. But the mishap taking place in the hands of
some one who was _not_ of the Guild, although the advice had been
freely sought and honestly given, the person who infringed the
monopoly of the Guild suffered this savage piece of revenge.

But even the Guild of the Doctors is not so powerful as that of the
Lawyers, _qua_ guild alone. Its administrative power makes it far more
powerful. The well-to-do are not compelled to employ a doctor, but all
are compelled to employ a lawyer at every turn, and that at a cost
quite unknown anywhere else in Europe. But this power of the legal
guild, _qua_ guild, in modern England is supplemented by further
administrative and arbitrary powers attached to a selected number of
its members.

Now the Lawyers' Guild has latterly become (to its own hurt as it will
find) hardly distinguishable from the complex of professional
politics.

One need not be in Parliament many days to discover that most laws are
made and all revised by members of this Guild. Parliament is, as a
drafting body, virtually a Committee of Lawyers who are indifferent to
the figment of representation which still clings to the House of
Commons.

It should be added that this part of their work is honestly done, that
the greatest labour is devoted to it, and that it is only consciously
tyrannical or fraudulent when the Legal Guild feels _itself_ to be in
danger.

But far more important than the legislative power of the Legal Guild
(which is now the chief framer of statutory law as it has long been
the _salutary_ source of common law) is its executive or governing
power.

Whether after exposing a political scandal you shall or shall not be
subject to the risk of ruin or loss of liberty, and all the
exceptionally cruel scheme of modern imprisonment, depends negatively
upon the Legal Guild. That is, so long as the lawyers support the
politicians you have no redress, and only in case of independent
action by the lawyers against the politicians, with whom they have
come to be so closely identified, have you any opportunity for
discussion and free trial. The old idea of the lawyer on the Bench
protecting the subject against the arbitrary power of the executive,
of the judge independent of the government, has nearly disappeared.

You may, of course, commit any crime with impunity if the professional
politicians among the lawyers refuse to prosecute. But that is only a
negative evil. More serious is the positive side of the af