The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-03 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.

Fraser commences this month with a slashing article,
in which every bone in Tom Babington Macauley's body
is broken to pieces, but which, we regret to say, is too
long for our present space. There are several other arti-
cles of great merit, which, as every body now readS Fra-
ser, it would be a loss of time to enumerate. The follow-
ing is from the article entitled "My Contemporaries'
by a retired Barrister :" .
At, the commencement and during many years of my profes-
sional life, Baldwin, never mentioned but by the name of Billy
Baldwin, was iu considerable practice at the bar. He was an
old man when I was called, and then said to possess consider
able wealth. But age failed to convey any admonitory advice
to avarice, and in vain pointed out to him the road to retirement.
He clung to business to the last, while the smallest profit could
be derived from it. His ruling passion was the accumulation
of wealth, and to that he sacrificed every feeling of professional
propriety and its honourable pride. He knew every attorney
and attorney's clerk in London, by name, and courted their bu-
siness by means to which nothing but a sordid spirit could stoop.
He was indiscriminately fawning and submissively familiar with
every attorney who he thought had a half-guinea fee to give
away. He was neither scrupulous nor squeamish in his selec-
tion of the members of that profession with whom he was en-
dearingly associated. He did not look to their character, but
to the papers in their pocket if he saw one so furnished, he
would stop him, engage him in familiar conversation, learn
from him on what business he was going, and to what couriSel,
and then, with a pretended half joke, ask him if he could not
do it as well as another ? This mode of solicitation was gene-
rally
_successful; and by such unworthy means he had engros-
sed, in fact, almost the whole of the practice business of the
court, and was in full possession of it when Marryat was called
to the bar : till that time he had been without a rival or compe-
titor, when Marryat rose to contest his supremacy. The edu-
cation, knowledge of actual practice, and inflexible persever-
ance of Marryat, enabled him to combat Baldwin with success;
and in that task he found many allies, of whom I was one.
Marryat -had been articled to an attorney, to whom he had
served part of his clerkship. He had by that means acquired a
knowledge of a description of practice to which Baldwin was a
fitranger. This was a perfect acquaintance with the appropriate
stumps required for every affidavit or instrument which was to
be used on its coming before the court. From the same source
he derived a thorough acquaintance with the rules of court, as
to the service of process, notices of motion, the wording of affi-
davits, and the proper forms of the jurats, as prescribed by the
practice of the court. In these points Baldwin was soon found
by him to be vulnerable. He was too lazy to bestow much
time on these minutia in practice. He was puzzled with objec-
tions to the stamps on his affidavits; and Marryat, with his tre-
ble penny stamps, astounded and silenced him. It was with
these weapons Marryat first shook his credit, by discharging
his rules on some technical objection. By these defeats the con-
fidence of his clients in him was first shaken, and his credit
with them began to totter. He lost ground by degrees; and in
the same proportion his younger and more active opponent suc-
ceeded to it.

Of the heavy and important business of the court, such as the
arguing demurrers or reserved cases, Baldwin rarely had any
share. Half-a-guinea motions, and the inferior descriptions of
it, formed the wnole of Baldwin's practice, but of which he had
au unconscionable proportion. Benig of very long standing at
the bar, extremely rich; and having been brought into Parlia-
ment by the Duke of Portland, which last circumstance, it was
supposed, would have something elevated his 'professional views,
it was expected, by his juniors at the bar, that he would have
asked for a silk gown ; as, by the division of his business, which
would be the consequence of his taking rank, they. would be so
considerably benefited. But rank, unaccompanied by profit,
presented no object of desire to the eyes of Baldwin. The ac-
cumulation of wealth was the sole object of his ambition,' and
no splendour of rank could induce him to relinquish the profits
derived from a half-guinea motion. King's counsel can accept
no fee under a guinea; and when Baldwin was rallied for re-
taining his stuff gown when he might change it for a silk one,
and come within the bar, his answer was an honest avowal of
his motive,—" I have lived long enough," said he, " to know
that three half-guineas are more than a guinea,"—an excuse for
meanness under cover of a joke.
The house in which Baldwin lived was that which is now Sur-
geon's Hall, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. When Erskine was told
of the purchase, and that Baldwin had sold his house to the
Corporation of Surgeons,—" I suppose," said he, it was recom-
mended to them from Baldwin's being so well acquainted with
the practice of bringing in. the body."
In the early part of his professional life, he had gone the Mid-
land Circuit for some time. ' With an eye always intent on his
interest, he saw that, while nearly the whole of the common
'law counsel were absent from London on circuit, there was

much to be made by remaining in town. He therefore gave up
the circuit, and exchanged it for the more promising prospect of
gain by remaining in London, and cruising for such business
as chance or the ableuce of others might throw in his way.
Soon after he had taken.his resolution, a friend of his meeting
him in London, in the month of March, when the circuits were
going on, expressed his surprise at seeing him in town at that
time, and asked him if he had quitted his circuit? " Yes," says
Baldwin, "the midland, I have ; I now go the home circuit."
" What," replied his friend, "will the home circuit bar suffer a
man of your standing to join them ?" " I never asked them,"
replied t3aldwin ; " the home circuit which I go is on the Tem-
ple Terrace, and it is not'a bad one, let me tell you." Thee
tie paraded backward and forward during business hours, to
snap up the chance motions of attorneys or their clerks, either
going to the public offices, or to other membeis of the bar. This
base traffic he pursued for many years after old age should have
admonished him that wordly pursuits should have come to au
end.
Marryat's successful opposition to him had raised against
him an host of opponents. If professional character is once
broken in upon, it is rarely retrieved, and if once shaken it fails
soon to the ground. This was the case with Baldwin; his bu-
siness fell off when the confidence of his clients was lest, but
not so his cupidity for its profits, to retain which he had recourse
to every expedient which avarice and meanness could suggest,
But his day was past; his credit sunk for ever, which, till the
last, he struggied in vain to sustain.
He at length retired from the bar, not from want of health
but of business. He quitted it .with painful reluctance when it
became unprofitable, and it had in fact quitted him. His re-
tirement was unaccompanied with any regret from any quarter
but from himself; that the power of making money had departed
from him. When he found his clients forsaking him, he lost
all command over his temper; his feelings, which were all sel-
fish, and his manners naturally unpolished, became violent by
disappointment. He at no time commanded the respect or
good will of those who practised with him at the bar; and when
his business was transferred to them, he was illiberal and offen-
sive, even to rudeness. He carried his resentment so far, as to
charge them with obtaining his business by soliciting attorneys,
and imputing to them as dishonourable what had been the uni-
form course of conduct which he had pursued during the whole
of his professional life. Selfishness and popularity will never
be found in the same character. His jealousy was at all times
roused by any display of talents in the junior. members of the
bar, and their promise. of rising in their profession. He uni-
formly browbeat timidity, and insulted inexperience. Such
was billy Baldwin.

The merry May-day number of Beackwood has just
made its appearance, and is fraught with matter, as.
usual, both rich and rare. :We have only room for the
following extract from an article on the subject of "Poor
Laws for Ireland." •
Mr. Malthus, an elegant and eloquent writer, contrasts
strongly with the "forced ehatity" of poor's laws, which, ac-
cording to his views, leaves no satisfactory impression on the
mind, and cannot, therefore, have any very beneficial effect on
the heart and affections, that "voluntary charity, which makes
itself acquainted with the objects which it relieves, which seems
to feel, and to be proud of the bond that unites the rich with the
poor, which enter into their houses, informs itself of their habits
and dispositions, checks the hopes of clamorous and obtrusive
poverty, with no other recommendations but rage, and encou-
rages with adequate 'relief the silent and retiring 'sufferer'
labouring under unmerited difficulties." We say, ." Peace be
to such; and to their slumbers peace." Thousands and tens of
thousands of. such truly Christian spirits are there this day in
England. The picture is beautiful, and it is true. Nor do they