PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 57 



The original body of tliem has separated itself primarily into 

 two great divisions those directly concerned in carrying on 

 causes in law-courts and those indirectly concerned who prepare 

 the cases, collect evidence, summon witnesses, etc. Within the 

 first of these classes has arisen a partial distinction between those 

 whose business is mainly in courts and those whose business is 

 mainly in chambers ; and there are further segregations deter- 

 mined by the different courts in which the pleadings are carried 

 on. To which add the cross-division of this class into Queen's 

 Counsel or leaders, and ordinary barristers or juniors. Then in 

 the accessory class lawyers commonly so-called we have the 

 distinction, once well recognised, between attorneys and solic- 

 itors, arising from the separate divisions of jurisprudence with 

 which they were concerned, but which has now lapsed. And we 

 have various miscellaneous subdivisions partially established, as 

 of those mainly concerned with litigious matter and those mainly 

 concerned with non-litigious matter ; of those who transact busi- 

 ness directly and of those who act for others ; those who are par- 

 liamentary agents ; and so on. 



In their general character, if not in their details, the facts now 

 to be named will be anticipated by the reader. He will look for 

 illustrations of the integrating tendency, and he will not be mis- 

 taken in so doing. 



Very soon after the divergence of the legal class from the 

 clerical class had commenced, there arose some union among 

 members of the legal class. Thus we read that in France 

 " En 1274, le concile de Lyon, dans quelques dispositions relatives aux pro- 

 cureurs, les met a peu pres sur le meme pied que les avocats. C'est que des 

 lors les procureurs forment une corporation qui se gouverne sous Tautorite 

 des Juges d'Eglise." 



In England also it appears that the two processes began almost 

 simultaneously. When the deputies of the king in his judicial 

 capacity ceased to be wholly nomadic, and fixed courts of justice 

 were established at Westminster, the advocates, who were before 

 dispersed about the kingdom, began to aggregate in London, 

 where, as Stephen says, they " naturally fell into a kind of col- 

 legiate order." Hence resulted the Inns of Court, in which lec- 

 tures were read and eventually degrees given: the keeping of 

 terms being for a long time the only requirement, and the pass- 

 ing of an examination having but recently become a needful 

 qualification for a call to the bar. Within this aggregate, consti- 

 tuting the collegiate body, we have minor divisions the benchers 

 who are its governors, the barristers, and the students. This pro- 

 cess of incorporation began before the reign of Edward I ; and 

 while certain of the inns, devoted to that kind of law which has 



