capital by the mortgage or sale of their patrimonial estates, that questions of pure conveyancing often become entangled with commercial law; and the nobleman, not less than the merchant, is thrown more frequently and more entirely into the hands of his attorney. The immense increase of public companies and parliamentary business, and even the growing importance and independence of our colonies, have largely contributed to swell the stream of professional profit, and at the same time to purify its source, by giving a legitimate and acknowledged value to the solicitor's services. This gradual elevation of our duties has naturally led to the introduction among us of many young men from that rank of life, who, less than half a century ago, would have spurned the calling as derogatory to their birth; and attorneys in the higher walks of the profession, have in many instances, established for themselves an acknowledged title to rank with the first circles; though I do not say the most fashionable, for I by no means class these among the most worthy, or the most important; but though by this accession of better born, and therefore generally better educated

men, we have improved our social position, and can now enumerate hundreds among us, who are not less gentlemen by birth, by feeling, and by manners, than we are by act of parliament, there still remains too much of that low business which was once the staple of our trade, not to attract many low people into the profession; the rather because if once admitted there, the best prizes are as open to them as to others, if by happy accident they can insinuate themselves into the first or second class of competition: indeed to be an attorney is itself a great step in life, a sort of gentility of station, in the estimate of the lower ranks of shopkeepers and mechanics; nor does it require any great outlay of money to give a son a title to the name, provided no lavish expenditure has been made in his previous education. Let it not be supposed that I feel contempt for this laudable and even humble ambition; far from it, for I profess principles too liberal, as well in politics as I trust in Christian faith, to deride it; but I still think myself at liberty to protest against the absurdity, as well as the silly pretension of placing a boy of sixteen in an attorney's office, without any preparatory edu

cation beyond the Latin grammar, and too often less than that, simply to qualify him to be a gentleman, whilst his brothers are tinkers and tailors, and his father a Bow-street runner or sheriff's officer.

I have digressed a little, however, from my subject. I only wish to explain how it happens, that in a profession which is now justly esteemed a liberal one, and in which we daily meet with men well qualified to adorn any rank of life, we should yet more frequently fall in with others whose manners would exclude them from our servants' hall, and whose characters would compel us to count our spoons, if by any accident they gained admission there. It is but too true that we have among us a large body of adventurers, who have little edueation, less principle, and neither capital nor connexion. It is probable that in some instances their friends have selected them for attorneys, because they have early exhibited a predilection for that speculative inquiry into the rights of property, which, by a more summary process, leads those who have no relatives to the gallows.

There are various ways by which these ad

venturers contrive to work out a livelihood in a respectable" manner. The secret of their art is to establish a familiar acquaintance with any humble class where the ceremony of special introduction is of small account, and in the words of the play, to "push it as far as it will go." There are many classes of this description daily to be found in our crowded metropolis; and all of them, either from their helpless ignorance, or dishonest pursuits, stand in daily need of "a professional adviser." Among the helpless, may be enumerated the thoughtless sailor just returned from sea-the inferior tradesman trembling on the verge of bankruptcy-the pigeon who, after plucking, hesitates between reform and desperation-the ruined spendthrift, but expectant heir—and yet more frequently the beggared gentleman that prefers enjoying his last hundred within the prison - walls, to dividing it among fifty creditors at the rate of sixpence in the pound. The dishonest class is, perhaps, less accessible, but far more profitable: it consists of cent per cent money-lenders and annuity-mongers; of brokers who will discount a six months' bill on the security of a watch or a well-secured post

obit; hell-proprietors and blacklegs of Regent street and St. James's; swindlers of the turf; smugglers by profession; "fences” of the lancs and alleys of the town, including of course ninetenths of the pawn-brokers and dealers in marine stores; and finally, all the thieves and pickpockets in the bills of mortality.

It may excite a little wonder among the uninitiated, how any attorney, however poor or adventurous, can find it worth while to seek for clients in the first of these wretched classes; and it is true enough that if on first acquaintance, he finds them in utter destitution, that acquaintance will be but a short one; but even among the poorest, there are often decent pickings to be found. A glass of grog with an open-hearted seaman in a public-house at Wapping will extract the whole history of his hardships, his hopes, and his disappointments for the last ten years of his life; his tales of sad mishaps will win the heart of his legal auditor, as surely as Desdemona's; sympathy begets confidence; and in less than an hour, the sympathizing friend receives instructions for a dozen actions against captain, mate, and owners, for sundry assaults, and false imprison