The registrars must, by the terms of the act of
Parliament, be barristers, solicitors, or clerks who have served five
years in the Principal Registry.
Doctors' Commons twenty years ago was a unique corner of the world. It
lay so hid away that you might live for years in London, and be within
a stone's throw of it, and yet never have its existence brought to
your mind; and it had a life all its own. The ecclesiastical lawyers
were called doctors and proctors, instead of barristers and attorneys;
and although the former did not arrogate to themselves a higher rank
socially and professionally than that of barrister, a proctor
considered himself a great many cuts above an attorney, and indeed
was, for the most part, the equal of the best class of attorneys.
Proctors, it will be borne in mind, are sketched by Charles Dickens in
the opening pages of _David Copperfield_, for Dora's papa, Mr.
Spenlow, was in proctorial partnership with the reputably inexorable
Jawkins. When the Probate Act came into force it was a frightful blow
to the tribe of Spenlows. Not so much on account of the pecuniary
loss. In that respect the blow was considerably tempered to the shorn
lambs by a compensation all too liberal--for John Bull is unsurpassed
as a respecter of vested interests--and the proctors were compensated
on the basis of their incomes for the last five years, their returns
proving in some instances curiously at variance with the amounts on
which they had paid income-tax.
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