A Road’s indicted, and our seniors doubt
If in our proper boundary or without: 
But what says our attorney?  He, our friend,
Tells us ’tis just and manly to contend. 
   “What! to a neighbouring parish yield your cause,
While you have money, and the nation laws? 
What! lose without a trial, that which, tried,
May—­nay it must—­be given on our side? 
All men of spirit would contend; such men
Than lose a pound would rather hazard ten. 
What! be imposed on?  No! a British soul
Despises imposition, hates control: 
The law is open; let them, if they dare,
Support their cause; the Borough need not spare. 
All I advise is vigour and good-will: 
Is it agreed then—­Shall I file a bill?”
The trader, grazier, merchant, priest, and all,
Whose sons aspiring, to professions call,
Choose from their lads some bold and subtle boy,
And judge him fitted for this grave employ: 
Him a keen old practitioner admits,
To write five years and exercise his wits: 
The youth has heard—­it is in fact his creed —
Mankind dispute, that Lawyers may be fee’d: 
Jails, bailiffs, writs, all terms and threats of Law,
Grow now familiar as once top and taw;
Rage, hatred, fear, the mind’s severer ills,
All bring employment, all augment his bills: 
As feels the surgeon for the mangled limb,
The mangled mind is but a job for him;
Thus taught to think, these legal reasoners draw
Morals and maxims from their views of Law;
They cease to judge by precepts taught in schools,
By man’s plain sense, or by religious rules;
No! nor by law itself, in truth discern’d,
But as its statutes may be warp’d and turn’d: 
How they should judge of man, his word and deed,
They in their books and not their bosoms read: 
Of some good act you speak with just applause;
“No, no!” says he, “’twould be a losing cause: 
Blame you some tyrant’s deed?—­he answers “Nay,
He’ll get a verdict; heed you what you say.” 
Thus to conclusions from examples led,
The heart resigns all judgment to the head;
Law, law alone for ever kept in view,
His measures guides, and rules his conscience too;
Of ten commandments, he confesses three
Are yet in force, and tells you which they be,
As Law instructs him, thus:  “Your neighbour’s wife
You must not take, his chattles, nor his life;
Break these decrees, for damage you must pay;
These you must reverence, and the rest—­you may.” 
   Law was design’d to keep a state in peace;
To punish robbery, that wrong might cease;
To be impregnable:  a constant fort,
To which the weak and injured might resort: 
But these perverted minds its force employ,
Not to protect mankind, but to annoy;
And long as ammunition can be found,
Its lightning flashes and its thunders sound. 
   Or Law with lawyers is an ample still,
Wrought by the passions’ heat with chymic skill: