"vince remarkable for contention, he afterwards ex"tended to all his dominions, ordering the judges to "inform him of any difficulties which arofe from it.

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"Some fettled method is neceffary in judicial pro"cedures. Small and fimple caufes might be decided upon the oral pleas of the two parties appearing be"fore the judge: but many cafes are fo entangled and "perplexed as to require all the fkill and abilities of "thofe who devote their lives to the ftudy of the "law.

"Advocates, or men who can understand and ex"plain the queftion to be difcuffed, are therefore ne"ceffary. But thefe men, inftead of endeavouring to

66

promote juftice, and difcover truth, have exerted "their wits in the defence of bad caufes, by forgeries "of facts, and fallacies of argument.

"To remedy this evil, the king has ordered an in"quiry into the qualifications of the advocates. All "those who practise without a regular admiffion, "or who can be convicted of difingenuous practice,

66

are difcarded. And the judges are commanded to "examine which of the caufes now depending have "been protracted by the crimes and ignorance of the "advocates, and to difmifs thofe who fhall appear "culpable.

"When advocates are too numerous to live by ho"neft practice, they bufy themselves in exciting dif putes, and disturbing the community: the number "of thefe to be employed in each court is therefore "fixed.

"The reward of the advocates is fixed with due "regard to the nature of the caufe, and the labour re"quired; but not a penny is received by them till the

"fuit

"fuit is ended, that it may be their intereft, as well as "that of the clients, to fhorten the process.

"No advocate is admitted in petty courts, fmall æt towns, or villages; where the poverty of the people, "and for the moft part the low value of the matter "contested, make dispatch abfolutely neceffary. In "thofe places the parties fhall appear in perfon, and the judge make a fummary decision.

"There must be likewife allowed a fubordination of tribunals, and a power of appeal. No judge is fo "fkillful and attentive as not fometimes to err. Few "are fo honeft as not fometimes to be partial. Petty judges would become infupportably tyrannical if they were not reftrained by the fear of a fuperior judicature; and their decifion would be negligent or arbitrary if they were not in danger of feeing them "examined and cancelled.

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"The right of appeal must be restrained, that causes may not be transferred without end from court to court; and a peremptory decifion muft at last be "made.

"When an appeal is made to a higher court, the "appellant is allowed only four weeks to frame his "bill, the judge of the lower court being to transmit "to the higher all the evidences and informations. *If upon the first view of the cause thus opened, it "fhall appear that the appeal was made without just "caufe, the firft fentence fhall be confirmed without "citation of the defendant. If any new evidence fhall appear, or any doubts arife, both the parties fhall be "heard.

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"In the difcuffion of caufes altercation must be "allowed; yet to altercation fome limits must be

66 put.

66 put.

There are therefore allowed a bill, an an"fwer, a reply, and a rejoinder, to be delivered in

❝ writing.

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"No caufe is allowed to be heard in more than "three different courts. To further the first decifion, every advocate is enjoined, under fevere penalties, "not to begin a fuit till he has collected all the neceffary evidence. If the first court has decided in an "unfatisfactory manner, an appeal may be made to "the fecond, and from the second to the third. The "process on each appeal is limited to fix months. "The third court may indeed pafs an erroneous judg "ment; and then the injury is without redrefs. But "this objection is without end, and therefore with "out force. No method can be found of preferving "humanity from error; but of conteft there muft fome "time be an end; and he, who thinks himself injured "for want of an appeal to a fourth court, muft con"fider himself as fuffering for the public.

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"There is a special advocate appointed for the poor.

"The attorneys, who had formerly the care of col"lecting evidence, and of adjufting all the preli"minaries of a fuit, are now totally difmiffed; the "whole affair is put into the hands of the advo "cates, and the office of an attorney is annulled for

"If any man is hindered by fome lawful impedi"ment from attending his fuit, time will be granted "him upon the reprefentation of his cafe."

Such is the order according to which civil jufticę is administered through the extenfive dominions of the king of Pruffia; which, if it exhibits nothing

very

very fubtle or profound, affords one proof more that the right is easily discovered, and that men do not so often want ability to find, as willingness to prac tise it.

We now return to the war.

The time at which the queen of Hungary was willing to purchase peace by the resignation of Silefia, though it came at last, was not come yet. She had all the fpirit, though not all the power of her ancestors, and could not bear the thought of losing any part of her patrimonial dominions to the enemies, which the opinion of her weakness raised every where against her.

In the beginning of the year 1742, the elector of Bavaria was invefted with the imperial dignity, fupported by the arms of France, mafter of the kingdom of Bohemia; and confederated with the elector Palatine, and the elector of Saxony, who claimed Moravia; and with the king of Pruffia, who was in poffeffion of Silefia.

Such was the state of the queen of Hungary, preffed on every fide, and on every fide preparing for refiftance: she yet refused all offers of accommodation, for every prince fet peace at a price which she was not yet so far humbled as to pay.

The king of Pruffia was among the moft zealous and forward in the confederacy against her. He promised to fecure Bohemia to the emperor, and Moravia to the elector of Saxony; and, finding no enemy in the field able to refift him, he returned to Berlin, and left Schwerin his general to profecute the conquest.

The Pruffians in the midst of winter took Olmutz, the capital of Moravia, and laid the whole country un

der

der contribution. The cold then hindered them from action, and they only blocked up the fortreffes of Brinn and Spielberg.

In the spring, the king of Pruffia came again into the field, and undertook the fiege of Brinn; but upon the approach of prince Charles of Lorrain retired from before it, and quitted Moravia, leaving only a garrifon in the capital.

The condition of the queen of Hungary was now changed. She was a few months before without money, without troops, incircled with enemies. The Bavarians had entered Auftria, Vienna was threatened with a fiege, and the queen left it to the fate of war, and retired into Hungary, where fhe was received with zeal and affection, not unmingled however with that neglect which must always be borne by greatness in diftrefs. She bore the difrefpect of her fubjects with the fame firmnefs as the outrages of her enemies; and at last perfuaded the English not to defpair of her prefervation, by not defpairing herself.

Voltaire in his late hiftory has afferted, that a large fum was raised for her fuccour, by voluntary fubfcriptions of the English ladies. It is the great failing of a ftrong imagination to catch greedily at wonders. He was misinformed, and was perhaps unwilling to learn, by a second enquiry, a truth less splendid and amusing. A contribution was by news-writers, upon their own authority, fruitlefly, and, I think, illegally proposed. It ended in nothing. The parliament voted a supply. and five hundred thousand pounds were remitted to her.

It has been always the weakness of the Auftrian family to spend in the magnificence of empire those

revenues