vocations and it was not until after repeated and most pressing invitations that Mr. Richardson was prevailed upon to yield to the wishes of the ministers.

The profession of a lawyer is much more honorable in England than in France. Besides producing considerably greater emolument, an almost boundless field for success is opened to those who enter upon it, and a thousand examples of success are continually before them to stimulate them in their efforts towards excellence. There is no mark, however high, at which their ambition may not point with hopes of success. The ministry, the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the offices of Lord Chancellor, of Speaker or President in the House of Commons, of Chief Justices, and of Judges, are the rewards which their reputa tion at the bar is almost sure of obtaining; and they receive, in a certain degree, by anticipation that homage which the honors they are looking forward to have a right to demand. In the circuits they are everywhere received with respect, and have almost as many marks of deference shown them as the judges themselves. There are, in every county, a certain number of great personages who are in the habit of doing the honors of it during the assizetime to the judges and barristers. They generally give them a grand dinner, either in the city, if they have a suitable residence there, as, for instance, the Bishop of Durham's; or, which is more common, at their country seats, as at the Archbishop of York's, Lord Lonsdale's, and most other of the nobility. All the barristers, without exception, are invited to this dinner, and take their places at table in the order in which they have been called to the bar; and they are received by their host dressed out in all his orders, and with the utmost display of magnificence. The judges also give the barristers a dinner in each of the cities they stop at on the circuit, and treat them in general like colleagues and friends; for they know that many of them may one day or other become their equals in rank, and even their superiors.

It is only young men of wealthy families that can devote themselves to the bar, on account of the expenses which they must unavoidably incur in the commencement of their career. There are, as I have already said, two circuits in the year, and not one of them costs each barrister less than a hundred guineas, during the six weeks that they continue, not only on account of his current expenses, and travelling post from town to town on the circuit, but also for the private lodgings which he is obliged. to have in each, his dignity not allowing him to take up his abode at an inn. In London, besides the domestic establishment which barristers must have for themselves and their families, they are likewise obliged to have chambers in some of the buildings which

1

are called Inns of court, and to which the attornies and clients go to consult them. This additional residence, consisting at the most of two or three small rooms, costs them from 12 to 15 hundred francs per annum. They must, moreover, have a sort of clerk, who serves them also as a servant, so that they can scarcely keep up their rank in society for less than from 15 to 20,000 francs of French money. In this way they often go on for years, without receiving any emolument from their profession, waiting for some fortunate opportunity of making themselves known; or, until the retirement or death of some one of the most popular of their brethren shall prepare the way for them to succeed to the rich harvest of his briefs. They think themselves fortunate if, at the end of five or six years, they are enabled to make their expenses soon after, they perhaps make from a thousand to fifteen hundred guineas, then two thousand, four thousand, six thousand; nay, sometimes twelve thousand. Sir Samuel Romilly made from fifteen to sixteen thousand guineas a year.

even of

The barristers are generally the youngest sons of rich landed proprietors, bishops, lawyers, bankers, and merchants, sometimes peers. Their information is not confined to a mere knowledge of their profession. Called to the highest employments in the state they carefully study their history, their constitution, the peculiar rights that it grants to every class of citizens, and the political situation of their country, both internal and external. They are, almost all, well acquainted with French, and some with Italian. There is scarcely one among them who has not travelled in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, and who has notsome idea of the manners and governments of these countries. Immediately after the summer assizes, which finish about the middle of August, they all set out, like swallows at the approach of winter, and seek in our climate for a new sun, new modes, new pleasures; and to find also, in the imperfections still remaining in our institutions, new motives to admire and praise their own.2

They live among themselves like brothers, and know no rivalry but that of talent. They would blush to gain an advantage over each other by any other means; or to make any advances towards an attorney in order to procure a brief from him. They carry their delicacy on this point so far, that they would look very coldly on the son of a barrister who should attach himself to the same circuit with his father, and endeavour to profit by the advantage

These are four in number, Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple.

2 These tours generally last between two and three months, and take in the period between the end of the circuits and the beginning of the terms, which commence on the 6th of November.

over his brethren which he might have in the established reputation of his father.

When they come upon the circuit, they enter their names and residences on a general list, and then wait proudly at home for clients to come to them. A barrister who should be known to visit an attorney, or solicit a brief through him, even in ever so indirect a manner, would not only be severely reprimanded by his brethren, but might be even deprived of his place at the bar, should the circumstances of his conduct appear to warrant such punishment. They form among themselves a sort of particular court, which they term grand courts, and which are held twice in the course of the northern circuit; the first at York, and the second at Lancaster. The oldest member on the circuit presides, and every barrister is obliged to attend on pain of forfeit. It is in this kind of family-meetings that they regulate every thing concerning the interests of their corps and their connexions with each other; that they regulate their common expenses, and reprimand those who may have departed from any established usages or rules of propriety.

All the time they are on the circuit they dine at a private table, to which no one is admitted excepting he be a barrister. I am, perhaps, the only person whom they have done the honor of receiving into their society; and it is to this particular favor, of which I shall all my life preserve the most grateful remembrance, that I owe almost all the information I have been enabled to acquire respecting the legislation of their country.

Why may I not be permitted here to mention the kindness, the attentions, the marks of friendship, which they lavished upon me! Why may I not describe the courtesy of their manners, the profoundness of their information, the amenity of their society, and their unwearied desire to oblige! I cannot name them all, though all were anxious to assist me in my researches, and to render my stay among them as agreeable as it was instructive; but I cannot resist the pleasure of repeating the names of Rayner, Scarlett, Williams, Hardy, Courtney, Eden, Coltman and Gray, and of recalling to mind the friendly observations in which they explained to me in so luminous a manner the spirit of their own institutions, and showed an equal desire to be made acquainted with ours.

CHAPTER VI.

REFLECTIONS UPON THE SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH

CONSTITUTION.

AFTER having explained how, and in what proportion, the different classes cooperate in the administration of the criminal laws; perhaps it will not be useless to show how far, and by what means, these same classes cooperate in the general administration of the state; and to enter into some details as to the particular relations which connect the commonalty with the great; relations in which by the happiest and wisest combination, the natural desire of the former for independence, and the pride and ambition which are the unavoidable attendants on the wealth of the latter, are made subservient to each other. It is needless to enquire whether these bonds, in which the whole strength of the English Constitution consists, have been the result of institutions now existing, or whether they preceded these institutions, so that the laws by which they are established may be considered as only the explanation of relations already subsisting: it is enough to show the general harmony which results from them, and how that harmony is maintained.

The English government is nothing more than a perpetual flux and reflux, as we may say, of the different classes among the people, who act and react incessantly upon each other; the lower orders perpetually trying to dispossess the more elevated of the privileges they enjoy, privileges which the latter in their turn defend to the utmost of their power.

It is from this continual struggle that public liberty results; as waters are rendered limpid by their agitation. Occasionally, indeed, impetuous winds excite in the restless mass extraordinary movements; but these transient hurricanes appear only designed to exhibit the latent power of the element which they disturb, and to offer to the world the imposing spectacle of the immutable order to which it is subjected. All their violence is unable to precipitate its waves beyond the limits that have been assigned to them.

Public tranquillity is founded, then, upon the equal means of attack and defence possessed by different parties; and it is on this account that Parliament always evinces so much reluctance in adopting any changes that are proposed in the constitution of the

kingdom. This body understands, as well as any other, the specious good which these changes promise; but is restrained by the fear that these consequences may derange the relation of powers actually subsisting, destroy the political equilibrium and throw the whole system into confusion. The most opposite pretensions are duly balanced in the actual state of things; and it is in this that the wisdom and perfection of government are to be found. Whatever tends to disturb that even state is undesirable, and may cause the destruction of the political machine.

Every Englishman is, therefore, exalted by this reflection—that it is only by his courage and devotedness that he can preserve his rights, as well as his property, which is perpetually threatened by the attacks of innovators. He well knows that the loss of his liberties would soon be followed by the loss of his property, and that there is no reason why one should be respected more than the other. He is, in consequence, always ready to defend them, either with his person or his purse. Very unlike us Frenchmen, who, accustomed peaceably to enjoy the fruits of our industry, or the inheritance of our fathers, rely on government for the protection of them: the English, on the contrary, make this care the first of their duties, and the most important business of their lives." They are born, as it were, soldiers for this kind of warfare; and their whole education is directed with a view to render them capable of managing it with success.

Such is the true source of their so much boasted patriotism. I would not wish, however, to dispute what is called their public spirit, and the disposition which they manifest to sacrifice all their possessions to the defence, and even to the glory of their country; but this sentiment that addresses itself so powerfully to their hearts on critical occasions, is not that to which I conceive we ought exclusively to attribute the ordinary precision with which they perform their civil duties. This precision flows from their individual interest, and the opinion entertained by all-some that their liberty, and others that their rank and fortune and privileges, depend on the uninterrupted exercise of the rights which they derive from the constitution. It is this feeling which makes the chief proprietors in every county eager to get their names enrolled on the list of grand jurors, or in the commission of the peace, and to charge themselves with the laborious functions of the magistracy. The same sentiment renders those who enjoy the elective franchise so jealous of rights, in which, as I shall afterwards prove, they find a daily source of attention and courtesy on the part of the first gentry in the county; and inspires petty juries with so generous a devotion to their duties, in the assurance which they have that by these means their fortunes, liberties, and lives, are secured against