22 NOVEMBER 1851, Page 13

BARRISTERS AND ATTORNIES.

Liverpool, 17th November 1851. Sza—The article in your paper of the 15th on the "Present Plight and Prospects of Lawyers" is written in a greater spirit of fairness, and displays a deeper insight, than anything which I have hitherto read on the subject in other publications.

The public interest is the true point from which to start. Let every future student for either branch of practice (rather than of profession) undergo a severe novitiate, partly in the practical business of an attorney's office, and partly in a law institution, or reformed Inn of Court, before admission ; and having gained his certificate of qualification, let him then, or within some limited time, select his branch ot practice.

Whether he selects chamber practice or advocacy, let the client retain and employ either to conduct his business, leaving the advocate to arrange with the attorney, or the attorney with the advocate (as in France). The objection about lowering the status of the bar is all humbug. The attorney has even now no more disagreeable task than that of satisfying the often greedy demands of clerks of barristers,—in whose care the hamsters (from etiquette) leave their pecuniary consciences. On the other hand, the attorney in good practice is continually called upon to open both heart and purse for unlucky clients, and has his sympathies and better qualities roused and brought into action by the very contact which the barrister seems to shun.

As an attorney whose good fortune it was at once to step into a well-esta- blished business, I may add, that any rivalry with the bar for County Court practice is confined to our junior members, and to a class of practitioners who bring little credit upon us. Of course there are many exceptions. Let the bar cease to abuse us as a body, but join in a strong effort to exclude from both branches of the profession men whose want of education and qua- lification brings " pettifogging " consequences and public odium. AN ATTORNEY AT LAW.