In Scotland it has been the custom for all indicted prisoners who have not the means to pay for legal advice to receive competent legal representation. The Agents for the Poor give their services freely and ungrudgingly. They behave towards the poor person who is accused of crime in the same way as the hospital doctors do to the sick who present themselves. In the course of their work they have to devote considerable time to the cases of those whose defence is entrusted to them; and if the charge is one that brings the accused before the High Court they appear by counsel for him. No person appears in the dock of the High Courts in Scotland who has not a qualified member of the Bar to defend him; and the absence of financial means does not affect this privilege. This provision of legal advice and assistance is not made at the expense of the public, but at that of the profession; and it is of as much benefit in its own way as that made for the sick by the members of the medical profession. I have never seen young medical men work with more enthusiasm to pull a patient from the jaws of death than is shown by the lawyers in their efforts to snatch the accused poor person from the hands of the prosecution. In both cases the energy might be expended to better purpose; for sick persons are frequently restored to health only to become a greater nuisance to their neighbours, and some accused persons are acquitted and sent out to prey on society; but when all discount has been made there is left a great deal of good work that was well worth doing. With regard to the work of both doctor and lawyer, we may some day take steps to see that the persons restored to health do not use their powers to the disadvantage of society, and that those restored to liberty do not use their freedom to molest others. At present we take no account of them once they have ceased to be cases--to our disadvantage as well as to theirs--and no one recognises more clearly than the lawyer that he is sometimes engaged in the attempt to turn loose on society a man who has no intention of conforming to its laws. On the other hand, everyone who has taken part in the work knows that were it not for his action serious injustice would be likely to take place.