NOTE C C. 



The duties of a lawyer, with respect to improvement of the law, may, pos 

 sibly, l&amp;gt;e thus stated, after the manner of Fuller : 



1. Having thared the fruitt he endeavours to strengthen the root and founda 

 tion o/ the science of line. 



2. He resists injudicious attempts to alter the law. 



Knowing that zeal is more frequent than wisdom, that the meanest trade is 

 not attempted without an apprenticeship, but every man thinks himself qualified 

 by intuition for the hardest of all trades, that of government, he is ever ready 

 to resist crude proposals for amendment. His maxim is, &quot; To innovate is not 

 to reform.&quot; 



Lord Bacon, zealous as he was for all improvement ; believing, as he did, in 

 the omnipotence of knowledge, that &quot; the spirit of man is as the lamp of God, 

 wherewith he searcheth the inwardness of all secrets ;&quot; and branding the idola 

 ters of old times as a scandal to the new says, &quot; It is good not to try experi 

 ments in st;\tes, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident : and well 

 to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not desire 

 of change that pretendeth the reformation : that novelty, though it be not 

 rejected, yet be always suspected : and, as the Scripture saith, that we make 

 a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the 

 straight and right way and so to walk in it. &quot; 



3. He does not resist improvement of the Law. 



Tenacity in retaining opinion, common to us all, is one of Lord Bacon s 

 Idols of the Tribe/ and attachment by professional men to professional know 

 ledge, is an idol of the den common to all professions. &quot; I hate the steam 

 boat,&quot; said an old Greenwich pensioner ; &quot; it is contrary to nature.&quot; Our advo 

 cate, therefore, is on his guard against this idolatry : he remembers that the 

 lawyers, and particularly St. Paul, were the most violent opposers of Chris 

 tianity, and that the civilians, upon being taunted by the common lawyers with 

 the cruelty of the rack, answered &quot; non ex saevitia sed ex bonitate talia faciunt 

 homines.&quot; Nor does he forget the lawyer in the Utopia, who, when the Arcb- 

 bishop of Canterbury, venerable for his age and learning, said, &quot; Upon these 

 reasons it is that 1 think putting thieves to death is not lawful,&quot; the counsellor 

 answered, &quot; That it could never take place in England without endangering 

 the whole nation. As he said this, he shook his head, made some grimaces, 

 and held his peace. 



4. lie is aware that lawiftrt are not the best improvers of law. 



During a debate in the House of Lords June 13, 18127, Lord Tenterden is 

 reported to have said that it was fortunate that the subject (the amendment of 

 the laws) had been taken up by a gentleman of an enlarged mind (Mr. Peel) 

 who had not been bred to the law, for those who were, were rendered dull by 

 habit, to many of its defects. And Lord Bacon says, * Qui de legibus scrip- 

 sciutit, omnes, vel tanquam philosophi, vel tanquam jurisconsulti, argumentum 

 illud tractaverunt. Atque philosophi proponunt multa, dictu pulchra, sed ab 

 usu remota. Jurisconsulti autem, suae quisque patrire legum, vel etiam Roma- 

 narum, aut Pontificiarurn, placitis obnoxii et addicti, judicio sincero non utun- 

 tur, sed tanquam e vinculis sermocinantur. Certe cognitio ista ad viros civiles 

 proprie special ; qui optime norunt, quid ferat societas humana, quid salus 

 populi, quid aiquitas naturalis, quid gentium mores, quid rerumpublicarum 

 formje diverse : ideoque possint de legibus, ex principiis et piasceptis, tarn 

 aequitatis naturalis, quam politices, decernere.&quot; 



5. He resists erroneous modes of altering bad law. 



Lawyers have a tendency, inslead of inquiring whether the principle of a law 

 is liiiht, to alter upon the assumption that the principle is well founded. 



In 1809 Sir Samuel Romilly proposed to aller the law in bankruptcy, by 

 which a creditor has an arbitrary power to withhold his consent to the allowance 

 of the cerlificate, by enabling Ihe debtor, after the lapse of two years, provided 

 there was a large majority in number and value of creditors who had signed the 

 certificate, to call upon his creditor to shew cause why the certificate should not 

 be allowed. Sir Samuel thought, that the principle of ihe law was erroneous ; 

 that it had a tendency to prevent a full disclosure of the estate, from the fear of 



