defenceless a condition, the judges are bound to take care of his interests, and they shall admit the best plea in his behalf that any one present can suggest. These attorneys are now formed into a regular corps; they are admitted to the execution of their office by the superior courts of Westminster-hall; and are in all points officers of the respective courts to which they are admitted and, as they have many privileges on account of their attendance there, so they are peculiarly subject to the censure and animadversion of the judges. No man can practice as an attorney in any of those courts, but such as is admitted and sworn an attorney of that particular court: an attorney of the court of king's bench cannot practise in the court of common pleas; nor vice versa. To practise in the court of chancery it is also necessary to be admitted a solicitor therein: and by the statute 22 Geo. II. c. 46. no person shall act as an attorney at the court of quarter sessions, but such as has been regularly admitted in some superior court of record. So early as the statute 4 Hen. IV. c. 18. it was enacted, that attorneys should be examined by the judges, and none admitted but such as were virtuous, learned, and sworn to do their duty. And many subsequent statutes have laid them under farther regulations.

Of advocates, or (as we generally call them) counsel, there are two species or degrees; barristers, and serjeants. The former are admitted after a considerable period of study, or at least standing, in the inns of court; and are in our old books stiled

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, they might be called to the state and degree of serjeants, or servientes ad legem. I shall only observe, that serjeants at law are bound by a solemn oath to do their duty to their clients: and that by custom the judges of the courts of Westminster are always admitted into this venerable order, before they are advanced to the bench. 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. They must not be employed in any cause against the crown without special license; in which restriction, they agree with the advocates of the fisc: hut 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 subject. A custom has of late years prevailed of granting letters patent of precedence to such barristers, as the crown thinks proper to honour with that mark of distinction: whereby they are entitled to such rank and pre-audience as are assigned in their respective patents; sometimes next after the king's attorneygeneral, but usually next after his majesty's counsel then being. These (as well as the queen's attorney and solicitor general) rank promiscuously

with the king's counsel, and together with them sit within the bar of the respective courts: but receive no salaries, and are not sworn; and therefore are at liberty to be retained in causes against the crown. And all other serjeants and barristers indiscriminately (except in the court of common pleas, where only serjeants are admitted) may take upon them the protection and defence of any suitors, whether plaintiff or defendant; who are therefore called their clients, like the dependants upon the ancient Roman orators. These indeed practised gratis, for honour merely, or at most for the sake of gaining influence: and so likewise it is established with us, that a counsel can maintain no action for his fees; which are given, not as locatio vel conductio, but as quiddam honorarium ; not as a salary or hire, but as a mere gratuity, which a counsellor cannot demand without doing wrong to his reputation: as is also laid down with regard to advocates in the civil law, whose honorarium was directed by a decree of the senate not to exceed in any case ten thousand sesterces, or about L.80. of English money. And, in order to encourage due freedom of speech in the lawful defence of their clients, and at the same time to give a check to the unseemly licentiousness of prostitute and illiberal men (a few of whom may sometimes insinuate themselves even into the most honourable professions) it hath been holden that a counsel is not answerable for any matter by him spoken, relative to the cause in hand, and suggested in his client's instructions; although it should reflect

upon the reputation of another, and even prove absolutely groundless; but if he mentions an untruth of his own invention, or even upon instructions, if it be impertinent to the cause in hand, he is then liable to an action from the party injured. And counsel guilty of deceit or collusion are punishable by the statute Westm. 1. 3. Edw. I. c. 28. with imprisonment for a year and a day, and perpetual silence in the courts: a punishment still sometimes inflicted for gross misdemeanors in practice.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE PUBLIC COURTS OF COMMON LAW AND

EQUITY.

WE are next to consider the several species and distinctions of courts of justice, which are acknowledged and used in this kingdom. And these are either such as are of public and general jurisdiction throughout the whole realm; or such as are only of a private and special jurisdiction in some particular parts of it. Of the former there are four sorts; the universally established courts of common law and equity; the ecclesiastical courts; the courts military; and courts maritime. And, first, of such public courts as are courts of common law and equity.

I. The lowest, and at the same time the most

expeditious, court of justice known to the law of England, is the court of piepoudre, so called from the dusty feet of the suitors, and derived, according to some, from pied paldreaux (a pedlar in old French) and therefore signifying the court of such petty chapmen as resort to fairs or markets. It is a court of record, incident to every fair and market; of which the steward of him, who owns or has the toll of the market, is the judge; and its jurisdiction extends to administer justice for all commercial injuries done in that very fair or market, and not in any preceding one. So that the injury must be done, complained of, heard, and determined, within the compass of one and the same day, unless the fair continues longer. The court hath cognizance of all matters of contract that can possibly arise within the precinct of that fair or market; and the plaintiff must make oath that the cause of an action arose there. From this court a writ of error lies, in the nature of an appeal, to the courts at Westminster; which are now also bound by the statuté 19 Geo. III. c. 70. to issue writs of execution, in aid of its process, after judgment; where the person or effects of the defendant are not within the limits of this inferior jurisdiction.

II. The court-baron is a court incident to every manor in the kingdom, to be holden by the steward within the said manor. This court-baron is of two natures: the one is a customary court, of which we formerly spoke, appertaining entirely to the copyholders, in which their estates are