Page:An Essay on a Registry for Titles of Lands - Asgill (1698).djvu/27

 out of their hands, or putting any stop to the Dealing in Lands, (for that will be encreased) but by exposing their manner of practice in this Conveyancing part of the Law.

For as it was numbered among the Sins of one of the Kings of Israel, that he made Priests of the meanest of the people, so it is the misfortune of the people of England, that Conveyancers are frequently made out of Old Attornies or Noblemens-Lease makers, fumpt up in Bar-gowns. Two Qualifications are necessary to a compleat Conveyancer: First, That he be incapable of dispatching Business so fast as he should. Secondly, That he doth not dispatch it so fast as he can. Not to speak of bantering their Clients with their seeming Care and Caution in delaying their Business, shewing great Trunks of old Writings in their Chamber, calling to their Clerks (before them) for one Lord's Settlement, and another Ladies Jointure, to tell what great Clients they have; and when they come to be paid, they reckon their Fees by longitude and latitude. I have seen an original Mortgage of one Skin, bred up by a Scrivener (in six Year) to one and twenty, by assigning it every Year, and adding one Skin to every assigment, by Recitals and Covenants: As Cows after three Years old, have one wrinkle added to each