The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-13 00:00:00

TO OUR 'MADER&

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

A !ate edition of the Express is publisbeil every
evening duriug the racing season, containing the
results of the dad's races.

PARLIAMENT has of late years devoted a good
deal of attention to questions connected with the
professional education and status of attornies.
Nor can it bo said that these are matters unde-
serving of the care of the Legislature. Although
attornies are not, like the bar, able to defend
themselves against • claim of damages for impro-
perly conducting a case, by the mere fact that
they are admitted members of the profession, yet
the interests committed to their care are so
immense and multifarious that we may well be
anxious to secure the highest qualifications for the
performance of their duties. But such qualifica-
tions cannot bo restricted to the acquisi-
tion of mere legal knowledge. An attor-
ney is of necessity a confidential adviser
in more matters than those of law. He
is, besides, in many cues, an indispensable
adviser. We may, if we are indifferent or self-
reliant, set little store by the ghostly counsels
of the clergyman ; and if we are cautious and pru-
dent we may pass through life with little need to
resort to the physician ; but we are not our own
masters in the questions that drive us to the
attorney's chambers. No man can prevent a law-
suit from being brought against him ; no man, in
the complications of trade, or even of social inter-
course, can hinder the faults of others from plung-
ing him into difficulties from which only his
legal adviser can extricate him. Unhappily
the profession on which we are thus depen-
dent is of • singularly mixed composition.
It embraces men of the highest honour, in whose
ability and integrity we every day confide with
unlimited trust. But it also includes men of
character so low that the whole profession suffers
from the stigma which they bring upon it, and
the very name of attorney provokes such sneers
as that famous one of Dr. Jonsson, "Sir, I
" would not willingly speak ill of • man behind
" his back, but I believe the individual in ques-
" tion is an attorney." To raise the reputation
of the whole body above the liability to such
sarcasm has been one of the objects
which Parliament has had in view. For this
purpose it has deemed, and we think wisely,
that the best methods that could be adopted were
to offer inducements to men of liberal education
to enter it, and to require in all its members the
possession of such knowledge am might reasonably
be expected in gentlemen. With the former view
the period of probation as " articled clerk" which
the young attorney must pass before he proceeds
to his examination in law was, • few years sines,
shortened, in the case of members of a University,
from five years to three. With the latter view, in
an act passed in the Session before last, a clause
was inserted directing that the chiefs of the three
superior Common Law Courts and the Mssraft of
the Row should draw up regulations for the
" examination in general knowledge" of all candi-
dates not possessing a University degree.
After • year of consideration these eminent au-
thorities have framed their regulations, and we laid
them before our readers the other day. They are
of such a nature as Mr. HAULER other(
would
probably deem • very proper model for the Civil
Service Examination of Clerks in the Foreign-
office, but it may be doubted whether they give
hopes of much advance in the raising the standard
of education among attornies. The first part of
the examination is to comprise the following sub-
ject. :-1. Reading aloud • passage from some
English author. 2. Writing from dictation.
3. English Grammar. 4. Writing • short Eng-
lish composition. 5. Arithmetic--• competent
knowledge of the first four rules, simple and
compound. 6. Geography of Europe and of the
British Isles. 7. History, Questions on English
History. 8. Latin, Elementary Knowledge of
Latin. The second part is to consist of an exami-
nation in any of the following languages, in the
option of the candidate :—Latin; Greek, modern
or ancient ; French ; German ; Spanish; Italian.
This second branch of the examination may be left
out of view, as the knowledge of • single language
—Latin without Greek ; French without Latin ;
Spanish, or Italian, or Modern Greek without any
other—is a special qualification, of no value as an
indication of general knowledge, and which will
be of use to the possessor only in exceptional
cases. But the "general knowledge " demanded
in the first part will, we think, be regarded by the
public as scarcely of that character which was in-
tended to raise the standard of the profession.
We can scarcely suppose that any attorney now
enters the arena of practice who is ignorant of
reading and writing, of the first four roles of arith-
metic, of the geography of the British Isles and of
Europe, and of an elementary knowledge of Latin.
The mere preparation of a bill of costs requires
more than half the qualifications of general know-
ledge prescribed by the heads of our Law Courts.
The use of the law Latin still preserved in the
names of writs and in maxims of practice almost
demands the elementary knowledge of that
language which is here required. History,
which is restricted to English history, is the only
subject that can be regarded as going beyond the
existing routine of a purely legal education. We
question whether this exception will be regarded
as sufficient to redeem the regulation from the
charge of being a mockery of the Act of Parlia-
ment which directed it, and an insult to the pro-
fession which it concerns.

No doubt the framers of the regulation may
allege in their defence the extreme difficulty of