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THE

BRITISH CICERO.

PART THE THIRD.

CHAPTER XIV.

FORENSIC ELOQUENCE.

THE warmest votaries of arts and sciences are content to trace their origin to men of enlightened minds, but all acknowledge that LAW is the emanation of heaven itself. -Many passages from the ancients could be brought in support of this assertion*; but they all fade away in the light of that of HOOKER. "No less," says that elegant writer," can be acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world, all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least

Jurisprudentia regina regnorum, domina populorum, mortalium arbitra, judex civium, divinarum humanarumque rerum scientia, forensis religionis sacerdos et antistita. Cassiod. 1. bar. 1. 1.

Lex est omnium divinarum rerum regina. Oportet autem eam etiam præstare et bonos et malos, et principem et ducem esse: et secundum hoc regula est justorum et injustorum, et corum, quæ natura civilia sunt, præceptrix quidem faciendorum, prohibitrix autem non faciendorum. Chrysippus de legibus.

Lex non est tantum donum dei, sed ipse Deus, qui donum dedit, qui paret legi, Deo paret et obtemperet. Arist. 3. Politicorum.

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as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power."

Sir JOHN DAVIES, to whom nature was by no means niggardly of her choicest gifts, seems to have been fully impressed with the truth of this sublime sentiment, when he says speaking of the professors of the law, "How often would truth be concealed and suppressed, how oft would fraud lie hid and undiscovered, how many times would wrong escape and pass unpunished, but for the wisdom and diligence of the professors of the law? Doth not this profession every day comfort such as are grieved, counsel such as are perplexed, relieve such as are circumvented, prevent the ruin of the improvident, save the innocent, support the impotent, take the prey out of the mouth of the oppressor, protect the orphan, the widow, and the stranger, in short, as Job speaketh, is she not legs to the lame, and eyes to be blind."

As long as virtue was reverenced in Greece or Rome, the profession of an advocate was looked up to as one of the most useful and honorable. One of the Roman Emperors bore high testimony to those who cultivated this science.* Thus as long as the Grecian and Roman ad

Advocationis officium, vitæ hominum necessarium, ut Imp. Anastasius dicebat, principum præmiis dignissimum est. Hoc et alii principes maximè commendarunt, atque inter eos Leo et Anthemius summis laudibus advocatos extulerunt: "Advocati" inquiunt, "qui dirimunt ambigua fata causarum, suæque deensionis viribus, in rebus sæpe publicis ac privatis lapsa erigunt, fatigata reparant: non minus provident humano generi, quam si præliis atque vulneribus patriam parentesque salvarent. Nec enim solos nostro imperio militare credimus eos, qui gladios, clypeis, et thoracibus nituntur; sed etiam advocatos militant enim causarum patroni, qui gloriosa vocis confisi munimine, laborantium spem, vitam, et posteros defendunt.

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1 L. 4. C. de Advocat. divers. Judic. 2L. 14. C. eod. S Novel. Theod. et Valent. 34.

Nec minus apud Romanos florente Republica advocati honoribus affecti sunt. Rutilii et Galbæ, et Scauri vita, moribus, frugalitate spectati, pervarias ævi sequentes ætates, Censorii et Consulares, et

vocates were actuated solely by a love of glory, they found a sufficient reward in defending the innocent or dragging the guilty into light; it should not then be matter of surprize if men of the first virtues and talents were emulous of distinguishing themselves at the bar, and consequently that they should be held in the highest estimation by their fellow-citizens; but as soon as vice and corruption pervaded the remotest corner of the empire, and extinguished the last spark of patriotism, then public virtue and the eloquence of the forum took their flight together. A portion of their cloaks, it is true, fell on a few, who would not barter the heavenly gifts for even wealth or titles-but all their efforts were ineffectual to recal the once cloudless glories of the bar, or to rekindle the sparks of emulation even in the breast of youth. The profession of the law in Rome did not sink gradually, but all at once, into such a state of venality and sordid selfishness, that Juvenal* in his seventh satire, speaking of the advo

triumphales fuere. Crassi et Antorii aliique innumeri post exercitus prosperrimé ductos, post victorias et trophaa civilibus stipendiorum officiis floruerunt, laureasque fori speciosis certaminibus occupantes, summis gloriæ honoribus fruebantur, Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 30, Quid M. Tullius? qui seipsum immensæ gloriæ patronum habet, tot monumentis honorum eloquentiæ probitatis relicti, cui uni Roma debet, quod Roma esset, impiissima conjuratione deleta ?

GUTHERIUS,

As Mr. CHARLES DRYDEN has very happily translated this passage of the indignant satyrist, we shall give it in his words:

"Nor can I wonder at such tricks as these
The purple garments raise the lawyer's fees,
And sell him dearer to the tool that buys;
High pomp and state are useful properties.
The luxury of Rome will know no end;
For still the less we have, the more we spend.
Trust cloquence, to shew our parts and breeding!
Not Tully now could get ten groats by pleading,

cates of his day, tells us in his keen invective, that they used to appear abroad in a stile of the first magnificence, with gems of inestimable value in their rings, as so many baits to allure the unthinking people into a belief that they acquired this immense wealth by their skill and adroitness in their profession.

Having at length offered up all those generous feelings on the altar of gain, a sudden night of intellectual darkness succeeded to those brighter days, when the innocent and oppressed found, not only an asylum, but a ready and able champion in every advocate.-This degeneracy spread with such rapidity, that Tacitus, speaking of the practice of the law in his days, says, " of all kinds of merchandize the faith of lawyers is the most venal." Their rapacity in time rose to such a height that it could not be restrained within any bounds-not even by the bitter reproaches of those whom they had conducted through the mazes of chicanery into ruin, or the sighs of the orphan whom they had stripped in the cradle, or the tears of the widows which they drank out of cups of gold. In order to set some bounds to their avarice, it was found absolutely necessary to call in the arm of power, and even to appeal to the thunders of the church-decrees after decrees were passed in Spain and Italy to limit the duration of suits, which they were on the eve of rendering immortal, and at the same time to regulate the quan

Unless the diamond glitter'd on his hand :
Wealth's all the rhet'ric clients understand,
Without large equipage, and loud expense,
The prince of orators would scarce speak sense.
Paulus, who with magnificence did plead,
Grew rich, whilst tatter'd Gallus begg'd his bread,
Who to poor Basilus his cause would trust,
Tho' ne'er so full of pity, ne'er so just?
His clients, unregarded, claim their due :
For eloquence in rags was never true.

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