The New England Weekly Review

PROFESSIONAL ARROGANCE.

A few days since we were summoned as a witness in a court of justice in this city. In the course of our remarks, we had occasion to repeat part of a conversation, that had passed between two of the Defendants. Upon this, the Attorney for these gentlemen enquired with a look of superciliousness, and a tone designed to indicate a suspicion of our veracity, how we happened to remember the conversation with so much accuracy. Our answer to the question was certainly more civil than it would have been, had we not felt a respect for the dignity of the Court.

Of the Attorney, to whom we allude, we know very little. 'Tis not on his account, that we are induced to make any remarks at this time. We wish to correct an evil, which neither begins nor ends with him, but is common to a large portion of the very respectable fraternity, to which he belongs.

Every man, who has been in the habit of attending our Courts of Justice in New England, knows how frequently and with what impunity certain Attorneys allow themselves to insult respectable and even venerable witnesses.-They habitually ask questions, which would seem to imply a distrust of the witness's veracity, and that too when the character and manner of the witness are unequivocal proofs of his honesty and impartiality. We suppose, that they do this to impress their hearers with an idea of their smartness. Well-it is, without doubt, a very smart thing for lawyers to place themselves under the protection of the Court and then set themselves to insulting men, whom, in any other place, they would not be able to look in the eye without a quiver of the lip-very smart indeed. We think, on the whole however, that such things may as well be discountenanced-and that the lawyer, who divests himself of every thing gentlemanly while before a Court of Justice, ought never to be recognised as a gentleman in the private circles of Society.