Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/39

Rh apprentices, apprenticii ad legem, being looked upon as merely learners, and not qualified to execute the full office of an advocate till they were ixteen years tanding; at which time, according to Fortecue, they might be called to the tate and degree of erjeants, or ervientes ad legem. How antient and honourable this tate and degree is, the form, plendor, and profits attending it, have been o fully diplayed by many learned writers, that they need not be here enlarged on. I hall only oberve, that erjeants at law are bound by a olemn oath to do their duty to their clients: and that by cutom the judges of the courts of Wetminter are always admitted into this venerable order, before they are advanced to the bench; the original of which was probably to qualify the puine barons of the exchequer to become jutices of aie, according to the exigence of the tatute of 14 Edw. III. c. 16. From both thee degrees ome are uually elected to be his majety's counel learned in the law; the two principal of whom are called his attorney, and olicitor, general. The firt king's counel, under the degree of erjeant, was ir Francis Bacon, who was made o honoris caua, without either patent or fee ; o that the firt of the modern order (who are now the worn ervants of the crown, with a tanding alary) eems to have been ir Francis North, afterwards lord keeper of the great eal to king Charles II. Thee king's counel anwer in ome meaure to the advocates of the revenue, advocati fici, among the Romans. For they mut not be employed in any caue againt the crown without pecial licence; in which retriction they agree with the advocates of the fic : but in the imperial law the prohibition was carried till farther, and perhaps was more for the dignity of the overeign; for, excepting ome peculiar caues, the fical advocates were not permitted to be at all concerned in private uits between ubject and

r ''de LL. c''. 50. " s Fortec. ibid. 10 Rep. pref. Dugdal. Orig. Jurid. To which may be added a tract by the late erjeant Wynne, printed in 1765, intitled, "obervations touching the antiquity and dignity of the degree of erjeant at law." t 2 Int. 214. u Fortec. c. 50. w See his letters. 256. x See his life by Ro^er North. 37. y Cad. z. o. I . Rh