The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-22 00:00:00

measures which since the opening of the present
session he has submitted to Parliament, he
has noel/
introduced one which will, if confirmed, abolish the(
system which at present regulates the remuneration.
received by attorneys and solicitors from that
clients. This bill was read a sezond time last even-
ing, and then, in consequence of some objections.
raised by Lord St. Leonards and Lord Chelmsford,
referred for consideration to a select committee. In
this matter-of-fact age, when almost every businbusinesstransaction is susceptible of being made the subject.,
of special contract, it has furnished no little ground
for astonishment that law, which is the most costly
and the most undesirable of all luxuries, should be
sold according to a tariff over whose regulation thes
purchasers are permitted to exercise no control''.
The fee of the midwife or accoucheur under whose,
auspices an ;2dividual makes his entrance into the'
world, and that cif the, physician who watches hie
exit, may be made the subject of special agree-
ment ; and the same may ha said of almost every:
act of assistance which, between those eventfo'
periods the individual in question tiny require at,,
the hands of his fellow man, But to this genera:,
rule there is an important exception. If a man if:
of a litigious temperament, and is desirous ?r
gratifying what we may be permitted to call h'-a,
morbid predilections, or if he through no feult 01
his own, is compelled to have recourse to tegae
measures to enforce claims, or to resist unjust de_
mends, he knows beforehand that the assistance'
which he must of necessity seek must be paid for
at a fixed, and at what he may consider an exor-
bitant, price. He may bargain with his wine'
merchant, or his tailor, or his landlord, or his doc-
tor, but bargaining with his lawyer the Legislature.
does not allow. If he wishes to jog the memory a
a debtor who obstinately remains apparently uncon-
scious of the outstanding obligation, and by a gels'
tle threat of legal proceedings to procure its imme-
diate liquidation, " an attorney's letter" is the ex-
pedient employed. But this expedient has its'
marked price, from which an abatement is not only
not allowed by the law, but is virtually prohibited;
and whether the threat accomplishes its purpose er
not, the attorney receives from either the creditor
or the debtor the statutory fee. But the same rule
which obtains upon the threshold of all legal pro 4
ceedings is equally observed through that long and
intricate course which, when once fairly in motion)
they almost invariably run. The consequences are
well known, No man can form even a general,
estimate of the expense which he may be forced to
incur in the vindication of its legal rights, or what
he believes to be so ; nor can his attorney do so for
him. Everything, as the lawyer tells his client, de-
pends upon " the other side." If difficulties arc
raised they must be met, and, if possible, overcome,
but then the cost of the victory must of course re-
main uncertain. The attorney may conscientiously
aver that he will perform his duties as cheaply 11.3
any of his confraternity ; but the evil is that that
promise fails to reassure him who not unreasonably
thinks that he ought to know beforehand the
amount of remuneration he will eventually be called
upon to give for the fulfilment of a specified del.
The main object of the Lord Chancellor's bill
is to abolish a system so obviously at variance with
those general principles which regulate the trans-
action of matters of business between the different
members of society, and which has nought to sup-
port it except its antiquity. It is provided that
henceforth it shall be lawful for every attorney and
solicitor to enter into a contract with his client,
determining the amount of remuneration ha shalt
receive for his professional services, and to stipuiate
that such remuneration shall either consist of a
gross sum or be ascertained according to a standard
agreed upon between him and his client, It is, in
fact, proposed that henceforth the remuneration of
attorneys, like that of all other persons who are
entitled to recover payment for their services, shall
be made dependent, if the parties so wish it, upon
special agreement, and shall not be regulated by
those arbitrary rules which have hitherto been
posed by the Legislature settling the rates of par
ment. We are well aware that objections will be
raised to the proposed scheme upon the ground that
it will open a door for what will be apparently
cheap, but will be in reality dear, litigation. These
objections, however, rest upon the narrowest
grounds, and are utterly unimportant when viewed
beside those cardinal objections, based upon the
first principles of economical science, which present
themselves to the existing system. Dismissing
from consideration the fact that the costs of legal
proceedings are, even under the supervision of tax-
ing masters, scandalously greet, there can exist no
just reason why they should not, like the expenses
entailed by any other transaction of life, be made
dependent solely upon the wishes and the convee
nience of those whose pockets they alone affect.