In the performance of this task I have sought
to set up the high standard of acquirement and of
conduct that has made the Bar of England, for so
many centuries, the nursery of its noblest and truest

Digitized by Microsoft®



VI DEDICATION.
gentlemen — the school of its statesmen — and the
profession of those patriots to whose courage, inde-
pendence and honesty the liberties of the land have
been more than once indebted for their salvation.
I may say in perfect sincerity, and with no
purpose of flattery, that it was your Lordship who
suggested to me the subject of this treatise. I had
been accustomed to contemplate you at the Bar as
the ideal of an Advocate : afterwards, I looked up
to you upon the Bench with veneration, as the very
model of that most honourable and honoured of
dignitaries — the Lord Chief Justice of England.
Reflecting upon the qualities that had thus com-
manded my admiration, I sought the sources of
them, and what were the natural and acquired
qualifications for an accomplished Advocate. I could
find no book that supplied the information I was
seeking, and setting down some notes of what I had
observed, I was tempted to enlarge and systematize
them, and, ultimately, to design the formal treatise,
the first portion of which I now, with permission,
dedicate to your Lordship.
The time at which I do so is of such serious

Digitized by Microsoft®



DEDICATION. VU

interest to the Profession, for which, I believe, your
Lordship still feels the attachment of a life devoted
to its service, that I cannot refrain from inviting
yonr attention, in a few words, to its position and
prospects.
