he right of the profession to a just and
honorable compensation, let it rather be in the amount of the required
retainer, when it will have its proper influence in the discouragement
of litigation."

A lawyer should avoid, as far as possible, all transactions of business
with his clients, not only in regard to matters in suit in his hands,
but in relation to other matters. He should avoid standing toward them,
either in the relation of borrower or lender. A young practitioner
should especially avoid borrowing of any one. Let him retrench, seek the
humblest employment of drudgery rather than do it; but, if borrow he
must, let it be of any one else than a client. All transactions of
business between attorney and client are looked upon with eyes of
suspicion and disfavor, in courts of justice.

It is a settled doctrine of equity, in England, that an attorney cannot,
while the business is unfinished in which he had been employed, receive
any gift from his client, or bind his client in any mode to make him
greater compensation for his services than he would have a right to
demand if no contract should be made during the relation. If an attorney
accept a gift from one thus connected with him, it may be recovered in a
court of chancery, by the donor or his creditors, should it be necessary
for them to assert a right to it to satisfy their demands. When the
relation of solicitor and client exists, and a security is taken by the
solicitor from his client, the presumption is that the transaction is
unfair; and the onus of proving its fairness is upon the solicitor.[54]
A man ought to be very careful of placing himself in a position to have
any of his transactions regarded in that light. If it should ever come
to be canvassed in court, the bandying of the phrases, fraud and
presumption of fraud, as applied to him, may, and probably will, have an
unfavorable effect on his reputation. Most emphatically should it be
said, let nothing tempt him, not even the knowledge and consent of the
client, to keep the money, which may have come to his hands
professionally, one single instant longer than is absolutely necessary.
The consequences of any difficulty arising upon this head, will be fatal
to his professional character and prospects.

The official oath, to which reference has already more than once been
made, obliges the attorney "to use no falsehood." It seems scarcely
necessary to enforce this topic. Truth in all its simplicity--tru