The Sun.
London, England, 1817-12-13 00:00:00

CO`NVI.YANC ERS.

1112. Erwroa,--,As y,,0 have aff.irtled.tpace
your valuable Pallet frit- 8 long advocaqing,'
on the part of the AttOctii!-s, their proPosedmea-
sures for restraining the privileges, at present en-
joyed by the Conveyance-vs, I am-induced to hope
that your impartiality lead you to afford room
also for any strgnments that may* advaned on
the part of The Conveyancers. Abstaining for Ihe
present from entering into the 'Question myselt,
I merely offer to your -notice.a 'Letter which bas
fallen into my hands, written. by a-Country-Coo-
-1
veyamer, and addressed to the Lord Chancellor
on this subject. The argnments therein adduced
appear to me so forcible that i shall be anxious to
know what answer can be given to them by the
Attornies:

London, Dec. 10, 1217.

A CONVEYANt tR.

BARNSTAPLE, MAY 3, 1817.

MY LORD,—It may be deemed presumptuous in nre to ad-
dress your Lordship, blit I feel that the subject on which I
am about to treat, is very properly cognizable by your Lord-
ship, as the chief Minister of the Laws in these Realms ; and
I trust you will excuse me for intruding upon your valuable
time, it being highly probable that the proceedings of the
Legislature, With reference to that subject, will be materially
influenced by your Lordship's opinion and sentiments.
In all'probability it is already known to yom: Lordship, that
the Attornies in the Country, particularly in Devomibire and
Cornwall, have expressed much dissatisfziction that any'per-
sons but themselves should practice in Conveyancing; that
they have several times attempted to obtain some restraining
Laws, favourable to their interests alone ; and that there now
lies un the table of the House of Commons, a Petition from
the Attornies of those Counties, praying for the enactment of
Laws tending to- the same eq.—Conscious as I am of the
weakness of my abilities, yet being materially interested in
the question, I will use my humble endeavours to state it
correctly, and to combat the pretensions of the Attornies to
the acquisition of their object.

Those pretensions may be considered in two ways,—tst.
As between the Atternies and the Public, and andly, as be-
tween the Attortres and the Conveyancers ;—ln the former
view it is ineumbent upon the Attornies to shew that the
Public will be benefited by an alteration of the existing'
Laws, and in the latter view, that the Conveyancers will have
no just grounds for complaining of a deprivation of those
means by which they have honourably earned a sobsisteoce
for themselves and their families.
lam told, that the Atti.rnics attempt to prove that the
Public will be benefited, by arguing, that from the circum-
stance that any person on tieing admitted a menil.er of either
of the four 1:138 'of Court, and taking out a certificate an-
nually from the Stamp Office, cats practice as a Conveyancer,
it is possible that persons who have not it competent knaws
ledge of the profession may be admitted, and that individuals
may sustain very considerable losses by the blunders those
persous may commit. But will answer argrunemt by ,
observing, Ist. that it should be received wii h great sitspis_
coon, because it is made by a bode of meitia order to obtain
the passing of a law for the furtherance of their own inte-
rests.; and 2ndly,. that it is to the very circumstance of the
profession being eligible to every sine that the country is in-
debted for the great perfection to which it has been In-might
by such men as Fearne, Hargrave, and Butler *, of whose
abiiities the priiteSsiou would litre been deprived, hail its
pursuit been confined to those alone who. had .served Clerk-
ships to Attornies. •
The laws imposiog the detessity of .4gprenticvoip,
origj-
tutted when Commerce was its its infancy, and have been cott-
er:tined as injurious to society by every liberal-minded writer
of modern times, and particularlyby the author of the Wealth
of 7>:atiohs, who observes, that the property which every man
Las nt his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all
. other property, so it is the most saner! and inviolable. Thee
patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of
his hands, and to hinder him from employing this.strengt
and dexterity in what manner be thinks proper, without in-.
jury to his ntighhour, is a plain violation of this most sacred
property. It is a manifest inoroachment upon the just li-
berty, both of the WOllsotan and those who alight be disposed
to employ bin) ; as it hinders the one front working at what
he thinks proper, so it hinders others from etiVoyin; whom
they think prop-r :to he is fit to be employed,
may surely be trusted- to the discretion of the employers,
whose interest rt. so much con:erns. The affected anxiety of
the Lawgiver lest they should employ any improper person,
is evidently as impertinent as it is oppressive. •
Another argument advanced by the Attornics is, that Arti-
cles of Clerkship to an Attorney must he written upon a
1001. Stamp admit the truth of it, hut I cannot see how
it affects the question, since those persons only who serve
such Clerkships can act as Attornies, to soliciting Suits at
Law or in Equity, and they must have been entered into with
a full knowledge that the business of Conveyancing was not
confined to such persons as served them: nor indeed is an
Attorney necessarily a Conveyancer, his admission to the
Courts is only as au Attorney. In truth, the Attornies are
obliged to have recourse to the most tniserab'e arguments in
their proceedings; their superior knowledge, as they term it,
is one of the grounds en which they advocate their preten-
sions, but a remark of Dr. Knox was never More applicable
than on this occasion, that where extraordinary pretensions
are made, either iii the manual arts, the trades, or the pro-
fessions, there is just ground for caution and suspicion. That
there are many persons, as well Conveyancers as Attornies,
who practice Conveyancing, who never read, or having read,
do not understand, the works of the learned men who have
written upon the subject, I ant disFosed to admit.; but
I can with equal confidence. assert, that a small propor-
tion only of the •Attiiinies have -a competent latiowledge
of Coaveyancing; and indeed, a long experience of them has
established iii my mind a conviction that a part of them are
grossly ignorant of that branch of the Law,—an ignorance
the more injurious to society, since it is clothed with what
is termed a regular Cterkship; whilst the mere Conveyancer
most rest en tine reputatioir of .his own merit, unsupported
by any such imposing trapping.—lt is possible that the At-'
tornies may be wale to addude instances of illiberal condoet
in. some Conveyancers, but surely the whole body is not to
be condemned on that account, fur it world-he unprecedent-
ed in society were there not to be found men of bad petit-
eiOes in every tine of life, not even excepting the Attornics.
fhe learned Archdeacon Paley has ,delined civil liberty to
be, " the out being restraioed-by any law but what conduces
in a greater degree to the public weitare ;" and from that de-
finition he deduces, that restraint itself is au evil,—that that
evil ought to he over-bah-metal by souse public advantage,—
and that the proof of that advantage lies upoo the Legisla-
ture. Let us apply these deductions to the case in point ; I
think it must have appeared by the precediog- observations,
that the enactment of the restraining so much wished
far by the Atturnies, will he a serious evil to the public; and
_I feel confident that it will be readily granted, that to de-
prive the Couveyancers of the right they enjoy of exercising
their, profession, will -he a serious evil to them. It becomes
therefore incumbent upon the Alt ornies, to shew that that
evil Will be overbalanced by some public advantage, its the
enactment of the proposed lase: and to do so, I take it they
must. also shew, that it is perfectly fair and just, that the Con-
veyanccrs•shall be deprived of their profession, or in other
words, that they shall be deprived of the means they possess: of
maintaining.. their establishments, and he driven to seek for
subsistence in scone ether employ.
How it is possible for the Attornies tp establish these
proofs, I am at it loss to imagine; but I can hardly persuade
niesiaf that either H,use of Parliament will pass any hill
which may prejudice the Conveyancers who ate now in prac-
tice , the Conveyancers being a body of men recognized by

# The material part of the proceedings in action; and suits
at law and in equity Are not preparcd by the A.ttornies, but by
certain persons called special pleader, and draftsmen in equity,
men of the first abilities in the Nation, and `vet those gen-
tlemen ate nut required to serve any
.particular clerkship,
but are cMploycd by the artornies themselves on the groan('
of their Inc) it.

Wt. ins sinttch as they hare 'pa;rl the !;tamp ttuty on
thtir admissions at The Inns of Court, and ;muttaby is err
out Ceriidcates at the i•tanop Other &through perhaps the
Attornies Amy with greater chance of success•introdnot
-bill, that May have for its object to conf,ne 'future admissions-
It. the practice of oam-evincing to stela, persons Only as have
a•cousumaiate knowledge of it : but whether ha at object he
aitaittaole :s much to be questioned, aria I ant store it will
trot h-r. attained by confining. the praetic.e to Attornies t nor,
my 'bare, is this a time to 11:1170417 tire roads to industry and
wealth, wtlen thousands of persons, by the sudden ftansitioo
from a state of war to that of peace, tire deprived of those
ineanSaif gaining a livelihood, to which many have been ac-
customed for nearly a quarter uf a century..
I feel a'coofidenet. that your Lot dship will maturely weigh
the arguments on both sides of the question, and that in your
Muds jnsfitte Win he dune. With regard to myself, were I
to be deprived of my prolessiun, I should conceive myself
to he dealt with particularly hard, since I had for many
years the managetueut of the Conveyancing business of an
office of extensive practice, when I was called trots it by be-
ing elected clerk to a hoard of Commissioners of the Pro-
perty Tax, and That Tax having ceased, I became a Mem-
ber of one of till,. Law Inns of Court, and ant now in good
practice as a Con veyancer,--- a profession which was always
my greatest pride, and now is my only means of ,gaining
livelihood. . .

I cannot conclude this letter 'without adverting to the very
ungentlemanly conduct of sonic of the Attornies in the pro-
secution of their object ;—they'have spared neither ground-
less in-sinuations, 'or the most abusive language. Ilut it is
beneath me to retort in the same Inaraer, and I will only
remark,- that such conduct is a strong proof of the weakness
of their cause. I must, however, yield to my feelings the
more pleasing gratification of paying a tribute to the more
liberal minds of oilier Attornies, nor do I mean to withhold
it even from some of those wbo are in the list of my oppo-
nents, bat who in pursuing their own interests, have be-
haved as Guit

I hare the honour to he,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obed;ent, -
and very humble2Streant,
JOHN TAMLYN.
To flit honourable John, Lord Eldoil,
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.

' The Conveyancers bare been repeatedly noticed in the
several stamp acts, and surety it would be the extreme of in-
justice, were persons who have given up their time to the
study and pursuit *o. a profession, under such high sanctions;
to be told now that they must resign their retentions to' it,
and that for the purpose of feeding the avarice and ambi-
tion of the Attornies, of whose great exertions for the public
weal beyond his Majesty's other good subjects, I never yet
heard; but I take it for granted, that they must- themselves
be sensibly impressed with the vast importance of their pub-
lic services, or they would hardly have started so extraordi-
nary a claim upon their count' y's gratitude.