THE

SOLICITORS' JOURNAL

AND

REPORTER

VOLUME I. - 1857.

JANUARY 3 TO NOVEMBER 7

LONDON:

PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF

THE LAW NEWSPAPER COMPANY LIMITED,

59, CAREY STREET, LINCOLN'S INN.

1857.

London:

PRINTED BY T. F. A. DAY,

13, CAREY STREET,

LINCOLN'S INN.

JAN. 3, 1857. THE SOLICITORS' JOURNAL & REPORTER. 1

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Notwithstanding the size of our paper, the pressure upon our ? has been so great that many important matters have been omitted.

? next we hope to give—

List of Plans and of Private Bills deposited in the Private Bill Office of the House of Commons.

Review of Proceedings of the Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association at Liverpool, October, 1856.

new editions of County Court Law Treatises embodying the recent rules have not yet appeared, so that we can give no opinion at present of their various merits.

SUBSCRIBERS.—Subscribers desiring to receive their copies post-? are requested to forward the amount of their subscription £2 8s. for the first year, including the WEEKLY REPORTER from the 9th November last) by Post-office Order or otherwise, payable to the Secretary of the Company, MR. WILLIAM SHAEN.

NON-SUBSCRIBERS.—Gentlemen who desire to be supplied with the future numbers of this paper are requested to send their orders to the Office of the Company, 13, Carey-street, Lincoln's Inn, London, W. C., not later than Thursday next, the 8th inst.

THE SOLICITORS' JOURNAL.

LONDON, JANUARY 3, 1857.

THE day has come for us to present ourselves before the world, and we shall be judged henceforward by our deeds and not, as we have been, by our professions. The reality of the alleged want of a journal which shall distinctively represent the solicitors will best be proved by the success of our exertions to supply it. We declare emphatically that this our Journal owes its origin to no personal animosity, nor selfish pursuit of peculiar interests, but to the conviction long entertained by solicitors in town and country, that their branch of the legal profession ought to be represented by a newspaper established and conducted by themselves, reflecting their opinions, watching over their interests and reputation, and urging upon the legislature and the nation their just and reasonable demands. The promoters of this enterprise challenge no comparison and seek no rivalry with any other journal. They will thankfully acknowledge and candidly applaud whatever may be done by the press to improve the character, to exert the rights, and to enhance the respectability of the solicitors. All they ask for themselves is, that they may be allowed as freely as other labourers to enter upon a field of duty which they believe to be peculiarly their own. A fair and full trial is all they ask; and if, after the lapse of no long time, it be not ? that they are doing what has not been done so well before, they will be content to own that their intention has been rash, their measures ill-advised, and their labour bestowed in vain.

THE SOLICITORS' JOURNAL, which is born this day in London, owes the seeds of its existence to two great provincial towns. At the meeting of the Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association, held at Birmingham in October, 1855, the project of such a newspaper was much discussed and favourably received, and at the meeting of the same body, held at Liverpool in October last, it was felt that under the new law of limited liability the chief difficulties of the undertaking had disappeared. It was determined, therefore, that there should be no more delay; and wishes long felt and frequently expressed by leading members of the profession in town and country, were thereupon put into practical effect. A memorandum of association was signed at Liverpool by five provincial and two metropolitan solicitors. This paper afterwards, for a purely technical reason, was set aside, and another was substituted, which had been prepared in London, and signed by the London solicitors whose names could be most readily obtained. The majority of the declared originators of this journal were therefore, in fact, country solicitors, and the majority of the shareholders in the Company are also country solicitors, as may be seen by the prospectus which we this day publish. The same prospectus will show to all who understand the subject, that the London provisional directors and shareholders belong to every class of business. All interests, both of town and country, are fairly represented in the Company, and will, we hope, be equally regarded and maintained in the columns of our Journal. The general good of the profession is the object for which we now see the light, and when we forget, or prove unfaithful, to our duty, we shall deserve to forfeit the life we have abused.

It will be the duty of this Journal to secure for the solicitor, so far as its power shall extend, the recognition of his fair rights, and proper social character and position. But there is nothing of an aggressive nature in the functions which we thus assume. The claims of the profession which we undertake to advocate, will, as we believe, be conceded by all impartial minds as soon as they are correctly understood. Legal reforms have already brought about great changes in legal practice, and changes far more sweeping are possible at no distant day. The solicitor asks that his remuneration should be equitably adapted to the labour and responsibility that falls on him under the altered system. He is as ready to admit, as his most ignorant assailants are to assert, that, at present, he is sometimes paid for work which he does not perform. Such payment he is willing and anxious to relinquish, and he only asks in return that he may be fairly paid for the work which he actually does. Again, the solicitor complains that, however fit he may be for certain offices, he is excluded from them, while, at the same time, a merely nominal qualification may obtain those offices for the barrister. Now, if a certain duty would be best discharged by a skilful and experienced solicitor, we say that such a person should be sought to fill it. If, again, the learning and practice of a barrister be thought to qualify him best for particular functions, we say that that barrister should be selected to undertake them. All we contend for is, that one man is not to be excluded simply because he is a solicitor, nor is another man to be chosen simply because he is member of the bar. Let the highest qualifications always decide between rival claimants and classes of claimants. In this way the public advantage will be best secured, and professional jealousies will be assuaged by reference to a rule, that will solve every controversy and promote alike the interests of every class.

The social estimation of solicitors must depend upon their own efforts after self-improvement, and upon the growth in the public mind of a conviction that the body of the profession is as upright and public spirited as the individual members of it are generally known to be by those who have the means of judging of them. In advancement of this object, it will be our duty to point out, from time to time, what has been done and is now doing by solicitors to amend our laws and the procedure of our courts. We shall show that while solicitors have opposed crude projects of law reform, their resistance has been grounded on true principles and not upon a short-sighted estimate of their own interests, as has been sometimes imputed to them. And we shall also show, that where judicious changes in the law have been at length effected, the movement has either been originated or materially assisted by that practical knowledge of the working of legal machinery which is the peculiar province of the solicitor. We shall urge upon parents who destine their children for solicitors, to take care that they prepare them for learning aright their professional duties by a good and complete preliminary education before clerkship. The solicitor often becomes in the course of business the confidential friend of men of the highest mental culture and refinement, and therefore he should be fitted by education to be a worthy depository of their confidence. And if the solicitor hopes to claim successfully a share of the higher honours and rewards that await the lawyer, he must ground his claim upon his professional attainments, and these upon a previous training of longer duration and wider scope than he has hitherto, in general, received.

That which is for the general good is best for individuals and classes, and the interest of the client is the same thing as the interest of the lawyer of every grade. By this principle we propose to try all questions, and, we believe that, if fairly applied, it will suffice for their solution. And if, in time, we can convince the public that this is the rule which guides our efforts, we shall be sure of obtaining for the body we undertake to represent, a fair and impartial investigation of whatever claims it may have to urge. It must always be remembered that the duty of this Journal is not only to convince solicitors that their demands are just, but to convince the world at large, and this we can only hope to do by establishing a reputation for full and free inquiry, for fair and unbiassed judgment, and frank uncompromising declaration of the conclusions at which we have arrived. And, lastly, let us repeat as distinctly as we can, that this Journal will study to represent solicitors generally, whether in town or country, and it will look to the profession everywhere for aid as extensive as the objects it proposes to attain. We confidently appeal to all provincial law societies, and to all solicitors individually, for that sympathy and co-operation with our Journal which will be the surest guarantee for its success.