they have always lacked that spirit-Bar and Bench-which appears in the strug gles, almost yearly, that have been waged by the Profession in France for the dignity of the Order-struggles in which Kings, even the bravest and the most absolute, that have ascended that throne, have had to surrender. And as to their accomplishments of intellect, where are the fruits? Is there a single production of an English jurisconsult, on the subjects of civil science, legislation or general jurisprudence, of any note or applicability beyond the precincts of the "four seas?" Where are the Cujases, the Voets, the Domats, the D'Agesseaus, the De Meyers, the Montesquieus, the Pothiers, the Vattels of England? Nor is it to be replied that the Civil Law has been of no consequence to English jurists. It may in truth be considered the jus gentium of modern nations, in the Roman acceptation of this term; that is to say, the law naturally common to them all. Yet we doubt if of English lawyers there be one in fifty who could tell the distinction between the Code and the Digest of Justinian, or the difference between a rescript and a decree! How should it be otherwise? The English lawyers have always been, individually, ill-educated, corporately, ill-organized, and employed upon a system of Jurisprudence and procedure out of whose mazes, once entered, it is impossible to ever re-ascend into the daylight of reason and principle. Hence the English lawyers have been happily characterized by the wit of Erasmus as, genus indoctorum doctis

simum.

It is natural to ask oneself how this has been suffered to continue to the present day. We should say a general cause is, the predominant commercial and trading character of the community; which tends not only to degrade to the common mercenary standard the intellectual pursuits in general, but, moreover, discourages all intellectual development in a class of men whom it has

*Henry IV. and Louis XV.

to entrust with the management of its affairs, from the vulgar notion of incompatibility between business capacity and learning. There are other considerations, many of them peculiar to the vicissitudes of English history. But the capital, though a negative, cause of the inferiority of the English Bar is the want of a disciplinary organization. With this, all, or much at least, of the rest would have followed. This it is mainly that has made the French Bar what we have seen, and maintained it such for centuries. To which we would add an admirable usage whereby it was powerfully seconded; we mean the addresses termed " Mercurials, which are pronounced to the assembled Bar by the magistrate or judge at the opening of the Court Termsespecially the immortal discourses of D'Agesseau, which inspire the loftiest professional enthusiasm with all the eloquence of Fenelon and the wisdom of

Bacon.

But in England the Profession has always been in a state of comparative anarchy. It has been divided into several associations, not without analogy to the burgess corporations of the barbarous ages. Such are the four societies of the Inns of Court. § Crude, however, as they have been, in organization and object, they have proved of considerable service to the Bar, especially in an intellectual respect. They have kept the line distinct between the mental and the manual departments of the Profession-between the advocate and the attorney. By maintaining the gradations of barrister and sergeant, they have proposed inducements for educational effort, objects for professional emulation. And these distinctions, with the cultivation requisite to attain them, must react with a salutary influence upon the probity and demeanor.

Now, discard these advantages and you have the American Bar. Here we have dropped effectually the distinction between counselor and attorney; nay, with both the quality of solicitor is jum

bled to boot, in the same individual. And as to the grades of rank in the advocate, we have nothing of the kind. It is, doubtless, that we have been hitherto rather primitive, at least in mental condition, for any nice refinement in the division of labor, or graduation of intellectual capacity and culture. With this negative representation, we should be happy to leave the actual character and condition of our bar to the reader's inference. But, in assuming to propose a remedy, we have obliged ourselves (however invidious it may prove) to establish more positively the state of the patient.

The defects of the bar in this country may, for the present objects, be loosely classified under two heads: Defects of Preparatory Education, Defects of Professional Discipline.

In truth, we can hardly be said to have anything of a special education at all for this profession. The statutory provisions to that effect are notoriously waste-paper. The fact, the practice is this: A boy, say from 12 to 16 years of age, with the common-school accomplish plishment in reading, writing and arithmetic," enters an attorney's office; which he perhaps sweeps for the first two years. The balance of the apprenticeship to seven years (the legal term in this State for students of this description) is instructively occupied in copying over a thousand times the same cabalistic forms, "running errands,” and-swearing to affidavits. His studies do not often transcend the " Clerk's Assistant," and any instruction he receives relates but to the theory of "making up a bill of costs"- according to his equivocal expertness in which is estimated his proficiency and his promise in the Profession. After this profound and edifying initiation, he emerges a dapper Attorneyat-Law! This may be an extreme, but it is neverthless, we aver, a common, case. The necessary consequences, moral as well as mental, upon a considerable portion of our bar directly, and indirectly, by reflection, upon the reputation of the whole body, we leave the plain sense or the personal experience of the public to determine. As to the collegiate diploma receivable in lieu of a portion of this period, we all know it to be obtained commonly by persons incapable of reading its contents in Latin.

For the supplementary guaranty of our Examination is a still greater "sham"

(if that be possible) than even the apprenticeship. Unmasked of technology, it reminds one of the Canonical programme of the middle ages, which began with the interrogatory, "Can you read the Four Gospels?" Nor does this resemblance between the candidates end with the examination, but extends, quite naturally, to the professions for which such examinations could be held to qualify; as witness the following account of the clerical body at the period alluded to, by a sarcastic contemporary: Potius dediti (says Alanus) gula quam glossa, potius COLLIGUNT LIBRAS quam LEGUNT LIBROS, &c. Our examinations of at least the candidates for attorneyship, are exclusively upon Court rules and mere Practice. But besides being technicalas comports possibly with the ordinary capacity of the examiners-they are become so trite, that collections of the whole set, in manuscript, with the proper answers appended, are known to be common among our Law students. So that the examination is reducible to a few hours' effort of mere memory. The writer can say, for his own part, that the sum of his preparation with immediate reference to this ordeal, was made within the single week preceding the event. Nor did he avail himself, in this feat, of the examination-made-easy catechism alluded to, but of the intelligent and methodical treatise of Mr. Burril, on Practice. It may be retorted, the practical proficiency was probably proportionable. Well, we will not gainsay an objection which only fortifies our argument. In fine, we think the actual scheme of Legal examination (and implicitly of course, of education) is well hit off in the following sketch, from a newspaper, which (for decency, doubtless) places the scene in the wild South-West.

Judge P.," said Mr. C.'s friend, "is now in the village; will you go and stand your examination ?"

Of course C. consented. He had been for several days anxiously waiting for the Judge at the Exchange, alias groggery, alias doggery. After the introduction the Judge said:

:

"Well, Mr. Č., you want to be examined for admittance to the bar." "Yes, sir." Well, sir, let us take something to drink barkeeper, give us two juleps. Mr. C. can you swim?" "Yes, sir, I can," said C., greatly surprised. "Well, sir, let's take another drink barkeeper, two cocktails." The cocktails vanished,

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and the judge said: "Mr. C., have you got a horse?" Certainly, sir," said C. Very good," said the Judge, as soberly as though charging a grand jury. "Mr. C., if you please, we'll take a drink: barkeeper, two toddies." The toddies disappeared, and C. owns he began to feel rather queer. "Mr. C., said the Judge, can your horse swim ?" "Yes, sir, he can, for I have tried him from necessity." Then, sir," said the Judge, with increasing gravity, "your horse can swim, and you can swim, and by G-d, I think you are well qualified for an Alabama lawyer. Give me your commission, and I will sign it. Meanwhile, barkeeper, give us two punches, for my friend Mr. C. and myself. Mr. C." continued the Judge, “I drink success to your admission to the Bar."

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This may be actual fiction, but it is ideal truth.

As to our second head, the Defects of Discipline-we should have said rather, the absence of any. Yet, we repeat the importance of this to both the profession and the public is incalculable. This alone can purify the one, alone protect the other, from those disreputable practitioners, who will always flourish if left unbranded by an authoritative moral reprobation; as long, at least, as there will be dishonest clients to employ them in preference. In short, this discipline would ultimately ensure the character, the capacity, and public consideration so invaluable especially under popular institutions in a body who must have, for good or ill, so large a part, not merely in the administration, but also in the formation* of the laws.

Having, in the preceding historical survey, proposed a model of professional (and quite practicable) excellence, and pointed out the deficiency of our own bar from that standard, there remains but to suggest some method of mending our situation. The means which gave the profession character and efficiency in the past, we have also been careful to signalize and appreciate; and, as the result, we would recommend this two-fold expedient:-Elevation (by law) of the present grade of Legal Education, and Organization (by association) of the Bar.

Not only are we far behind England as England is behind the rest of civilized Europe, in this legal education-but she is leaving us still farther behind every

day. We are glad to see the impulse given her by Bentham and his disciples in the career of reforming the laws has reached at last to the amelioration of the lawyers also. An act of Parliament was passed, last year we believe, imposing additional restrictions upon the admission of attorneys and solicitors. And, even at the Inns of Court-think of it, reader!—the order of the day seems to be Legal Education. One of them-the Middle Temple-had recently a committee to "consider of the best means of promoting the legal education of the students of their House." The following result we transfer from its sensible Report-knowing that an English example will be of more effect with those we address than anything we could here add ourselves upon the subject--though backed beside with the authority of France and Germany and reason united.

the inquiry directed them, as to the means "Your Committee, having entered on to be adopted for promoting the legal education of the Students,' recommend that the steps to be taken by the Middle Temple should be such as are best adapted for the commencement of a sound and comprehensive legal education; for they have reason to hope that the plan, thus rightly begun, will be followed out and completed by the proceedings of the other Societies: ly established by the several Inns shall afford to the students collectively a complete course of legal instruction.

so that the institutions which will be final

"The Committee have also adverted to the acknowledged deficiency which has long been felt to exist in the education of English lawyers, in consequence of their entire neglect of the study of Jurisprudence and the Civil Law; although in all places where the law has been or is taught as a science, these subjects have uniformly formed the first and one of the most essential parts of legal education. From these

To il

and many other reasons to the like effect, the Committee are induced to recommend that the first step for the promotion of legal education to be taken by the House, should be the appointment of a Reader on Jurisprudence and the Civil Law. lustrate the benefits which would result to the Students from such an appointment, it may be well to explain the sense in which the Committee use the terms, Civil Law expectation of the province and duties of and Jurisprudence: and their consequent the Lecturer.

"By the term Jurisprudence the Committee mean General Jurisprudence, as dis

tinguished from the particular Jurisprudence of any individual nation; and which, in further explanation of their meaning, they would divide into Positive Jurisprudence, or the philosophy of Positive Law, and Comparative Jurisprudence, or the exhibition of the principles of Positive Law in an embodied form, by a comparison of the Jurisprudence of modern nations. In the first they would have the Lecturer also include the most important subject of the Interpretation of Laws,' and under the latter head of Comparative Jurisprudence, the Conflict of Laws,' may be properly comprised.

"By the term Civil Law the Committee wish to indicate what may be called Modern Roman Law,' that is to say those portions of the Civil Law which being of a universal character, and applicable to the relations of modern society, have formed the basis of the Jurisprudence of many (of the) continental nations, and entered so largely into our own.

The Committee are of opinion that the study of the theory of the Civil Law may be most advantageously combined with the study of Jurisprudence, and that the two united will furnish the best means of preparatory legal culture, and the formation of an enlarged and comprehensive legal mind."

The details go on to recommend the immediate appointment of this Lecturer, who should be either a Barrister or a doctor of the Civil Law; that he should deliver a year" three terminal courses, and that he should receive three hundred guineas from the Society, besides one guinea from each Student for each terminal course." This Report has been adopted, and the Lectures commence, it seems, next October, the time intervening being allowed for the composition of them.

This is, decidedly, an important movement. Not that we regard the plan of Lectures as the best, in the circumstances. But it will lead to a better. The essential point was, that English lawyers should come at last to feel and own their disgraceful deficiency-a deficiency, by the way, sufficiently betrayed in this committee's acceptation of the term jurisprudence, and others, to say nothing of the general style. May we not expect ours to go and do likewise?

With reference to the other point-of discipline-there is nothing worth borrowing from the English. Our model

here is the French organization. Of this we present a brief outline, in the fond hope that those members of the profession-and we know of such in this city*who are sensible of the want and of the

importance of some such measure, may take it into active consideration.

This species of moral government was formerly a representative republic, but was, as we have said, emperialized by Napoleon. It consists of a President, (called Batonnier) with a Secretary, and a body called the Council of Discipline! This body, anciently elected, is now nothe oldest and the most distinguished minated by the Order of Advocates from members of the order, and in number proportionate to that of the constituency, that is, of the bar of the particular city or district. Nominations are made to double the number of the Council, and a list of them is presented to the king's AttorneyGeneral, who elects from it the requisite number. The qualification of an advocate to vote on this nomination is deterthe roll (tableau) of the Order. mined by the registration of his name on

The attributions of the Council are, first, to decide upon the differences relative to the registration just mentioned. Second, to exercise the surveillance which the honor and interests of the Order may require. Third, to execute the disciplinary measures authorized by the rules of the Order.

The sanction, the penal authority, is merely moral. The penalties are: advice-reprimand-temporary suspension -erasement from the roll. The suspension cannot exceed the term of one year. From sentence of expulsion, there is an appeal to the supreme Court. No penalty can be imposed without having given timely notice to the accused, and heard his defence fully and fairly, if he desire it, before a general assembly of the order.

There are various other regulations and specifications, for which we have not place, nor are they much to the immediate purpose.

With respect to the former article of the proposed professional reform-the education-the fitness of any adequate system would depend essentially on the event of a measure now under consideration in the Convention of this State-we mean, codification of the laws. The exe

cution of this grand project would bring about more fundamental changes in the constitution and general character of the profession, than may be readily imagined. As to the plan of association, it should be moved in without delay; its effects would be equally applicable to all events.

In conclusion, may we indulge the hope, that the no small labor which the foregoing pages have cost us will not be entirely lost. It cannot be that there is not spirit enough in the profession itself to seek its rescue from the condition to which it is degraded amongst us: the condition of a trade-of a disreputable trade. It cannot be that there is not intelligence to conceive, and patriotism, or at least professional pride, to exult at its future destiny in this country; for in no other has it ever had a field so fruitful, a prospect so glorious. The freedom that gave such fullness of development to the unrivalled jurisprudence of ancient Rome, we enjoy in a still higher degree than Rome. The invaluable example of that jurisprudence is before us, which ought, in the language of the poet's precept, to be our daily and nightly study. We have additionally to guide us some twenty centuries more of the world's legislative experience. But we have what is still more propitious to the subject in question than all those advantages of instruction, perhaps than all the efforts of human combination for man invents nothing, in the strict sense of the word; accident and circumstances are the real parents of whatever is absolutely new in his additions to knowledge or to power; and genius, in the proudest of her achievements, has been but the timely midwife of teeming nature. The paramount and peculiar agency to which we allude, is the complicateness of our political system; by whose sure, ceaseless, self-operative action must be evolved new aspects of human rights, and wider views of the jural relations of mankind, than could be even conceivable, out of our federative situation. Many of the most important and fundamental of the physical laws that govern our globe, would have forever remained utterly unknown to us, were they not obtruded upon our notice by its position as a member of the planetary system. The mission of the Legal Professionamong the highest, under any circumstances offers, then, to the American jurist the noblest objects of human ambition. The noblest, because the most beaignant and the most enduring. Where

is now the power, the influence (even for evil) of the Syllas, the Scipios, the Cæsars, of Rome; while the illustrious line of her jurisconsults still hold aloft the imperial banner, inscribed with that proudest of her mottoes-tu regere (jure) populos, Romane, memento-and will transmit it with widening sway to the latest posterity.

Yes, we shall one day have a profession to feel, and a public to encourage, this ambition. But they must be constituted very differently, we fear, from the present generation of either. The former will not have the depraving lust of money-making for their exclusive rule of professional conduct; nor will the public sentiment receive with favor, in lieu of learning and integrity, the mountebank artifices resorted to by our promising young lawyers, "to get business." The maxim of "success at the bar " will not then be Danton's for warfare: "De l'andace, encore de l'andace, toujours de l'andace;" which we shall translate: Impudence, still impudence, always impudence. This avowed "business-seeking" would be irretrievable disgrace, we believe, at any other bar in the civilized world than our own:-certainly in France, where the mere fopperies of this class are made the subject of comic ridicule. But we have been, we perceive, getting too gravewe shall close with one of those portraits of a pettifogger drawn in the times of Louis XIV.; retouching it, in a running translation, according to our American variety of the original.

"Qu'est-ce, dites-moi, que Damon l'Avo

cat?