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and there are natural lawgivers; in art Michael Angelo and Raphael, in oratory Demosthenes, in philosophy Bacon. The endowments of each, not only justify, but originate their authority; they interpret truth through their superior insight and wisdom in their respective departments of action and of thought; but of the vast number who undertake to illustrate, maintain, or apply the laws which govern states, a small minority are gifted for the task, or aspire to its higher functions; hence the proverbial abuse of the profession, its few glorious ornaments, and its herd of perverted slaves.

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From this primary condition, it is impossible for any human being to escape: if he goes into the deser, the is still subject to the laws of nature, and, however retired he may live, amid his race, the laws of society press upon him at some point; if his own opinion is his law in matters of fancy or politics, he must still obey the law of the road; in one country the law of primogeniture; in another that of conscription; in one circle, a law of taste, in another, of custom, and in third, of privilege, reacts upon his free agency; at his club is sumptuary law; over his game of whist, Hoyle; in his drawing-room, Chesterfield; now l'esprit du corps; and again, the claims of rank; in Maine, the liquor law; in California, Lynch law; in Paris, a gens d'armes; at Rome, a permission of residence; on an English domain, the game laws; in the fields of Connecticut, a pound; everywhere turnpikes, sheriffs' sales, marriage certificates, prisons, courts, passports, and policemen, thrust before the eyes of the most peaceable and reserved cosmopoliteinsignia that assure him that law is everywhere unavoidable. His physician discourses to him of the laws of health; his military friends, of tactics; the beaux, of etiquette; the belles, of la mode; the authors, of tasteful precedents; the reformer, of social systems; and thus all recognize and yield to some code.

If he have nothing to bequeath, no tax to pay, no creditor to sue, or libeler to prosecute, he yet must walk the streets, and thereby realize the influence or neglect of municipal law in the enjoyment of " right-of-way," or the nausea of some neglected offal; the accidents incident to travel assure him

of the slight tenure of corporate responsibility under republican law; and the facility of divorce, the removal of old landmarks, the incessant subdivision and dispersion of estates, indicate that devotion to the immediate which a French philosopher ascribes to free institutions, and which affects legal as well as social phenomena. In a tour abroad, he discovers new majesty in the ruins of the Forum, from their association with the ancient Roman law, upon which modern jurisprudence is founded; and a curious interest attaches to the picturesque beauty of Amalfi, because the Pandects were there discovered. Westminster revives the tragic memories of the state trials, and seems yet to echo the oriental rhetoric that made the trial of Hastings a Parliamentary romance. At Bologna, amid the old drooping towers, under the pensive arcades, in the radiant silence of the picture gallery, comes back the traditionary beauty of the fair lecturer, who taught the students juridical lore from behind a curtain, that her loveliness might not bewilder the minds her words informed; and at Venice every darkrobed, graceful figure, that glides by the porticos of San Marco's moonlit square, revives the noble Portia's image, and "the same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk."

One of the characters in a popular novel is made to say that he is never in company with a lawyer but he fancies himself in a witness-box. This hit at the interrogative propensity of the class is by no means an exaggerated view of a use to which they are specially inclined to put conversation; and, if we compare the ordeal of inquiry to which we are thus subjected, it will be found more thorough, and better fitted to test our knowledge, than that of any other social catechism; so that, perhaps, we gain in discipline what we lose in patience. It is to be acknowledged, also, that few men are better stocked with ideas, or more fluent in imparting them, than well-educated lawyers. There is often a singular zest in their anecdotes, a precision in their statement of facts, and a dramatic style of narrative, which render them the pleasantest of companions. In all clever coteries of which we have any genial record, there usually figures a lawyer, as a wit, a boon companion, an entertaining dogmatist, or an

intellectual champion. In literature, the claims and demerits of the profession are emphatically recognized; and it is curious to note the adverse inferences of philosophers and authors. Thus, Dr. Johnson says to Boswell: "Sir, a lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause he undertakes ;" and "everybody knows you are paid for affecting a warmth for your client." "Justice," observes Sydney Smith, "is found, experimentally, to be best promoted by the opposite efforts of practiced and ingenious men, presenting to an impartial judge the best argument for the establishment and explanation of truth." "Some are allured to the trade of law," says Milton,

by litigiousness and fat fees;" one authoritative writer describes a lawyer as a man whose understanding is on the town; another declares no man departs more from justice; Sancho Panza said his master would prattle more than three attorneys; and Coleridge thought that, upon the whole, the advocate is placed in a position unfavorable to his moral being, and, indeed, to his intellect also, in its higher powers;" while it was a maxim of Wilkes, that scoundrel and lawyer are synonymous terms. Our pioneer littérateur, Brockden Brown, whose imaginative mind revolted at the dry formalities of the law, for which he was originally intended, defined it as "a tissue of shreds and remnants of a barbarous antiquity, patched by the stupidity of modern workmen into new deformity." "In the study of law," remarks the poet Gray, "the labor is long, and the elements dry and uninteresting, nor was there ever any one not disgusted at the beginning." Foote, the comic writer and actor, feigned surprise to a farmer that attorneys were buried, in the country, like other men; in town, he declared, it was the custom to place the body in a chamber, with an open window, and it was sure to disappear during the night, leaving a smell of brimstone. A portrait-painter assures us he is never mistaken in a lawyer's face; the avocation is betrayed to his observant eye by a certain inscrutable expression; and Dickens has given this not exaggerated picture of a class in the profession: "Smoke-dried and faded, dwelling among mankind, but not consorting with them, aged without experience of genial youth, and so long used to make his cramped nest in holes

and corners of human nature that he has forgotten its broader and better range.'

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Why may not this be a lawyer's skull?" muses Hamlet, in the graveyard; "where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Humph! this fellow might be in's time a greater buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double-vouchers, his recoveries; and this, the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine poll full of dirt! The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more?"

The diversities of the profession in England and America are curious and suggestive. Already is the obligation mutual; for if in the old country there are more profound and elaborate resources, in the new the science has received brilliant elucidations, and its forms and processes been simplified. There, routine is apt to dwarf, and here, variety to dissipate the lawyer's ability; there, he is too often a mere drudge, and here, his vocation regarded as the vestibule only of political life. In England, the advocate's knowledge is frequently limited to his special department; and in America, while it is less complete and accurate, he is versed in many other subjects, and apt at many vocations. There can be no more striking contrast than that between the lives of the English chancellors and the American chief justices: in the former, regal splendor, the vicissitudes of kingcraft and succession, of religious transition, of courts, war-the people and the nobility—lend a kind of feudal splendor, or tragic interest, or deep intrigue, to the career of the minister of justice; he is surrounded with the insignia of his office; big wigs, scarlet robes, ermine mantles, the great seal, interviews with royalty, the trappings and the awe of power invest his person; his career is identified with the national annals; the lapse of time and historic associations lend a mysterious interest to his name; in the background, there is the martyrdom of Thomas à Becket, the speech of the fallen Wolsey, the scaffold of Sir Thomas More, the inductive system and low ambition of Bacon, and the literary fame of Clarendon. Yet, in intellectual dignity, our young republic need not shrink from the

comparison. The Virginia stripling, who drilled regulars in a hunting-shirt, is a high legal authority in both hemispheres. Where," says one of Marshall's intelligent eulogists, "in English history, is the judge whose mind was at once so enlarged and so systematic; who had so thoroughly reduced professional science to general reason; in whose disciplined intellect technical learning had so completely passed into native sense?" And now that Kent's Commentaries have become the indispensable guide and reference of the entire profession, who remembers, except with pride, that on his first circuit the court was often held in a barn, with the hay-loft for a bench, a stall for the bar, and the shade of a neighboring apple-tree for a juryroom? The majesty of justice, the intellectual superiority of law as a pursuit, is herein most evident; disrobed of all external magnificence, with no lofty and venerable halls, imposing costume or array of officials, the law yet borrows from the learning, the fidelity, and the genius of its votaries, essential dignity and memorable triumphs.

The most celebrated English lawyers have their American prototypes; thus, Marshall has been compared to Lord Mansfield, Pinkney to Erskine, and Wirt to Sheridan; imperfect as are such analogies, they yet indicate, with truth, a similarity of endowment, or style of advocacy. The diverse influence of the respective institutions of the two countries is, however, none the less apparent because of an occasional resemblance in the genius of eminent barristers. The genuine British lawyer is recognized by the technical cast of his expression and habit of mind, to a degree seldom obvious in this country. Indeed, no small portion of the graduates of our colleges who select the law as a pursuit, do so without any strong bias for the profession, but with a view to the facilities it affords for entrance into public life. Some of these aspirants thus become useful servants of the state, a few, statesmen, but the majority mere politicians, and from the predominance of the latter class originate half the errors of American legislation; for, however much profound legal training may fit a man of ability for the higher functions of representative government, a superficial knowledge and practice of law renders him only an adept in chi

canery, and the "gift of the gab ;" and it is easy to imagine how a mob of such adroit and ambitious partisans-especially when brought together from the narrow sphere of village life—may pervert the great ends of legislative action. They make the laws according to their own interests; and there is no prospect of the reformation demanded in juridicial practice while such a corps form the speaking and voting majority, and act on what has been justly called the one great principle of English law"to make business for itself.”

Two names appear on the roll of English lawyers, which are identified with the worst characteristics of the race-impious, wild, and brow-beating arrogance-that of Jeffries, whose ferocious persecution of those suspected of complicity with Monmouth's rebellion forms one of the most scandalous chapters in the history of British courts; and Lord Thurlowe, who, in a more refined age, won the alias of Tiger, for his rudeness, inflexibility, oaths, and ill manners, his black brows, and audible growls. In beautiful contrast, shine forth the law reformers of England, whose benign eloquence and unwearied labor mitigated the sanguinary rigors of the criminal code, and pressed the common-law into the service of humanity. Romilly and Erskine have gained a renown more enduring than that of learned and gifted advocates; their professional glory is heightened and mellowed by the sacred cause it illustrates.

The trial by jury and habeas corpus are the grand privileges of England and our own country; the integrity of the former has been invaded among us, by the abuse incident to making judgeships elective, and by the lawless spirit of the western communities; while the conviction of such eminent criminals as Earl Ferrers, Dr. Dodd, and Fauntleroy, prove how it has been, and is, respected by the public sentiment of England.

The great expense of the simplest law-suit," writes an English lawyer, in a popular magazine, and the droll laws which force all English subjects into a court of equity for their sole redress, in an immense number of cases, lead, at this present day, to a very entertaining class of practical jokes. I mean that ludicrous class, in which the joke consists of a man's taking and

keeping possession of money or other property to which he even pretends to have no shadow of right, but which he seizes because he knows that the whole will be swallowed up if the rightful owner should seek to assert his claim." The instances which are cited, are rather fitted to excite a sense of humiliation than of fun, at the cruel injustice of a legal system which expressly organizes and protects robbery.

The legal treatises produced in England in modern times, are wonderful monuments of erudition, research, and analytical power. The intelligent lawyer who examines Spence's two volumes on equity, does not wonder his brain gave way when thus far advanced on his gigantic task. It is this patient study, this complete learning, which distinguishes the English lawyer; in point of eloquence, he is confessedly inferior to his Irish and American brethren, as they are to him in profundity; in the careful and persistent application of common sense to the hoarded legal acquisitions of centuries, the great minds of the English bar stand unrivaled.

In this country, the lawyers of each state have a characteristic reputation; the bar of Boston, as a whole, is more English, that of the south more Irish, in its general merits. Marshall was an exception to the eloquent fame of American lawyers born and bred south of the Potomac; his superiority was logical; "aim exclusively at strength," was his maxim; and close, compact, simple, but irresistible logic" his great distinction. Wheaton's labors in behalf of international, and Hamilton's in that of constitutional law, have laid the civilized world, as well as their native country, under high and lasting obligations.

The popular estimate of a profession is dependent on circumstances; and this, like every other human pursuit, takes its range and tone from the character of its votary, and the existent relation it holds to public sentiment-not so much from what it technically demands, but from the spirit in which it is followed, comes the dignity and the shame of the law. The erudite generalizations of Savigny belong to the most difficult and enlarged sphere of thought, while the cunning tergiversations of the legal adventurer identify him with sharpers and roguery. In the first cycle of our republic, when a liberal education was rare, the best

lawyers were ornaments of society, and the intellectual benefactors of the country. In that study were disciplined the chivalrous minds of Hamilton, Adams, Morris, and other statesmen of the Revolution. A trial, which afforded the least scope for their remarkable powers, was attended by the intelligent citizens with very much the same kind of interest as filled the Athenian theatre-a mental banquet was confidently expected and deeply enjoyed. To have a great legal reputation, then, implied all that is noble in intellect, graceful in manner, and courteous in spirit-it bespoke the scholar, the gentleman, and the wit, as well as the advocate. When Emmet came hither with the prestige of inherited patriotism and talents, as well as the claims of an exile, he found men at the bar whose forensic eloquence rivaled the fame of Curran and Grattan.

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The equality of free institutions was never more aptly illustrated than by a scene which occurred in a court-house we used to frequent, in boyhood, in order to hear the impassioned rhetoric of a gifted criminal lawyer. A trial of peculiar interest was to come on; the room was crowded with spectators and officials; the judge, a venerable specimen of the stern and dignified magistrate, took his seat; the sheriff announced the opening of the court, and the clerk called over the names of those summoned to act as jurors. We were startled to hear, among those of grocers, draymen, and mechanics, the well-known name of an aristocratic millionaire. It was thrice repeated and no answer given. "Has that juror been duly summoned," inquired the judge. Yes, your honor," was the reply. "Let two constables instantly bring him before us," said the magistrate. One can imagine the vexation of the rich gentleman of leisure, when dawdling, in a flowered robe de chambre, over his sumptuous breakfast, to be disturbed by those rude minions of the law; however, there was no alternative, and he was obliged to dispatch his meal and accompany the distasteful escort. He entered the court, where a deep silence prevailed, with a supercilious smile and complacent air of well-bred annoyance. "How dare you keep the court waiting, sir?" was the indignant salutation of the judge, who, perhaps, when last in the gentleman's company, had sipped a glass of delectable old Madeira to his health. "I intend

ed to pay my fine and not serve," stammered the millionaire. "And do you suppose, sir, that wealth exonerates you from the duties of a citizen, and is any apology for your gross incivility in thus detaining the court for over an hour? No excuse will be accepted; either take your seat in the jury-box or stand committed." Through the silent crowd, the luxurious man of fortune threaded his way, and sat down between a currier and wood-merchant, with whom he had to listen to the law and the evidence for a fortnight.

The author of the Lives of the English Chancellors refers to the usual explanation of the origin of the term "woolsack," as intended in compliment to the staple product of the realm; and adds his own belief that, in " the rude simplicity of early times, a sack of wool was frequently used as a sofa." In the colonial era of our history, when ceremony and etiquette ruled the public hall as well as the private drawing-room, American judges wore the robe and wig still used in the old country. These insignia of authority inspired an awe, before the era of legal reform and of philosophical jurisprudence, which comported with the tyrannous exercise of juridical power, when it was little more than the medium of despotism, and when the calm reproach of Stafford was a literal truth: "It is better to be without laws altogether, than to persuade ourselves that we have laws by which to regulate our conduct, and to find that they consist only in the enmity and arbitrary will of our accusers."

The conveyancer, writer to the signet, attorney, barrister, and other divisions of the legal profession, indicate how, in this, as in other vocations, the division of labor operates in England; while, on this side of the water, the contrary principle not only assigns to the lawyer a degree of knowledge and aptitude in each branch of his calling, but lays him under contribution in every political and social exigency, as an interpreter or advocate of public sentiment; hence his remarkable versatility and comparatively superficial attainments. In the history of English law, the early struggles and profound acquirements of her disciples form the salient points, while in that of America, they are to be found rather in the primitive resources of justice and the various career of her ministers. With regard to the former, our many

racy descriptions of the process of western colonization abound in remarkable anecdotes of the unlicensed administration of justice. After the pioneer comes the ranger, a kind of border police, then the regulator, and finally the justice of the peace. In more primitive communities, when a flagrant wrong is committed, a public meeting is called, perhaps, under an oakclump or in a green hollow, the oldest settler is invited to the chair, which is probably the trunk of a fallen tree; the offense is discussed; the offender identified; volunteers scour the woods; he is arraigned, and, if found guilty, hung, banished, or reprimanded, as the case may be, with a dispatch which is not less remarkable than the fair hearing he is allowed, and the cool decision with which he is condemned.

There is a peculiar kind of impudence exhibited by the lawyer-it is sometimes called " badgering a witness"--and consists essentially of a mean abuse of that power which is legally vested in judge and advocate, whereby they can, at pleasure, insult and torment each other, and all exposed to their queries, with impunity. It is easy to imagine, the relish with which unprofessional victims behold the mutual exercise of this legal tyranny. A venerable justice, in one of our cities, was remarkable for the frequent reproofs he administered to young practitioners in his court, and the formal harangues with which he wore out the patience of those so unfortunate as to give testimony in his presence. On one occasion, it happened that he was summoned as a witness, in a case to be defended by one of the juvenile members of the bar, whom he had often called to order, with needless severity. This hopeful limb of the law was gifted with more than a common share of the cool assurance so requisite in the profession, and determined to improve the opportunity, to make his "learned friend" of the bench feel the sting he had so often inflicted. Accordingly, when his honor took the stand, the counsel gravely inquired his name, occupation, place of residence, and sundry other facts of his personal history— though all were as familiar to himself and every one present as the old church, or main-street of their native town. The queries were put in a voice and with a manner so exactly imitated from that of the judge himself as to convulse