and docs not Mr. Slowcoach benefit by the frequent absence of Mr. Bouncer, his most dangerous adversan' on the circuit? The most important class of rules of eti quette are unquestionably those which reg ulate the relation between barristers and solicitors. They are more precise and bet ter defined than most of the rules we have been considering, and can be summed up under two heads: — 1. A barrister must not take upon himself any of the functions of a solicitor; he must not collect evidence, or even, except in pe culiar cases, see the witnesses; he must not serve process nor perform any of the prac tical business of a cause. 2. A barrister must be instructed by a solicitor, and receive no fees but from a solicitor's hand. The first of these rules secures to solic itors the exclusive enjoyment of their own department of practice. The second makes the intervention of a solicitor necessary in every case, even in those in which none of his peculiar functions have to be exercised. The first rule is not reciprocal. Barristers debar themselves, to an extent beyond what is required by law, from doing the work of solicitors. Solicitors constantly and habit ually usurp the functions of a barrister. The functions of a barrister and of a solicitor are separated by tolerably obvious lines of de marcation. The barrister's business consists of advocacy in courts of justice, advising on points of law, conveyancing in its widest sense, and pleading. The functions essen tial to a solicitor are: taking instructions from the lay client, collecting evidence, serving notices and process, managing all details of practice and everything connected with the conduct of legal business, copying documents and conveyances, and instructing the advocate. Of late years, these lines of demarcation have been broken in upon, en tirely to the advantage of solicitors, who have of the assumed proper functions to themselves of barristers, a larger in share the
conveyancing department it is well known how vast a proportion of country business is engrossed by solicitors at the present day. Again, in the department of advocacy, the peculiar and especial province of a barrister, solicitors are daily making fresh inroads. Formerly, solicitor-advocacy was almost confined to the small debts courts in bor oughs, and to the police-courts and petty sessions. But modern legislation has opened out a vast number of other avenues, which have been occupied and engrossed by solic itor-advocates, to the exclusion of the bar. By the existing etiquette of the legal profession, if a merchant or other person stands in need of advice on a difficult ques tion arising, or a legal document of any kind requiring the skill of counsel, is to be pre pared, or the cause of any party is to be advocated in court,, members of the bar can only give their services after the client has gone through the expensive ordeal of a number of preliminary attendances, notetaking, copying, etc., on the part of a solic itor, whose bill of costs for such services will generally be at least six times the hon orarium actually awarded to the barrister. The natural operation of such a system is to act as a prohibition in such cases against the employment of counsel at all, to induce the client to substitute for sound advice the im pressions of the solicitor who is first called in, and, too frequently, after a long course of litigation, to submit to an unsatisfactory and costly compromise rather than take the opinion of the court. The press have, on the part of the public, frequently and loudly complained of these evils. Barristers, who suffer so severely by them, have long felt that they ought to be abated, but they nevertheless continue in all their force and, whilst the tendency of modern legislation is to extend the field of professional practice of the solicitors of this country, and to de rogate from the exclusive privileges of the ¡ bar, English barristers, who have of late years increased in numbers to a formidable
