The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-26
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1869.
THE ENEMIES or JUSTICE.

case we remarked that the criminal lawyers of
the day are doing nearly as much harm as the
cr;minals While this assertion will hold good
generally throughout the country 1t is especially
onDlicable in this city, the legal profession of
which has acquired well-deserved reputation
for extraordinary sharpness and acumen. The
PHILADELPHIA lawyer of the old school certainly
stands in the very front rank of his profession
The course of study prescribed by the rules of
our courts, the length of time required to be
devoted to the study of the law under the tuition
of some member of the bar in good standing and
practice the two years probation in the lower
courts before admission to those of highest resort
have all combined to elevate the standard of the
profession in this city. But despite all this,
there has sprung up in our midst, precisely
as in other cities, q class of petit
fopgers who, by their unenviable record, have
tended to bring the whole profession into dis
repute. The favorite, indeed the only, resort of
these legal tricksers the Courts of Quarter Ses
sions and Oyer and Terminer, monopoly of the
business of which they have succeeded in OBJ
tanning, to the almost entire exclusion of men of
ability, decency and integrity
The type of the class in question is about as
small a specimen of member of one of the
learned professions as can well be conceived.
He is sharp, quick, and INSCRIPTIONS, and in
this category are comprehended all his virtues,
but not all his vices. OF the elementary princi-
ples of the law he knows little or nothing. He
has turned over the leaves of Blackstone and
PurdoR, but only to extract therefrom know
ledge of the quibbles and devices by which the
ends of justice may be most readily defeated.
His mental calibre is apparently
too deficient to permit him to
grasp the grander elements of the science,
his moral instincts are evidently too low to per-
NIT him to acquire tina. digni6ed mien which is
the outward token of culture and refinement.
He dresses well, and can well afford to do so;
patronizes the barber literally, and conse-
quenty bears upon his shoulders an exquisitely
OrnameBted fgure-head; has q free and easy
manner which makes him graceful lounger
when waiting for something to turn up; and
withal is gifted with an overwhelming flow of
frothy words. When poor wretch without
friends or money is arraigned at the bar, and he
is assigned to his defense, he knocks off the
in an off-hand careless manner with little atten-
tion to its merits, and without any regard
for the rights and interests of his involuntary
client. But when a notorious desperate, espe
cially one who has figured largely in
downtown politics, enters the arena, he
expands at once into his fullest proper
not a perjured witness is deserted; not an
honest one is permitted to give his testimony in
straightforward and Ineligible manner.
Every device possible is brought into full play,
facts as plain and clear the MONDAY sun are
contorted and twisted; judge, jury, and prose-
cutor are browbeaten; and, OIL general princi-
ples justice is checkmated and rascality reigns
supreme.
If this man were subject to twinges of con-
science it might be profitable, both to himself
and to the community, to appeal to his better
nature, to point out to him the manifest injury
he in1icts upon the cause of law and justice by
every case which he attempts to argue. If he
had not thrown aside all traces of manly pride,
it might be worth our while to appeal to that,
and to exhort him to nourish something ap-
preaching desire to stand well in the opinion
of his felow-men. If all the instincts of
humanity had not been smothered in the greed
of gold it would not be amiss to remind
him of his family, to sntreat him, for
the sake of wife and children, to give some heed
to the decencies of life. But, as it is, he is
simply an enthusiastic enemy of public justices
an alder and abettor in the evil doings of the
most reckless and depraved of criminals; man
whose sole study is the perversion of truth for
the sake of filthy lucre. The forms of law and
the solemnities of procedure which have been
devised for the protection of innocence are in
his eyes, merely the machinery by which he
seeks to shield the guilty; the rules of evidence
which have been instituted for the elicitation of
facts to him mere appliances for insuring the
suppression of truth and the triumph of villainy.
In this fashion he revels in his peculiar sphere,
and directly, through his influence the most
reckless and daring offenders are suffered to go
unwhipt of justice. In New York city, and in
every other great centre of population in the
the country, he is found; no prominent criminal
court is free from his presence and no large
community is exempt from the fatal conse-
quences of his INSCRIPTIONS sharpness.
Unfortunately for the cause of law and order,
the association of the pettifogger of the criminal
court with the occupant of the prisoners dock
brings his name frequently before the public in
the newspapers, and ministers directly to his
passion for notoriety. If his name could be en-
tirely suppressed from the outside world he
would be known only to a select circle of aban-
doned law-breakers, which would materially
diminish his opportunity for doing mischief. In
this view of the case il becomes a serious ques.
tion as to whether the respectable journals OF
this city should not combine to consgn the
creature under dissection to the com
paratye obscurty which he so richly
merits. Whether this effort be made or not
one thing is certain-the judges of our courts
should draw the reins more tightly upon these
notorious shysters; should keep them, under al
circumstances, within the strict letter OF theil
privileges; should bring them up with SHARP
turn whenever they attempt to peryert the endi
of Justice Not until check is put upon then