And notwithstanding the sneers of ignorance, and the gibes of wit, no men are so constantly called upon in their practice to exemplify the duties of good faith, incorruptible virtue, and chivalric honour, as lawyers. To them is often entrusted the peace and repose, as well as the property, of whole families; and the slightest departure from professional secrecy, or professional integrity, might involve their clients in ruin. The law itself imposes upon them the severest injunctions never to do injustice, and never to violate confidence. It not only protects them from disclosing the secrets of their clients, but it punishes the offenders, by disqualifying them from practice. The rebuke of public opinion, also, follows close upon every offence; and the frown of the profession consigns to infamy the traitor, and his moral treason. Memorable instances of this sort have occurred in other ages, as well as in our own. Even the lips of eloquence breathe nothing but an empty voice in the halls of justice, if the ear listens with distrust or suspicion. The very hypocrite is there compelled to wear the livery of virtue, and pay her homage. If he secretly cherishes a groveling vice, he must there speak the language, and assume the port of innocence. He must feign, if he does not feel, the spirit and inspiration of the place.

I would exhort the student, therefore, at the very outset of his career, to acquire a just conception of the dignity and importance of his vocation. Let him not debase it by a low and narrow estimate of its requisites or its duties. Let him consider it, not as a mere means of subsistence, an affair of petty traffic and

barter, a little round of manœuvres and contrivances to arrest some runaway contract, to disinter some buried relic of title, or to let loose some imprisoned wrong from the vengeance of the law. Let him not dream that all is well, if he can weave an intricate net of special pleadings, to catch the unwary in its meshes; or hang a doubt upon a subtile distinction; or quibble through the whole alphabet of sophisms. Let him not imagine, that it is sufficient, if he be the thing described by Cicero in his scorn;-"jurisconsultus ipse per se nihil, nisi leguleius quidem, cautus et acutus, præco actionum, cantor formularum, auceps syllabarum ;"*" a sharp and cunning pettifogger; a retailer of lawsuits; a canter about forms, and a caviller upon words; "—or one of the tribe, defined by. a master spirit of the last age, as the ministers of municipal litigation, and the fomenters of the war of village vexation.† God forbid, that any man, standing in the temple, and in the presence of the law, should imagine that her ministers were called to such unworthy offices. No. The profession has far higher aims and nobler purposes. In the ordinary course of business, it is true, that sound learning, industry, and fidelity are the principal requisites, and may reap a fair reward, as they may in any other employment of life. But there are some, and in the lives of most lawyers, many occasions, which demand qualities of

*Cicero, De Orat. Lib. i. § 55. p. 87.

Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution.

I would commend to students the perusal of Mr. [now Judge] Hopkinson's Address before the Law Academy of Philadelphia, in 1826. It abounds with just remarks, chaste diction, and unpretending eloquence. Its matter and its style are excellent.

a higher, nay of the highest order. Upon the actual administration of justice in all governments, and especially in free governments, must depend the welfare of the whole community. The sacred rights of property are to be guarded at every point. I call them sacred, because, if they are unprotected, all other rights become worthless or visionary. What is personal liberty, if it does not draw after it the right to enjoy the fruits of our own industry? What is political liberty, if it imparts only perpetual poverty to us, and all our posterity? What is the privilege of a vote, if the majority of the hour may sweep away the earnings of our whole lives, to gratify the rapacity of the indolent, the cunning, or the profligate, who are borne into power upon the tide of a temporary popularity? What remains to nourish a spirit of independence, or a love of country, if the very soil, on which we tread, is ours only at the beck of the village tyrant? If the home of our parents, which nursed our infancy and protected our manhood, may be torn from us without recompense or remorse? If the very graveyards, which contain the memorials of our love and our sorrow, are not secure against the hands of violence? If the church of yesterday may be the barrack of to-day, and become the gaol of to-morrow? If the practical text of civil procedure contains no better gloss than the Border maxim, that the right to plunder is only bounded by the power?

One of the glorious, and not unfrequently perilous duties of the bar is the protection of property, and not of property only, but of personal rights, and personal character; of domestic peace, and parental

authority. The lawyer is placed, as it were, upon the outpost of defence, as a public sentinel, to watch the approach of danger, and to sound the alarm, when oppression is at hand. It is a post, not only full of observation, but of difficulty. It is his duty to resist wrong, let it come in whatever form it may. The attack is rarely commenced in open daylight; but it makes its approaches by dark and insidious degrees. Some captivating delusion, some crafty pretext, some popular scheme, generally masks the real design. Public opinion has been already won in its favor, or drugged into a stupid indifference to its results, by the arts of intrigue. Nothing, perhaps, remains between the enterprise and victory, but the solitary citadel of public justice. It is then, the time for the highest efforts of the genius, and learning, and eloquence, and moral courage of the bar. The advocate not unfrequently finds himself, at such a moment, putting at hazard the popularity of a life devoted to the public service. It is then that the denunciations of the press may be employed to overawe or intimidate him. It is then, that the shouts of the multitude drown the still, small voice of the unsheltered sufferer. It is then, that the victim is already bound for immolation; and the advocate stands alone to maintain the supremacy of the law against power, and numbers, and public applause, and private wealth. If he shrinks from his duty, he is branded as the betrayer of his trust. If he fails in his labour, he may be cut down by the same blow, which levels his client. If he succeeds, he may, indeed, achieve a glorious triumph for truth and

justice, and the law. But that very triumph may be fatal to his future hopes, and bar up for ever the road to political honours. Yet what can be more interesting, than ambition thus nobly directed? that sinks itself, but saves the State? What sacrifice more pure, than in such a cause? What martyrdom more worthy to be canonized in our hearts?

It may be that his profession calls him to different duties. He may be required to defend against the arm of the government a party standing charged with some odious crime, real or imaginary. He is not at liberty to desert even the guilty wretch in his lowest estate; but he is bound to take care, that even here the law shall not be bent or broken to bring him to punishment. He will at such times, from love of the law, as well as from compassion, freely give his talents to the cause, and never surrender the victim, until the judgment of his peers has convicted him upon legal evidence. A duty, not less common, or less interesting, is the vindication of innocence against private injustice. Rank, and wealth, and patronage may be on one side; and poverty and distress on the other. The oppressor may belong to the very circle of society, in which we love to move, and where many seductive influences may be employed to win our silence. The advocate may be called upon to require damages from the seducer for his violation of domestic peace; or to expose to public scorn the subtle contrivances of fraud. The ardour of youth may have been ensnared by cunningly devised counsels to the ruin of his estate. The drivelling of age may have been imposed on to pro