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LONDON:

SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW, New-street-Square.

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PREFACE.

THE object of the following pages is to present in a popular form an historical sketch of the office and functions of an Advocate. It occurred to me that the subject afforded materials for a work which would not be devoid of interest, and perhaps instruction, if, without going into minute and tedious detail, some of the more salient points were selected in the history of that profession. I therefore devoted to the task the unemployed hours of the legal vacation, confining my attention principally to the countries of Greece and Rome, France and England, where oratory, with which advocacy is so closely allied that in the Latin language they are almost synonymous terms, has been cultivated with the greatest reputation and success. The name of Hortensius was chosen as the title of the volume, because of all the Advocates of antiquity he seems to have given himself up most exclusively to that profession, and the Roman Forum could boast of only one more brilliant name. "Ardebat autem," says Cicero of him, "cupiditate sic, ut in nullo unquam flagrantius studium viderim: nullum enim patiebatur esse diem, quin aut in foro diceret, aut meditaretur extra forum." I have sought to give a value to the book which it would not other

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