est and best course, to
have an interview with the client, and draw from him by questions,
whether he knows the facts which you know he is required to state, so
that you may judge whether, as a conscientious man, he ought to make
such affidavit.

Another particular may be adverted to: the attempt to cover property
from the just demands of creditors. It is to be feared that gentlemen
of the Bar sometimes shut their eyes and, under the influence of
feelings of commiseration for an unfortunate client, feign not to see
what is really very palpable to everybody else. Surely they ought never
to sanction, directly or indirectly such shams, especially when the
machinery of a judicial sale is introduced more securely to accomplish
the object. A purchase is made in the name of a friend for the debtor's
benefit and with the debtor's money, though it may be hard to make that
appear by legal evidence. When advice is asked, as it sometimes is, how
such a thing may be safely and legally done, the idea held prominently
before the party by his counsel should be, that his estate is the
property of his creditors, and that nothing but their consent will
justify an appropriation of any part of it to his benefit.

Lawyers too may very materially assist in giving a high tone to public
sentiment in the matter of stay and exemption laws. It is not every case
in which a man has a legal that he has a moral right to claim the
benefit of such laws. When a debtor with ample means to pay only wants
to harass and worry his creditor, who has resorted to legal process and
obtained a judgment, by keeping him out of his money, as it is often
expressed, as long as he can; or where he wishes to take advantage of
hard times to make more than legal interest, or with concealed means
unknown to the execution plaintiff, claims the exemption: these are
cases which counsel ought to hold up in their proper light to those whom
they advise, and wash their hands of the responsibility of them.
According to the Jewish law, the cloak or outer garment, which was
generally used by the poorer classes as a covering during sleep, could
not be retained by the creditor to whom it had been given in pledge, and
of course was exempt by law from seizure for debt; and our blessed
Saviour, in his sermon on the mount, has been supposed to refer to this
exemption law, when he said: "And if any man will sue thee at the law
and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also;" that is,