The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-10-07
LAWYERS AND MARRIAGE.
From Law Gazette.

FiouA Law haNS'tS-
Marriage tends to get later and later, as
the Registrar General tells sus. People who |
twenty years ago married at twenty-five,
now put it off till tbirty-fve, and of all
classes the latest to marry are lawyers. A
doctor is bound to marry. Lady patients
do not like on unmarried doctor. Clergy
men, too, must marry, for clergy mans
wife is es essential a part of the parish IS
her husband Moreover, the persistent
worship of curates by young lady devotees
is sooner or later fatal to the most deter
mined celibate. A lawyer, professionally
speaking, is none the worse for being un-
married. Ambitious men (and ambition
is the besetting sin of lawyers think them
selves very much better without it. A
variety of qualifications for getting on n
that profession have been enumerated
influential connections, 'devilling. writing
book, and not possessing shilling-but
marriage is not numbered among them IN
less it be the pseudo marriage Of the song
witir-a solicitors ugly elderly daughter.
Hence marriage to an usrisen lawyer IS
luxury, and an expensive one. vs. hear
much of the uncertainty of the law, but its
uncertainty es source of income is unde-
niable. When Lord Bacon spoke about
giving hostages to fortune, he ives probably
thinking of his own profession. Certainly
he did not commit the imprudence of early
marriage himself, for he was forty-fve be-
fore he found the Handsome maiden to
my liking" whom he married, and who
afterwards incurred his deep displeasure
by flirting with his gentleman usher, or
whatever else was the "great and just
cause" for which he disinheFited her. And
the ''haudsome nader" he took care should
be one with handsome portion too. But
Bacon was of cold nature, and like many
Others he waited too long. "I'm no for a
man marrying, says Mrs. Poyser in "Adam
Bede,' ''before he's old enough to know
the difference between a crab and an apple;
but he may wait over long, and then he's
like man that goes past his dinner-time,
and he turns his meat over and over wi
his fork, and finds fault vi the yictual
-,
when the faults VI his own inside, J"
There are many men who are predestined
old bachelors, like the eminent lawyer
mentioned in Sergeant Robinson's Remin-
isceDces, who said che was born bachelor,
and in that persuasion he intended to re-
main" Selden, himself a great law
was one of this type. In his "Table Talk, "
he calls marriage "a desperate thing, y
"The frogs in Hsop, he says, 'Fwere ex,
tremely wise They had a great mind to
some water, but they would not leap into
the well because they knew they could not
get out" This is rank misoayny, Even
Lord Campbell contemplated solitary old
age with dismay. Over and above profess
sional prudence or ambition, there may be
want of susceptibility on the palt of law
yers to the tender passion. Their ener-
gies, to put it physiologically, ell runs to
brains, leaving the emotional or sentimen-
tai part atrophied, Lawyers, at all events,
are credited with hard hearts as well as
hard heads. Gentlemen Of your profes-
sion," said Mr.. Pickwick to Sergeant
Snubbin, "see the worse side of human
nature. All its disputes, a'l its 'n-will and
bad blood, rise up before you" "You
must admit said doctor, addressing
Robus Smith, Sydney's lawyer brother,
;'that your profession doesn't make angels
of men," "No,' replied Robus; "your
profession gives them the first chance of
that" On the other hand, there is great
deal of truth in the saying that man
never settles down to work till he gets mar
ried-ranges himself, as the French say.
Lady Hardwicke often humorously laid
claim Gas she had good right to do) to so
much of the merit of lord Hardwicke's
being good Chancellor, in that his thoughts
and attention we're never taken from the
business Of the court by the private con-
germs of his family, the care of which, the
management of his money matters, the set
ting all accounts with stewards and others,
and above all, the education of his chill
dren, had been wholly her department and
concern, without any intei position of his,
further than implicit acquiescene and entire
appreciation.
If marriage, too, brings responsibility, it
furnishes new incentive. John Scott
would never have become Lord Bldon, un,
less he had run away with ''his Newcastle
beauty" Miss Surtees. II have married
rashly," he writes; shut it is my determi-
nation to work hard for the woman love-
This was the right spirit; and work hard
he did, getting up at four o'clock to read
law, and wrapping his head in wet towels
Yet these laborious days in Cprsitor
street, when he slipped out at night to
Fleet Market to get sixpenny worth of
spFats for supper, were among the happiest
In his life His labors were lightened by
the constant companionship of his amiable
and beautiful wife, who accustomed her
self to his hours, aud would sit up with
him silently watching his studies "There
is nothing he afterwards said, "does a
young lawyer so much good as to be half
starved" When Erskine made his bril-
liant debut in Rex VS.. Bailie, he was asked