Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-11-05
Lawyers Morals.

The Century for November has an edi-
torial under the head of Lawyers Morals"
from which the following points are quot
ed:
81. A lawyer ought to be a gentleman.
His function as an attorney gives him no
dispensation to disregard the ordinary rules
of good manners, and the ordinary princi-
pies of decency and honor. He has no
right to slander his neighbor even if his
neighbor be the defendant in a cause in
which he appears for the plaintiff. He has
no righd to bully or brow-beat witness in
cross examination, or artfully to entrap that
witness into giving false testimony. What
ever the privilege of the court may be, the
lawyer who is guilty of such practices in
court is no gentleman out of court.
''2. A lawyer ought not to lie. He may
defend a criminal whom he knows to be
guilty. but he may not say to the jury that
he believes this criminal to be innocent
He may not in any way Intentionally con-
vey to the jury the impression that he be-
lieves the man to be innocent. He may not,
in his plea. pervert or distort the evidence
so as to weaken the force or conceal the
meaning of it. He is a sworn officer of the
court, and his oath should bind him to the
stricteSt veracity. 1t would be quixotic to
expect him to assist his adversary, but his
obligation to speak the truth outranks ev-
cry obligation that he owes to his client. 1t
is notorious that some lawyers who would
think it scandalous to tell falsehood out
of court, in any business transaction, lie
shamelessly in court in behalf of their
clients, and seem to think it part of their
professional duty. That bar of justice, be-
fore which, by their professional obligations,
they are bound to the most stringent truth
fulness, is the very place where they seem
to consider themselves absolved from the
common law of veracity. So long as the
legal mind is infected with the deadly her.
esy, we need not wonder that our courts of
justice often become the instruments of un-
righteousness.
SO. A lawyer ought not to sell his services
for the promotion of injustice and knavery.
S@indlers of all types are aided by. lawyers
in their depredations upon society. The
mock broker who operates in Wall street
and strips green country speculators of their
hard-earned gains by the most nefarious
roguery, always has an able lawyer as his
accomplice. The gentleman by whose
agency a nest of these rascals was lately
broken up says: "The great difficulty in
stepping swindles Of this class is that the
rascals make enough money to be able to
employ the best of legal advice, and are,
moreover, careful to do nothing which will
render them liable to arrest" This is the
testimony of a lawyer. Mr. Ralph Oakley,
of New York. The best of legal advice
can be had, then, in New York city for such
purposes It would be more difficult to be-
lieve this if its truth were not so often il
lustrated in the stupendous frauds and
piracies of great corporations, all of which
are carefully engineered by eminent law
yers. Our modern buccaneers brave
railroad wreckers-are in constant consulta-
ton with distinguished lawyers. They
undeniably have the best of legal advice
in planning and executing their bold in
iouitiesn