A Celebrated, Legal Corporation them at Paris, and that there they would remain. No amount of threatening or cajoling was able to move them, and the Court at last, in despair, brought the Parlament back to Paris. In 1771 again, the Parlament was not simply exiled but displaced, and the notorious improvised "Parlament Maupeau" put in their places. The lawyers at first re fused to plead before this illegal court. Forced to present themselves at the bar, they contrived one excuse after another to impede the progress of affairs, and did their work in so unwilling a manner that with time the recall of the old magistrates was seen to be a political as well as a judicial necessity. In 1579 an edict had been issued reg ulating the amount of fees which a law yer could charge. This touched the profession in a very sensitive spot, as the Barreau had always maintained that such limitations were inconsistent with their dignity. No attempt was made to enforce the edict until the Duke of Lux emburg, in 1602, brought complaint against a lawyer for excessive charges. His plea was granted, but the Barreau rose in united protest. Threatened with forfeiture of their privileges if they opposed a royal edict, the entire cor poration, to the number of 407, marched to the Palais, and surrendered their furred bonnets. The next day the courts were deserted for lack of pleaders, and the Parlament was in great perplexity. But ready-witted King Henry IV found a solution which spared the feelings of both sides. To save the dignity of the Parlament, he decreed that the edict should stand; to win the Barreau back to their places, he promised that it should never be enforced; and his prom ise has been faithfully kept. The legal profession was very much in evidence when the change of regime arrived. There were more than two
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hundred lawyers in the Constituent Assembly. One of the chief grievances against the old government derived from the secrecy of criminal trials. In 1789 all such hearings were made public; and this change was a very significant one for the lawyers, as well as for their clients. A pleader's audience, with the help of the newspapers, now became the whole country; and it suddenly became possible, as it has ever since remained, for a brilliant pleader to become a na tional celebrity in an hour. But almost contemporaneously with this great ad vantage came a heavy blow. On the 7th of September, 1790, the Assembly abolished the Parlaments, and with them disappeared the Barreau as a cor poration. Henceforth for twenty years there are only individual lawyers, fol lowing the guidance of their individual judgments. In 1790 the Order had 600 members; but on its abolition the legal profession fell into disrepute. A large number turned to other lines of activity; and though there are brilliant and noble names through the interregnum, not ably the heroes who defended the King and Queen at the peril of their lives and property, the usefulness of the Order was shown conclusively by the disorders that followed its abolition. In 1804 the law schools were reopened, and on the 14th of December, 1810, the Barreau was re-established, though with greatly decreased privileges. Na poleon, himself a legal mind, saw clearly enough the usefulness of a systematically organized bar, but not of an independent bar. The Restoration brought them increased liberty, and the Revolution of 1830, which was the work of lawyers, of course redounded still further to their advantage. Article 5 of the ordinance of August 27th, 1830, relating to the privileges and prerogatives of the Bar reau, makes provision for a thorough re
