The Sun.
London, England, 1818-01-02 00:00:00

FOR T'llE SUN.

MR. EPITOR,—As you have admitted-into your
--'lournal a paper upon the. question between At-
'willies and 'Certificated Conveyancers, 1 claim
from your impartiality admission for the 'follow.;
ing reply :

The writer of that paper certainly displays a
-most happy dexterity in the use of words. I t arti-
fice and sophistry could delude'the intelligent part
of the British Public, and more especially the i-
fish Legislature, -then-the talents, and even the
present arguments, athat writer might establish
the case of his party. But there are such things
as reason, common sense, and equity, and to
those I shall appeal.
- This advocate 'of his party among the Attor-
Isles deals in assumptions and assertions with ad-
mirable freedom ; grant him his premises, acrd his
conclusions stem to follow with axiomatic force.
ne assumes that the Attornies are all men of in-
tegrity and skill, and that they generally under-
stand the principles of conveyancing. But I
would. ask him, in the face of the public (fur
really on this occasion we must use the argnment
ad verecundiam), whether he believes this to be
the fact ? flas he never known or heard of in-
stances in which the professifenal character has
been degraded by ignorance and turpitude ? And
will he venture to affirm that a thorough or com-
petent knowledge of the science of conveyancing
can generally be attained in an Attorney's office ?
imagine that, if lie should lint readily perceive
the unfairness of characterizing bodies of men by
a reference to a small minority of individuals, he
would feel that in the case before us this ground
is full of peril to his party ; and 1 presume he is
aware that the science of conveyancing, in all its
branches, is quite sufficient of itself to engage the
undivided attention and talents of any man, and
that the most cautious, respectable, and skilful
Attornies apply for assistance in all the most dif-
ficult parts of that business to Conveyancers hi
London, who may be, or may not be, at the bar,
anal who entered as Members of an Inn of Court,
in the same manner as the body, of Conveyancers
against whom this writer would excite an unjust
•and illiberal odium. Yet, if his assertions and as-
sumptions had the force of proofs, and the merit
of truths, his oponents (or rather those whom he,
so liberal)Y attacks) must shrink from the contest,
snider a sense of delingnency and dishonour. But
the small body of Certificated Conveyancers
(amounting to about 200 in the velio;e kingdom,
of whom nearly half reside in London) repel,
with a praper feeling, and are prepared to refute,
these imputations'upon their general character. 1
shall very briefly observe here, that regulations
exist, and are enforced, to prevent the intrusion
of persons not respectable as Members of any'of
the Four Inns of Court ; that though the charge
upon admission is only between 301. and 401. yet
there is an annual charge of 61. or 71. ever after-
wards, for dues to the Inn of Court, and that to
a student at Chambers the expense for instruction
is trot much less than 1501. per annum : that skill
and integrity being the only tneang,generally to
be depended upon for success in basinesS, a fair
reasoner Would infer that Conveyancers, like other
men, would con' Willy act with due Attention to
this maxim, and would not rashly venture upon the
practice of a difficult profession, imposing upon
their employers, anti hazarding their own inte-
rests, with the furniture only of a desk, an ink-
horn, and a quire of paper, as our ingenious At-
torney wittily expresses it ; and finally, I appeal
to facts, and I challenge the Attornies to a trial
,of the qualifications and comparative merits of
the parties in this dispute.
I have spoken of the argument ad verecundiam,
but perhaps rather hastily, in reference to my op-
ponent, , who, with exquisite modesty, alleges, and
attempts to persuade his yeaders, that he is advo-
cating, not the interests of his profession, but
those of the Public ! ! !—Disinterested and noble
minded men !—Disdaining to take advantage of
the misfortunes and errors and passions of man-
kind, and 'lamenting that the incapacity of Con-
veyancers should increase their business and their
profits by committing blunders which Attornies
alone can mend ! ! !—A satirical spirit might sug-
gest that the consideration that Attornies can
mend their own blunders, or the blunders of their
branch of the profession, is not very consoling,
sinless accompanied with an assurance of a gralui-
Loud exercise of, their repairing talents.. In plain
seriousness, however, the motives of these "Gen-
denten may be partly estimated from their pro-

cecdings during the last Session of Parliament.—
They then attempted to obtain the sanction of the
Legislature to a measure of almost unexampled
iniquity. They could not prove that the Cettiti-
cated Conveyancers at large are chargeable with

- • •••:—.
in:abaci'ty or want-otintegrny and rtspectabnity;

'they 'wouril not dare to attempt the prorif
did not prove tha't any number of instances of
incompetency and unfitness for their profession
existed 'among the 'Conveyancers sufficient to
for legislative interference. They sptiined the
principle, essential to justice, that all Penal anal
Restrictive Laws ought to be prospective in their
operation.—They proposed no measure -having the
semblance of fairness and utility, such as, that
all persons, Attiirnies and othe.rs, beginning
thereafter to practise Conveyancing, should `pass
fin examination. They Were not Content with
2narding rigidly, and narrowing to an absurd de-•
gree, the boundaries of conveyancing' in future.
:Int they required, that by a law with -an ex
post facto operation, pkn.sons who, within a
given period before their adinission to an Inn
of Court, bad been engaged in certain pur-
suits or lines of business (all of them assuredly
not discreditable), though ;hey might have
been established in practice for many years
with unimpeachable integrity ; though their
attainments might be of the highest order ;
though with fam•lies they might depend upon
thei'r business solely for support ;—yet that
by this law, for the delinquency of their original
occupation, they •shonld be expelled from their
profession, and degraded, and ruined r—and this
in a free commercial country ;—in the face of the
British Constitution ;—and in the face of existing
laws by which the present Conveyancers are ex-
pressly sanctioned ;—and called for by men, some
of whom must have conveniently dismissed the
remembrance of their own extraction, and early
pursuits ! ! !—For the rest, they desired that bur-
dens not at all ensuring or promoting the improve-
ment of the parties affected in knowledge, res-
pectability, or fitness for their profession, might
be imposed upon those who could pass the nota-
ble ordeal just mentioned. The names of places,
and of on individual, that have petitioned against
the certificated Conveyancers, arerl ate(! him much
parade.- But who are the petitioners Do they
comprise .any part of the Public at large ? Are
they not all Attornies ?—lf the Public have been
injured by the Conveyancers they must have dis-
covered the grievance, and they would be,the pro-
per parties to apply for redress. ,But let it not be
understood that the attornies are generally advo-
cates of this persecuting Measure. I know that
many, and I am persuaded that most, if not all,
of the truly respectable members of that profes-
sion disclaim and disapprove the proceeding.
Among the attornies are very many open high not
only in character and talent, but in principle, and
who neither will nor can knowingly concur in any
thing unjust. As to our opponents, if they are
resolved again to bring the question before Par-
liament, there we will meet them, secure that
before this high tribunal the rights of one hun-
dred will be as sacred as the interests of one thou-
sand, and that truth and justice will prevail.

A CERTIFICATED CONVEYANCER.

CoPratt TOKENS.—The following extract from
an Act, passed on the 27th of June last, to pre-
vent the issuing and circilation of copper tokens,
has been published in some of the Provincial Pa-
pers :—'° After the Ist of January, . 1818, no
pieces of copper, or of any mixed metal composed
partly of copper, of-whatever value the same may
be, shall pass or circulate as a token for stioney :
and every person who shall, alter. the said Ist of
January, circulate or pass any such token, shall,
for every token, whether such person shall have
been concerned in the original issuing, or only
the holder thereof, forfeit not less than 2s. nor
more than 10s. at the discretion of the Justice;
but nothing in this Act shall extend to prevent
any person from presenting any such token for
payment to the original issuer, or discharge such
original issuer from his liability to pay the same ;
also nothing in this Act shall b,e construed as af-
fecting any token issued by the Bank of England."
—As this prohibition would scent to apply not
only to tokens issued by private individuals or
companies, but to every kind of copper token in
circulation, we would remark, for the.informa-
tion of our readers, that there is a special clause
in the same Act exempting the copper tokens
issued by the Overseers of this town, and allow.
ing . them to be issued and circulated until the
24th March, 1820, after which time they become
subject to .the above provision.—Olirmingham
Paper, Dec. 31)

ANECDOTE OP THE LATE DUKE OF NoRTHUM-
BERLAND.—The Abbe DE PEItCIE, some time af-
ter the conlinencement of the Revolution in
France,:was obliged to fly from his living in Nor-
mandy to this country. Soon after his arrival in
London, he was hustled in New•street, Covent-
Garden, and robbed of 20 guineas, which he had
received but a few minutes before, at Sir Itouurr
HERRIEs's. With the remainder of his little
preperty he went to Bath, where it was soon
expended. In this dilemma, his countrymen there
reminded him, that he was related to the English
PERcvs, and, as the Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND
was at that tiate there, they advised him to apply
to his Grace for relief. The Abbe immediately
wrote to the Duke, who returnrd a polite answer,
and requested a few days for investigation. In
the mean time, his Grace wrote to Lott! HAR-
COURT, at whose house the Due D'llAttcouaT re-
sided, and inquired whether the Abbe was one of
the DE l'Encres of Normindy ; soon after which
he transmitted to his new cousin a gold box, with
a Bank-note inclosed in it for 10001., and a ge-
neral invitation to his table, which was from that
dzy open to bin).