OVERCROWDING THE PROFESSION.
In an article on " Lawyers," the "Scottish Law Review" indulges in a few remarks on the overcrowded condition of the profession, which apply with equal force to the state of legal affairs in our own country. The writer says:—
"The Board of Examiners hold quarterly diets in Edinburgh, in January, April, July, and October, and on an average they admit about thirty new practitioners at each diet. Unless the mortality is greater amongst lawyers than amongst their fellowcountrymen, it is plain as the proverbial pikestaff that Scotland is in danger of becoming lawyer-ridden if she does not do one of two things, — make fewer lawyers, or starve them out after she makes them. The humaner course is non-production; and if it is neglected the other course will be automatic, — with a variation on the popular examples of the principle. These move when the coin is put into the slot; the starving-out automaton will move from want of the coin. This will be a still higher development of the device hitherto thought to be very ingenious, but now seen to be perfectly simple. The prevention of overproduction lies in the hands of those who destine their young men to the law, and of lawyers them selves who, perhaps too freely, and without a due regard to consequences, apprentice as many well-educated youths as they can find work for in their offices. The lawyer's clerk who neither aims at being nor is qualified to be a lawyer, is becoming rarer and rarer, and as he was not a person whose lot was to be envied, this is not an unmixed evil. Still, as his place is being filled by young men with qualifications which beget and justify hopes and expectations that in the majority of cases are doomed to disappointment, it seems that we are having a change rather than making an improvement.
The results of the over-supply affect the profession by thinning down profits. The new practitioners always get some business, however little; and what they attract is taken from the established lawyers, though these may not be conscious of the encroachment. Carry this process far enough, and the law, though it will remain a learned profession, will cease to be lucrative; and when its unprofitableness becomes known it will no longer attract in excess, perhaps not even up to the measure, of its requirements.
- There's a good time coming yet,
- Wait a little longer.
This cheerful couplet may encourage the profession "as such," to use the terse if not very elegant phrase familiar in certain of our legal documents, but its assurance can bring little comfort to the individual kept from entering the ranks by reason of their overcrowded condition, or undergoing in the ranks the process of starving out. The oversupply affects the public in a way the public has no means of measuring. The lawyer in large and good (i. e. profitable) practice probably prevents as much litigation as he conducts. In other words, he serves his clients as often by keeping them out of litigation as by attending to their interests in actions at law. Now, without questioning the prudence or honesty of newly licensed and not too well employed practitioners, we may be allowed to state the fact that they are dependent in their earlier years chiefly on court work, which they cannot afford therefore to discourage, but must cultivate. The effect of this on the clients is so obvious that we do not need to set it forth. By way of illustration of the keenness with which employment in contentious business is sought, we may mention that (it is said) certain law agents write or call and offer their services to persons who sustain injury at their employment, — if there is an employer, and especially if the employer is possessed of means. It is no doubt proper that justice should be brought to the door of the people; but justice is one thing and litigation is another. Perhaps free trade in law, in the sense of abolishing all monopolies in its practice, is for the benefit of the people; and beyond all doubt the Acts of 1865 and 1873 have increased the number of practitioners enormously as well as raised the standard of qualification and made it uniform throughout the country. Curiously, how ever, any alteration on the table of fees has been the reverse of what the public would have welcomed, and, had it been consulted, would have demanded. In one view the increase in the quantity of the article ' lawyer ' might have had the ef-
