It is asserted, that one-fifth of the causes
that come before our courts are decided upon mere matters of form,
without the slightest reference to their merits. Every student for the
bar must now place himself under some special pleader, and go through
all the complicated drudgery of the office of one of these underlings,
before he can hope to fill a higher walk; general principles, and
enlarged notions of law and justice, are smothered in laborious and
absurd technicalities; the enervated mind becomes shackled, until the
natural vigour of the intellect is so reduced, as to make its bondage
cease to seem burdensome. Dick, with a confidence in his own powers, has
avoided this degrading preparation; it is only two months since he was
first called to the bar, and with a knowledge of his father's influence
and property added to his own talents, he hopes to make a ~357~~stand
in court, previous to his being transplanted to the Commons House of
Parliament.
A tolerable correct estimate may be formed of the popularity of the
judges, by observing the varied bearings of respect evinced towards them
upon their entrance into court. Mr. Justice Best came first, bending
nearly double under a painful infirmity, and was received by a cold and
ceremonious rising of the bar. To him succeeded his brother Holroyd,
a learned but not a very brilliant lawyer, and another partial
acknowledgment of the counsel was observable.
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