Study of the Law [pp. 25-31]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
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dance matters involving their fortunes, their estates,
thlei recdit, or tleir reputation. Step by step h1e
blunders onl, in his short-sighted ignorance, believiing
each step correct, until at list his client is involved il
harassitg, expensive, ruionous litiga tion. It is of tIe
esselce of ignorance to believe itself wise, aid thle corceited and superficial smlatteier in ti-e la liardens
himiself in his unt. ilief, like Phta iaoh tlou, porte-nt
and liraeles contencl agauilst him; and hience the danger: for the experience tlhat a client gains by schooling
in litigation, is among, tlhe deatest he can purchase; the
light it gives is not a beacon to conduct his vessel to its
haveii, ]ut the burning of the fiagments of the wreck
by vwhich lie would fain comfort and chleer himnself in
his despair. If a lawyer of this cast is defeated, be
rails against judges and juries; they are all numsculls and blockheads-thle judge had some personal or
political bias against him, or the jury decided "clear
against the judge's charge"-the case miust be appealed
from, or there must be a new trial, or tlhe like; and thus
hle will run a cause through the whole scale of legal
tribunals, up and down the forensic gamut, until the
costs ottswell the subject matter of dispute-until
there is no longer a higher Court of Appeals, except
that beyond the grave, whose grand stiummoner is
Death, and where no advocates avail, save good deeds
done in the body, and tl-e mercy of the Great Judge
himself.
Again, souppose the case of an upright and conscientiouls advocate, hvlo, believing that a cause entrusted to
him is jtst, has devoted to it hours, days, iveeks of
preparation; hvlo has omittedc no care, no toil, no research; whlo has conducted his cause safely to his argument, thlrotugh all the snares and pitfalls of practice
and pleading; and then, after expendiug on it all the
stores of his knowledge, and allowving his feelings to be
eogrossed by it, is at last hopelessly defeated. Suppose
hlin to have been right, yet overcome. This may be.
Coults are fallible; rules of law imperfect. But has
he not been too sanguine-has he not given his atten tion to the details of his case, when the elucidation of
the principles involved required it; has he not over rated his capability for argunienit; was there no fault
in his logic; was hie prepared to render his case as
clear to others as it seemed to his oiiwn mind; has he
not, in his conviction of the eqluity of his case, foigot ten that in society, equity is fenced in by laivs, and
that in pursuit of the former wve must obey the direc tions of the latter? FProm these considerations, acd
such as tlhese, let the ingenuous student draw a profita ble lesson.
Again, hoiv much litigation arises firom the imper fect or erroneous wording of lasws, and howv essentially
any ioherent obstacle to the proper expression of the
oeniilng of the lv-giver but to carelessness or iginor-iiice in thlose iilo indite the laws. T-hey leave a loop
to hasg a doubt on, Use wivtords of disputable mieaning,
1 irecolacize to the exclusion of a general priiiciiple,
ad in their aixiety to enuimeralte every case, omitt
iantYy poilits lhilch witlhout the enunireriation vwould
have beei-i eoi ered by the rule. M,en not p.roperly edlucated and itnformed are often raised to the rank of
leoislators, acd of cotirse entrusted wvith the drafting of
laws; and the1c conIseqienice is, that loose verbose, ambi,uous, crude, hastily conceived statutes are enacted
and declared to )ic lawi. Such laws are but firebrands
in the communlitly, and the subtlety, the iligeniuity, the
acuteness, or the astuteness of lawyers, clients and
judges, leatd the meaning of the statute a dance of fifty
or a hundred years before it becomes settled and adjudged. And then such adjudications!-such violent
wanlderings of significations t-such felicitous conjectures of the meaning of the legislattire!-and in the
meanwhile such insecurity in conitracts! —such glorious
fields for litigation-suchl harvests of fees cand costs-all
wlhiclh would have been unnecessary or uncatlled for, if
the sapient Soloin who started the apple of discord, had
been a man fitted for his splere.*
uow let us sutpose that in every legislative body
there iwere a fewv oeon who had been prolperly nurtured
by the principles and educated in the bearing of lawsskilled in human nature and its practical workiligselevated to moral dignity and inspired by love of truth;
let us suppose that our lawyers also were such men,
and that our judges were the lilkec could any of the
results depicted in the few last paragraphs occur?
Would not the iufluence of such men be felt throughout all the ramifications of our laws; and would not
the pursuit of lawv he the most ennobling of human
sciences, if directed merely to the attainment ofjustice,
rather than to the slhrouding of guilt and wrong under
the dubious expressions of statutes, or counterpoising
the ilniquity of a client by the ingenuity of lhis advocate?
To give a legal university the importance and influence it ought to possess, many things are requisite.
Students ought not to be admitted into it until their
general education is completed. They should be sclioIias in general lknowledge ere they become students of
liv. Tlhecy should have attended to the requisites enlmeriated in the fornmer part of this essay-cand should
enter the univelrsity w-ith healthy constituLtioins, correct
habits, good niotals-tlthc moials of principtle and not
nmerely of circuitistances, ancd a ecsolutioni to master the
science, and for the term of their sudetlitship to plursue
it unwaveringly and uninterruptedly. Tllen if the
requisite for the guidance of the citizen, is clearness mea)s of instiruction be commensurate, an.d tle mie(e
and lucidness in the statute. 31unicipal lawv las been proper, the studenits of the lvaw oiught becone, vwlat too
well defined to be a rule of civil action prescribed by often they are not-fit and faitllful trustees (-f the ihits
the superior power in the state, and ilvhichi the citlzen of the community, composers of strife, eLicidat)ors caIlld
is boulnd to obey. Every good citizen acknoowledges guardians of right and equity, upright men, influential
the obligation, buLt in many cases, may be extremely citizens, polished and intellectual scholars.
puzzled to ascertain wlhat thle rule is, and be no better The ivciter's want of leisure prevents his enterirg
off than the subjects of that tyrant vlio caused his
edicts to lbe written in snmall charactecs, and posted on *The same remarks may be aptlied to luinskilftl draughtshigh pillars, so that they were illegible to all. This men atd conveyarcers, whose bunglin,g deeds ofconveyance of
diffictlty ini ascertaining the neaning of some statutes, setmtei ent, will,,, leases, anid written contracts, produce dispute
difficulty in ascertaining the meanig o f some satutes, anl stie as cecrtainly as in nature certain effects f(ollow the
does not arise from the imperfection of langulage, o0. causes which God has decreed they must follow.