Errors. It has been held in a multitude of cases, that verdicts
against the charge of the court in point of law, will be set aside
without limitation as to the number of times, and that without regard to
the question whether the direction of the court in point of law was
right or wrong. There is a technical reason, which makes this course in
all cases imperative. The losing party, if the jury were allowed to
decide the law for him, would be deprived of his exception, and of his
unquestionable right to have the law of his case pronounced upon by the
Supreme Court. _Ad questiones juris respondeant judices,--ad questiones
facti juratores._ A disregard by the jury of the law, as laid down by
the judge, is always therefore followed by additional and unnecessary
delay and expense, and it is never an advantage to a party in the long
run to obtain a verdict in opposition to the direction of the court.[7]
It is best for counsel to say in such cases, where nothing is left by
the charge to the jury, that they do not ask for a verdict. It has a
fair, candid, and manly aspect towards court, jury, opposite party, and
even client. Instances of counsel urging or endeavoring to persuade a
jury to disregard the charge may sometimes occur, but they are
exceedingly rare when there is good feeling between the Bench and the
Bar, and when the members of the profession have just and enlightened
views of their duty as well as interest.

It need hardly be added that a practitioner ought to be particularly
cautious, in all his dealings with the court, to use no deceit,
imposition, or evasion--to make no statements of facts which he does not
know or believe to be true--to distinguish carefully what lies in his
own knowledge from what he has merely derived from his instructions--to
present no paper-books intentionally garbled. "Sir Matthew Hale
abhorred," says his biographer, "those too common faults of
misrepresenting evidence, quoting precedents or books falsely, or
asserting anything confidently by which ignorant juries and weak judges
are too often wrought upon."[8] One such false step in a young lawyer
will do him an injury in the opinion of the Bench and of his
professional brethren, which it will take years to redeem, if indeed it
ever can be entirely redeemed.

A very great part of a man's comfort, as well as of his success at the
Bar, depends upon his relations with his professional brethren. With
them he is in daily necessary intercours