Green’s Dictionary of Slang

legal, pertaining to a solicitor.

1828		Public Ledger 19 July 4/1: Enumerating various six and eightpenny [...] charges for attendance in the style of an attorney.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 168: Don’t cut your low jibes on me, you pettifogging, six-and-eightpenny tapeworm.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Feb. 3/1: The six and eightpenny Gentleman is we hear very wrath and vows vengeance against us.
1853		Lincs. Chron. 25 Nov. 5/4: How can a solicitor make out a regular bill of costs [...] enter his innumerable six and eightpenny attendances upon all sorts of people.
1876		Cambridge Chron. & Jrnl 2 Dec. 6/5: Defendants wife asked if she could have a summons against complainant for insulting her? — The Clerk: That’s a six and eightpenny question; don’t ask that (Laughter).
1882		Bristol Magpie 21 Sept. 3/2: ‘[N]or I ain’t at Lawford’s Gate [i.e. the house of correction] in the box, a bein’ six-and-eightpenny bully-ragged! ’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 18/4: Two or three days before rentday […] the beer-pump puller had a six-and-eightpenny chat with his adviser, and this is what happened: […].
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 July 21/1: ‘I’ll tell you what,’ said the six-and-eightpenny son of the devil; ‘you instruct me to instruct my Brisbane agent to act for you, and we’ll dispose of the allotment without any bother.’.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Feb. 3rd sect. 1/3: If the barristerial business becomes over-crowded, and the six-and-eight enterprise dwindles to a frantic rush for a badly-battered crust, Dicky Haynes could knock out a fair-sized salary as a vaudeville yarn-spinner.
1918		Sketch (London) 19 June 26/2: Think of the additional source of income to the six-and-eightpenny attorney.