The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-15

commercial spirit largely dominates the
practice of the law. 1t has entered as a
cancer into the profession and is rapidly
eating out what was once considered the
very ethical life of the professions. We
seem to have largely forgotten the old
ways when a lawyer was simply a man
practicing a profession. For now we find
lawyers subordinating their profession to
the eXigencics of trade and business. We
find them partners in great financial
firms, schcming devious ways to evade the
law for the purpose of doubtful and
speculative schemes. We find them the
servants of Illegal ordinations to the
furtherance of whose interests they are
required to shape their personal and
sometimes their moral convictions: serv-
ing without question as to the right or
wrong of the service; so advising as to
enable their employers to successfully
effect doubtful enterprises, promoting
plans of pelf by skilful evasion of penal
statutes, becoming mere business ma
chimes and serving without question or
protest.
This is not overdrawn. Sometimes in
this good old State, III many respects
removed from the vicious centres of ag-
g%resSiyc greed, we como in touch With it.
1t is an impeachment to the good character
VI lit 'rl 1t ktOlIl' III C4tdjt dIlti
maintain public sentiment arc not blind.
They see and remember. They know as
well as we do that the profession Of the
law is not a trade. A lawyer should not
sell his opinions and his services like a
tailor sells his cloth, to be cut and
fashioned as the purchaser commands.
There has entered into the practice of
the law in many localities the methods
Of shrewd and artful financiering. Whom
ever members of the Bar ovcrstcp the
proper limits Of employment, they sub
{ jet the profession to adverse criticism.
} Time was when members of the Bar
> guarded the matter and the manner of
their services With scrupulous jealousy.
There was 4 time when they were sim
ply lawyers, nothing more, nothing less,
not promoters or f~ioaters or traders or
spectators or anything else save the
members of an ancient and honorable
profession, mindful Of its honor and its
dignity and distrustful of all dubious in
Eovations; VIII in the manner of Their
lives emphasized the truth of what Car
lyle said, that with everything in life
the true question is, not what we gain
but what We do
Is there not u basis for what mon now
sometimes cynically say that Il lawyer
can be hired to do anything; that his time
and his influence arc for sale for any
purpose. If | unWittingly cxaggcrate it
is because l feel that in our profession
it is one Of the vital questions Of the
day. DO we ever hear Of lawyers re-
ceiving fees for aiding candidates to Sc
cure public office? or for canvassing in
political campaigns? or for constant and
systematic lobbying? or for rendering
other and doubtful services for the money
that is in the service which do not com
port with the exalted and honorable re-
latiOn which the profession bears to the
public. l think it would be we'll if this
association were to make some declara-
ton on the subject. 1t seems to me that
there is a duty pressing upon us to re-
vivc in North Carolina the primitive
code of principles that formerly gov
crncd in our profession, 10 sound the
note of warming and Of promise, and 10
let the public know that this associa-
ton countCnances no unworthy or qucs-
tionable methods of practice but de-
clares them at variance with the ethics
Of the profession. Let us re-aflirm what
was said by Lord Bacon:
Il hold every man q debtor to bis
profession. from the which as men of
course do seek to receive countonance and
profit, so ought they of duty to cndcavor
~ way vi iiltliNiH ~ ~ I"
help and ornament thereunto.'
think it would be wise for this aSSO-
citation to define if possible the kind OF
services that are not professional in their
nature, the practice of which brings dis
credit upon the profession. 1t is a deli
cate and difficult matter but for that
reason there is the greater necessity that
this association should make a dcclara-
ton in the premises, stating the posi-
ton that it occupies and that in all ways
it will observe the requirement of its
constitution TO elevate the standard OF
dignity, honor and courtesy in the lcgal
profession
another barrier is the purely spccula-
tive spirit that in so many places has
entered into the practice of the law.
There are SO many suits upon our court
docketS purely speculative in their ma
ture. In many localities there are law
yers who actually solicit business and
who stand ever ready to take any case
for tho consideration Of a division of the
possible spoils. We have gone so far in
this respect that it is salutary to rccur
to the principles which obtained years
and years ago. when under the old Ro-
man law in regard to the relation be-
tween attorney and client, or patron and
client, the 1Xcrtions Of the advocate were
purely honorary and the reward OF q
similar nature, not the discharge Of a
legal obligation but the payment OF a
debt OF gratitude. And so in England
and in some Of the American States, the
ancient theory was that the office OF a
lawyer was simply one of honor and dig
atty and that what he received was by
Way of voluntary and honorary gift. Then
no lawyer could sue for his compcnsa-
ton. In the fourteenth century, and IN
I'll the revolution of 1889, the Bar OF
France constituted an order of nobility.
and they were subjected to certain pro-
hibitions, the violation Of which rendered
them liable to disbarment. Some Of
these prohibitions dcbarrcd a lawyer
from undertaking just and unjust causes
l alike without distinction and from max