advocate than the Chief Justice. Familiar with the weaknesses of the chief's nature, Scarlett used to play upon him as though he belonged to an inferior species; but on a memorable occasion his lordship was enlightened as to the ignominious thraldom in which he was held. Interrupting Mr. Adolphus, the criminal advocate, Scarlett superciliously observed-" Mr. Adolphus, there is a wide difference between the practice of this court and the usages of the Old Bailey." With perfect coolness, and a voice that bit itself into the ear of every listener, Adolphus answered—“I know it well. There the judge rules the advocates; here—an advocate rules the judge."

Amongst comparatively modern instances of judicial partiality towards certain members of the bar may be noticed the strong preference which Lord Mansfield-an old Westminster boy and Christ Church student-used to manifest for barristers who had been educated at his school and college. A strong conviction that the Chief Justice habitually displayed prejudice against counsel who had not been a student of those colleges caused John Scott to retire from the King's Bench and devote himself to Chancery practice, at a time when the Chancery bar did not number twenty members, and when the status of the Equity counsel was decidedly beneath that of a Common Law barrister.

PART XIV.-TEMPORA MUTANTUR.

MAK

CHAPTER LXXIII.

ATTORNEY-AT-LAW.

TAKING one of his wittiest and most illiberal speeches, Dr. Johnson observed to a numerous company, concerning a stranger who had just quitted the room-"I don't care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but I believe the gentleman who has taken his departure is an attorney." The pungency of the satire causes the reader to overlook its injustice; but so unpleasant is its ungenerous narrowness that it has done far more to lower the speaker's character for amiability than to heighten his reputation for colloquial humour.

Illustrating this same social disfavour in which attorneys were for several generations placed by the prejudices of the humble and the insolence of the great, a good story was told by Sir Walter Scott of Sir Allan M'Lean, who was driven by Scotch attorneys from the comparatively civilized regions of North Britain to Inchkenneth, in which picturesque and verdant islet he entertained Dr. Johnson and his friend Boswell. Surveying from the windows of Carron Lodge a wide and noble landscape, studded with the seats of opulent residents, Sir Allan pointed to a well-placed mansion in the distance, and asked the name of its owner. "Mr. - the writer to the signet," was the answer. "Tut!" exclaimed Sir Allan, testily, pointing to a spot somewhat nearer the river Carron; "I mean that house-there." His host replied-" Oh, that belongs to a very worthy and honest fellow, Jamie another writer to the

signet." "Umph," interposed Sir Allan, beating a tattoo with his foot; "and yon smaller house-whose is that?" "His name? Bless me, I forget it; but he is a Stirling man-and a writer to the signet." This was too much for Sir Allan's

powers of endurance. "My dear friend," he remarked to his entertainer, "you have a fine situation here, and a lovely landscape; but d― your neighbourhood!"

One is unable to ascertain with certainty the degree of esteem or disesteem in which persons acting professionally as representative litigants in turn for principals unable to attend personally to their legal interests, were held in times when the custom which permits suitors to act by proxy was still a novel regulation. But there are reasons for thinking that under the Plantagenets attorneys were by no means contemptible personages. Under Edward I. pleaders and barristers who had taken the serjeant's degree frequently acted as the proxies or attorneys of parties in suits; and throughout many generations practising attorneys were in a considerable proportion of cases Innsof-Court men. Moreover at a later period, when the Four Inns had been closed to the inferior branch of the profession, attorneys were required to be members of one of the Inns of Chancery. The readiness with which competent practitioners were found for the lower departments of legal practice also sustains an inference that their position was reputable as well as lucrative. In Edward III.'s reign the kingdom contained four hundred attorneys, and a century later the number of English attorneys had increased to so inconvenient a magnitude that it was found necessary to reduce their ranks.

In Henry VIII.'s London practising attorneys were frequently Templars, or members of Gray's Inn or Lincoln's Inn; and notwithstanding various orders which forbade gentlemen of the Four Inns to act as attorneys or solicitors, the same state of things existed throughout the Elizabethan period. By the Orders of the Middle Temple (An. 1635, 11 Car. I.) it was ordered-" That the Acts of Parliament of this House, touching none admittance of Common Attorneys, made 25 Junii, 3 & 4 Ph. & M., be from thenceforth duly observed: And Further that a list be made of the names of the present attorneys and solicitors of this house; and entered into the Parliament Book ; and if any gentleman from henceforth, after he shall be

* 32 Hen. VI. reduced the attorneys of Norfolk and Suffolk from eighty to fourteen, and prohibited their increase. In 1861, it was calculated that the English attorneys, actually on the rolls-either in practice or retirement-numbered about 13,000.

admitted, shall then become an Attorney, or shall practice as a Common Attorney, or Solicitor in any of his Majesties courts, shall ipso facto be expelled the house." It is noteworthy that whilst this order refers to an older order of Philip and Mary, it takes no notice of the Orders made by Lord Coventry and all the Judges (15 Ap., 6 Car. I.), wherein the learned judges observe," For that there ought alwayes to be observed a difference between Utter Barristers, Readers in Court, and Apprentices in Law, which are the principal persons next unto Serjeants and Judges in administration of Justice; and Attorneys and Solicitors, which are but ministerial persons of an inferior nature; therefore it is order'd that from henceforth no common Attorney or Solicitor shall hereafter be admitted of any of the four Houses of Court." That the afore-mentioned order of Philip and Mary did not exclude attorneys from the Middle Temple in the reign of Elizabeth, we know from Dugdale, who in his notes concerning that society says—“ In 17 Eliz. the new Skreen in the Hall was made; towards which every Master of the Bench was assessed at 20s.; every Master of the Utter-Barr, Officer, and Common Attorney at 10s., and each person else of this society at 6s. 8d."*

But even at a time when the Four Inns contained a considerable number of attorneys and solicitors, a wide difference existed between the condition of the average attorney and the status of the ordinary utter-barrister. Indeed many persons affected to regard an attorney not as a lawyer, but as a mere servant for carrying out the instructions of lawyers. Bishop Earle's satirical sketch of An Attorney,' in the Microcosmographie, shows the low estimation in which the inferior practi

* When "ministerial persons of an inferior nature" could no longer gain admittance into the superior law colleges, they continued to frequent the Inns of Chancery; and in 1654 the upper bench made an order (renewed exactly half a century later by judges using still stronger terms) that every attorney should be admitted a member of one of the Inns of Court or Chancery. In face of the orders of the Four Inns, this order of the bench operated by driving the attorneys into such Inns of Chancery as cared to receive them; but it is probable that the order was at no time rigidly enforced, and that it became altogether a dead letter soon after its renewal at the opening of the eighteenth century. Barnard's Inn was a popular college with attorneys under William and Mary, but in James I.'s reign it resisted the intrusion of the inferior order.

VOL. II.

tioners of law were held by the nobility and chief gentry of Charles I.'s England. "An Attorney-His ancient beginning," says the bishop, "was a blue coat, sine livery, and his hatching under a lawyer; whence though but pen-feathered hee hath now nested for himself, and with his hoorded pence purchast an office. Two desks, and a quire of paper sat him up, where he now sits in state for all commers. Wee can call him no great author, yet he writes very much, and with the infamy of the court is maintained in his libels." He has some snatch of a scholler, and yet uses Latin very hardly, and lest it should accuse him cuts it off in the midst, and will not let it speake out. He is, contrary to great men, maintained by his followers, that is, his poore country clients, that worship him more than their landlord, and be they never such churles, he lookes for their courtesie. He first racks them roundly himselfe, and then delivers them to the lawyer for execution. His looks are very solicitous, importing much haste and dispatch, he is never without his hands full of businesse, that is, of paper. His skin becomes at last as dry as parchment, and his face as intricate as the most winding course. He talkes statutes as fiercely as if he had mooted seven yeares in the Innes of Court; when all his skill is stuck in his girdle, or in his office window. Strife and wrangling have made him rich, and he is thankful to his benefactor, and nourishes it. If he live in a country village, he makes all his neighbours good subjects; for there shall be nothing done but what there is law for. His businesse gives him not leave to thinke of his conscience, and when the time or terme of his life is going out, for doomes-day hee is secure, for hee hopes he hath a tricke to reverse judgment."* This sketch is especially noticeable for the distinction which it draws between attorneys and barristers, by the words reprinted in italics. Indeed Bishop Earle scarcely looked upon the attorney

Those who are curious about our social history should read the Microcosmographie. The bishop's sketch of "A Serjeant or Catch-Pole," i.e., bum-bailiff or sheriff's officer, might be inserted with propriety in this Book About Lawyers. Not less interesting is the character of "an University Dunne," who, says Bishop Earle, "is a gentleman's follower cheaply purchast, for his owne money ha'd hired him. Hee is an inferior creditor, of some ten shillings or downe-wards, contracted for house-hire, or perchance drinke, too weake to be put in a suite, and he arrests your modesty."