rooted habits from adopting in court the illtimed liberality of a parliamentary orator, will be in confiderabl. danger of introducing into his political exertions the no lefs ill-timed narrowness of ex parte pleadings. He will not find it as easy to diveft himself of his legal practices as of his legal habiliments. He will not readily forget in the evening, when contending in the House of Commons, the character in which he had in the morning contended in Weftminfter Hall.

The effects of habit, unless they are provided against with early and fcrupulous care, will be no lefs confpicuous in his ftyle and manner than in the nature of his reasoning. He will manifeft a propenfity to the use of cramp terms and technical jargon, to an oftentation of methodical arrangement; to fubtle and refined diftinctions; to a dry and uninteresting mode of delivery; to petulant and fnappish altercation. It is rarely that the Houfe of Commons exhibits feveral cotemporary inftances of Barrifters, who have shaken off the defects almoft infeparable from their 'profeffion; and difplay that bold and impaf

fioned eloquence calculated to fway a popular affembly.

The Parliamentary Lawyer may be of emihent use in protecting the exifting laws, and the established courfe of legal proceedings, from being gradually impaired or unneceffarily varied either through ignorance or defign. He is not unfrequently consuited, and his fuggeftions are fometimes perhaps adopted without public acknowledgment, by the private Member of Parliament; who, however able to discover defects in the exifting ftatutes, and hardships refulting from their operation, is not always competent to produce a remedy capable of being commodiously incorporated into a fyftem complicated like that of our laws, and compofed of so many jarring elements. But let the Barrifter beware left his attachment to precedent, and his general abhorrence of innovation, topics on which there is the lefs occafion to dilate at prefent, as they have been amply difcuffed in

a

former part of this chapter, lead him indifcriminately to oppofe falutary changes and reforms. More especially let him learn to suspect

Cc 2

fufpect himself, to fift his motives, and to fearch his heart to the bottom, if he finds himself on the verge of haftily refifting plans interfering with fome of the powers, privileges, or forms of Courts of Juftice, and their dependencies; or proposals apparently pointing to the extension of some of the rights of the people. And if he perceives his brethren of the profeffion united in countenancing or in oppofing any particular measure; let him be on his guard against being induced to co-operate with them rather by sympathy, and the efprit de corps, than by fair and deliberate conviction.

The Barrister who has a feat in the House of Commons is not to forget his Clients at the Bar, nor to facrifice their interests to his political purfuits. It may indeed be alleged, and with truth, that his employers are conscious of his parliamentary avocations; and, by fpontaneously preferring his affiftance to that of another Counfel, fhew themselves willing to fubmit to the inconveniences neceffarily arifing from them. But he is not to make ufe of this plea as an excufe for needless inattention

tention to their concerns; nor for wilfully failing to fatisfy the expectations, which he knows himself to have excited in their minds.

It commonly happens that a Parliamentary Lawyer of diftinguished merit has the option, fooner or later, of one of those high legal fituations, the poffeffors of which are confidered as in the immediate fervice of the Crown. The observations already made in a former chapter appropriated to the duties of the Executive Officers of Government, though without a direct reference to thefe particular pofts, may fufficiently explain the general motives by which he ought to be influenced in accepting or declining the station proposed; in discharging its duties; and, finally, in refigning it. It remains only to add the following very neceffary caution: That he is not to conceive himself, when poffeffed of the office, as leagued on the fide of the Crown against the People; nor pledged to fupport the exifting Administration in measures at which his understanding and conscience revolt; nor at liberty to purfue as libellers and fomenters

Cc3

fomenters of fedition, thofe who cenfure the measures of Government, or canvass any real public grievances, with candour, fairness, and moderation.

IV. Our fourth general head was allotted to an enquiry into the peculiar duties of Judges.

་

Among the many important advantages refulting to fociety from the institution of an order of Barristers, we are to place this in the foremost rank; that it fupplies a conti nual fucceffion of men qualified and worthy to prefide in the Courts of Juftice. Were it not for this nursery, in which Merit is trained under the directing hand of Experience; this probationary ftage, on which the Student at once makes himself master of his profeffion, and gives public proof of his attainments; how could we hope, in a country like Great Britain, wherein the unlimited diffufion and complicated nature of property; the poffeffion of freedom, which leaves nothing to be determined by the arbitrary will of a superior; the extension of commerce, and the magnitude