The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-21 00:00:00

In the one case attorneys or sons of attorneys

ibtain of the bar what-ever share of business
,heir former known merits secured to them in

their original capacity, or from their former
clients anti connections. With respect to the
pleaders their ineteaseitt number and practice
has been long the Ntibjett of much jealousy. BY
the etiquette of the bar barristers are onlyallowed
to take gold fees, but the pleaders v'ho are hot
subject to the etiquette or the bar, may take sil-
ver fees. The pleader may, for seveit
or for as much less as he choses to take, draw

the same plea which the barrister cannot draw fir
less than one guinea. Though the pleaders
carry on a branch of the profession which by
some eminent jurists is considered mischievous ,
and odious, and must sooner or late site way to
reform, yet they, nevertheless, grant cheaper
cheaper justice; to the suitor. They give
❑ions at the same proportionately cheap rate, aria ,
the demand upon them has, .in this respect,
greatly increased. The opinion for which 'Sir •
James Scarlctt would require five or ten guineas
an eminent pleader, whose learning might be as
great, and whose opportunity for research might
be much greater, would give for one or two gui- •
neas. Hence the pleaders are favourites with the ;
attorneys, who frequently give them their busi-
ness when they are called to the bar.
The proposed examination in Greek, is uni-
versally treated as at least an outrageous absur-
dity.
Not a word of Greek is ever met with in

the books, and, as an essential qualification for
an English lawyer, a proficiency in the SanEcrit
might as well be required. Greek is seldom or

never heard in the Courts. Latin is heard but
sparingly, and of that, which is quoted from the
law books, a large proportion must be admitted
to be bad Latin. There is even a rule of law
from the former frequency of its occurrence that
bad Latin diall not vitiate any of the proceed-
ings. Some of the best lawyers, and amongst
them several now living, might be pointed out
who have not always succeeied in making good
English.

An examination in law may, prima Jack, Itp.
pear to the public, reasonable and proper ; but
those acquainted with the spirit and tendency of
other rules adapted for the admission of mem-
bers to the bar, by which rules the object of
this is to be interpreted, see it in a very different
light. Formerly students read exercises and
mooted cases in their halls, and at each inn a
" lector" was appointed, for their instruction,
from among the most learned of the members.
But after the experience of - centuries these
customs have been given up, as productive of no
benefit, and as unfit to supersede the more in-
terested, add more certain, examinations into the
qualifications of the advocate by the client
or his attorney. The ignorance or unfitness
in other respects of an advocate is liable to im-
mediate exposure. In medicine the evils winch
may be inflicted by the ignorant practitioner are
irremediabll; and it is for the advantage of every
individual that there should be authorized exami-

nations of the man to whom his health and life
may be trusted, often necessary without his cog-
nizance. The evils which may be inflicted by
the ignorant legal practitioner are sufficiently
grievous ; but they arc rarely, if ever irremediable,
and, if they were, it is asserted that regulations
of the nature of those proposed would rather
increase than diminish them. In the proposed
examinations it is the memory which will be the
most tried, not the qualification, discretion, from
the lack of which by the advocate the greatest
evil acrues to the client. But the longest life,
if entirely directed to the study of modern law,
would not suffice to secure the most able against

the rejection of a single examiner. His late—Ma-
jesty once observed that he never in his life met
a lawyer who would venture to answer him a
legal question without referring. Nor would
the lawyer's opinions have been worth much, on
points of importance, if they were made up
without reference to the 'authorities. It is asserted
with confidence that there is not one of the
benchers who could pass an examination by a
man of moderate acquirements below the bar,
if the latter were allowed full latitude as to the
department of the law he might select, and the
framing of the questions he might choose to put.
It is objected that examinations in part give any
one bencher, or any one examiner, a colourable
pretext for the rejection of any student against
whom he might entertain a prejudice.
The effect of the proposed legal examination
would be to give an immense accession of patro-,
nape to the benchers or the leading members of
the bar. Where difficulties are placed in the
way of admission, there must be continual appli-
cations and solicitations from families of rank to

those who have the power to remove the ob-
structions, and make easy the road to advance-
ment. One great source of emolument in the
profession is the fees on premiums re-
ceived from pupils. The share of the legal
benchersis in the greater number of instances de-
termined by slight circumstances. Where a legal
professor is known to have strong connections,
or to be in favour with those who exercise an ir-
responsible power of admission, he will neces-
sarily obtain a considerable preference over other
professors who are not equally favoured. One
of the proposed examiners has pupils. It has
been stated as the declared intention of more
than one of the Members to call no one to the
bar who is not possessed of a certain amount of
property. One bendier has, it is understood,
declared that he will call no one who is possessed
of less than 4001. per annum, and it was stated
during the last term to be in contemplation to
require from each applicant for admission a sche •
dule of his property, in order that the respecta-
bility of the bar might be maintained. It is
stated, however, at the Treasurer's office that no

such order is at present entered on the books.
It is, nevertheles, believed from the inquiries
made of those recently called to the bar that an
►►nderstanding equivalent to an order exists
among the benchers that some qualifications of
this nature will be required. One member,-,tbe
son of a tradesman, was remanded, as it.was
understood in the hall, until it was ascertained

that he had exercised no proßtable employment,
and had lived upon his property during the time
he kept his tvrms. Another member, recently
call Ni to the bar, was questioned as to his private
life and circumstances, his property, his morals,
whether he was rmrricd or single, and as to his
religion.

The reputed leading promoters of the new
orders in the courts, Sir James Searlett and Mr.
John \Vilharm, have, it is in courtesy presumed,
for their sole intention to maintain the respecta-
bility of the bar (according to their notions of
reapectability); and to procure for the public au
additional supply of' legal talent. But if it be
so it is complained that they have been peculiarly
unfortunate in the choice cf their measures.
The greatest skill must attend the most extensive
practice, and there will of course lie the utmost
diligence where there is the strongest motive.—
By requiring an attorney to give up practice for
two or three years before he is admitted,so much
practical skill as that length of increased practice
would give, is lost, and all his previously ac-
quired practical skill is impaired. The rule also
shuts out those who have not property to enable
them to maintain themselves during the pruba-
tionary period, and encounter the riaki-,7 of failure.
By requiring a proficienel, in Greek, general
literature, and Latin, ao much time as the ac-
quisition of the proficiency absorb is taken
from the acquisition of legal knowledge. BV
expressly or implicitly requiring qualifications as
to property those are excluded who have the
greatest motive for exertion.
If such regulations as those proposed had for-
mciiy been carried into operation in their lull
spirit they would have excluded the greatest or-
naments of the bench and the bar.
Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell are the sons of
a barge-roaster and small dealer in coals at New-
castle. Lord Stowell borrowed 401. to go the
cirosot, and both supported themselves for a
time by their talents as private tutors. Lord
Tenterden is the son of a hair-dresser, and ob-
tained an eleemosynary education, on the foun-
dation of a charity belonging to the town. The
Lord Chancellor is the son of Mr. Copley, the
painter. The Chief Justice of the Court of
Common Pleas is the son of an attorney. Mr.
.John Williams, one of the benchers of this Inn,
is the son of a horse-dealer in Yorkshire. Mr.
F. Pollock, another bencher, is the son of a
saddler of that name at Charing-cross. Mr.
Bickerateth, also a bencher, was not long since
house-surgeon and accoucheur in tile family of
Lord Oxford. The mother
.of Mr. Gurney,
the bencher, kept a small book-shop for the sale
of pamphlets in one of the courts of the city.—
Mr. Campbell, the King's Counsel, and son,
in-law to Sir James Scarleit, was one of the
class inferior to that which was recently de-
signated in Court as " the meanest of man-
kind," namely, the editors of public journals ;
for he was a reporter to a daily paper at a
time when such labour being much worse
paid than at present, the situation must have
been, according to Sir James Scarlett's esti-
mation, much less respectable. Mr. Serjeant
Spankie was one of his colleagues. Mr. Ste-
phens, the Master in Chancery, was also a re-
porter. Five of the Judges sent out to our colo-
nies were reporters, and about twelve or fifteen of
the present barristers were reporters of the daily
papers. The present Solicitor-General, Mr. Sug-
den, is the son of a barber, and was clerk to
Mr. Groome, the operative conveyancer to the
late Marquis of Londonderry. It is remarkable
that the admission of Mr. Sugden was opposed
on the ground that he had been a clerk, and but
for the exertions of that most amiable man and
ornament to his profession, Mr. Hargrave, who
contended for his admission on the ground, that
whatever he had been, lie was a man of talent,
and had written a book which displayed qualifi-
cations of a superior order, he would now have
been any thing but Sir Edward Burtenshaw
Sugden, Solicitor-General to his Majesty.
These are only a few of the living examples.
The greater number perhaps of the departed
members of the profession, who became dis-
tinguished in their times, arose much in the
same manner. Chief Justice Saunders, whose
reports of this day form the best text-book for
pleaders, was a beggar-boy, first taken notice of
by an attorney, who took him into his office.
Lord Kenyon was an attorney's clerk. Lord
llardwicke was a peasant, and afterwards an at-
torney's writer and office-boy. Lord Thurlou
himself, an illustration of his own rule, used to
say, that the surest cause of success to a barris-
ter was, " parts and poverty." When Erskine
and Curran once dined with his present
Majesty, then Prince of Wales, the prince
"aye a toast, " The bar." Erskine said he
owed every thing to the bar; and Curran added,
" then what may I say, since it has raised me
from the condition of a peasant to the table o
my prince ?"

It is alleged, as a ground for these proceed-
ings, that the profession of the law is at present
overstocked. It has not been acknowledged by
the public or by suitors that it is overstocked by
talent. It is admitted to be now, as it ever has
been, to a greater or less degree, overstocked by
numbers, and so is every other leading avocation.
But it is asked, would it be desirable that a vo-
luntary and irresponsible association of mer-
chants, for instance, should be entrusted with
the power of admitting persons to competi-
tion in commercial pursuits ; and would it be
thought they acted efficaciously and for the
public good if they exacted, as qualifications, an
attention to the ornamental arts, never called. for
in mercantile affairs, Greek and general litera-
ture, and should countenance no candidate but
those of fair pedigree, who had means sufficient
to enable them to dispense with the painful
labour requisite for further acquisitions ?
There are men below the bar of longer stand-
ing,
of more extensive practice, and, it is to be
presumed, therefore, of higher acquirements,
than any who are likely to accept the situations of
stipendiary examiners. 'Hese will not be in-
clined to submit to regulations which will sub-
ject them to the liability of the operation of pro-
fessional jealousies. Several members, whose
talents have already been manifested, and who
are not driven, duris urgens in rebus egestas,
have expressed their determination not to submit
to give their sanction to rules of invidious exclu-
sion, more worthy of a low craft than of a liberal
profession. They spurn attempts to introduce a
system which, in their opinion, would degrade
the bar by rendering the success of its members
more dependent on adventitious circumstances
than on intellectual merit.—Morning; Chronicle.

- - - ---=
The Admiralty and Navy Boards were first
established by HENRY VIII, ; the former at Deptford, in
the house known of late years as the Gun Tavern. The
chimney-piece of the Board-room, hearing the arms of the
office, and those of the Lord High Admiral, the Earl of
SunazY, (1514) richly emblazoned, has recently been
added to the collection of relics at Trematon Castle. It i 4
de of oak, and, notwithstanding its great age, is in per-
fect preservation, even to the veneering, which is very
beautiful.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRENCH PAPERS.

(From the 21-c.tsciger des Chambres of July 18.)
BANKS OF THE DANUBE, JULY 6,----The Cabi-
net of St. Petcrsbnrh has sent to all the Allied
Courts the official bulletins of the brilliant victory
gained by the troops under General Diebitsch, and
`:as ::ccompanied them by notes, renewing the as-
surance that his Majesty the Emperor Nicholas per-
severed in his desire to prevent, ;is much as possible,
die farther effusion cf blood, if the Ottoman Porte
\Oil but show itself disposed to satisfy the demands
which all Europe has recognized to be just, and to
enforce which itussa was obliged to take up arms.
The extremely moderate terms in which these
notes are dre,e-ii up have produced a great impres-
sion, and as soon as they were known on 'Change
:it Vienna, a decided rise in the funds took place.
N.B. This news may he compared with that
which we give under the head of Paris.
PARIS, JULY 18 —Several of the morning jour-
nals contain the following paragraph :—" It is
;Iflirmed that after the victory of the 11th of June,
gained by the Russian army, his Majesty the Em-
peror Nicholas has addressed diplomatic notes to all
the Cabinets of Europe, to satisfy them with re-
spect to his intentions, and to protest that his whole
wish is to conclude peace with Turkey."
The opening of the Federal Diet of Switzerland
took pliee at Berne on the 6th of July. All the
members of the foreign corps diplomatic were pre-
sent. The opening speech made by his Excellency
M. de \Vattenviile, the President, gave in general
terms a most satisfactory account of the foreign re-
lations, and the internal state of the confederation.
Don Joseph du Portugal e Castro, son of the For-
tnguese General, Marquis de Valence, died lately at
Paris ; he has been buried in the cemetery of Pere
La Chaise, near the tomb of the Marchioness do
Penafiel, his cousins who died at Paris some years
ago.

(From the CAtitutionnel of Sem d3y.)
CONSTANTINOPLE, JUNE 20.—The Sultan is un-
easy at the position of the Russians at Sizeboli. He
knows that they have received reinforcements, and
that, far from thinking of evacuating that place, they
rather seem disposed to make use of it, in order to
support them in an advance towards Adrianople.—
The Sultan is again using vigorous measures against
the Softas or sextons of the mosques, of whom he is
determined to make soldiers. The Mufti will not
sanction this measure. It is thought he will be de-
posed. The Sultan has just learned that Missolonghi
and Lepanto have fallen into the hands of the Greek
rebels. He does not seem to be concerned at it, be-
cause the English have promised him to get those
places restored. In fact, their Consul at Egina has
just sent word hither that he had protested against
the occupation of them. Lastly, hopes are enter-
tained that within two months the English will have
a squadron in the Black Sea. Nobody at Constar,-
dimple will be surprised at this, for an offensive al-
liance is openly spoken of between Turkey, Persia,
and Great Britain. Of what use will that ba if the
Russians pass the Balkan ?

We hear of the opening of the campaign by
General Paskewitseh, of a new revolt in Arabia,
wkich engrosses all the attention of the Paella of
Egypt ; we hear of fresh troubles in Bosnia, and
it would not be surprising if we should hear that
Servia had risen in favour of the Russians. On
the other hand, it appears that the plague, which
had manifested itself at Gallavz, has spread into
Arabia, and even to Odessa. It prevails in the camp
of Shumla, at Sophia, and in several villages on the
banks of the llebrus. It may be soon brought to
Constantinople. The country of Thrace presents
one vast scene of desolation, most of the villages
are destroyed or deserted, the inhabitants having
lied to the towns or the moutitains.