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SIR,--As the _London Charivari_ is recognised all the world over
as the universally acknowledged organ of the legal profession in
England, will you permit me to make an explanation nearly touching my
professional reputation. A few days since, a Correspondent to one of
your contemporaries complained that the leading Counsel of the epoch
were in the habit of accepting fees they never intended to earn. He
more than hinted that we Barristers were prone to receive cheques for
briefs that we knew we would never attend to; that we were ready to be
paid for being present in one Court, when we knew that we were sure to
be engaged in another. And so and so on.
Now there can be but one interpretation to such a statement. I am
reluctantly compelled to believe that some learned friend or other,
annoyed at my increasing practice, has levelled this blow at me, with
a view to lessening my prosperity. Will you let me say then, once and
for all, I have never received fees for briefs to which I have paid no
attention; that my presence has never been required in one Court when
I have been professionally engaged in another? My Clerk, PORTINGTON,
who has been with me for many years, will tell anyone interested in
the matter, that I am most careful not to accept papers promiscuously.
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