And what, pray, is a pettifoggerA coxcomb, ignorant and vain, Who has as little law as brain; Who's ever dangling round the "Hall," And there the busiest of them all; Whom yet you, in the crowded street, With books and briefs, are sure to meet:(Briefs folded in symmetric shape, Inscription fair and flying tape; The court and client, of course, of rank)Briefs, like the bearer, inly blank. But mark him the thronged court-room enter!

Elbowing forward to the centre,

66

My privilege" writ on his face,
He takes the most conspicuous place.
Or it may be the judge must hear,
Some nothing with a martyred ear-
Consulted, who will never deign
To pause. The case is good and plain;
And has its merits or its flaws
According to the fees, not laws.
To ponder would betray the quack,
So he decides ab hoc, ab hac-
Who listens while he talks, intent
Upon his voice, not argument-
Who's loud and long in self-applause,
(His favorite and familiar cause)-
In converse pert and peremptory,
As a free-thinker, or Church-Tory-
Who laughs, alone, at his own joke,
And laughs almost before he spoke-
Whose" urgent business" never ends,
'Mongst parties, places, clients, friends.
Has every Beauty his admirer,

Whom he can have, if he desire her;
So that he scarce a breath can draw,
"Twixt suits at love and suits at law.
In fine, a giddy, brainless elf,
An endless prater 'bout himself;
In all things for a wit would pass,
But is, in truth, in all an A-ss.

0.

NOTE, page 258.-This opinion we have pleasure and pride in being enabled, since the text was written, to confirm from an authority of the first order on this subject, the profound and learned Savigny. Nor is it alone as to the influence of the legal Profession upon the form and growth of the laws that we perceive ourselves to be in flattering coincidence with this distinguished jurist; we are also borne out by him substantially in the speculation hazarded in the fore part of the preceding paper, concerning the natural Origin, Order of development, and Division of its functions. His remarks upon both these points we shall translate in full, as they conveniently occur in the same passage. Not, how ever, from vanity, we trust; but because we would have their pertinent and preg

nant suggestions sown deeply in every thinking mind amongst us.

"The exterior forms which we see the Legal Profession assume are the image of the progressive establishment of that class. At first we find them giving counsel in certain specific cases; co-operating in the trial of a cause; directing respecting the regular forms of Procedure; their earliest essays in the literature of the law are collections of rules, and treatises upon the mere formalities of Practice. By little and little their labors take a more elevated character. Science begins to evolve itself, and to have its theory and its application its theory in the doctrines set forth in elementary treatises and by oral communication (such as lectures); its application in the decision of the tribunals which are now become widely different from the primitive popular judgments, (our jury system,) through the scientific knowledge of the Judges and the systematic usages which establish themselves traditionally in permanent colleges-(such as the law Faculties of Germany, and with us, in a sort, the Legal Profession.")

:

[Here we ask the reader to favor us by turning to page 258, and comparing our deductions, à priori, respecting the Profession, with the historical account of its triple form, above signalized, in the italicized passages. Also, to reflect, in which of the periods of Juridical development, designated in the sequel of the sentence, are to be placed the actual jurists and jurisprudence of England and the United States-in the practical and primitive, or in the scientific and systematic? The facts ought to bring sor. row to the breast or at least shame to the brow of Americans especially, whether lawyers or laymen; who pretend (as, of course, in patriotism bound) that we are the most advanced and enlightened people of the most enlightened age that the world has witnessed. These facts undeniably are, that as to our law-writers— the English inclusive-they are still mainly the mere compilers and commentators of technical formulas and traditional usages-the very verbosa simulatio prudentia of the college of Pontiffs, the Profession at Rome, in the infancy of the republic; until, as Cicero adds pleasantly, one Flavius, a copyist of theirs, came to supplant them in the traffic, having filched their wisdom from the wily lawmongers; and as respects the Jurisprudence, that ours, at least in part, is still formed by tribunals such

precisely as decided in the woods of Germany in the days of Tacitus, and decide at this day in the wilds of Arabia. The only advance we appear to have made is the application of the representative principle; as the jury might be regarded a sort of select committee of the primitive tribunal of the whole people. And here we are, in the middle of the nineteenth century, with our juridical, vying with the newspaper, writers in chanting pæons of eulogy to this crude tribunal; which, while necessary, we admit, in its time, and not only that, but useful in developing the materials of a jural system, yet now that those materials oppress by their multitude, can serve but as an eternal inlet to disorder, an obstacle the more to all system, the despair of all science! We, moreover, retain this incumbrance and expense incalculable, public and private, for not one sound reason, at least in civil causes-save and except the usual mos majorum of English precedent. Even the English themselves have continued it in the civil department only because of the accidental services, in criminal matters, against the past persecutions of the crown. A tribunal which has often protected (legally or otherwise) the lives of "free-born Englishmen" was concluded to be of course the best possible to adjudicate in all tribunals whatever-without regard to the difference of parties, the purpose of the suit, or the circumstances of the times. This might be characterized as the Anglo-Saxon mode of generalization, of which we have a good illustration in the logic of Phædrus' ass, who refused to eat barley, alleging sagaciously that he observed the hogs that were fed upon it to have been always killed. But in retaining the jury system we seem to have improved (in absurdity) upon this English and assinine reasoning. Under the constitution of England, the jury in criminal cases is of real value as a political guarantee; it is accordingly in this light that the thoughtful Germans regard it, who, though not remarkably

averse to either ceremony or complexity, are utterly at a loss to conceive what the English mean by wheeling into operation its ponderous machinery upon occasion of every petty, pecuniary litigation. But as such guarantee it has, obviously, no application under our institutionsat least none that does not better belong to the Executive prerogative of grace. This is not written from any particular hostility to the institution of jury-trial; but it is of the utmost importance to miss no opportunity of exposing that purblind packhorse pertinacity with which mankind in general will jog on beneath the crudities, become iniquities, of their early history; and, more preposterous still, the pride wherewith a certain variety of it vaunts itself upon institutions and usages, which, if only heard of for the first time as prevailing in China or New Holland, would probably have passed through every newspaper in the land as proof demonstrative that the Chinese were not only actual barbarians, but absolutely incapable of civilization."]

But to return to Savigny, who proceeds, with reference to the more immediate subject of this note. "Thus, then," (as he was describing,) "the jurists exert a two-fold influence upon the formation of the laws: one creative and direct; for, uniting in their body nearly the whole intellectual activity of the nation, they continue as its representatives: the development of the laws; the other purely scientific, for they gather materials from the various sources to compose the Jural system, and digest it into the arrangement and precision of logical form. This latter function of the jurists would seem to place them in a position of dependence, and as if having to act upon a given subject-matter, whatever it might be. the scientific form wherewith they stamp it, tending unceasingly to develope and complete its unity, reacts upon the body of the laws itself, gives it a new organic life, and science becomes a new constitutional element, a new agency, for its indefinite extension and application. A

But

glance will suffice to see the utility and importance of this reaction of science upon the Jural system."

[We will again interrupt the author to remark, that here is the idea of codification. The laws of a country, well codified, would correspond, at least approximatively, to the state of the physical sciences, when, from being experimental, they become deductive-that is to say, properly, science, The organic life which Savigny speaks of as being a property of this state of the Jural system, we may conceive some idea of from the analogous properties of geometry: in which, from a few simple principles we may deduce infallibly, not only all the cases (of figure) that are likely to occur to us in real life, but all that may or possibly can occur in an eternity of ages. We do not mean to say that in the jural science, contingency can be entirely eliminated; we do say that it can be included, and that it will thus, upon occasion, be always reducible to principle, by means of a proper method. This method is a system of interpretation. Will those who talk in our Convention, or who think out of it, of providing us a code, vouchsafe to ponder upon these few leading ideas?]

"If we examine" (continues Savigny) "the relations of the Legal Profession to the confection of the Laws, we find them of more than one kind. In the first place, the decisions of the Courts, elaborated by its discussion, are, like the early popular jurisprudence, materials for the legislator: again, the special nature of the lawyers' knowledge exercises upon the laws various degrees of influence. It is they, moreover, by whom the laws are applied

and passed into practical life. The freedom and variety of forms which they employ professionally, permits them to show the identity existing between the abstract rule and the life-giving principle of Justice-an identity which gives birth to the law, but which is not immediately visible. Thus the scientific method of the Jurists by means of interpretation-at once facilitates the application of the law and assures its consistency and empire."

In the foregoing exposition of the various and vast influence operated by the Legal Profession upon the laws-an exposition, which besides the objects for which, more immediately, it was adduced, will be seen to confirm the importance which it has been the purpose of the preceeding paper to inculcate, of purifying and elevating and enlightening that influence-we shall add the succeeding paragraph of Savigny, as a conclusive and seasonable answer to those among us who would denounce this influence and destroy the profession itself as an unwarrantable monopoly.

"We see, then, that the lawyers have over the formation of the laws an influence of great extent. Those who deprecate this influence as an unjust privilege, would not be without good reason, did the lawyers constitute a caste not accessible to all. But as every man may become a Jurisconsult, by going through the requisite studies, the privilege comes to this, that he who devotes to the pursuits of the law the labors of a whole life, may, by virtue of his superior attainments, exercise upon its formation a more than the common influence."-SAVIGNY. System des heutigen Römischen Rechts. Kap. 2. § 14.

THE cares and duties and facts of Life are sad foes of the Ideal. The stern worker has little time for fancies, however pleasant they may be to him. The Physician has less occasion than all others to draw on his fancy for material to iudulge his sympathy. He sees men and women as they are. The noblest and truest are weak and sick. He sees their weakness without feeling it, for they are not placed in antagonism to him, consequently he judges them calmly, without any of the prejudice with which wounded feeling almost always blurs the clearest sight. The man who with noble energies, all misapplied, or running riot in wrong, has dissipated his fortune, disgraced his family, and destroyed his health, is often a noble ruin which the Physician contemplates with deepest sympathy and most intense interest. He has no personal wrong to disturb the flow of his kindly feelings. And then it is by no means unfavorable to the tenderest sympathy that we know all the sins and sufferings of those about us. I recollect an illustration of this truth. There was a young lady, a daughter of a friend, one of the few on whom I ever made an unprofessional call. She interested me strongly, for she had that sort of beauty which we involuntarily decree to be the "divine right" of Kings and Queens. She was a glorious girl and looked regal in velvet. But I never really loved her till my profession gave me the key to her heart. Then the commonest occurrences became of importance to me when connected with her.

I remember her at a party where she was queen of the night. How many slight acts then which were almost unnoticed, rose before me in after years with terrible explanations, and showed themselves, like the invisible contagion of small-pox and the invisible poison on the dagger's point, to be most powerful causes. I remember on one occasion at a party poor Caroline was cruelly hurt by an incident which, under certain circumstances, might have been forgotten in an hour, but which proved to be the germ of indescribable suffering. A young gentleman of wonderful power was present at the party. He had just begun to make himself famous as a writer. Caro

line had been deeply interested in an article of his in theMagazine.

Her fancy was charmed and her heart thrilled, when she learned that she was likely to meet at the party the daring young genius who had dazzled and captivated her woman's head and heart. She looked forward to the wished-for evening as to an era that she might reckon from, as devotees reckon from Saints' days, and nations from victories. Caroline was already half in love with an ideal idol, who was, in her mind, a sort of lay figure adorned with wreaths and chaplets, formed from the beautiful article of the Magazine. She wondered whether her hero would look as she expected. Was he tall, with dark, deep eyes, an Apollo's face, (which is not hirsute, good reader,) with a black cloud of hair that seemed stolen from a thunder-storm? Was he elegant but not foppish in his dress, and was his manner perfectly dignified and yet perfectly polite? Čaroline settled it that he would be all this and much more, like the Dutchman's dollar-bill which he wished to exchange for some of the good things of a shop-keeper who doubted its genuineness. "Is this bill coot enough?" said the shop-keeper. "Yes, it is better as good," replied the customer. The long wished-for evening came. had dressed herself in a manner not to be seen, not to be noticed a second time for anything but herself, and she looked at the reflection of her elegant beauty and its simple unadorning with much pleasure. Yes, it must be confessed that she had sufficient taste and appreciation of the beautiful to admire the fair, high brow, the lustrous eyes, the rich, darkchesnut curls, the snowy throat, the majestic form and pure white dress of Caroline Templeton. And I admired them too. I looked at her a great deal that evening. I little thought then how many consequences lay folded in those light hours that I spent in admiring Miss Templeton and listening to her sarcastic account of her introduction to the hero of her dreams and the Magazine.

Caroline

Cloudsley Wentworth was the horror of all regular, methodical, good people. He was the puzzle of the wise, and almost unknown to himself; though, had

his knowledge of himself equaled his faith in his own power, he would have been much wiser than common mortals. He knew that Miss Templeton was a beauty and a belle. He thought her a coquette, a very heartless one. He was right and wrong in his opinion. Caroline was too much the creature of the circumstances that surrounded her. She loved to enjoy the power that her beauty gave her. She loved to bask in the blaze of admiration; but beneath all this, she had a deep, warm heart. How true it is that we tend to be what we are taken for. Tell a man that he is a wretch and ten to one he will become a hateful wretch, for he will hate you for your plain dealing or ill will as the case may be. But Cloudsley Wentworth was young and proud, and his vanity was deeper and broader than his experience. He took it for granted that Caroline Templeton was a vain and beautiful coquette who sadly needed humbling; and in the plenitude of his youthful consequence he concluded that the duty of humbling her belonged to him-nay, that it was imperative upon him. So when he drew near the beautiful girl, who, with a beating heart, was awaiting an introduction to one who was already the finest picture in her dream-land, he determined on being guilty of a most ungallant and ungentlemanly act. Caroline was gazing rather furtively at his fine, manly face. He was more beautiful than she had painted him, even with the partial pencil of her fancy. His dark hair lay in masses of rich curls on a forehead so expanded that the hair was a happy relief. Caroline looked up at him as he stood in the pride and strength of his manhood, and she almost envied her friend Miss Carson, on whose arm Wentworth lightly laid his finger, to attract her notice to a question he was about to ask. Miss Carson turned and introduced Miss Templeton to Mr. Wentworth. A thrill of joy went to the heart of Caroline as Wentworth bent his head gracefully but with hurried politeness toward her, "Your servant, madam," said he, and turning instantly to a very common-place woman near him, he commenced an apparently earnest conversation with her. Caroline thought, surely he is only detained for a moment. He cannot do so rude a thing as to "cut" a lady whom he does not know at all, and can therefore have no reason for avoiding. Little did she know of the unrea

sonable reasons that were influencing "the good-for-nothing" Cloudsley Wentworth. She waited in vain; her heart fluttered for nought. Wentworth took no more notice of her, secretly congratulating himself that he had humbled one who deserved it. At first Caroline was fluttered and impatient; by degrees she grew vexed; at length she was very angry; and she ended by nursing a viper hate in her heart. "He has insulted woman in me," said she, and she felt that she had a right to feel the corporate hate of the sex toward Cloudsley Wentworth, a man whom ten words and one of his own smiles would have made her worship. As it was, she instinctively sought me for her confessor and comforter. I was vexed with the fellow, and could almost have found it in my heart to have given him calomel or cantharides, or to have let his proud, bad blood out of his veins. But I soon forgot the incident. Not so Caroline. If she had lived to the good old age of a Mrs. Methuselah she would have kept the slight in her memory fresh and keen as the newly broken dagger's point.

Again I saw these bright creatures meet, but both were changed. Wentworth in the recklessness of power had acted imprudently, at times wickedly. He had drunk, gamed, and brought his worthy, widowed mother into some difficulty by his extravagance. There had always been two parties amongst those who took note of the young genius. One party praised him too highly, the other condemned him quite too severely. He was now on the verge of outlawry with all parties. The scale of his social fate hung trembling, and it seemed that the small dust of the balance would decide against him. But he went to the party in a stern spirit of defiance. Caroline was now the acknowledged queen of our circle. Wentworth was too republican to acknowledge queens or kings, and least of all was he disposed to acknowledge Miss Templeton. He was quite conscious of what he had lost and of what she had gained, but he approached the circle where she was standing, "bright with beauty and girt with pow er," with a haughty coldness, and at the same time the purpose to treat her as an equal, an acquaintance. Perhaps half unconsciously he wished, even then, that there had been no cloud between them, for beauty and strength always won his admiration. "Good evening, Miss Tem