The Express.
London, England, 1857-01-05 00:00:00

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NIGH WATKI. AT LONDON BRIDOB.
Ts -Ibleakag. M. UM. Altssma. fat
Isamonr—liaisib Ili. Ma. ASismak la. Via.

LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 6.

kr this season of the year, sad in throe days of •
tutees-penny Immo Tax, many a sneggling peter-
finaiss is sullckntly perplexed by the anneal
neurreuce of his ordinary tradesmen's talk Bet
has be ewe had to undergo, in addition, the visita-
tion el a kwyor's bill P If not, lot bin devoutly
think Ids Urs far past favours and need that in
tide 'upset his ht may know so Mange. We don't
ran moth deli d meountering the dispkasitre at that
very paint body of gentlemen, who make oar wilt,
money our mates, and 'image our mortgages
and elseeime, by denouncing the mode is which our
lawyers' bells are at present made out, as a nuisance
that ought forthwith to be abated. Oa this point it
h gratifying to And that a very Masada majority
d the keepers are with en We wish to make no
invidious comperkom We simply remark, es a
matter of binary, that as the ay of " Regina your
bikes' bale took is origin with the brethren at
the needle, so the more recent, but we trust not ism
efketml, cry of '• Reform your lawyers' bells* has
gone forth iron the very pesetrelio at Baked-
row and Chancery-lane. We talk of the cry as more
recent than that of Moera and Son i it would be
more correct perhaps to' describe it so kes obtrusive.
Ice mist of fact it made itself audlkL long ago to the
initiated, but, se is the wont with law sad all con-
meted with it, it has taken a bog time in gaining
any Mention bon the public.

Now this apathy of the public in scab matters is a
great mistake. There is no considerable clue in this
amestry—oo class whom dealings are at all on an
eateesslveseale—whohave notavory real iatersetin the
right settlement of this meanies at lawyers' sharies.
Of all deem thin Is nom more eancerned in it than
the Meet powerhl of all, the lamlowaing and tw-
inkle; elem. Most country gentlemen know some-
thing at the met now attending investigations o[ title
--mortgagee end marriage eettlemente--and have
vainly punka themselves over the mysterious items
et whisk the shaming total is @composed. The
thirteen.and.harpenose and the elz.end.eightpeneee
charged in interminable scieceeeko fee doing things
which to all useful purposes might just as wall hare
been left undone, are no less mystifying to
the *domain mind then the solemn gam-
levesnese et the parchments, and the appalling
verbosity of their contents. All proceed from
the game cease, the absurd principle of
reseimerstien which has for ages been adopted in
this department of human industry. The Solicitor
in this country is paid, not with any reference to
the degree of skill end labour required of him, act
by any percentage on the value of the property
which panes through his hands, but simply in
arithmetical proportion to the nealtiplieity of heel
steps (whether bsekwarde or forwards) which he
can eantrive to Aerie kr, and to the length
of the legal demments which he is called
en to prepare. This being the piaci* of the
thing, the only weeder is, not that knelt bills are
no costly, and legal documents so verbose as they
are, but that the one are not for more onerous, and
the other twice es voluminous.

It is gratifying to Mad that this matter has been
sealowely taken up by that very mefal body,
The Metropolitan and Provincial Law Institeitiom"
In a paper recently read before that society by Mr.
Eton' Ftzw—who haa for years been active in
promoting a change in this respect, and lost no op-
pa-enmity of bringing the question before the atten-
tion of one Parliamentary Committee after the other
—we find the following just and striking picture of
the absurdity of the existing method of remunera-
tion :

Tier mum . . . actually paean more pay for
Ifeti work this for mod, he .ft work them kyr fuck wok.
A. be •• regahtioss cs• do Boob • ddig, It moot:raga the
townie sad stupid. It me as foe rowtheree isd Asa
oiler bow* It Is easy to deur wt • sewn dedsmst--
dilhatit to make It amine. Take • dry ia drewhir mt,
my • st•tereest of Mesa Jab, sad It areism ycei 61.
wires Mond • mood dm is rechectag Ike Moira to:balf
he book, sod k pemossomyst dead of bathe h.' Its
sad mks. you Imo the woad dm eir 7••• lin blades.
If a eobritoe laveslime• Ms law sod doe..h• • P• 1•4 to..
stl4 it emidis Wee Mot ask* ; but if he with ••• he
girdles mid wads to commd, metes Maar& Omit ,
meek homekt, sodit imposidille—m. thresh • 1•••••
digmeef skin sod Itestehdre Is commelsot to that wart. k
aseirm es ea mew remeMise like tso timmthe wises
The oily noes of p•finisual mood at all sp:

preaching this in absurdity was that ander which
most middle-aged people in this country must have
=Erred who bad the misfortune to enjoy a feeble
state of health "in their earlier years. What recol-
lection that can go back thirty or forty years bat re-
tains a lively horror of the time when the medical
practitioner used to make no charge except for
drags, and paid himself for his time and attendance by
drenching us with a diurnal deluge of doctor's stuff.
It is a strong testimony to the stoutness of English
constitutions that they have been enabled so stiecees-
fully to weather the dangers of that nanecons time.
Nature indeed found a safety-valve in ailed, and
the perpetuation of the species was secured by the
revolt of the human pylons against the mercenary
orults of the en doctors.
_

Umbrella/toly tine is no similar escape from the
lawyer. The enneeseserf draught or the supereroga-
tory pill, though paid for, need not be taken. But the
verbosity of the lawyer,who is remunerated by length,
has corrupted thewbede structure of the English law
It has had a fatal inthenee on the seines not only
of legal but kridaters exgremion. It has infected
our acts of parliament with the same yerbeity as
oar conveyances. The Lee/bitten makes oar laws,
but our lawyers write them. The lawyer who was
paid for making a deed long, was not likely to draw
an act of parliament sheet. Hence the endless
" ahreaaids" and " hereinbehree"—hence the tauto-
logy, the involution, and the perplexity that make
the reproach of our Statutes. Hence, too, the anollem
multiplication of steps and preemies in every coarse
of litigation (more especially in Chancery), a result
inevitably following from the fet that every step
and every preens mast be paid for, whether it be a
blander or a success, a retrogression or an advance.
Well might Lord Hammen declare, as he did five
year ago, " that whatever other changes me effected
to improve our system, whether al Equity or Common
Law, a large proportion of the evil will remain online
this difficulty (of professional remuneration) shall be
grappled with and overcome."
- -

- - -
It is easier, no doubt, to point out the evil than the
remedy, but our own view coincides with that indi-
cated in the following realm by Mr. FIELD:—
" Other agents an paid, in degree, by a commiesion,
and in some proportion to the value of the property
en which the wcamanship and labour is to be ex-
pended. This is the method Nature takes for idea.
tifying the interests of employer and employed. The
merchant, the broker, the agent, the auctioneer, and
in Scotland an on the Continent, the lawyer
too, has for his principal fee a per cent-
age. The broker his as much trouble in buying
or selling 1,0001. stock sa 10,0004 But his pay is
according to the value of the thing his employer has
committed to his agency." This is the sound prin-
ciple, nor need there be any great difficulty in its
practical application—at all events es far u
transactions in real property are concerned. In
addition to the instances cited by Mr. FIELD, the
principle obtains in the United States, and, unless we
are Minimised, is mow laded upon by the local prac-
titioners of a eamlierable district in the west of Eng-
land. Should Government snoceed—as we trust they

may—in introdueing amoral Registry of Titles,ani
thus adding SO per cent. to the value of the land in this
country, by dispensing with the necessity of • fresh
investigation of title on each ocean of its bras-
h', a percentage system of legal remuneration
must shout of nessmity be adopted. The
eolleiter who mamma for his employer • transfer
or other trammetion in land most be rencterated
en the sem primal* as the broker who Whets a
sizable traumatism in sleek or shares. Re mast be
paid by • pereentsgs on the 11111100 alt T u immeased
multiplicity of land traassetions, aridly hem the
improved facilities of treader, will mime RCM stake
up to the legal agent far the hem ef the eases pci-
viler be now enjoys of =Hog weintetheide
charges for annecessary work, and regukting his lb
munmation, not by any scale of resposibility or
skill, bat by the number of words spun oat by the
lagers of his copying clerk. The pubis bee a groat
interest in the general adoption by the legal profes-
sion of the views so ably advocated by Mr. FIELD.
The change requires so legislative suction, bat may
be introduced, and we trust ere long will be intro-
aced, by the good souse of the lawyers themselves.