RIGHT AND WRONG PRINCIPLES.
EVEN before Hudson succeeded in getting his diploma, Dunbar had come
before the court in a case of great importance, and made quite an
impression on the public mind. His argument was reported. On the day
this report appeared in the newspapers, something brought to his mind
his old friend and college companion, whom he had not met for nearly a
year. He did not analyse very carefully the feeling that induced him to
look in upon Hudson; if he had, he would have discovered something like
a desire to exhibit his rising greatness, and cause him to appreciate
the contrast between them. He found Hudson engaged in preparing his
thesis to be submitted to the professors of the Medical College at an
approaching examination of students.
"Ah! How are you, my old friend?" he said, in a gay, off-hand manner,
as he met Hudson. "I was passing, and thought I would just look in and
see if you were yet alive. What are you about? Hav'n't you graduated
yet?"
"Not yet; but if fortunate, I shall have my diploma in a week or two,"
returned Hudson.
"And then—"
"And then I shall see what can be done in the way of making a beginning
in the world."
"Do you expect to remain in the city?"
"I have not yet determined that question. It is probable that I may go
South."
"More chance there for you, I should think. It is too healthy here. I
verily believe there are as many doctors as sick people in this goodly
city."
"Though not so many lawyers as rogues and scoundrels," returned Dunbar,
with a smile; "therefore the more chance for you."
"Just it. The fact is, Lloyd," and Dunbar slapped the student upon the
shoulder, "if it was not for the sins and iniquities of the people, I
don't know what you or I would do. We should make great allowance for
them, don't you think so?"
"We should do all in our power to lessen the amount of evil and
suffering in the world," replied Hudson.
"And starve for our pains. If there were no cheating and roguery in
the world, what would become of all the lawyers? and if there were no
sickness, what would become of the doctors?"
"They would find some better employment, I hope. I am not afraid but
that I should get along quite as well, if not better, than under the
present system of things."
"I am very well satisfied as it is. By the way, did you see the report
of my argument before the court, in the case of Holton vs. Nix?"
"I did."
"Well, what do you think of it?"
"It was ingenious."
"Nothing more?"
"Yes, ingenious in making the worse appear the better reason."
"The highest compliment you could pay me. We had the worst side of the
case."
"So I perceived."
"And, in spite of it, succeeded in gaining for our client."
"And doing a great wrong."
"I have nothing to do with that. My duty was to my client. I was bound
to gain his cause for him, and I did so."
"At the expense of truth, justice, and integrity."
"If you please to say so. That comes under the head of abstract morals.
But with such abstractions lawyers have nothing to do. We are bound in
conscience to take care of our client's interests. He commits them to
our hands, and honor and honesty demand that we should protect them by
every means in our power."
"Not by unfair means," said Hudson.
"If your client's cause is not sound, how can you sustain it by sound
arguments? You must divert the attention of the court from the true
point at issue, and take advantage of every defect or error of your
opponent to make his good cause appear a bad one. Here lies the test
of a truly good lawyer. I see no great credit that a man deserves for
gaining a perfectly plain case. Anybody ought to do that. It is in the
bad cause that the lawyer shows his real power."
"And this is legal integrity!" said the student. "No, Lawrence Dunbar,
I will not credit it! The lawyer may be the guardian of rights, and yet
remain true to himself. You have mistaken the true character of the
profession."
"There can be but two sides to a question. A right side and a wrong
side. And one of these a lawyer has to argue. If he is on the wrong
side, pray how is he to do justice to his client and not violate what
you would call legal integrity?"
"True," said the student, "there is, to every question in dispute, a
right side and a wrong side; but where the right and where the wrong
lies, is not so easily determined. What the lawyer has to do is to
advocate or defend his client's rights, nothing more. This is his use
in the community; and when he goes beyond it, he goes beyond what
his client has a right to demand or he a right to give. Depend upon
it, Lawrence—and you must pardon my plain utterance of what is in my
mind—the lawyer who permits himself to use unfair means to gain a
client's cause, will not find it a hard task to continue his client's
cause year after year, in order, if possible, to swell the amount of
his fees."
"I don't know that you are far out of the way," was the young man's
unblushing avowal. "In fact, that is done every day. I know a young
lawyer who has yet had but two cases of importance, and he nurses them
well, I assure you. They afford him a very comfortable support. Now
would not he be a fool to close up these cases in a week, when it is
the easiest thing in the world to continue them for a year or eighteen
months? Do you blame him?"
"I do, for he is not an honest man."
"He's not a saint, I will admit. But, as to honesty, there are
different opinions about that. I, for one, don't blame him. If people
are the fools to go to law, they must expect to lose some of their
surplus feathers."
"Would you do so?"
"Certainly I would; and am doing it. Mr. Harker, with whom I am now
professionally connected, as you are no doubt aware, has a large
business. He is a good lawyer, but never possessed the tact which some
other men have of making the most of his cases. It will be my business
to reform this, and I have already commenced it."
"Does he not object?"
"He! No indeed. He is pleased at it Why not? It will put money into his
pocket as well as mine. My interest in his business is worth now at the
rate of two thousand dollars a year, but before a twelvemonth passes I
will make it equal to three thousand dollars."
"By nursing cases?"
"Yes, by that; and also by infusing more energy into all our business.
I am bound to go up, you know. That is my ambition. If anybody is fool
enough to bend his head for me to place my feet upon his shoulders, you
will not find me hesitating about making good use of the opportunity.
Do you blame me!"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because the means of rising that you propose to yourself I do not
believe to be just."
"It's the custom in our profession, and he who neglects to fall into
it, will be apt to remain in status quo."
"I must still doubt that. Had I chosen law for a profession, instead of
medicine, I would have tried the honest course."
"And remained a poor devil of a lawyer all your life," said Dunbar,
a little rudely. The plain words of his old friend had touched him a
little, indifferently as he treated them.
"As to the result, I never think of that," returned Hudson. "I ask
myself, 'Is it right?' and trustfully await the issue. I feel that
I have talents, and I believe that if we possess ability and use it
faithfully for the good of others, we shall have our reward,—if in
nothing else, an approving conscience."
Dunbar tossed his head with a slight air of contempt, as he said—
"How soon do you expect your profession, conducted on your principles,
to give you an income of two thousand dollars a year?"
"I don't know that it ever will."
"And can you be content with that, or less than that?"
"With whatever comes, I will strive to be content."
"And even say, thank God for nothing! if nothing comes."
There was something insolent in the young lawyer's manner which was
felt by Hudson, and against which his fine spirit rebelled.
"One thing is plain," he said, speaking in a voice changed from its
former tone, and looking somewhat sternly at Dunbar, "that you and
I have different principles, and that these lead us in the present,
and will lead us in the future, into different practices. There is no
harmony between these principles, and, therefore, can be no sympathy
between us. It is therefore better, perhaps, that we should not meet,
for we cannot meet as friends."
"As you please," said Dunbar, with an offended air, rising as he spoke.
"I rather think I shall lose nothing. Good morning!"
"Good morning," returned Hudson, bowing with cold politeness.
And thus the two young men parted. They met for a brief season, but to
sunder their friendship for ever.