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CH. I.]

INTEREST IN THE SUBJECT.

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receives in his chamber the most confidential communi

cations; who directs by his counsel those who come to ask his advice and listen to him as though he were an oracle; who has the conduct of causes the most important; who constitutes himself the organ of those who claim the most sacred rights, or the defender of those who find themselves attacked in their persons, their honour, or their fortune; who brings forward and gives efficacy to their demand, or repels the charges brought against them; he, I say, who does all this, must necessarily require the support of the public. By his knowledge, his talents, his morality, he ought to endeavour to win the confidence and the good will of his fellow citizens." And it may be not without advantage to consider what has been the position, and what the estimation of the profession, in former ages and other countries, where it has been adorned by names that have survived the lapse of ages, and still live in the admiration of posterity.

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It may, I think, be confidently affirmed, that the state has nowhere interfered so little with the conduct of advocates as in England. In a legislative sense it may be said to have almost ignored their existence. Very different was the case in imperial Rome; for the Code of Justinian bears ample testimony to the minute care with which their rights, and privileges, and duties, were regulated by the emperors; and in the kingdoms of Europe which were formed upon the ruins of the Roman empire, we find a long list of ordinances and edicts specially directed to the same subject. This was eminently the case in France, where the noblesse de la robe flourished with a splendour elsewhere unknown.

1 Esprit, Origine, et Progrès des Institutions Judiciaires, tom. vi. p. 540.

But the inference that may be drawn from this is one not unfavourable to the advocates of England. Ubi plurimæ leges ibi pessima respublica is, in one sense, a true maxim, and we may not unfairly presume, as indeed history warrants us in asserting, that many of the rules and prohibitions which have from time to time been required to check the malpractices of advocates in other countries, have been unnecessary here; and were it right or becoming to vindicate the claim of the bar of England, from the earliest times, to superior purity and a nicer sense of honour as contrasted with that of the rest of Europe, we might point to the significant fact that for centuries it has been subjected to no statutes, or rules, or discipline, other than those which it has framed for itself. It has adhered to its immemorial traditions, and they, when their spirit is rightly understood, ought to be, and have been, sufficient to preserve it as a body from all that is mean, base, and disreputable.

I say, "as a body," for it would be in the highest degree visionary to expect that, amidst the numbers who crowd the ranks of the profession, no individuals should be found insensible to the dignity of their vocation, and unworthy of the society of honourable men. Such must always exist in every widely extended class; and even the sacred calling of the clergy does not prevent the intrusion into the priesthood of persons who bring disgrace upon the name. But most unfair would it be to judge of the character of either profession by such rare and melancholy exceptions; nor need we fear that the good sense and intelligence of the public will, in this matter, pronounce a partial and unjust verdict.

If, however, any one were to undertake a defence of the profession and professors of the law, there would be little

CH. I.]

JEALOUSY OF THE OFFICE.

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cause for apprehension, lest, like the ancient sophist who proposed to write a panegyric upon Hercules, he should be met by the objection Quis vituperavit? for it is impossible not to see that in some quarters an almost morbid jealousy is entertained of them. We need not stop to inquire into the causes of this feeling, which may perhaps admit of more than one explanation; the wiser course is to derive good out of the evil, and make use of such attacks as microscopes to detect whatever deformity is latent in the system. So far as they are directed against abuses which, though sanctioned by usage and by time, are indefensible, and bring to light defects which admit of an easy and immediate remedy at the hands of the profession itself—and who can deny that such abuses and defects do to a certain extent exist? -it ought to be thankful that its purity is carefully watched over by so vigilant a censorship, and diligently apply itself to correct the faults. But the taunts and carpings of malevolence it may safely disregard, in the confident assurance that if it does not deserve them they will fall like broken arrows to the ground, and that so long as it makes high and honourable principle the pole star of its conduct, public opinion will ratify and confirm the judgment which the voice of all ages has pronounced upon the value and necessity of the office of an advocate.

For were it necessary to vindicate that office, it would be easy to cite the authority of great and venerable names. We might ask, with Cicero, "What is so kinglike, so generous, so munificent, as to bestow help on those who supplicate our aid? to raise the oppressed, and save our fellow citizens from peril, and preserve them to the state? What, on the other hand, is so necessary as to have always the command of weapons by which we may

be protected from injury, or be enabled to attack the wicked, or avenge ourselves if attacked by others?" 1 Or, with Tacitus, "For if all our thoughts and actions are to be directed with a view to expediency, what can be more safe than to practise that profession, whereby, being always armed, you will be able to afford protection to your friends, assistance to strangers, and safety to those who are in peril; and, on the other hand, spread terror and alarm amongst your enemies and the malevolent, whilst you yourself are meanwhile secure, and invested, as it were, with the panoply of power?"2 We might also avail ourselves of that remarkable definition of an advocate which Cato gave, Vir bonus dicendi peritus, where we see the idea of moral worth inseparably connected with his character, and forming one of its constituent features, as though he were bound by the tenure of his office to eschew evil; and what Quintilian said of the power of forensic eloquence to gain the great prizes of ambition, and acquire for the speaker wealth and fame, has been confirmed by the experience of centuries, which have rolled away since his voice was heard pleading in the courts at Rome: Neque erat difficile vel veteribus vel novis exemplis palam facere, non

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1 "Quid porro tam regium, tam liberale, tam munificum, quam opem ferre supplicibus, excitare afflictos, dare salutem, liberare periculis, retinere homines in civitate? Quid autem tam necessarium quam tenere semper arma, quibus vel tectus ipse esse possis, vel provocare improbos, vel te ulcisci lacessitus?" De Orat. i. 8.

2 De Orat. Dialogus, c. 5. This work is usually attributed to Tacitus, although internal evidence is against it; for nothing can be more unlike his ordinary style. We know that Quintilian wrote a treatise on the same subject; and some eminent scholars have thought that it is the one which we possess under the above title. Niebuhr, however, seems to favour the opinion which ascribes it to the historian. He says, "Critics have at length come to regard it as a genuine work of Tacitus.” — Lect. Hist. of Rome, ii. 154.

CH. I.]

TESTIMONY OF ANTIQUITY.

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aliunde majores honores, opes, amicitias, laudem præsentem, futuram, hominibus contigisse.

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We might appeal to the testimony borne by the constitutions of the Roman emperors, which declared that if advocates sustained their part in the state aright, they were no less the benefactors of mankind, than if they perilled their lives in battle to save their country and families from ruin. For, as the Civil Law emphatically said, armed warriors, whose weapon was the sword, were not the only soldiers of the empire: advocates, too, fought for imperial Rome, when they exerted the glorious gift of eloquence in defending the lives and fortunes of their fellow citizens, in upholding the cause of the poor and needy, and helping them to right who suffered wrong.2

Not unworthy of being placed by the side of this passage is the quaint but eloquent testimony of Sir John Davys, who says: "Why may we not proceed further and affirm confidently, that the profession of the law is to be preferred before all other human professions and sciences, as being most noble for the matter and subject thereof, most necessary for the common and continued use thereof, and most meritorious for the good effects it doth produce in the commonwealth? For what is the matter and subject of our profession

1 Inst. Orat. xii. 11.

2 "Advocati, qui dirimunt ambigua fata causarum, suæque defensionis viribus in rebus sæpe publicis ac privatis lapsa erigunt, fatigata reparant, non minus provident humano generi, quam si præliis atque vulneribus patriam parentesque salvarent. Nec enim solos nostro imperio militare credimus illos, qui gladiis clypeis et thoracibus nituntur, sed etiam advocatos; militant namque causarum patroni, qui gloriosæ vocis confisi munimine, laborantium spem, vitam, et posteros defendunt."— Cod. II. vii. 14.

3 Preface dedicatory to his Reports, 1615. Attorney General in the reign of James I.

Sir John Davys was Irish

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