The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-04-07
BALTIMORE,
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1858.

The New York Tribune, in a recent editorial
ascrbes the passage of the LecomI ton bill by the
Senate to ''the predominance of lawyers in that
body, and thereupon INDUCES in philippe against
the profession of the law, and all its ministers and
practitioners. Jefferson" says this sans-culofe
philosopher, "always considered the courts and the
lawyers as an old aristocratc English inheritance
the natural enemy of democracy and of the rights
of the people. He saw in their influence and pre-
dominancy, and the power which they exercised,
not only in the Interpretation and application of
the laws but in their very formation, the greatest
danger to democratic institutions and popular
government" The jacobinieal sentiment thus at
tributed to Thomas Jefferson is in perfect keeping
with the general views of the Tribune and of the
radical school to which it belongs. Social reform
is a pet hobby of the Tribune, and the way in
which it proposes to bring about that reform is by
loosng all the bonds by which society is held to-
gether 1t is par excellence the organ of the party of
Progress and OF Freedom, but its ideas of what
stutes real progress and of the nature of true lib
erty, are somewhat peculiar and if reduced to pra-
tce would rather startle staid and sober citizens
who have been accustomed to associate both with
the existence of stable government and lust laws,
well and strictly administered.
The 1ribames hostility to lawyers is shared in
common with all reformers of the same school,
from Jack Cade to Horace Greeley ''The first
thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers cries Dick
the butcher. ''Nay, that l mean to do, replies
the Tribune, adopting the sentiment if not the
language, of the kentish rebel; and accordingly
that journal does not scrupe to charge the proes-
sion with 'the daily habit of accepting fees and re-
tanners, wholly irrespective of the merits of the
causes of which their advocacy is thus secured, Of
arguing for pay on either side of case without
once stopping to inquire of themselves to which
side truth and justice do really incline nav, when
satisfied that truth and justice are against them,
struggling all the harder to blind the ewes Of
Judge and Jury to that fact, and to obstruct the
course of justice by the aid of fctons presumptons
and techncalities." ''The tolerance for bubble,
artiice and nesse'' of which the Tribune thus ac-
cuses the legal profession en- masse is in MARYLAND
applicable only to the lower and more dsreputa-
BILE class OF attorneys and solicitors and not to the
great body of heightened and honorable gentlemen
who constitute the majority of the profession In
New York, the former class, it seems, is numerous
enough to have given rise to the necessity for q
new word, in order properly to express the peculiar
degree of rascality attained by certain sort O
legal practitioners. To meet this want the WORD
''shyster'' has been coined, and from the possible
preponderance of ''shysters' at the New York bar
the Tribune may have drawn its by no flatterlne
estimate of the moral character and tendencies O
the whole profession. AT the same time, it mus
be confessed that even here the standard of person
al character at the bar is gradually falling to low
er level and that the decline in professional morals
If suffered to go on unchecked will finally reach
the point when the structures of the Tribune may
become justly applicable. This we believe to bt
IN great part attributable to the facility with which
the courts grant admission to the bar without the
slightest scrutiny into the qualifications, either
moral or intellectual, Of candidates. Men notor
ousy corrupt and criminal, with the very brand
of a conviction upon them for violations of law in
volvlng moral turpitude and actual dishonesty
have yet found members of the bar to move fo,
their admission, sponsors to swear to their :gooG
moral character" and judges to qualify them a:
attorneys of their courts. If the good name of thu
profession suffers in consequence of the conduc
OF these unworthy members and the innocent
many are thus involved in the odum that should
properly attach only to the guilty few, surely it is
time that some steps should be taken by those wht
really honor their vocation, and feel an homes
pride In belonging to profession which has in al
ages numbered among its followers the best AM
wisest OF men, to purge its ranks of fellows who's
character is stain to their order. Just such .
movement we observe in another quarter, and W,
commend the example to the imitation of the Bal
tmore Bar. In the Boston Courier of Monday W,
lind the following paragraph, headed 'Puging tn
Profession :"
Recently, at the present term of the Court O
Common Pleas, at Lawrence James c. Peabody
OF Georgetown was expelled from the bar, upor
charges OF very gross abuses of the processes of thu
Court, preferred by the Essex Bar Association.
Why have we not Baltimore Bar Associa
tion," and why are some of the notorious rogue
who at present disgrace the profession, suffered te
remain upon the rolls of the courts?