silent magistrate.1 So a statute with us would remain silent, were it not for the courts and for the lawyers who start them going, and see that they do their work despite all impediments.

When Peter the Great made his round of personal observation to ascertain what modern government seemed to be and could accomplish, nothing surprised him more than the numbers and the privileges of the English bar. There were, he told one of his informants, only two lawyers in all Russia, and he proposed to hang them on his return. From his standpoint, that was no bad policy. The lawyer is naturally unfriendly to absolute power. His whole work is conditioned on the existence of a government of laws, rather than of men.

Law is the product and rule of civilization. It may, so far as put in written form, take the shape of an imperial decree, revocable at the imperial will. Where it does, the lawyer's place is a subordinate one. But it is not without large importance there. The decree stands till it is revoked, and can hardly fail, whatever it is, to give occasion for differences of opinion as to its interpretation and effect.

No such form of words will mean exactly the same thing to every man whom it concerns. No kind of written document can. No man can state a proposition which will convey precisely the same impression to every mind. Each man has his own standpoint in the uni

1 Cicero, De Legibus, Lib. III, Cap. 2. Vereque dici, magistratum legem esse loquentem; legem autem, mutum magistratum.

verse, and whatever he sees or hears he measures from that. The interpretation of laws is the most important branch of hermeneutics. It calls for the exercise of careful discrimination, and high analytic power. It follows processes of logic. It requires large historical knowledge. It makes much of reasoning by analogy. It is not only one particular decree or legislative act which must be studied. That decree or statute has relations necessarily to the customary rules of social order, which previously were recognized. What those rules were must be known, before it can be determined whether the new act of the lawgiver has affected their operation, and what was the real mischief that this act was designed to remedy. Non ex regula jus sumatur, sed ex jure quod est regula fit.

In civilized countries differences of opinion as to the interpretation and character of laws are commonly decided by the courts. Their advice is seldom asked in advance. It is seldom given in the shape of a public declaration, addressed to any of the political departments or officials. It is made in the course of a law suit between private individuals or between the government and a private individual whom the government is prosecuting. It is not made till all the parties to the action have had a fair opportunity to be heard, on every question involved.

To give such an opportunity the employment of lawyers is almost necessary. A scientific inquiry can only be advantageously pursued by a scientist. The

lawyer, if competent for his office, is a scientist in his work of interpreting and applying the laws.

In free governments, therefore, he is commonly invested with what may fairly be called a public office by virtue of his profession. It entitles him to be heard in behalf of others in the courts before which he practices. No one else can be heard except the parties themselves; and the parties seldom venture to avail themselves of this right. One in that position cannot take in the view-point of the other party, or even of the court and, where he can, he has not had the training which enables him to appreciate what conclusions it involves. The common experience of mankind is expressed by the proverb that he who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client.

The lawyer in court is always speaking for others, less able than he to explain their rights. He is, indeed, a sworn altruist. His oath of office binds him to render his best services, if assigned to that duty by the court, as a public defender of prisoners in the dock, who are without means to employ counsel. He has a knightly profession. Whether paid or unpaid for what he does, he is every day fighting other people's battles.

men

The Romans did not hesitate to put forward this fighting quality of the lawyer this fighting for other as his great and true title to public regard. As they state it in their Code: 1 "Advocates who decide the doubtful fates of causes and by the strength of their 1 Code of Justinian, Lib. II, Tit. 7.

V

defense often set up again that which had fallen, and restore that which was weakened, whether in public or in private concerns, protect mankind not less than if they saved country and home by battle and by wounds. For in our warlike empire we confide not in those alone who contend with swords, shields and breastplates, but in advocates also, for those who manage others' causes fight as, confident in the strength of glorious eloquence, they defend the hope and life and children of those in peril."

A Spanish proverb says that he who has heard only one side of a cause, has heard nothing. The existence of lawyers makes it possible and usual for each side to be properly presented before the courts. It is for this reason that the legal profession is singled out as the only private one whose members are ipso facto sharers in public office.

Nor are a lawyer's opportunities for daily public service at all to be measured by what he does or says in the trial of contested causes. Many causes are never contested, and this because a lawyer advised that they should not or could not be. A lawyer is largely a peacemaker. Out of every dozen claims, that might be put in suit, which are presented to him for counsel, he will not be apt to advise suing on more than one or two. Lincoln shone as an advocate, but his advice to lawyers was to keep their clients out of court when they could. "Discourage litigation," he said. "Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser

-in fees, expenses, and waste of time.

maker the lawyer has becoming a good man.

As a peace

a superior opportunity of There will always be enough

business. Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this." 1

A lawyer has a large opportunity to shape the course of others in the conduct of life, and, more than this, to help in shaping that of the whole community.

The positions most strong men love best are those of command; next, those of influence. They may love them because they minister to ambition, but oftener it is from a better motive, and they are sought mainly because of the opportunity they give to do good to other men and to the State.

A lawyer never commands. He always influences. But he is also of a class from which the commanders of society in the United States are always selected. The judges are our real rulers: and only lawyers can aspire to the bench. A seat there often comes to lawyers who have earned the favorable regard of the bar, and to few who have not. A man's ability in any art is best understood by his fellow craftsmen in the same art.

To go from the bar to the bench brings a change of attitude towards the law which most men find agreeable. They have been accustomed to try to bring causes within it; it is now for them to say what its doctrines and limits are, and how they shall be applied. Lord Tenterden, soon after he was appointed a Judge 1 Hill, Lincoln the Lawyer, p. 102.