State, and the early decision overruled, however;
and it must be frankly admitted, that the current of decisions in our
sister States is in the same way.[41]

It is supposed that the ancient rule was artificial in its structure,
and practically unjust,--that it is wholly inconsistent with our ideas
of equality to suppose that the business or profession, by which any one
earns the daily bread of himself or of his family, is so much more
honorable than the business of other members of the community as to
prevent him from receiving a fair compensation for his services on that
account.[42] It has been pronounced ridiculous to attempt to perpetuate
a monstrous legal fiction, by which the hard-working lawyers of our day,
toiling till midnight in their offices, are to be regarded in the eye of
the law in the light of the patrician jurisconsults of ancient Rome,
when

---- dulce diu fuit et solemne, reclusa
Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura,--

and who at daybreak received the early visits of their humble and
dependent clients, and pronounced with mysterious brevity the oracles of
the law.[43]

These are arguments which are more plausible than sound: they are
imposing, but not solid. The question really is, what is best for the
people at large,--what will be most likely to secure them a high-minded,
honorable Bar? It is all-important that the profession should have and
deserve that character. A horde of pettifogging, barratrous,
custom-seeking, money-making lawyers, is one of the greatest curses
with which any state or community can be visited. What more likely to
bring about such a result than a decision, which strips the Bar of its
character as a learned profession, on the principle avowed by one court,
that it is now a calling as much as any mechanical art,--or by another,
in effect, that the order of things is in the present condition of
society reversed, and clients are really the _patrons_ of their
attorneys? A more plausible reason is that the client is safer from the
oppression of extortionate counsel, by putting both upon the equal
footing of legal right and obligation. It would appear, however, better
that the parties should make an express agreement before or at the time
of retainer, or that the amount should be left to the justice of the
counsel, and the honor and liberality of the client subsequently. Every
judge, who has ever tried a case between attorney and client, has felt
the delicacy an