SPIDERS.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 98, 23 September 1874, Page 3

SPIDERS.

(Liberal Review .) There are, probably, more vagabonds connected with the law and the money-lending business, proportionally, than with any other occupation in which the clever men and women of to-day engage. The law and the money-lending business, indeed, seem to possess a special faculty for the propagation of knaves. Those who have amused themselves by bringing various kinds of actions against their neighbours, and those who have been amused by having suits instituted against them, will not need to be told that it is much easier to get into the hands of

members of the legal fraternity than it is to get out of them, without being called upon to pay a most extravagant bill of costs. The manner in which cases are “ nursed” by acute attorneys has long been the admiration of beholders, and has formed a matter deserving of the most earnest consideration of wouldbe reformers. At the same time it has, in the majority of cases, failed to raise, in the breast of clients, feelings anything approaching in character to those which may fairly be described as ones of lively satisfation. As a matter of fact, the man who has acquired what little he possesses by hard and unremitting labour, and who has others depending upon the fruit of his exertiu.. , io inclined to feel the reverse of cheerful when he has to put his hands in his pocket for money, the expenditure of which brings but an unsubstantial victory over a fellow-victim, or, what is still worse, complete defeat and consequent humiliation. The fact that his own impetuosity has urged him forward is the reverse of consolatory when the hour of adversity has arrived. Those people who have had occasion to borrow money, and who have been injudicious enough to obtain it from one of those many benefactors who are never tired of proclaiming, through the medium of the public prints, their eagerness to assist all those who are in distress, perhaps know sufficient about the humanity and the modus opera,ndi of money-lenders. At any rate, it is unnecessary to inform them that these seraphic beings are in the habit of removing all feeling of obligation from off the shoulders of the innocents who come to them for help, and of generating in their breasts feelings the reverse of those of gratitude. It may, at first sight, seem somewhat surprising that those who are connected with the law should, in many instances, be remarkable for their lax principles, inasmuch as the law is supposed to be the embodiment of justice. Perhaps, the circumstance may be accounted for by the fact that familiarity even with the best things is apt to breed contempt. Money being reputed to be the root of all evil, it is not to be wondered at that those who make the handling of it professedly their only business should become more or less contaminated. The legal spider is a positively delightful gentleman to do business with, i.e., if he has reason to believe that you are good for the little bill, which he will take it upon himself to see is presented to you. He espouses your cause with an ardour which is, to the last degree, refreshing ; and his denunciations of your opponent and your opponent’s legal advisers, whom he may, in a moment of Arcadian confidence, hint are something very much like harpies, should have the effect of exhilarating you to a very great extent indeed. He may continue in a surprisingly amiable mood, and demonstrate his affection for you by seeing you a great number of times—it would, of course, be unprofessional in the extreme not to make a proper charge for all these friendly interviews, so he does not neglect to do so—until your case has reached a critical stage. Then the unsophisticated creature is wont to discover that he wants money, and that unless he gets it he cannot carry the business in hand any further. In the event of your being a trifle shaky in reputation, he may deem it expedient to send you a letter to stimulate you to prompt action. In this epistle you may be informed that unless you pay up by a certain hour on the following day—gentlemen of the fraternity are most exact in the matter of time —all the legal engines of destruction will be set in operation against you. Supposing that the money is found, or has not been imperatively wanted and applied for, your case is carried to a hearing, indeed to as many hearings as can be got for it. As a rule, a lawyer is the last person in the world to oppose an adjournment, and for a very simple reason ; an adjournment, if he be an interested party, means so much in his pocket. The result of all this clever diplomacy is that, after tbe case has been disposed of and you have been awarded what appear substantial damages, it is discovered that the greater portion of these have to go into your legal friend’s purse on the score of certain remarkable things known as “ charges between lawyer and client.” You will be a clever being if you can account for all these and be led to see the justice of them. The money-lending spider is also a nice gentleman to deal with, so long as you are content to act precisely as he directs. As a rule, his modus operandi is delightfully simple. When you go to him he receives you as a rule, in some dirty back parlour or dingy office. His manner is suave, not to say oily; his complexion is generally inclined towards murkiness. You learn that you have slightly misunderstood him upon several important points. It is quite true that he lends money, owing, probably to the kindness of his disposition, upon security that would, by most business men, be considered next to useless. Still he requires something which shall, in a slight degree, .indemnify him against loss. To take a case : you want fifty pounds. Well, he will advance you this fifty pounds upon your giving him, as a matter of form, a bill of sale upon certain furnture in your possession, and which furniture is valued at a hundred pounds. In addition to going through this matter of form you will be called upon to give him a receipt for—say £75, or any sum up to £IOO, whereupon he will kindly advance you the trifling amount you require. Then he wishes you good day, and you leave his den. Shortly afterwards he will be compelled to apply to you to repay what you have borrowed. It is not competent for you to do so, whereupon he gets into a terrible rage, and sells up every stick and stiver you possess under the powers conferred upon him by the bill of sale which you were imprudent enough to give him as a matter of form. In the event of your having arranged to pay the borrowed money by instalments, and failing to fulfil to the letter your engagements, similar results are brought about. The benefactors are very grieved indeed, it may be remarked, in the case of your keeping your promises to pay. It is their delight to deal with wicked defaulters, and bring the same to justice. To say nothing of the large sums of money they make by so doing, they have the satisfaction of feeling that they are performing a righteous act. Sometimes, but rarely, these spiders get into trouble ; in a general way, however, the law is very kind to them.