704
THE GREEN BAG
version of the judges. No man can practice as an attorney in any of those courts, but such as is admitted and sworn an attorney of that particular court; an attorney of the Court of Kings Bench cannot practice in the Court of Common Pleas nor vice versa." To practice in the Court of Chancery it was necessary that he should be admitted therein and thenceforward termed a solici tor. No person could act as an attorney even at a Court of Quarter Sessions, but such as had been regularly admitted in some Superior Court of Record. Unable to appear forensically they were charged with the preparation of the cause for present ment, gradually in addition assuming many important functions, outside litigation, con nected with advice," administration and finance. At the time of the separation between Great Britain and the United States of America attorneys had very little corporate cohesion. Unlike the members of the Bar their employment by the client was one of contractual relation. Their remuneration was a matter of scale modified by agreement and subject to the supervision in case of excessive claiming of the proper officer of the Courts. Naturally their power to recover their remuneration at law brought with it a collateral liability to answer in dam ages for any negligence in the conduct of the business of their client. It will be obvious from the foregoing statement that at the time of the coming into existence of the United States of America the division between the two branches of the legal pro fession in England was as clearly marked as it well could be. Now during the hundred years which elapsed between the Independence of the United States and the Judicature Act of 1873, the changes in the system of the legal profession were very few. The formal changes in fact, up to the present day .which have taken place in regard to the barristerat-law, can be summed up as follows. (1) The abolition of the degree of Sergeant-atLaw, leaving all barristers of one designa
tion, with the exception of the select few appointed King's Counsel. (2) The aboli tion of a few special offices of an advocate, survivals of the day when the lines of divi sion between the Courts were sharp. For instance certain persons in the Court of Exchequer who had priorities in motions, called from their places in the Court the Tub-man and the Post-man, were no longer so distinguished. Certain advocates belong ing to special bars, such as a trusted member practising in the Mayor's Court in the City of London ceased to have the privilege of limitation and (3) The abolition of a certain grade called the special pleaders, whose designation conveys their functions. (4) The imposition of a more stringent system of examination administered by the Council of Legal Education. The formal changes which have taken place amongst solicitors may be summed up as follows: (1) The abolition of distinc tions as between solicitors and attorneys, according to the Court of practice;( 2) the imposition of a system of examination under the Incorporated Law Society and (3) in connection with that Society an increasing stringency of corporate discipline. So far as the relations between the two branches of the profession are concerned, and the relation of the members of each with the general public, practically no change has taken place. The social distance be tween the two branches has practicaly vanished, the privilege of the advocate being in effect balanced by the substantiality of the solicitor. The facilities of passing from one branch to the other have been greatly extended. Solicitors have been granted audience in many inferior courts of increas ing jurisdiction and therefore tend to invade the presence of the Bar by a system of peaceful penetration. In all the essential points, however, of the traditional distinc tion between the two branches no change is apparent and the etiquette of the Bar maintains itself in a wondrous way, bearing in mind the disintegrating influences of a
