HORTENSIUS AN HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE OFFICE AND DUTIES OF AN ADVOCATE BY WILLIAM FORSYTH, LL.D. Q.C. M.P. AUTHOR OF LIFE OF CICERO,' 'NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA AND SIR HUDSON LOWE,' AND LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE DEDICATION OF FIRST EDITION. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS LORD DENMAN, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND, THIS ATTEMPT TO DELINEATE SOME OF THE FEATURES OF A PROFESSION OF WHICH HE HAS LONG BEEN, BOTH AS AN ADVOCATE AND A JUDGE, SO DISTINGUISHED AN ORNAMENT, IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. THE object of the following pages is to present in a popular form an historical sketch of the office and functions of an Advocate. It occurred to me that the subject afforded materials for a work which would not be devoid of interest, and perhaps instruction, if, without going into minute and tedious detail, some of the more salient points were selected in the history of that profession. I therefore devoted to the task the unemployed hours of the legal vacation, confining my attention principally to the countries of Greece and Rome, France and England, where oratory, with which advocacy is so closely allied that in the Latin language they are almost synonymous terms, has been cultivated with the greatest reputation and success. The name of Hortensius was chosen as the title of the volume, because of all the Advocates of antiquity he seems to have given himself up most exclusively to that profession, and the Roman Forum could boast of only one more brilliant name. "Ardebat autem," says Cicero of him, cupiditate sic, ut in nullo unquam flagrantius studium viderim; nullum enim patiebatur esse diem, quin aut in foro diceret, aut meditaretur extra forum.” In the course of the work, translations, both in prose |