A 1768 book accused lawyers of being just as self-serving and devisive then as some are today.
In discussion of how lawyers caved in to the British Stamp Act (back in old Colonial U.S.) , side-points made that lawyers benefit from dis-unity, and the accusation made that when elected to a legislature they have too much power, which they use to serve their own occupational group.
When Britain imposed Stamp Act, business slowed, partly due to the increased cost of business the tax caused, partly due to rebel-motivated boycott. [Both of these factors could play a part in response if Alberta was to impose a provincial sales tax, by the way.]
The following is a catechism - a question and answer - on the subject.
...
Q. Were not the Lawyers great Sufferers by this Stop of Business?
A. No, For they were sure to have all the Business, when the Courts were open again, that had been suspended, and more,—occasion'd purely by the Stop of Business. [Bad times are good for some occupations - including lawyers]
Q. Who forsook us in our Distress, and neither wrote, nor said, nor did any Thing to help us?
A. The Lawyers of this City.
Q. Who thrive upon our Misfortunes?
A. The Lawyers.
Q. Who are maintained and enriched entirely by our Labour and Property?
A. The Lawyers.
Q. What do they do for all the Riches they draw from us?
A. They make us quarrel and hate one another, and set us together by the Ears. [Anyone who had lawyers handle their divorce probably encountered this as well.]
Q. How do they get by that?
A. They get one Half of our Estates from us for keeping up our Spirits and Resentment, till we have heartily beat and tired one another; and then they demand the other Half, for making us Friends again.
Q. Who keeps the Law lock'd up, so that we can get no Benefit from it without paying them for it?
A. The Lawyers.
Q. How much do they make us pay for the Permission of applying to the Law?
A. Generally more than it is worth when we obtain it.
Q. What Rule have the Lawyers to regulate their Fees?
A. Their own Consciences alone.
Q. Is a Lawyer a proper Person to be chosen a Representative and Law-Maker to a free People?
A. No, because for the same Person to be both a Maker and Interpreter of the Law, gives him too much Influence. And because in framing the Laws he would be too apt to have an Eye to the Advantage of his own Practice.
Q. What does the Lawyer's Interest lead him to, in framing Laws?
A. To express them in a Manner that will leave Room to dispute their Meaning. And to leave himself at Liberty to make as much Profit as possible by his Business.
Q. Does any Body know that the Lawyers of this City have ever charged any of their Clients with unreasonable excessive Accounts?
A. Ask the People.—
Q. The only Question before the People is, Who are the fittest Persons to represent us in Assembly,— no Denominations of Christians are excepted.
Why then is Religion brought into the Dispute since it is quite out of the Question?
A. Oh! This is an artful Contrivance of the Lawyer's to take off the Peoples Attention from those Things that render him unfit to be chosen a Representative.
He here literally uses Religion as a Cloak to hide his Faults.
From The voter's new catechism. New York, 1768
(available from the U.S. Library of Congress)
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