Des Arc citizen., 1859-09-14
For the Des Arc Citizen. SOME THOU G H TS AB0U
 ~ LA w E RS.
IN DER ONE.

--f HITHERTO, in most ages and countries, the l legal profession has been the great avenue tc competency and public distinction. Asa pro fession, it has ever held the most distinguished place in public consideration. Whether in the walks of private life, in the fields of literature or in the halls of legislation, lawyers have ever takenthe most distinguished position. In this country, as siss remarked by De Tocqueville. ssthey hold the connecting link between the aristocracy and the common people 7, for, however. repugnant such terms may be to. the theory of our institutions, they yet describe classes that are the necessary result of every highly artificial and civilized society. In this country, where free institutions have had the fullest development, it has been emphatically the road to public preferment. Our most elo- quent orators and most distinguished states men have acquired, in the office and in the |court-room, that severe and rigid mental dis cipline, which has enabled them to command success. s.s tais8 a88 s
 Such has been the PREVIOUS history of the profession; but, does it continue to hold out those rewards of honor or, profit in this coun- try, which have so long followed the successes of its faithful ministers? Letus consider the question fairly, eschewing all prejudice. In the United States, it is estimated, on very reli- able DATA, that there are about fifty thousand licensed attorneys. Of this number, we speak not extravagantly when we say that not more than fifteen thousand are receiving, from their professional business, a respectable support. By far the larger portion of them become vic tims to one of the many misfortunes incident to unsuccessful practice. They are compelled to waste much of the most valuable time and energy of their lives, in waiting for the world to discover the value of their services. In orr der that they may always be ready for what ever business fortune has in store for them, they dare not involve themselves in any col lateral pursuits but must live on idly hoping, from day to day, that their time is at hand. They delude themselves with fond anticipa- tions of distinction, such as tardily rewarded the patient faith of Hale, of Eldon, and the few other chiefs of the English bar, who were rescued from that Serborian bog of ex- aggerated hopes, where
 !" Armies whole have sunk"
 Time wears away, and with it that courage and enthusiasm which can only exist in the atmosphere of success. Of the thousands who ( enter the lists,v but few achieve any such result as would have induced them, at the out set, to expose themselves to all the disappoint- ments, the heart-sickness of :. hope deferred,'' the agonizing suspense incident to the toilsome incipiency of professional life. #
 These frequent failures and miscarriages in professional life--the many exhibitions of cx- pectations blasted and hopes disappointed, that meet us on every hand, lead us to inquire whether there is anything in the operation of our institutions, in the tendency of the civili- zation of the age, or in the circumstances by which the legal profession is at present sur rounded, calculated to depress the hopes or disappoint the expectations of the young aspi- rant after legal fame. For our own part, we believe that there is, and that both the neces- sity for, and the rewards of this kind of pro- fessional toll, are diminishing. We augur thus from no croaking spirit of disfavor toward profession the world has always delighted to honor, but from conviction, based upon some observation, and upon careful scrutiny of the tendencies of our civilization. We pro- pose, in the present paper, only to glance al the grounds of our impression, leaving the further elucidation of the subject for future number. WtI a t-t A little attention will convince any one, no willfully blinded, that the sphere of duty oi the laws ministry has been very much limited
 and is destined to undergo still further limita. l tions, under the direct and indirect operation of our political institutions. The tendency of all representative forms of government, and most emphatically of ours, is to enlarge thu powers of the individual, and to circumscrib' those of the government. This tendency il
 evident, A rRIoRI: it is equally apparent il the past history of our country. Allour grea
 questions of legislation, since the Ameficar
 Constitution went into operation, have ariser
 upon difference of opinion upon this point
 the limits of the legislative prerogative. IT