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legal profession who fill the office now under consideration are styled "Her Majesty's Counsel, learned in the law." It will at once be perceived that no one is eligible for this office except a gentleman of the bar; and it is not usually bestowed on any member of that body, until his career has been marked by decided professional success. It is rarely conferred on men of less than ten or twelve years' standing; the celebrated Lord Erskine, however, received this distinction when he had been only five years at the bar; but many skilful lawyers have been compelled to wait for it as long as eighteen or twenty years. In a very few instances, the honour has been withheld upon political grounds;-a particular barrister, confessedly entitled by his professional eminence to the emolument and distinction which the office imparts, has had his claims postponed, on the ground of his opposition to the minister of the day. The rare occurrence of this, and the condemnation with which it has been met, ob. viously show that the official character of a Queen's Counsel is almost nominal; and that the reality consists in its being a sort of professional advancement.

In order to present a clear statement of matters incidental to this office, it is necessary to describe the whole class, of which the Queen's Counsel form the most distinguished portion. Wherever a court of justice is held, there is a real or imaginary line which separates the judges and officers of the court from the advocates, suitors, &c. This is called the bar; and those who are entitled to appear at this bar in the capacity of advocates, and to take their seats there, are called "gentlemen of the bar," or "barris

ters." Those who for a similar purpose enjoy the privilege of sitting within the bar, are called King's or Queen's Counsel, according as a male or female sovereign may happen to be on the throne. Serjeants

at-law (a higher degree than that of barrister) also sit within the bar. The general profession of the law includes writers, and writers to the signet, members of the faculty of advocates, doctors of the civil and canon law, proctors, attorneys, solicitors, special pleaders, equity draftsmen, and conveyancers. The degree of a barrister has no necessary connexion with any of these, and is inconsistent with some of the number. A gentleman of the bar may be a convey. ancer, an equity draftsman, or a special pleader; but he ceases to practise as a barrister if he connect himself with any other branches of the profession than the three now mentioned. The Faculty of Advocates fill that position in Scotland which barristers occupy in England, Wales, and Ireland; and in which doctors of the civil law are employed at Doctors' Commons. The duty of the Advocate, the Doctor, or the Counsel, (which term includes both barristers and serjeants,) is to advise suitors touching the law of their case, and the probabilities of their success in the event of proceeding to a hearing or trial; to give directions as to the nature and extent of the evidence to be produced in support of their clients' claims; to argue before the proper tribunals any questions of law or equity; to examine witnesses; to explain and detail the substance of documentary evidence; to address juries.

Antecedently to the time of Henry III., the clergy were the only legal practitioners; but in the reign.

of that prince, collegiate establishments called "inns of court" were founded in London, for the study of the laws of England, in opposition to the civil and common law then so much cultivated at the Universities. These corporate bodies were formed chiefly with a view to preserve the knowledge, and promote the re-establishment and maintenance of our old Saxon institutions, in preference to those of Rome, under the Emperors or the Popes, of which the clergy were the great patrons. The inns of court now remaining are the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn. The chambers belonging to these societies are tenanted and used by members of the legal profession as their places of business, and some reside there altogether.

The inns of Chancery are eight in number; they are not, however, now applied to those purposes of legal education for which they were originally designed; but, on the contrary, are used as mere professional chambers by attorneys and solicitors, and in some instances as residences by gentlemen who have no connexion whatever with the profession of the law.

It is usual, but not necessary, that any one intending to become a barrister should graduate at one or other of the Universities. He then enters as a student at one of the four inns of court above-mentioned, where " he keeps," as it is called, a certain number of "terms," during which he is presumed to be engaged in professional studies; but the only evidence required of his "keeping" these terms, is the fact of his dining with the society in their hall on certain specified days, in the course of a period that

need not extend beyond three years. The governors of these establishments are called " benchers ;" many of them are men of great learning and professional eminence; they demand, however, no proofs of proficiency in legal or in any kind of knowledge from those whom they "call to the bar;" at the same time that few law students seriously engage in the pursuit of this arduous profession, without becoming the pupils of special pleaders or barristers of some eminence but unlike other professional men, they undergo no series of examinations as tests of professional fitness, neither is a University education indispensable; but its advantages are too obvious not to be generally acknowledged. Anciently the inns of court much more closely resembled academical institutions than they do at present, there being in modern times no moral restraint imposed, nor any species of intellectual culture required or promoted by the authorities. Nevertheless, the members of the bar, both in common law and equity, are confessedly a most learned branch of the profession; and the public do not require to be protected from quacks and pre. tenders amongst them, as in the cases of other professions; for the selection of counsel is usually left by clients to the attorney, solicitor, proctor, or writer, who conducts their suits. A judge in any court may silence a barrister who misconducts himself, and doubtless that would be followed by the inn of court to which he belonged disbarring him.

In the profession of the law as it now exists, the distinction between barrister and serjeant is not so wide as in ancient times; the duties which both at present discharge are not materially different; ori

ginally, however, the barrister was only regarded as a species of apprentice to the profession, and the serjeant was considered as the true and matured professor he still enjoys precedence and pre-audience in the courts, unless the barrister be a Queen's Counsel. But some of the most distinguished members of the profession, for generations past, have been men who were not advanced to the degree of a serjeant.

Having now stated those particulars, regarding the profession at large, which might be found conducive to a clear understanding of the nature of the office more immediately under consideration, the necessary details may be summed up in a very few words. A Queen's Counsel is appointed by the Crown; he sits within the bar; he wears a robe of silk, whereas all other barristers wear stuff; he enjoys precedence and pre-audience over members of the bar who do not hold this office; his fees are usually of higher amount. These constitute the principal rights and advantages which the office confers upon its holders over the junior members of the profession, or "the outer barristers," as they are called.

On the other hand, this office places the Queen's Counsel in the situation of a set of advocates permanently retained for a particular client. They can never appear against the Crown; nor can they defend persons accused of any offence without a licence, which of course is never refused, but which in each instance costs their clients £9.

The earliest appointment to this office of any one under the degree of a serjeant, was in the case of Sir Francis Bacon, in 1604.

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