barrister in the second rank of the unquestionably successful followers of the law. Somers was thought a fortunate and rising counsellor when he enjoyed Lord Chancellor Nottingham’s favour, and made 700_l._ a year.’ But the credit of the second part of Lord Macaulay’s statement is certainly shaken by an examination of the fee-book of Sir Francis Winnington, who was Solicitor-General to Charles II. In 1673 he received 3,371_l._; in 1674, 3,560_l._; and in 1675--the first year of his tenure of the Solicitor-General’s office--4,066_l._, of which only 429_l._ were office fees. Lord Keeper North made 7,000_l._ a year as Attorney-General, and his brother, Roger, gives an amusing description of his mode of bestowing the fees in three skull-caps--one for the gold, one for crowns and half-crowns, and one for small money. In those golden days the barrister did not open his mouth until his fingers had closed on his client’s money, and credit was unknown in transactions between counsel and attorney. A good deal of base money used, however, to be taken on these occasions, and Bishop Burnet gravely praises Sir Matthew Hale for his justice and goodness in not putting this flash coin again into circulation. The worthy Judge’s virtue was emphatically its own reward. He had gathered together a vast heap of this spurious coin, when some thieves broke into his house, and contentedly carried it off, believing that they were helping themselves to his hoarded treasure. The practice of the Bar does not appear to have become more lucrative in the reign of George II. than it was many years earlier. During the last year of his tenure of the Solicitor-Generalship, Charles Yorke earned 7,322_l._ Lord Eldon’s fee-book shows a great advance. In 1794, he received 11,592_l._; in 1795, 11,149_l._; in 1796, 12,140_l._ Previous to Erskine’s elevation to the Bench, he received on an average twelve special retainers in the year, from which he gained at least 3,600_l._ Elsewhere (_Times Review_) we read of Erskine--‘It is four and a half years since he was called and in that time he has cleared 8,000_l._ or 9,000_l._, besides paying his debts, obtaining a silk gown, and a business of at least 3,000_l._ a year.’”[35] In bringing this chapter to a close, it seems only fitting again to lay stress on the desirability of entitling a barrister to receive a client without the obligatory intervention of a third person, namely, a solicitor. An absurd anomaly, _the legal assumption that every man knows, or is expected to know, the law_, would perhaps be somewhat nearer fulfilment, if counsel were less unapproachable than they are to-day.