صفحة 275 من 2651

The counsellor at law, who, perhaps, at near forty years of age,

begins to make something by his profession, ought to receive the

retribution, not only of his own so tedious and expensive

education, but of that of more than twenty others, who are never

likely to make any thing by it. How extravagant soever the fees

of counsellors at law may sometimes appear, their real

retribution is never equal to this. Compute, in any particular

place, what is likely to be annually gained, and what is likely

to be annually spent, by all the different workmen in any common

trade, such as that of shoemakers or weavers, and you will find

that the former sum will generally exceed the latter. But make

the same computation with regard to all the counsellors and

students of law, in all the different Inns of Court, and you will

find that their annual gains bear but a very small proportion to

their annual expense, even though you rate the former as high,

and the latter as low, as can well be done.