title of Lord Carisbrook, could scarcely be expected to be skilled in family settlements. Mr. Longhead managed matters better, and wound up the distribution of the father's estate by an amicable suit which lasted fifteen years.

CHAPTER IV.

“Ανὴρ γὰρ χρηστὸς αἰδεῖσθαι φιλεί.” — ΙΦΙ. ΕΝ ΑΥΛ

I COULD multiply these anecdotes of earlier days, ad infinitum. Sometimes I failed to please from excess of zeal; sometimes by supposed lack of it, though if my clients could have penetrated my bosom, and witnessed my anxious feelings about professional success, this would have been the last fault laid to my charge. On other occasions temper led me astray. I plead guilty to this accusation; and yet it has not unfrequently been the case that I have been reproached with coolness and want of sympathy in my client's outraged feelings! I have selected the preceding failures, not only as curious in themselves, but as illustrating the first maxim which I would impress on a young solicitor; he must inform himself, of course, of

the merits of his employer's cause of complaint, and judge a little for himself of his employer's merits as well. It will be observed that in all the instances I have mentioned, I had but one trial; and to the best of my judgment, I failed in every instance to retain my client, not by professional unskilfulness or negligence, but by offense to my client's self-complacency. I made many friends in the very first years of business; and allowing for the partial loss of them by death, or bankruptcy, (a sort of commercial syncope rarely followed by resuscitation} I retain them still. These are men with whom I have grown up in the affairs of life; men who know and understand me, and who are equally understood by me. We are familiar with each other's peculiarities, and not less so with each other's value. It is no trifle that will sever a connexion between solicitor and client, based upon this mutuality of knowledge; but a man who begins business at four-and-twenty has but few connexions of this character; he must make them for himself; if I may judge from my own experience, there is no greater fallacy than to conclude that the friends gained at school or college, are sufficient to launch you

in the sea of life. I had such ephemeral acquaintance by the hundred; but they rarely stick by one for any practical good: the majority of them are themselves embarked in the same great adventure of professional speculation, and consequently have themselves to look to first, and little leisure and less inclination to assist others who may perchance hereafter prove their rivals. Moreover the frankness of youth discloses its defects as well as its merits, and it is rare indeed that boys carry their favorable recollections of a school-fellow to the age of maturity. It is among those with whom business, in its proper sense, brings us first acquainted, that we must seek to establish a connexion; and if that connexion is to be permanent, their tastes, their tempers, and their habits, must be as much the subject of our study, as the redress of their injuries, or the protection of their rights. Such is the selfimportance of mankind, that it is thought no common favor by a senior to allow a young man even one opportunity of rendering himself acceptable in his profession. Clients are not very ready to intrust themselves to juvenile advice; and if by the entreaty or influence of

friends, or by any other accident they are in duced to do so, not only do they expect most deferential gratitude, but they scan with an illiberal and almost inquisitorial eye, every word and gesture that in men of longer standing would be overlooked. Let me not be misunderstood. Anything approaching to obsequious servility is disgraceful to a member of a liberal profession, however young: any disposition to precipitate familiarity, or any unbecoming descent to the low habits of vulgar society, because wealthy clients may occasionally be found in it, is discreditable, and for the most part disgusting, even to those who are the objects of such unworthy conciliation. solicitor must never forget that he is his client's adviser; and that the very act of asking advice implies an acknowledged superiority of informa tion or of judgment in the party consulted.

A

But it is perfectly consistent with necessary self-respect to fall in with the feelings, and be kindly indulgent even to the prejudices and whims of a client; he is very often more taken with this good-natured sympathy than with the most brilliant parade of learning, or the most triumphant success. In fact, clients come to