Too poor to study under a special pleader,
he copied out three folio volumes from a manuscript collection of
precedents. Long after, when Lord Chancellor, passing down
Cursitor Lane one day, he said to his secretary, "Here was my first
perch: many a time do I recollect coming down this street with
sixpence in my hand to buy sprats for supper." When at length
called to the bar, he waited long for employment. His first year's
earnings amounted to only nine shillings. For four years he
assiduously attended the London Courts and the Northern Circuit,
with little better success. Even in his native town, he seldom had
other than pauper cases to defend. The results were indeed so
discouraging, that he had almost determined to relinquish his
chance of London business, and settle down in some provincial town
as a country barrister. His brother William wrote home, "Business
is dull with poor Jack, very dull indeed!" But as he had escaped
being a grocer, a coal-fitter, and a country parson so did he also
escape being a country lawyer.
An opportunity at length occurred which enabled John Scott to
exhibit the large legal knowledge which he had so laboriously
acquired. In a case in which he was engaged, he urged a legal
point against the wishes both of the attorney and client who
employed him.
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