Wesley Corpus

But, before I take any farther step herein, I think myself obliged to make you a fair proposal. If you will promise me under your hand to suppress all mobs at Roughlee and the parts adjacent (as your duty both to God and the King require you to do, even at the hazard of your life); if you will promise to proceed only by law against those you apprehend to act contrary to law (which, indeed, I absolutely deny you to do), nor can it be supposed that none of the lawyers in Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol, or London should find it out (if it were so), but only the Solomons in Pendle Forest;--if I accordingly find a letter from you to this effect when I come to London, directed to the Foundery, near Moorfields, I shall be satisfied and proceed no farther. If not, I shall try another course. Only one piece of advice permit me to give. Do not consult herein with some petty attorney (who will certainly say your cause is good), but with some able barrister-at-law. This is the course I take. The counsel to whom I applied on this very Act of Parliament before I left London were Counsellor Glanville, a barrister of Gray's Inn, [See the next two letters.] and Sir Dudley Rider, the King's Attorney-General.--I am Your real friend. To James Hargrave, Near Colne, In Lancashire. To William Grimshaw [21] LONDON, November 2, 1748. So far as I can judge, the whole costs of information in the King's Bench will be between thirty and forty pounds: part of which should be speedily advanced; because, from the time the cause is first moved here, the counsellors should have their fees paid regularly. 'Tis miserable bad husbandry to starve a cause. Indeed, Mr. Glanville (I apprehend) will return his fees. However, they must be paid (for the present) as duly as those of Sir John Strange. In the end 'tis probable all the costs of suit will fall upon the rioters. The affidavits should be taken and sent without losing one day. The Judges often put off a cause which comes before them at the latter end of a term. Therefore you should not delay; near a fortnight of the term is gone already. To John Bennet LONDON, November 17, 1748.