American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1845-11-13

LEGAL REFORM. The N. York Herald says,
that tone OF the principal subjects to he taken
up al the approaching State Convention to
amend the Constitution, will be that OF legal
reiorG, Perhaps no subject requires more
,earch,n.. investigation than that. The eIces-
sivo number Of lawyers which crowd the bar.
render it utterly impossible that more than a
very small proportion of the whole can make
a decent Ewing. Probably out Of nearly two
thousand, winch crowd the bar Of New York,
10. owe; twenty or thirty mako 4 handsome
aMndai income. We suppose that about TWEEN
ty W thirty more mako 4 moderate income,
and as mary more Just make both ends meet
al !ho cai Of tha year. But the great proper
ton are without employment, or gases. or
briefs, save that which they make themselves,
and IL the produce Of po;tfoggng OF the mean
est ard most contemplate kind"
Mo; only tie legal, bat other professions,
arc oyr;s.o,%od, aad will continue to be so as
long as pride and folly are substituted for dis
Cretiop aud conmon soos". Foolish parents
imagine that it will degrade their male off
sprinC IS they be not made professional! gen
tiemCD, aud hence the nunhe; Of young men
who 52coNe students of Law, medicine, SC,
wlthont any respect TO disposition or qualities
ton. tie necessary consequence 81 this IL
discretion IS, t'.at few Obtain a respectable ljv
ing, wbils, maay become little tclteg than loaf
crs. To practice tia law with success, requires
thorough c,tl"ltioui talents Ct the ilrst order;
sound eomnou Sense; qu;ckucss of perception;
tact, AND indctatga5c industry. Few are
thus cua liGGs: and therefore few arrive at dis
tinct,on, aud fewer still acquire fortunes by tho
profassson. II Is Il high and nn honorable pro-
fcslion, bu. is brought into dSropote by IN
worthy blCrahers.
How the naw Constitution ot New York is 10
prevent the increase of lawyers, We are at a loss
to dolormire. The Herald says-"if some pro-
vision eeaii be introduced in The new Consti-
ton TO throw open the whole profession of the
law to the pn5lic, ard 10 prevent monopoly
Of il 10 THOSE who call themselves lawyers, ma
ny Of whom know Just as much abont law as
the mar n the moon, we think il would be Of
great advantage TO society at large as const'lu-
ted in this country"
Thie we apprehcnd, wond incicase instead
OF diminishing the eyil--and would Introduce
endless confusion into courts ofjusticc. Any per-
son who thinks proper, may nov plead his own
cause; and this, we think, is opening the door
vide enosgh for all beneficial purposes. In the
practice o. the law certain rules must be OBJ
served, no, only to facilitate business, but to
subscrve the ends Of iustico-it would there
fore, DO ,mpolitic and unwise to permit those
to act o. attorneys who know nothing OF law VI
Of TIT raks necessary to DE observed. Who
would cu'ploy such al individual to conduct a
c; SO? None who regarded their own interests.
We should prefer permitting the matter to
stand as 3! presont--ior it matters little TO the
public, whether young men spend their time as
bi,Gslcsa lawyers, or idle it away in some other
manner. The error is not with tho youths, but
with tho: parents, whose ambition and blind
par.ahiy induce them % start thcr SONS OH
road, Sh'eh they cam never travel with adyaa-
iags 10 themselves CT to the world. They fool
ishIy suppose that It would be disgracelul to
Their children to labor, and yet they place them
in . position where they must work most dill
gently or sink into insigniGcancc.
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Az OrrIcEE or THE Army KILLED. We
learn from the New Orleans picayunc, that
Capt, SuaFes, of the schr. josephine, which
LII Aransas BY IN QSih nit rnrnrta thnt On,