accustomed to examine the land records and certify to title, and a substantial part of their income came from this source. Since that time, incorporated title and title insurance companies have come, in the larger cities, to do most of this work, and the amount of it has been also lessened by legislative changes.

There are two modes of recording the state of land titles. One is to record at length the documents on which they rest. The other is to record simply the legal effects of such documents. The former was originally the universal American method. The latter (the Torrens plan) has now, in some States, partly supplanted it, and in so doing has transferred there to public officials a business previously belonging to lawyers. The lawyer who certified to the goodness of a title formerly guaranteed to his employer only that he had used reasonable care to ascertain all the facts appearing on record, and proper professional skill in applying the law to them. The title guarantee company pledges itself to indemnify those who take a title which it approves, against any consequent loss, or perhaps against any within certain expressed limitations. The corporation hires title examiners, who are usually lawyers, but each receives only a meager salary, the real profits going to their employer.

In the thinly settled parts of the country the lawyer still retains most of this kind of business, but even there, on a transfer of a particularly valuable piece of real estate, resort is often had to a title company in some neighboring city.

The effect of one modern invention has been to increase largely every lawyer's earning capacity. The telephone practically doubles his working time. He can now safely make engagements on the same day in distant places and keep himself informed of the probability of reaching a case for trial without going to the court house until told, from the clerk's office, that it is necessary.

Business is secured in many callings by advertising in newspapers and magazines. Special qualifications for doing it well may be set out at length. This, like any other form of soliciting employment, is denied to lawyers.1 Each of them must win a place on his merits, as other people view them, not as he may describe them, himself. This may seem a hard rule to lay down for a man entering the bar, and whose legal ability has therefore never been tested. He must wait for his opportunity, and make the most of it when it comes. To a lawyer who has once acquired a fair practice, his reputation is his standing advertisement. In the United States and Canada it is generally thought not improper for a lawyer to advertise that he pursues a particular line of business, such as suits on patents, or that his office is at a place named. The best lawyers, however, seldom do even this. They do not need the business. which it would bring. For a lawyer to advertise implies that he does need it.2

1 Code of Legal Ethics. American Bar Association Reports, Vol. XXXIV, p. 1167.

2 See Carter, The Ethics of the Legal Profession, Chicago, 1915, p. 59.

5. The Spirit of Brotherhood in the Bar

The bar always a public fraternity. No different schools, in law. Associations within the bar. Use of the term "Brother " in referring to a brother lawyer.

One of the dearest relationships in life is that of brethren. That of members of a great fraternity approaches it in force and meaning. Whoever enters the bar becomes part of a recognized brotherhood. It is one constituted by authority of the State for public purposes and composed of men selected for their proficiency in the science which supports the State, that is, the Law. Most fraternities are private affairs, formed to serve the pleasures or the interests of their members. That of the bar is held together by a public bond and for the public good. As such it has been given a monopoly of the business of addressing courts. It is an undivided monopoly. There are different sects in theology; different schools in medicine; absolute unity in law. Those who practice it are brothers, standing on equal ground. They constitute a body of believers in the same thing. The law which they profess is always in principle one and the same. It stands for justice and it generally is justice.

The bar carries to all its members the obligation of fraternity. It is entitled to their loyal support, each acting for the benefit of all, and never forgetting what is due to the traditional esprit du corps.

Alexander Hamilton once refused a retainer in an important case, because it was offered by a man who had

untain

made unfair criticisms of the legal profession, in a letter

to a third person. This letter, he wrote, " contains a general and, of course, an unjustifiable reflection on the profession to which I belong, and of a nature to put it out of my power to render you any service in the line. of that profession." 1

It is in this spirit that lawyers should be jealous of the honor of the brotherhood to which they belong. They should, and in some measure they all must find in it an inspiration to the formation of their ideals of law and of the justice on which law rests, and for securing which it exists.

They find in the bar, also, a warning that they must demean themselves worthily in all that relates to it, and that there is power in courts to see that this is done.

They find in it a friendly tribunal to judge their own qualifications for the profession. A lawyer who has won the good opinion of the bar is reasonably certain of

success.

In the lighter incidents of daily life, the bar offers opportunities which often lead to intimate and life-long friendships. Particularly is this true in country districts where, when courts are in session, the lawyers from the whole country are thrown closely together. Membership in bar associations, local, State, and national, serves a similar purpose. The American Bar Association, which numbers about ten thousand, coming from every State and Territory, has offered, since 1878, a common meeting place, and maintains a healthy and

1 A. M. Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton, Vol. II, p. 169.

unifying influence over all the local and State associa

tions.

It was for centuries the practice of the English judges to address sergeants-at-law as "Brother" so and so. This usage was extended in the older American colonies to include all barristers, and when that title was dropped in the United States,1 all counselors at law. Both in and out of court the judges frequently address each other as Brothers, and members of the bar, in conversing with or referring to each other, often use the same appellation. In the case of counsel appearing before the Supreme Court of the United States, those who come from States where this practice obtains, are accustomed to follow it there.

6. The Variety of Legal Business

The different classes of lawyers in the United States. Court and office lawyers. Lawyers as trustees. Probate and bankruptcy practice. Practice before public boards or commissions, and in the collection of claims against Governments. New statutes continually raise new questions. The world-war has raised many. International Arbitration. Trial lawyers not necessarily the highest type of lawyers. The lawyer's choice of his class. His change of choice.

In an address given in 1916 to the Seniors in Yale College, President Hadley said:

66

Speaking broadly, men may be divided into three types or temperaments: the scientific type, consisting of men whose power lies in observing and arranging and putting facts in order; the literary type, whose interest lies in

1 In Massachusetts the title of barrister was retained until 1806. Great American Lawyers, Vol. II, p. 79.