ions of duty
and interest. It is much better for a man occasionally to lose a good
client, than to fail in so plain a matter. It is nothing but selfishness
that can operate upon a lawyer when consulted to conceal from the party
his candid opinion of the merits, and the probable result. It is fair
that he should know it; for he may not choose to employ a man whose
views may operate to check his resorting to all lawful means to effect
success. Besides, most men, when they consult an attorney, wish a candid
opinion; it is what they ask and pay for. It is true, that it is often
very hard to persuade a man that he has not the best side of a lawsuit:
his interest blinds his judgment: his passion will not allow him to
reflect calmly, and give due weight to opposing considerations. There
are many persons who will go from lawyer to lawyer with a case, until
they find one who is willing to express an opinion which tallies with
their own. Such a client the lawyer, who acts firmly upon the principle
to which I have adverted, will now and then lose; but even such an one,
when finally unsuccessful, as the great probability is that he will be,
when he comes to sit down and calculate all that he has lost in time,
money, and character, by acting contrary to the advice first given, will
revert to the candid and honest opinion he then received, and determine,
if ever he gets into another difficulty of the kind, to resort to that
attorney, and abide by his advice. Thus may a man build up for himself a
character far outweighing, even in pecuniary value, all such paltry
particular losses; it is to such men that the best clients resort; they
have the most important and interesting lawsuits, and enjoy by far the
most lucrative practice.

A very important part of the advocate's duty is to moderate the passions
of the party, and where the case is of a character to justify it, to
encourage an amicable compromise of the controversy. It happens too
often at the close of a protracted litigation that it is discovered,
when too late, that the play has not been worth the candle, and that it
would have been better, calculating everything, for the successful party
never to have embarked in it--to have paid the claim, if defendant, or
to have relinquished it, if he was plaintiff. Counsel can very soon
discover whether such is likely to be the case, and it cannot be doubted
what their plain duty is under such circumstances.

Besides this, the advocate is