to manifest my independence of party zeal; and secondly, to shew my esteem for the laws before I venture to censure the execution of them.

I shall now proceed, with a candid mediocrity between the extremes of violent prejudice and blind partiality, to point out a grievance of a most oppressive nature, which the common people have long groaned under and complained of to no purpose. As this is a species of oppression falling immediately under your own absolute power in some measure (as sheriff) to redress (independent of ministerial mandates or influence) we shall therefore look upon your endeavours to remove the injuries and establish a remedy as the touch-stone or standard of your affection and gratitude to a people who have deserved both on many occasions. It is evident you was apprized of the infinite abuses committed by sheriffs officers previous to your election, and that these abuses called loudly for redress; therefore you very judiciously made a public declaration, "that the rectifying such intolerable cruelties should be considered as the condition of your election." Having thus pledged your veracity for the due performance of so necessary and interesting a contract, we wait with some impatience the redemption of this solemn pawn. The hour is now approaching which will provide you fair opportunity of riveting the affection of your friends and contemning the malice of your enemies.

In an undertaking so truly laudable and beneficial to the lives, liberties, and property of your fellow citizens and subjects, you cannot doubt the assistance of every friend to justice. Experience has furnished me with a plentiful stock of such materials most necessary to lay the foundation and ground-work of your intended plan, and I shall most cheerfully transfer them when called on. Though notwithstanding such assistance, joined to your own unparalleled intrepidity, sagacity, and acquaintance with the laws, I fear the talk of reformation will prove too arduous for your single efforts. That you may form a more perfect idea of the difficulties you have to encounter, I shall set before your view the rise, progress, abilities, strength, and preposterous magnitude of a modern sheriff's officer. This excrement of the law is in general the outcast of bagnios and more infamous brothels, or the vomit of every gaol within the bills of mortality; if he can boast a seven years tour to America, it is an acquisition to his pretentions. Let this be as it may, certain it is, that they most carefully unload themselves of every tender sensation and feeling incident to human nature to render their conscience light enough for a thorough bailiff. Bawdy-house keepers, or other persons of equal reputation, find it their interest to stand security to the sheriffs, the clerks in whole office, after receiving the necessary perquisite and treat, admit him to the vocation of his profession; being thus constituted a minister of justice _durante bene placito_, and having been regularly initiated in the principles of thieving from his cradle, he begins the plundering trade, as if licensed pursuant to act of parliament, under the cherishing wings of the law, provided with the annexed indispensible implements of his profession; viz. ten of his primitive companions, by way of a _corps de reserve_, when on the forlorn hope, {7} a thorough-paced pettyfogging attorney, an infamous broker, whose conscience exceeds not the price of a rush chair, and _a very reputable_, _worthy_, monied-man, whose successful VILLANIES have enabled him to advance a sum on every occasion that offers a VICTIM to his _Friendship_. The diabolical band of this demi-pluto being thus arraigned, and his houshold established under the inspection of a female with principles of the same dimension, the inquisition opens, and the tortures begin on the first unhappy object that falls in their clutches, who is no sooner brought home (as the phrase is) but surrounded by this flock of harpies. The attorney attends in capacity of midwife to his misfortunes, and most carefully delivers him of all his secrets, such as, how much property he is possessed of, how much he owes, and many other particulars very material to him; the bottle is pushed briskly about, and the prisoner is made to believe he is amongst his best friends. The first and principal point is gained when they have prevailed on him not to pay or settle the debt. If he wants money a _worthy honest_ man attends, who will lend it him, doing these things frequently to men in his situation. Five different messages are sent to his acquaintances to bail him; the messenger _mistakes_ the way, and goes to his other creditors for more writs; the prisoner is charged a shilling or half a crown for each of those _services_. Unluckily his friends were out--but what of that! Mr. -- and Mr. -- shall bail him to-morrow, and the scoundrel of a plaintiff will never have six pence (the only word of truth he hears). To-morrow comes, the office is to be searched--unlucky again! it is a holiday, or not office-hours, &c. &c. Now a bill is brought in of five or six pounds, for which his new acquaintance have eat and drank well; his pockets stripped paves the way to stripping his house--another writ or two is come against him by these delays. The unhappy man is now fairly in the trammels--what must be done! Why, any thing to obtain liberty. The bailiff's good friends bail him, at the _modest_ expence of half the debts--and from that moment he dates his inevitable ruin. He is soon after called on to bail some rascal of their own upon a sham action, who is never to be found afterwards; therefore he must pay the debt and cost, which is snacked in the FAMILY. If it is inconvenient, out of pure _friendship_ and _humanity_, a little time is given upon a bond and judgment, which is no sooner signed, &c. but execution is taken out and levied. The _honest_ broker appraises the effects to one third the value, the monied _friend_ purchases them under the sheriff's bill of sale, the deluded wretch is robbed, beggared, and branded for a villain by his fair creditors, whilst the attorney, bailiff, broker, and purchaser divide the booty, and the unhappy debtor is sent to the King's Bench or Fleet, as an additional proof of THEIR industry. But as the same medicine agrees not with all constitutions, so the same doctrine suits not all principles, we will for a moment turn our attention to a fresh disease, and mark the operation of a fresh remedy. The patient now is a man of large dealings, whose credit is not quite exhausted, encumbered with a good-looking promising booty; he is therefore, in consideration of ten _per cent._ indulged with a length of tether, and bargains for a lease of liberty from term to term conditionally, that he neglects his business, and calls every day to treat his keeper with a bottle of Madeira, and some other _trifling_ present of five guineas value for the she Saracen who supplies the place of hostess to this infernal inquisition. However pernicious men may esteem those kind of _services_ when at a distance from the necessity of accepting them, there are few to be found possessed of sufficient resolution to reject liberty on any terms. If mankind in general were, Sir, blessed with your fortitude, they would eagerly concur in this maxim, that the worst of all danger is the dread on't. Misfortunes gather strength by travelling, and come home loaded with affliction in proportion to the time they take to reach us; therefore when we view them, though aloof, it is our interest to meet, before their burthen becomes too weighty; but the present tense is the most predominant of human passions, and we are too apt to think, whilst danger is out of sight, it is easily conquered; hence it is that the unhappy objects in question entail on themselves a life of misery, by studiously waving the difficulties of a day. If men in trade, the very instant they are arrested, would throw their property into the hands of creditors, they would certainly escape the consequences attending a different step, which at best is only delaying misery, without a hope of avoiding it:

_Like one who_, _willing to defer a while_ _A sudden ruin_, _props the tottering pile_, _Till in short space the house_, _the props_, _and all_ _Together in a dreadful ruin fall_.

But to return; more actions come against the prisoner on parole, and it is necessary to have bail, not as a security to the plaintiffs, but to augment the bailiff's emolument. It is a lucky hit if he has no friends ready; for then the banditti come into pay, and the HARVEST begins, which ends not while a moveable is found on his premises; houshold furniture indeed is not the great crop aimed at, the unfortunate man is yet in good credit, and it would be the height of ingratitude to refuse a compliance with his own destruction, to serve such worthy _friends_ as his bail; therefore he must accept a bill of 50 or 100l. for this rascal, another of the like sum for his colleague in iniquity, otherwise he is in danger of being rendered to prison. The bills thus obtained are negotiated, and the consideration sent to the den where they were given, and there divided by the thieves who inhabit it. The bills become due--the acceptor no abilities to pay--writs are taken out--more bail is procured of the same complexion--more notes must be given for the same laudable purposes--more credulous tradesmen are easily found to take them, and the product divided as before--and so on _ad infinitum_, till his credit is on a level with their principles. A statute of bankruptcy at last drops the curtain, and thus ends the farce before the tragedy is begun. Pettyfogging attornies, bailiffs, brokers, and thieves of every denomination have devoured his substance, the creditors are in luck if enough is left to pay the expence a commission. The bankrupt is sent to gaol to linger out the remainder of a wretched life, as a reward for that folly and imprudence, which his creditors construe fraud and villany.

It may be thought, Sir, that the fertility of my invention supplies the chasm of bailiffs knavery, and that to indulge an unjustifiable spleen, I have given my veracity a stretch; indeed there is no occasion for fiction, I have a most plentiful stock of substantial, well-attested infamy to cull materials from, and can produce many men who have gone through this ceremony step by step, with this variation only, that the scope of villany has been more extensive, and the catastrophe protracted to a longer date. Things are strongly misrepresented if a certain bailiff of Middlesex did not extort bills to the amount of 3000l. from one man in the afore-mentioned situation. But if these transactions, infamous as they are, were the ultimate of their villany, I should hold them so barren of vice as not to merit censure. Acts of a more alarming and cruel nature are daily practised by these BUCCANEERS and HUSSARS of law; I shall therefore overlook these as supernumerary artifices, bagatelles, and common garnish to their standing household dish of villanies, and proceed to a view of their integrity in the execution of a legal process levied on the effects of a defendant.

The first step in this business is putting from two to any _requisite_ number of their own _worthies_ in possession, not to preserve the property, but to swear that no such property existed, if necessary. The goods are generally taken off the premises without the _tedious_ form of appraisement, inventory, or bill of sale from the sheriff; nor is the difference between the sum levied and the amount of the property any obstruction, these are niceties to be determined by law. Taking ALL the property they find is, in the Bailiff Dictionary, securing the ammunition to prevent A FIRING; the English of which is, robbing a man of ALL will prevent his having any thing left to procure redress. The burglary thus completed, the plunder is appraised by the FAMILY broker, and as formally sold to another _honest_ chapman in the FAMILY way. If the injured party should fortunately raise a friend to inquire into the nature of this atrocious robbery, what avails it! the matter comes before the court--affidavits innumerable _prove_ the legality of the whole transaction, and the oppressor triumphs in victorious villany. Yet a man of common understanding will answer, how is it possible these depredations can be committed with impunity, in the face of such excellent laws? I reply, that the excellency of those laws, and their favourable interpretation by our judges, &c. renders it almost impracticable to come at offenders of this class. Whilst affidavits can be procured at the stinted price of half a crown, to weigh in testimony against such as are the language of truth, dictated by conscience only, we have little hopes of redress for injuries of this stamp, as the complaint must be made by motion on affidavit, and the reply is made in the same mode, with five affidavits to one, which lawyers term weight of metal; therefore we may justly say, the laws designed for our protection are in the hands of infamous professors, the most grievous evil the subject knows; the laws of this kingdom, though the most admirable code in the known world, are but so many implements of oppression to individuals destitute of abilities to purchase a proper share of them; a convincing proof that Liberty, unaccompanied with property, is a MERE FARCE. I will venture to affirm, that if half these outrages had been committed in an absolute monarchy, nothing less than the offender's life would atone for the offence; from what false notions then do we bear with oppressions unknown and unheard of even amongst the Algerines, and other countries distinguished by the badge of slavery? I will maintain that, to poor individuals, such slavery is virtually LIBERTY in every ADVANTAGEOUS acceptation of the word, in a more beneficial sense than the subjects of this country experience. Do not these laws murder the wretch languishing under the intenseness of hunger, and every other motive that the wants of human nature can urge, who steals a shilling, at the same time that they screen a dignified villain, living luxuriously on the spoils of a whole nation, who, by purchasing a little well-chewed eloquence at the bar, gets his robberies graced with the epithets of error and mistake? But, of all the diabolical practices in the creed of a bailiff and pettifogger, the breaking open our houses, under PRETENCE of an execution, is surely the most shocking, though not the least frequent. This species of burglary is perpetrated in the following manner: one of their co-operators is set up a creditor, no matter for what sum; that circumstance is guided by the amount of the property discovered on the premises. A writ is immediately sued out, and another pettifogger accepts the service in the supposed defendant's name, whom he never saw or heard of. In this manner the proceedings go on; a declaration is delivered and received in the like manner, and, to give a better colour to the transaction, a special plea is put in: in this seemingly regular mode, execution is taken out and levied on the effects of the unfortunate object, who is thunder-struck at the event, as well he may; but expostulating or complaining is fruitless.

The property is either sold on the premises, or taken away for the same purpose.

The officer takes shelter under his warrant.

The attorney under his client's instructions to sue.