Chap. I.]

PROFESSION OF THE LAW.

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every occasion which can arise to human foresight, or from thevarying circumstances of human affairs. The aids which areafforded in equity to mitigate the severity, or assist the incompe-tency, of the common law, the systematic arrangement of thecourts, and the liberty given to every man to appeal from theinferior to the superior courts, until at last he reaches the higheststandard of authority and law, exhibit striking evidence of theexcellence and dignity of our system of jurisprudence, whichdemand the reverential affection of every good man, andwhich ignorance and perverseness alone will deny. The naturaltendency of the study of the law, therefore, must be to cherishhonor, integrity, and elevated moral sentiments and feelings ofevery kind.

Professional honor and integrity will forbid the advocate toengage in a business of notorious wrong. But here a very niceand curious distinction arises. Could the term wrong be ac-curately defined, there would, perhaps, be little difficulty ; butsuch a definition is no easy matter, where our interests or inclina-tions interfere. Still, two limitations have been laid down bythe late Sir James Mackintosh, the propriety of which isvery manifest.

1. “ That is a notorious wrong, when one man seeks, by awresting of the law to his own purposes, to despoil another ofhis rightful property, or to obstruct his obtaining the possessionof it; and he who assists in the execution of any such plan, nomatter under what pretence, incurs, if not an equal, at leastsome share of guilt with the original instigator of the wrong.This being the truth, the question next arises, What ought to beconsidered as despoiling, and what assisting ? With respect tothe first, this rule may be laid down as worthy of particularobservance, to wit, that, where it becomes necessary to pervertnot the spirit only, but the terms of a written law, in order tosupport a cause, no lawyer of integrity will engage in such abusiness. This is a very plain case. As to the second partof the question, what may be called assisting ; I observe, thatwhoever is the voluntary instrument, by speaking or writing, ofturning a law calculated to produce protection and benefit, tooppression and wrong, must clearly be an accessory ; nor will40