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represented the feudal court and council of the ancient kings. The Parliament, it is true, might be called on to act as an advis ing council to the sovereign; but as regards law promulgation, its principal duty was merely to register the royal decree. Be yond it was the great court of justice of the kingdom, corresponding to the Aula Regis of England, which followed the monarch of that kingdom. The reign of Philip the Fair presents the most important epoch in the history of the Bar of France; and the law then administered consisted of feudal, canon, and civil law, and for the proper study of the two latter it became necessary to call in the assistance of the clergy, who alone in those times were capable of undertaking it. The clerical element, however, diminished in subsequent reigns. The advocates who at tended Parliament were always spoken of as an order, — a name which they retained until the Revolution of 1789. Everyone admitted as a member of it, or allowed to enroll his name on the list, was obliged to take an oath of advocacy. This oath, however, could not be administered without previous examination, "in order that people might not be deceived and betrayed into placing their affairs in the hands of an advocate who could do nothing in a cause." The candidate then became an avocat e'coutant, and entered upon a novitiate for several years of study and attendance on the court, before his name was actually inscribed upon the roll of advocates. He then be came a duly qualified member of the order, and subject to its rules and discipline. Among many other prohibitions, we find the following : —

1. He was not to undertake just and unjust causes alike without distinction, nor maintain such as he undertook, with trickery, fallacies, and misquotations of au thorities. 2. He was not in his pleadings to in dulge in abuse of the opposite party or his counsel. 3. He was not to compromise the inter ests of his clients, by absence from court when the cause in which he was retained was called on. 4. He was not to violate the respect due to the court, by either improper expressions or unbecoming gestures. 5. He was not to exhibit a sordid avidity of gain, by putting too high a price upon his services. 6. He was not to make any bargain with his client for a share in the fruits of the judgment he might recover. 7. He was not to lead a dissipated life, or one contrary to the modesty and gravity of his calling. 8. He was not, under pain of being dis barred, to refuse his services to the indigent and oppressed. While these rules breathe the very spirit of chivalry, they form an admirable code for the guidance of advocates even in the pres ent age. Purity of life and disinterested zeal in the cause of the poor and friendless were enjoined upon the chevalier and advocate alike; and doubtless the resemblance be tween the two professions, of which the latter was thus reminded, had a powerful effect in producing a tone of high-minded feeling, which ought ever to be character istic of the bar.