Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 1 - 1819.djvu/54

44 were so little able to withstand the temptation, that the adage, "Show me the man, and I will show you the law," became as prevalent as it was scandalous. One corruption led the way to others still more gross and profligate. The judge who lent his sacred authority in one case to support a friend, and in order to crush an enemy, and whose decisions were founded on family connections, or political relations, could not be supposed inaccessible to direct personal motives, and the purse of the wealthy was too often believed to be thrown into the scale to weigh down the cause of the poorer litigant. The subordinate officers of the law affected little scruple concerning bribery. Pieces of plate, and bags of money, were sent in presents to the king's counsel, to influence their conduct, and poured forth, says a contemporary writer, like billets of wood upon their floors, without even the decency of concealment. In such times, it was not over uncharitable to suppose, that the statesman,