one condition which should be always most carefully observed; and that is, to not change a general law which affects society in all its relations, because of a hardship complained of by its operation in individual or isolated cases. To accommodate the law which has become recognized as a rule of general conduct, . and modify it because of some inconvenience in a special case, is to make the general good subjective to some hardship in a special case, and in that reverse the great end that is sought for in the law, and has its great sanction in the general good it secures. It is in this, among the special objects in the formation of this Association, that one of its chief benefits will be found. The occupation in which the lawyer lives and has his being, almost unconsciously makes him conservative in his tendencies. Accustomed to guide others, because guided himself, by the existing condition of the laws which govern the society of which he is a part; realizing as he is forced to do, the necessity for rules which are established and fixed; and knowing the uncertainty and therefore the difficulties involved in the changes of these rules; he will be of all men the least inclined to such changes, without the conviction of some existing necessity for it. While at the same time, because of his daily practice, in which the application of fixed rules are necessary, he is in that better able to know, not only when; but what changes, are to be considered as truly reforms in the law.

To encourage liberal education for the Bar, will be recognized by all as specially called for, under the circumstances which now affect the Bar. The time has passed away when the Judge of a court in the exercise of its Common Law Jurisdiction felt no hesitation in acknowledging his want of knowledge of the modes of proceeding, or the principles enforced in a Court of Equity and the Chancellor was equally unaffected by the rules which governed in the Court of Common Law. While at the same time both would acknowledge that they considered the whole subject of International Law, the great Public Law of the World, as a department, with which they had not any direct concern. It may be said not with arrogance, nor in any other spirit, than that of stating a fact; that the influence of the decisions and text-books in the United States now so freely and fully recognized abroad; is to be ascribed to the critical and scholarly knowledge exhibited in the United States in all of the

Departments of Jurisprudence. And the lawyer who would acknowledge that in any of these departments, even such as would be the least frequently called for, he could not obtain readily, even if he did not have it then, that knowledge which would enable him to advise with sufficient certainty as to the application of the rules which govern in either department; would be far below the standard, at this day, of professional requirement. He who would undertake to advise in the varied and complicated cases which arise, without knowing the rule of the Divine Law, the duties of the Moral Law, as well as the obligations of the Municipal Law; applying that term in its most comprehensive significance, would be more apt to mislead than rightly to direct his client in the conduct he should adopt.

In cases now of such frequent occurrence, where questions arise connected with the physical condition of parties and injuries to the person; and in those so intricate, where want of reason, either as the essential element in contract, or in crimes, as an affliction which absolves the transgressor from the penalties which the human law visits upon him, who has knowingly and wilfully warred against the peace of society, the lawyer must feel the necessity that presses on him for some knowledge of that which in its highest range, belongs to the Science of Medicine. In that large class of cases, now so rapidly developing, in which the discoveries in Science and Mechanical knowledge are brought before our Courts, to determine the right of an original discoverer and the protection which the law gives to him, how can the advocate protect such right without some knowledge of the general principles which are involved in the subject-matter of the right so claimed or denied. And then, how needful is that culture which with the knowledge he may have will enable him to convey to those whom he is to address, that clear exposition of his case which conveys at once pleasure and information. The excellence in Forensic Oratory has been in all times admired, in our times it may be said that it is positively required.

The last in the order of the objects of this Association is, to cultivate cordial intercourse among the members of the South Carolina Bars. I would rather say, to continue without change that cordial intercourse which has always prevailed among the members of the Bar of the State, and which this Association

will tend to make more general by closer personal intercourse. It has been with the unthinking matter for disparaging comment, that intellectual conflict at the Bar, in which the earnestness with which a case is argued is followed by pleasant interchanges between the contestants, was indicative of the want of honesty in those who engaged in the discussion. But they who so think do not or cannot realize the difference between an intellectual discussion and a simply personal contention. That duty which the advocate assumes is thus tersely stated: He says, "I will bring before the notice of the Judge all that can be maintained in favor of one side of the question: the same will be done by my opponent: and the Court will decide between us." The business of an advocate "is to supply materials out of which a decision is to be formed by others, but not all the materials; only those which relate to one side and view of the question: for he does not stand before the tribunal to array conflicting probabilities and weigh minute differences, as though to him were committed the task of adjudicating between opposing claims."

It has been ever apparent that for the protection of right and the control of arbitrary and despotic will, the advocate was indispensable. No one who has looked into the State Trials in England fails to see the mockery in the statement that the Judge was the Counsel for the Prisoner. The State Trials, in too many cases, may well be called the Report of Judicial Murders. If we turn from reading such trials to those with which in our times we are more familiar, what can better illustrate the protection which the lawyer gives to the highest right we have in life, the right to Justice according to the law? Even in the days when such prostitution took place among the Judges, if counsel had been allowed the accused, no such trial could have taken place as that of Annie Lyles, before Jeffreys: or Sir Walter Raleigh, before Popham. However the wit of Ben Johnson or the satire of Swift may amuse, the high duty of counsel for the prisoner has ever sustained the class to which he belonged, in being unseduced and unterrified, however great the temptation or threatening the power which essayed to rise superior to the law. The great charter, extorted by the Barons has been maintained and preserved by the advocates in the Courts; and the Petition of Rights has covered and atoned for

many of the errors of its architect, and condoned in some degree the censure which in many cases is so properly attached to the name of Sir Edward Coke.

However gladsome is the light of Jurisprudence, and honest the efforts of the advocates to minister to the great end of im. partial Justice, that light becomes dimmed, sometimes it has been extinguished, when the Judge, in human affairs the interpreter of the law, shall fail in those qualities involved in his high office, and which so far exalt him above his fellowmen. Happy, thrice happy, are they who have presiding in their Courts as Judges in their land men of unquestioned probity and of equally unquestioned intellect. And more than unhappy are they who suffer the greatest of evils in a partial, corrupt and ignorant Judge. Were I to proffer testimony in support of the statement, that in our own State, in the Court of highest resort sitting in the capitol of our whole country, and so far as I know or believe, in the Courts of the different States of this Union, the Judges who preside in their respective Courts are in all respects worthy of the exalted office with which they have been invested, I would but in that express the earnest convictions of all who know them and their acts. It would be difficult to say what higher compliment to them as individuals, or higher proof of their excellence can be given than is to be found; when in the selection or re-election of Judges, the passions and excitements of the time are subjected to considerations of the general good; and the test of fitness for the place is preferred to the gratification of popular passion, personal prejudice, or the success of any particular shade of political difference. Yet with this strong expression of confidence in the integrity and ability of the Judges, it is strange that the protection of the tenure of the office of the Judges from any earthly power, so much valued because of an experience of former days of the suffering which was caused by the power of a King over a Judge, should in our land seemingly have lost so much of its value; that it has been exchanged for that which now exists in the duration of the tenure for a certain number of years. The doubt of the wisdom of the change is sufficiently expressed in many of the States in which this change of tenure has been made, by the increase of the number of years for which the Judge is elected to But what greater guaranty can we have from one who

serve.

is fit for a single day to be a Judge, than that so he should continue "dum bene se gesserit." And if in the same connection it may be allowed to refer to that in which one of the most valuable functions of a Judge has been removed, it is in the submission to a jury of an exclusive and uncontrolled determination of the facts of a case, as the same are presented in the testimony of the witnesses; however conflicting it may be; without the power of the Judge, in any, even the least degree, by his superior knowledge and admitted impartiality, to assist that jury in coming to a conclusion consistently with the truth.

Happily for us, the tenure of office of the Judges of the United States Courts, during good behaviour, may be considered as reasonably safe from any change. Whether if held for a term of years it would be saved from the scramble which is seen for other offices of less note, or protected by the con. servative temper exhibited in several of the States, is a question concerning which the doubt cannot be solved until the contingency takes place. The vast power of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, if ever converted to the support of any political party, would be of so much value, that to abstain from the possession and control of it, as one of the results of an excited national election, would be the severest test and trial of public virtue and devoted patriotism.

That august tribunal has already been tried in the exercise of its jurisdiction, by tests of acknowledged force. Indeed, it has been necessary to amend the Constitution, in order that at one and the same time the authority of the Court and the preservation of the Union should be secured. Nor is it well that I should omit the mention of an incident, illustrative of the independence of a Judge, when it was the wish of the President that the memorable trial of Mr. Burr should result in his conviction, that wish of the highest Executive Officer of the Union had not the least effect upon the able Lawyer and Judge, who then enjoyed the highest of earthly distinctions; the Chief Justice of the United States.

Few, if any, have failed to be struck with the moral afforded, in the effect produced on the visitor at Washington, as he passes from either wing of the Capitol, and enters the room in which the Supreme Court is in session. In the chambers in which the legislative bodies deliberate, there may be seen the spirit with