But Though They Have Kept Our Laws, And Still Respect
Our Reading Of Those Laws, They Have Greatly Altered And Simplified
Our Practice.
Whether a double set of courts of law and equity are
or are not expedient, either in the one country or in the other, I
do not pretend to know.
It is, however, the fact that there is no
such division in the States.
Moreover, there is no division in the legal profession. With us we
have barristers and attorneys. In the States the same man is both
barrister and attorney; and - which is perhaps in effect more
startling - every lawyer is presumed to undertake law cases of every
description. The same man makes your will, sells your property,
brings an action for you of trespass against your neighbor, defends
you when you are accused of murder, recovers for you two and
sixpence, and pleads for you in an argument of three days' length
when you claim to be the sole heir to your grandfather's enormous
property. I need not describe how terribly distinct with us is the
difference between an attorney and a barrister, or how much farther
than poles asunder is the future Lord Chancellor, pleading before
the Lords Justices at Lincoln's Inn, from the gentleman who, at the
Old Bailey, is endeavoring to secure the personal liberty of the
ruffian who, a week or two since, walked off with all your silver
spoons. In the States no such differences are known. A lawyer
there is a lawyer, and is supposed to do for any client any work
that a lawyer may be called on to perform.
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