The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-02-23
Professional Manners of Lawyers.


this city may perhaps justify some re-
marks on the progress of civilization as in
| Dictated by the tone of proceedings in our
tribunals Of justice. We think it good
symptom that the tissue of insults which
we make the text of our observations gave
perceptible shock to public sentiment,
instead of being passed over as
matter of course like so many similar
exhibitions OF professional boorlshness
and brutality. The only efficient corrective
is a strongly expressed public opinion
brought to bear upon the offending lawyers
and upon the judicial officers whose duty
it is to hold them in restraint The press
of the city was pretty unanimous in rebuk-
ing the bulldozing demeanor of Mr.. Scott
Lord, who is gentleman of sufficient
social and professional standing to feel
some sensitiveness to the moral judgment
of the community pronounced against him
with scornful vehemence. brutal
Tombs lawyer, who has no social
estimation to forfeit, is impervious
to such influence; but the universal
condemnation of the press and the public
| cannot be lost upon man OF MIR. Scott
Lords natural pride of character. We
must say, in justice to the profession, that
the reason why the censure of the public
has been so severe is that the general ex-
ample of the profession in recent times
condemns the insolent browbeating of wit
nesses which used to be tolerated as Gus
tomary license without any inquiry into its
amenability to the rules of good morals or
good manners. There is crafty
ing advance when the community refuses
to condone such revolving brutality as
one Of the conceded privileges of lawyers.
Public opinion is reaching a point which
disposes it to stamp such slanderous prac-
tees rs Infamous, and with the powerful
support of this more civilized public
opinion it is to be expected that judges will
not much longer permit such scenes to dis
grace the courts over which they preside.
We hope that even Surrogate Calvin, who
has so long tolerated the most atrocious
calumny mill which ever disguised this
community, will at last see that outraged
public decency requires him to put curb
on professional license.
In selecting heading we have made a
reasonable discrimination The 'profes-
sional manners of lawyers" is a phrase
which does not necessarily cast any impu-
tation on their personal manners. Many
members of the profession who are gentle.
men IN ordinary social intercourse are
among the most egregious offenders in the
courts. Even the infamous Jetfreys was
pleasing and attractive man in general
society. This would hardly be inferred
from the dark portrait painted of
him in the invective pages of Macau-
lay; but Lord Campbell, who is as
unsparing as Macaulay in condemning the
professional and judicial character Of that
odious monster, does better justice to the
social side Of his character ''But there
can be no doubt" says Lord Campbell,
''that he circulated much in good society.
He was not only much at court, but he ex-
changed visits with the nobility and persons
of distinction in different walks of life. In
the social circle he dsarmed the censure of
the world. and by the fascination Of his
manners while he was present he threw an
oblivion over his vices and his crimes" We
prefer to illustrate the distinction between
professional and personal manners by this
exlmple, because there is no other which
SO signally demonstrates the powerlessness
of private manners to shelter professional
offender from infamy.
Jeffreys had the greatest talents Of any
lawyer who ever lived for the professional
ribaldry and calumnious blackguardism
which form the disgusting stock in trade of
some more recent practitioners. He carried
his blackguard habits from the Bar to the
Bench, and was even more conspicuous rs
judicial bulldozer than he had been rs an
INSCRIPTIONS bully at the Old Bailey
Bar, where he received his earliest
training rs n lawyer. The school in
which he was formed is thus de-
scribed by Macaulay: -''During many
years his chief business was to examine and
crosse examine the most hardened miscreants
Of great capital Daily conflicts with
prostitutes and thieves called out and exer-
cised his powers so effectually that he be-
came the most consummate bully ever
known in his profession. All tenderness
for the feelings of others, all self. respect,
all sense Of the becoming, were obliterated
from his mind. He acquired boundless
command of the rhetoric in which the vul-
gar express hatred and contempt. The
profusion of maledictions and vituperative
epithets which composed his vocabu-
larry could hardly have been rivalled
in the fish market and the bear
garden. These qualifications he carried
while still young man, from the Bar to
the Bench" Any lawyer who, after two
centuries of advancing civilization, prepares
himself to sit for n similar portrait should
be regarded as q disgrace to his profession.
We are willing to believe that in the higher
walks of the profession the number of such