The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-07-03

Edmund Burke. in the famous trial of
Warren Hastings, not only in behalf
of elevated morals, closed his speech
in the midst of h august assem-
blage ever gathered in Westminster
hall by saying: II impeach Warren
Hastings in the name of the house Of
commons. whose national character he
has dishonored; 1 impeach him in the
name of the people of India. whose
rights and liberties he has subverted;
/ impeach him in the name of human
nature, which he has disgraced in the
name of both sexes, and of every rank,
and of every station, and of every situ-
alton in the world, 1 impeach Warren
Hastings."
Yet, Notwithstanding all the pleas
which hat profession has made in be-
half of God, and the church, and the
gospel, and the rights of man, there
has come down through the genera
tions among many people an absurd
and wicked prejudice against it. So
long q as the time of Oliver Crom-
well, it was decided hat lawyers
might not enter the parliament house
as members, and they were called
''Sons of Zeruiah." The learned DR..
Johnson wrote an epitaph for one of
them In these words:
God works wonders now and then.
Here lies g lawyer. an honest man.
Two hundred years ago q treatise
was issued with the title, "Doomsday
Approaching with Thunder and Light
ming for Lawyers" A prominent
clergyman of h last century wrote in
regard TO that profession these words:
There is a society of men among us
bred up from their youth in the art of
proving, according as they r paid,
by words multiplied for the purpose,
hat white is black and black Is white.
For example: IF my neighbor las q
mind to my cow, he hires a lawyer to
prove that he ought to have my COW
from me. l must hire another lawyer
to defend my right, it being against
all rules of law that a man should
speak for himself. In pleading they
do not dwell upon the merits of the
cause, but upon circumstances foreign
thereto. For instance, they do not
take the shortest method to know
what title my adversary has to my
cow, but whether the COW be red or
black, her horns long or short, or the
like. After that they adjourn the
cause from time to time, and in 20
years they come to an issue. This So
ciety likewise has q peculiar cant or
jargon of their own, In which all their
laws are written, and these they take
especial are to multiply, whereby
they have so COMPOUNDED truth and
falsehood hat 1t will take IL years to
decide whether the field left to me by
my ancestors for six generations be-
longs to me, or to one 800 miles off,"
1 say these things to show you that
there has been a prejudice going ON
down against that profession, from
generation to generation. l account
for it on the ground that they compel
men to pay debts that they do not
want to pay, and that they arraign
criminals who want to escape the con
sequence of their crime; and as long
as that is SO, and it always will be so,
Just SO long there will be classes of
men who will affect, at any rate, to
despise the legal profession. l know
not how 1t is in other countries; but l
have had long and wide acquaintance
with men of that professional have
found them in all my parishes-I tar
ried in one of their offices for three
years, where there came real estate
lawyers, insurance lawyers, criminal
lawyers, marine lawyers, and 1
have yet to find 4 class of men
more genial or more straightfor-
ward. There are in that occupation,
as in all our occupations, men utterly
obnoxious to God and man; but II 1
were on trial for my integrity or my
life, and l wanted even-handed justice
administered to me, l would rather
nave my case submitted TO q jury OF ~
lawyers than to a jury of 70 clergymen.
The legal profession, ] believe, have
less violence of prejudice than is to be
found in the sacred calling --