Litchfield enquirer., 1881-12-01
Lawyers.

fatally wounded president. They like to laugh at their parsons trying to eliminate aa heresy which they cannot themselves define. But they take especial delight in marrying their lawyers There is perhaps more real feeling behind the attacks on the latter than in either of the other cases. The pettifogger is such nuisance; does 90 little good and so much harm; is so much of a trickster and so little of the man; that he gives the whole pro- fession bad name as'-''F.s-ass>s s
 But pettifoggers and Ishysters are not the only lawyers who are in fault. Those at the very top of the profession do almost as much to bring 1t into disrepute as those at its very bottom. It is the enormous fees charged by great city lawyers-utterly disproportionatet to the services rendered--which cause so many people to believe that there Is no limit to the lawyers bills but the lawyers conscience.
 So all the profession as body ipjure their own cause while they perpetuate the ''term fee" which stands on no reasonable basis of service rendered, and while they allow so much indeinitenesa in charges which might be rendered at least approximately certain. This certainty of large expense and uncer- tainty of its limit, together with the delays which always attend the administration of civil justice, are what are crowding all the small cases out of our courts. Aman who wins a contested cause involving less than an hun dred dollars may well expect to come out of court a loser. In fact, in the old times, when lawyers had many cases but small fees in each, both they and their clients made more money out of litigation than either can do now.
 For the delays of justice which are the re- proach of our courts, judges, lawyers and leg islatures are perhaps all, more or less, to blame. The judges certainly do much less work than their predecessors in office. They sit fewer hours in the day and fewer days in the week. Lawyers are very lax also about bringing their cases to trlal. In some cases perhaps the accumulation of term fees is the ruling motive. In many it is the habit of be. ing satisfied with slow progress because slow progress is the usual legal gait Legislatures are also at fault in net providing more judges and more courts-if more are needed-to try cases as soon as they are brought. .. compnshed, lawyers must must have fair pay for their work, and we doubt whether, in spite of the many exceptions, they are not as body underpaid rather than overpaid. Counting in their years of waiting, before they get any. or but few cases, and their years of barely llv- ing business, the average yearly income of a lifetime will not be found very large In the country, especially, how few lawyers get rich out of their law business? Their incomes are grossly exaggerated and they seldom care to correct such congregations. We have always doubted. in fact, whether the salary of the country clergyman small but regular, would not be found to amount to more at the end of his life than the total earnings of either the country lawyer or the country doctor.
 While, therefore, law business should and might be transacted more promptly, and it's expenses fixed on a juster basis, and more readily ascertainable in advance we doubt whether the litigation of small claims can ever be made profitable to clients. Even here. however, we do not think that profit is the sole question. It is a mans duty within cer- tain reasonable limits to stand up for his rights. A man as we'll armed and as able bodied as the thief who attacks him would be thought coward if he gave up his pocket book without struggle. Why should he not defend his legal rights against bullying liti- uo mt at ~soby | cost1 Yet we often hear this species of cow ardice justified by those who believe not only in the right but in the duty of self defence in other cases of aggression. In fact, litigation is only war between individuals. It is often costly, but the individual has the right con. ceded to every nation of preferring just war to dishonorable peace.
 gentleman not very favorably disposed towards lawyers remarked in our hearing, re- l gently, that, "Under the old Charter it was the ministers who ruled Connecticut; since then it has been the lawyers; but now, it's the men of iron and brass" There is a vast deal | of truth in this brief history of Connecticut politics The American preference of law ysrs for offices of honor and trust IS a phe- nomenon that long ago att acted the attention of De Tocqueville. In his work on Democ- racy in America that acute observer comments at much length on this peculiarity of our pol itics, and on the conservative influence legis- latsres and congresses of lawyers have exer- cised on our legislation. Whatever may be said against them, lawyers are the class best fitted by training and experience for the bus iness of legislation. If they have any fault as legislators it is that of conservatism-a fault that most would consider a virtue. We would not ask monopoly of the business of
 law-making for any class, but we do consider the preference of lawyers just one, and one that has exercised very W holesome check on the legislation of young, free, rapid-growing republic.
 The men of iron and brass--the plutocrats
 in short-are no doubt conservative enough
 Indeed they are too conservative. The chief
 trouble is that they are not representatives of
 the people in any true sense. They own their
 seats by purchase and they do as they please
 with their own. MT. Wm. H. Barnum could
 go to Congress on q free trade platform, and
 vote for protection, and nobody could call
 him to account. Congress in short is fast be-
 coming mere copy of the British House of
 Commons, where nine-tenths of the members
 are mere men of money-great landlords,
 great bankers great manufacturers Is this
 q desirable changer We believe that it is not,
 and that whether lawyers are or are not en-
 titled to the preference they have hitherto
 had, change fiom representative government
 to mere plutocracy is one America cannot
 afford to make.
 T PRIZES Wow BY ECHO FARM JRRsEY's.-
 From many parts of this country, north, south, l aasf and rpaaf Mr. Cta.n hos- s-e... A.. A.