The Sun.
London, England, 1817-12-23 00:00:00

I •

'GER:III7.i CA l' EI) C'O N VEY A NCERS.

V 0 it THE SA.; N.

Ma. totToa,—On seeing \lr. TOlLYN`SLeirtl'
-of last Saturday, I bad 'resolved to answer it,
which I accordingly did. The subject was ail easy.
one ;—the arguments not difficult 'to be answered.
But stil my want of leisure has, I fear, rendered
my performance not so complete as a re-perusal
iOlye Wade. it. The RS originally
folded up; was mislaid till yesterday, when I un-
derstood an Answer was'to be given to Mr.TAiq Ll' N.
of course delayed sending the inclosed till I read
that: ',meting, however, that it does riot take

up the subject to the extent which I have done,
Ithink it will not be very much amiss to lay these
remarks before the Public. It will tend to the.,
deveiopement of truth, whichever party succeeds ;
and I am free to acknowledge myself ready to be
convinced of my errors, by arguments (but they
must be stronger than Mr. TRULY N'S), it I can-
not succeed' in offering an answer to them. As
the question is of high importance, the Public
must feel themselves greatly indebted to you for
113 full and free discussion, and I hope that the
vlairus of each party will be advanced coolly and
moderately ; that our passions may not be roused,
but that our judgments may impartially decide on
the weigbt of evidence adduced against us.

A STUDENT OF LINCOLN'S INN.

Dec. 20, 1817.

!TO MR. T, I LYN,
STR,-*As your letter which appeared on Sator
day last (Dec. 13), addressed to the LORD CHAN
ceetoa, will, 1 am convinced, remain unanswered
by his Lordship, I take the liberty/of urging in
reply to it such arguments as would, in
my
lueoble opinion, be conelusive apinst you. You
observe, that the question should he considered,
Ist, As between Conveyancers and the Public,
and 2d, Between Conveyancers and Attornies
(and, you might have added,-Barristers)., lo your
own method, then, I will take up the point
though first I should premise how the law on the
s'abject at present stands. Any man, w hetbet
allopman, broker, tradesman, or bankitoit mer-
chnot, ignorant or well informed, may ou - one
day enter himself at one of the lan; of Court,
and take out a Cohvevancers certificate, and the
next clay lie may practise as a Conveyancer. This
is done at an expellee of al, out 33/ as the ad-
mission fee, and 121. per annum for his certificate
at the Stamp-office. Hating got illough these
(lit-Bei-416es. (by no means trifliog to the generality
of these aspirieg geniuses), he is" eshered jet()
all the mystssies of his profession, dohs himself
E,q., looks big, and talks still more roundly of
passing estates. Illslihraly consists of those in-
. valuable books, " Mr. Baritso'S eeedents," kind
" The Au(); uey's Pocker-book." Now, Sir, the
evils resulting to the PrOrlic are, that when igno-
rant men are taliployefl to plepare COt veyances,
they not uolrequently assign a very different pro-
perty from that which one of the part iesintended;
and thin gives rise to endless Idigations.
Inun-
tnerabte instances may be adduced to skew tha't
the greatest mischief nray result to the coartuu-
y, from property being vested-for some years
iu time hands of one set of • men, and at last
wrested from them by the decision of a Court of
Justice ; ssr {torn individuals being educated limier
the impression of inheriting a fortune, which.
after a tew years is found to belong to another.—
The evil you will readily admit ; but yon will per-
haps say, Attornies are very ignorant of coovey-
ancine ; and therefore the instanets
.alluded to
would be more like:y to happen amongst them'.—
The great portion. of Attornies, let it be remem-
bered, are Conveyancers. If they have served
tlieir clerkships in the country, they have attended
to hardly any thing but conveyancing ; and it has
been osual for many of them, even after their
clerkship, to ,spend a year under some man, of
eminence in that branch of his profession. In
London too, clerks have a great opportunity of
studying it, as well as the practice of the Courts.
It is the most generally understood of any of the
departments of legal knowledge. At all events,
it is mot e•prohable that an Attorney who has paid
great atten ion to it during a five years' clerkship
should draW.a deed skilfully, than that one .(who
seeing,the profits which he may immediately de-
rive from it, is tempted to embark in it with little
or no peepiration) should knoW much of the sub-
. elect. It cannot be gained in a day. The study
of it involves not only a knowledge of the old
fedal principles, but the long continued series of
judicial decisions relative to it. The greatest
nicety exists here ; a. slight mistake • will some-
times reqoire the lapse of many years, arid the
expenditure of several hundred pounds, 'ere, it
can be rectified. You will say, no upright man
vvould praceise it, till he was in some measure
qualified. If this be the feeling of Conveyancers
in general, svhAt objection can they have, 'whilst
they are gaining this requisite inforinatioo, to
keep their terms and proceed regularly to the Bar,
or to serve under articles to an Attorney ? 'I his
AVCitlld not fall heavily on these honest men; it
would only stand in the way of knaves. Let them be
. clever as they will, five years is hardly enough
time to let them understand it as they ought. But
what pretensions have these men to this extraor-
dinary superiority over the generality of Students
for the Bar, ler Clerks under Articles. Ate the
, latter so grossly ign'oiabt ?or the former so cull-
trendy well informed ? Do none but such men be-
come Conveyancers ? If they had received an
education, why were they not educated at. the
time for some profession You think your case
' strengthened by the nantes of a BUTLER, a
FEARNE, and an HARGRAVE. But I fear we should
Dot have many such men when the knowledge of
.the practical part of Conveyancing might be so
readily acquired, and so amply and early reward;
.*-eel. I will not consider, the, claims of Barristers.
Foc it is evident, that if they were to neglect (he
study of the principles of Conveyancing, our