against Like all men who did not suf
- p. 65. him.
ficiently revere Dr. Goldsmith, he incurred the displeasure of John Forster. Gold smith's excursion to Paris in 1770, we are told, was -not made more agreeable to Gold smith by an unexpected addition to the party in the person of Mr. Hickey — whose habit of coarse raillery was apt to be indulged too freely at Goldsmith's expense.1 But even Mr. Forster admits that once, at least, Mr. Hickey told the truth. " Goldsmith sturdily maintained that a certain distance from one of the fountains at Versailles was within reach of a leap, and tumbled into the water in his attempt to establish that position." With that story Mr. Hickey passes from our view. He was fortunate in his friend. The name of another attorney who stirred the muse has been mercifully withheld. From An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces,2 we learn that David Garrick, Esq., some years ago, had occasion to file a bill in the Court of Chancery against an attorney at Hamp ton, to set aside an agreement surreptitiously obtained for the purchase of a house there; and while the late Edmund Haskins, Esq., was preparing the draft of the bill, Mr. Garrick wrote him the following lines : —
bined in one person, one must look for a breach of the peace and may be well content to escape with an epigram. That he should think the attorney whom he sued " the worst of his tribe " was natural; that he should think the best but so-so was a little ungrate ful to Sir John Hawkins, who had been at some pains to secure his admission to the Club, and even inspired Garrick's successful appeal to the Chancellor in this very matter. Garrick had happened to mention to Sir John the events by which he thought he saw him self deprived of opportunity to purchase a house he wanted, without hope or remedy. Sir John informed him of a similar case in which equity had interfered, looked up the report, and gave Garrick a note of it. This Garrick apparently mislaid, and on the eve of trial Sir John, again appealed to, obtained the volume containing the report, waited at the theatre and handed it to Garrick to give to his solicitor. And Garrick not only for got in his rhymes what he owed to this friendly attorney, but omitted for months to let his friend know the result of the suit! ' But attorneys in the times of the Georges were a mark for all shafts. It is a little hard to see why; they were poor enough to be liked. Yet the Rev. Mr. Bramston in his To HIS COUNSELLOR AND FRIEND, EDMUND Hos- Art of Politics notes with approval that, KINS, ESQ., Том FOOL SENDS GREETING. On your care must depend the success of my suit; The contest, I mean, 'bout the house in dispute, Remember, my friend, an Attorney's my foe, And so-so. the worst of his tribe, though the best are In law as in life, I know well 'tis a rule. That a knave will be ever too hard for a fool; To which rule one exception your client implores, That a fool may for once turn a knave out of doors.
One cannot be surprised at the vehemence of Garrick's detestation. For a litigant to dislike his opponent's attorney, at least as much as his opponent, is a common case; but when opponent and attorney are com-
Now wholesome laws young senators bring in, 'Gainst goals, attorneys, bribery and gin.
Dr. Johnson in the perils of the city he loved, noted that " here the fell attorney prowls for prey." Erskine declared to Boswell that he loved him " more than attorneys love by cheats to thrive." Churchill, writing ten years before Goldsmith devised his " Retalia tion," congratulated Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester, on giving up thoughts of the law. But you, my lord, renounced attorney-ship With better purpose and more noble aim, And wisely played a more substantial game.
'The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, II., 220.
1 Hawkins' Life ofJohnson, 2ci Edition, p. 437.
