The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 245: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE KING’S BENCH 225 ‘“‘T really can’t say,” returned Malpas; ‘ perhaps seven and sixpence in the pound? ” ‘‘ Nonsense! ”’ ejaculated Mr. Jenkins. ‘‘ I made him take five farthings in the pound and stand a bottle of wine into the bargain. So you see how easy these kind of things can be done.” ‘‘T do, indeed,” replied the colonel. ‘‘ But is it possible that the judge could be so easily duped? ”’ ‘““Not he!’ exclaimed the attorney. ‘‘ His lordship knows devilish well that when bail go up to justify for ten thousand pounds, they are not really worth ten pence; he knows, too, that the very clothes they wear at the time are only lent them for the occasion; but he is obliged to take their oaths that they are worth so much, provided the solicitor on the other side can’t show the contrary. And we take devilish good care, colonel, that nothing of the kind shall be shown at all. Why, would you believe it, I have had that tinker and that dog’s meat man up for bail so often, any time during these last fourteen years, that their faces are as well known to every one of the judges and every one of the judges’ clerks as they are to me or to their own wives; and it is really quite amusing to see how solemnly the judge always looks these fellows in the face, as if he had never seen them before in all his life, and how he appears to take in as gospel all they tell him about their immense resources. But I don’t always take up the same bail; that would be coming it rather too strong, particularly as there is always something different as to their profession or trade every time they do go up. I have got a dog-fancier, — I might even call him a dog-stealer, without telling a lie, — and he’s a capital bail, with the impudence of brass. The week before last he went up, and the judge says, ‘ Well, sir, what are you?’ ‘A merchant, my lud,’ was the prompt answer; and then he went on to describe of what his merchandise consisted, heaping together more silks, brocades, and costly stuffs than you read of in the Arabian Nights. Well, last week he went up again; and it happeried to be the same judge in chambers. ‘ Now, sir, what are you?’ asked the judge, looking for all the world as if he had never seen such a face before. ‘1 am a farmer and grazier in Scotland, my lud,’ was the dog-fancier’s instantaneous reply; and he went on to describe the thousand head of cattle that grazed GOMmiGooo (EF)