apprentices, apprenticii ad legem, being looked upon as merely learners, and not qualified to execute the full office of an advocate till they were ſixteen years ſtanding; at which time, according to Forteſcue[1], they might be called to the ſtate and degree of ſerjeants, or ſervientes ad legem. How antient and honourable this ſtate and degree is, the form, ſplendor, and profits attending it, have been ſo fully diſplayed by many learned writers[2], that they need not be here enlarged on. I ſhall only obſerve, that ſerjeants at law are bound by a ſolemn oath[3] to do their duty to their clients: and that by cuſtom[4] the judges of the courts of Weſtminſter are always admitted into this venerable order, before they are advanced to the bench; the original of which was probably to qualify the puiſne barons of the exchequer to become juſtices of aſſiſe, according to the exigence of the ſtatute of 14 Edw. III. c. 16. From both theſe degrees ſome are uſually ſelected to be his majeſty's counſel learned in the law; the two principal of whom are called his attorney, and ſolicitor, general. The firſt king's counſel, under the degree of ſerjeant, was ſir Francis Bacon, who was made ſo honoris cauſa, without either patent or fee[5]; ſo that the firſt of the modern order (who are now the ſworn ſervants of the crown, with a ſtanding ſalary) ſeems to have been ſir Francis North, afterwards lord keeper of the great ſeal to king Charles II[6]. Theſe king's counſel anſwer in ſome meaſure to the advocates of the revenue, advocati fiſci, among the Romans. For they muſt not be employed in any cauſe againſt the crown without ſpecial licence; in which reſtriction they agree with the advocates of the fiſc[7]: but in the imperial law the prohibition was carried ſtill farther, and perhaps was more for the dignity of the ſovereign; for, excepting ſome peculiar cauſes, the fiſcal advocates were not permitted to be at all concerned in private ſuits between ſubject and
r de LL. c. 50. " s Forteſc. ibid. 10 Rep. pref. Dugdal. Orig. Jurid. To which may be added a tract by the late ſerjeant Wynne, printed in 1765, intitled, "obſervations touching the antiquity and dignity of the degree of ſerjeant at law." t 2 Inſt. 214. u Forteſc. c. 50. w See his letters. 256. x See his life by Ro^er North. 37. y Cad. z. o. I .
