in Law, is the offence of frequently exciting and stirring up suits and quarrels between his majesty's subjects, either at law or otherwise. The punishment for this offence, in a common person, is by fine and imprisonment: but if the offender (as is too frequently the case) belongs to the profession of the law, a barretor who is thus able as well as willing to do mischief ought also to be disabled from practicing for the future. And indeed it is enacted by statute 12 Geo. I. c. 29. that if any one, who hath been convicted of forgery, perjury, subornation of perjury, or common barretry, shall practise as an attorney, solicitor, or agent, in any suit; the court, upon complaint, shall examine it in a summary way; and, if proved, shall direct the offender to be transported for seven years. Hereunto also may be referred another offence, of equal malignity and audaciousness; that of suing another in the name of a fictitious plaintiff, either one not in being at all, or one who is ignorant of the suit. This offence, if committed in any of the king's superior courts, is left, as a high contempt, to be punished at their discretion: but in courts of a lower degree, where the crime is equally pernicious, but the authority of the judges not equally extensive, it is directed by statute 8 Eliz. c. 2. to be punished by six months imprisonment, and treble damages to the party injured.