From the Clonmel Chronicle, 24 February 1869:

“The following amusing account of the state of society in the capital city of Ireland, upwards of a hundred years ago, will be read with interest. It was written by a French officer who was taken prisoner, and liberated, on his parol in Kinsale in the year 1757, from whence he made his way up to Dublin… The writer is something of a wit, and has a keen appreciation of the droll side of life… [T]he letter was written by a M. Claude Jaunice, the officer in question, to a Mr. Wotley, with whom he had a kind of acquaintance, and the date is ‘this 23rd instant of December, 1759’…”

The article goes on to set out an extract recounting M. Jaunice’s visit to the Four Courts, which must have been the old Four Courts located beside Christchurch, as the current Four Courts were not opened until 1796:

‘I sometimes amuse myself at the palace they call the Four Courts, where the law is to be sold. It is not as cheap as with us, which I wonder at, as there is a great crowd of lawyers, with bags full of it, who walk about to see who will buy, and I observe that they have little custom. I have listened with great attention to the pleadings of both sides very often, but never understand the meaning of one word, except costs, costs – that is very intelligible…

All processes in this court commonly end when both parties have no more money, and not till then. The man commences his process or suit when he is very rich, and finishes it when he is very poor. I made myself laugh looking at a picture, in a shop near the Courts, of a man, in a splendid suit, giving money to the lawyer, to commence his suit for him; in another picture, the same man, without clothes, covered with rags only, is saying, with great joy – ‘I have gained my suit.’”

Image Credit: Victoria and Albert Museum, London