Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/174

 The Accused.

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THE ACCUSED. By George F. Tucker. II. THERE are numerous methods of procedure and modes of dealing which excite petulant criticism. The determina tion of the attorney to pursue a certain course at all hazards is regarded by some as an in dication of hardness of heart. A lawyer is thought to be incapable of tender impres sions. He is charged with indifference as to the result of the litigation in which he is engaged, when, in fact, his anxiety is more intense and his hopes of success are greater than those of his client. He whose duty it is to thwart plots of extortion and robbery, and to whom are disclosed plans and pur poses which are born of rivalry, malice, envy, greed, foolish ambition, domestic dis cord, and general disregard of moral prin ciple, may see the wisdom and propriety of caution, reticence, and circumspection; but to charge him with a kind of inhuman indif ference in offering counsel or settling dis putes is ungenerous and unfair. The charge is answered by the fidelity with which he carries t.he secrets of the counting-room and the family, by his disapproval of plans whose disclosure may bring sorrow and ruin to the fireside, by his careful management of inter ests which affect the innocent and helpless, and by his kindness to the unfortunate mem bers of his own profession. We cannot dis miss this subject without reference to the more serious charge of dishonesty. The ex pressed purpose of entrusting funds to a lawyer for care and investment is deprecated by many with significant shrugs of the shoulder, and captious utterances about the unsavory reputation of lawyers in general. We desire to call the attention of the defamer to the fact that probably over one half of the many millions of money held in trust in this country is in the hands and under the control of members of the legal profes20

sion, and that they have been guilty of very few breaches of trust within the last fifty years. The peculation of the few requires neither comment nor apology, nor need we resort to encomiums upon the conservative and upright management of the many. The comparison of the respective records of busi ness men and attorneys in the administration of trusts is highly favorable to the latter. The writer asks the indulgence of the reader in quoting from one of his own volumes a passage pertinent to the subject : — "It would seem that a man's availability for the position of trustee should depend upon something besides character, position, ability, experience, and wealth. It is probable that one half of the investments of existing trust estates are in unregis tered securities payable to bearer and capable of manual delivery. The opportunity thus offered a trustee to hypothecate them for his own obliga tions may, in the hour of temptation, be eagerly embraced. The position of trustee, therefore, should be rarely filled by a man whose business relations are such as to necessitate the hiring of money. For this reason lawyers and men who have retired from active business generally prove the most reliable." The courts, of course, receive their share of the censure, and bear a generous part of the opprobrium. There are two classes of people who denounce the machinery which seems indispensable to the conduct of causes, and the lawyers who both set that machinery in motion and then attend to its circumvolu tions with untiring vigilance. The first in cludes those who have a limited acquaintance with practical affairs; for example, kindhearted and motherly women, who are not exactly, like Cowper's old cottager, in the lack of resources, — "Pillow and bobbjns all her little store," —