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Commentaries on the Laws of England in the order and compiled from the Text of Blackstone, and embracing the New Statutes and Alterations to the Present Time. By John Bethune Bayly, of the Middle Temple, Esq. Royal 8vo. price 28s. boards.

A Selection of Leading Cases on various branches of the Law; with Notes. Vol. II. Part II. By John Wm. Smith, Esq. of the Inner Temple, Barrister at price 10s. boards.

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The Act for the Abolition of Arrest on Mesne Process in Civil Actions, and also the Acts relating to or amending the same, together with the Rules, Orders and Cases as promulgated and decided in all the Courts; with an Appendix of Forms. By Edward Ings, Esq. of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. 12mo. price 8s. boards.

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A Selection of Precedents, from Modern Manuscript Collections, and Drafts of actual Practice; forming a System of Conveyancing; with Dissertations and Practical Notes. By Thomas Jarman, Esq. of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law. The Third Edition. By George Sweet, Esq. of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. Vol. IV. in royal 8vo. price 17. 10s. boards.

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THE LAW MAGAZINE.

ART. I.-REMINISCENCES OF THE FRENCH BAR.

Souvenirs de M. Berryer, Doyen des Avocats de Paris, de 1774 à 1838. Paris. 1839. '.

THIS is one of the most curious and amusing publications we ever remember to have read. The author, M. Berryer, the father of the celebrated orator of that name, entered the profession of the law in 1774, and is still actively engaged in it. He was the first advocate who condescended to plead before the revolutionary tribunals, and he was concerned more or less in almost all the causes of consequence which came before them. His reminiscences consequently comprise the ancient regime, the transition period, and the established order of things; and they are narrated fully and frankly, in clear, easy, familiar language, with some of the caution taught by experience, but with none of the garrulity of age.

They have, moreover, a merit which few French cotemporary memoirs possess, that of authenticity. M. Berryer is not, like Madame de Crequy, a supposititious personage, but may be seen and consulted any morning at his chambers, Rue Louis le Grand, by any one who may be sceptical as to his identity.

He begins by describing the courts of law as they existed when he first entered on his noviciate. At the head stood the parliament of Paris, an august and erudite body, justly venerated for the fearlessness with which on many trying occasions they had refused to register the arbitrary edicts of the crown. They were divided into chambers, and held their sittings in the Palais de Justice, a building which rivals Westminster Hall in the richness and variety of its associations, though far inferior in architectural magnificence. Around them were clustered a number of inferior jurisdictions, closely resembling those of which the ancient judicial system of England, and,

indeed, of every country with feudal institutions, was made up. There existed provincial parliaments and other local tribunals, it is true; for the administration of justice in France was never centralized; but what with appellate and exceptional jurisdiction, the concourse of suitors to the capital was immense. A countryman inquired of a lawyer whom he saw about to ascend the grand staircase of the Palace of Justice with his bag of papers, what that great building was for. He was told it was a mill. "So I see now," was the reply, " and I might have guessed as much from the asses loaded with bags."

It is a remarkable circumstance that a great majority of the public buildings of London are of comparatively recent date, those which they replaced having been destroyed by fire. The same fate has befallen the public buildings of Paris; and M. Berryer states that the immense vaulted galleries which, from the shops established in them, had procured the temple of justice the name of the Palais Marchand, were swept away about 1774, by a conflagration not less violent than that which the year before had consumed the Hotel Dieu.

He also duly commemorates the Grand Châtelet, the seat of sundry metropolitan jurisdictions, and relates some curious circumstances regarding the ancient debtors' prisons, the Fortl'Evêque, and the Conciergerie.

In the former was confined no less a person than Maximilian, the reigning Duke of Deux-Ponts, afterwards king of Bavaria. In the latter, M. Berryer tells us, a rich English lord, Lord Mazareen, was detained during many years for a large sum due on bills of exchange, which, though with ample means, he obstinately refused to pay on the ground of his having been cheated out of them at play. He lived at the rate of more than a hundred thousand francs a year, kept open table, had his servants and carriages, and paid for boxes at all the theatres for his mistresses.

A second edition of Lord Mazareen appeared more recently in the person of an American, Mr. Swan, who was confined twenty-two years in Saint Pelagie. This gentleman was in the habit of publishing memorials against his detaining creditors, which he invariably commenced by stating that he possessed more than five millions (francs) in the United States;

that it would be easy for him to pay twenty times the amount of the claim, but that it was unjust and his conscience did not permit him to purchase his liberty by a dastardly sacrifice. Swan was nearly fifty-two years of age when he was arrested: he was seventy-four at the period of his release, which he owed to the revolution of July. He died two months afterwards.

The number of procureurs attached to the parliament of Paris at this time (1774) was about four hundred, all enjoying a competence, and about a tenth making large fortunes. There were about six hundred advocates upon the roll; one half of whom, according to M. Berryer's calculation, had caused themselves to be inscribed for the sake of the rank.

Madame de Crequy (or rather the person who usurps her name) states that, to the best of her information, there was only a single instance of a member of the noblesse de l'épée becoming a member of the noblesse de la robe, in other words, accepting an appointment in the magistracy; but this did not prevent the judicial body from holding a high place in general opinion, or occasionally demeaning themselves with superciliousness towards the bar. Their places were, in many instances, hereditary, and often objects of sale, yet the requisite qualifications were hardly ever wanting, and no body of men was more distinguished by learning and integrity.

The mode of becoming an advocate, or (as we should say) being called to the bar, was much the same as at present: the candidate was to attend certain lectures or courses, undergo certain examinations, and come provided with certain certificates of fitness; but the line of demarcation was not strictly drawn, and M. Berryer himself commenced his studies in the office of a procureur-a close approximation to an attorney, so far as suits or actions are concerned. An office of this kind was, in M. Berryer's opinion, a much fitter school than the chambers of an advocate in which the rising generation receive their training, because it brought the student acquainted with a greater number of practical details. The forms were then embarrassing and multiplied; to complicate them by incidents was an art in which a Parisian practitioner made it his ambition to excel. Many therefore were eternal; they passed (like an English Chancery suit) from the procureur who had begun

them to his successor, often even to several generations of successors, like a disposable patrimony; these formed the fonds d'étude, and on the sale of the business were duly considered in the price.

M. Berryer soon acquired the full confidence of his superior by his diligence, and attributes to his early habits of industry the taste for a sedentary life and the power of unremitting application which he retains still. An active clerk in these days, he says, began work at six, paused for a few minutes to snatch a hasty breakfast at nine, was allowed an hour for dinner (from two to three), and returned to his office till nine in the evening. All the theatres closed between nine and ten, and no sort of evening amusement was open to him.

M. Berryer's labours in this walk were of short duration, for in 1778 he was inscribed on the roll of advocates, though not permitted to take the oath till 1780, in consequence of a rule (similar to one established by the English laws of court) declaring a clerkship incompatible with the higher species of noviciate. The students, however, were permitted to eke out their incomes by drawing pleadings and other documents, it being simply necessary to procure the signature of a regular advocate to authenticate them; and here again a strong resemblance to the ancient state of the profession in this country is discernible; for our special pleaders originally consisted exclusively of students, and their growth into a distinct profession is a palpable incroachment. M. Berryer availed himself of this privilege and avows that he could not otherwise have maintained himself in the style required by the rules of the order and the fashion of the day. The student (stagiaire) could not even appear in the streets without the prescribed dress-black dress-coat, long hair in ties, and a cocked hat under the left arm; and we are by no means sure that M. Berryer is in error when he thinks that this costume acted as a salutary check. A high sense of honour was sedulously inculcated, and their emulation was excited by anecdotes of the advocates who had established a traditional reputation for talent, independence, and integrity. The following were favourites :

An advocate, finding himself during the vacation near the country house of a president, deemed it his duty to pay his