Their exclusive spirit passed
away, however, and while aristocratic class distinctions were rigidly
maintained in English society, the Bar became most democratic through
the avenue to positions of highest influence on the Bench and in
politics which it freely offered to able men from the people. And,
indeed, there is no part of English history that is so full of interest
as the stories of her great lawyers, who, beginning in the humblest
conditions of life, fought their way by real merit into positions of
control in the government and thus gave ability and strength to the
aristocracy of which they became a part.
In the three centuries or more after the establishment of the Inns of
Court, no division appeared in the profession of the law, and it was not
until about 1556 that the profession became separated into attorneys at
law and solicitors in chancery, on the one hand, and barristers on the
other. The former dealt directly with clients and performed the
preliminary work of drafting documents and preparing briefs, while the
latter, the barristers, drafted the pleadings and presented the causes
in court.
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