ADVOCATE (Lat. adrocatus). An A. is generally defined "the patron of a cause," though it does not appear that the "patrons" who, in ancient Rome, assisted their clients with advice and pleaded their causes, were ever called by that name. Even in the time of Cicero, the term adcocatus was not applied to the patron or orator who pleaded in public, but lather, in strict accordance with the etymology of the word, to any one who in any piece of business was called in to assist another. There can be no doubt, however, that the forensic orators and jurisconsults of the later period of the republic, who fol lowed law as a profession, and received fees (honoraria) for their services, occupied a position closely analogous to that of the A. of modern times, and thus it has been said that the profession is older than the name. The occupations of a jurisconsult and a forensic orator seem to have differed pretty much as those of a consulting and a practicino. coun sel do with us. They might be exercised separately, but were generally combined; and thus Cicero speaks of his master, Semvola, as " the most eloquent of the learned, and the most learned of the eloquent" (jurisperitoruni cloquentissiinus, eloquentium juris peritissimus, De Or., i. 39). Ulpian defined an A to be any person who aids another iu the conduct of a suit or action (Dig. 50, tit. 13), and in other parts of the digest it is used as equivalent to an orator (see also Tacit. .Annal., x. 6), so that the word would seem gradually to have assumed its modern meaning. The office of the A. or barrister who conducted the cause in public was, in Rome, as with us, altogether distinct from that of the procurator, or, as we should say, attorney or agent, who represented the person of ;the client in the litigation, and furnished the A. with information regarding the facts of the case. The distinction between these two occupations, however, obvious and impor tant as it seems to us, does not everywhere prevail; and in many of the states of Ger many, in Geneva, in America, and in sonic of our own colonies, as, for example, in (Canada, they are united in the same person. In England and Ireland, advocates are Called barristers, under which title will be found a statement of the duties and respon ,sibilities which the A. undertakes to his client, and of the state of the profession in these "countries. In Scotland, as in France, the more ancient name has been retained. (See ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF.) In France, the arocat and (trove correspond very nearly to the barrister and attorney in England. The advocates do not form a corporation, in the technical sense, but are a
free society or association (ordre), Which has the power of protecting its members, and of exercising internal surveillance and discipline over them. Neither do they exercise any ministerial functions like those which public authority has conferred, under certain con ditions and responsibilities, on avoues and notaries. The French A. is simply a free man, who has graduated in law, and possesses the privilege of addressing the tribunals. The advocates who practice in each court form a separate college, admission to which can be obtained only with the approval of those who are already members. Enrollment in the books of the college does not confer the title of A., for this title belongs to every licentiate who has taken the oaths before a court; but it gives the right of communicating (droit de communiquer) with the other members of the body, without which the exercise of the profession would be impossible. As a necessary consequence of this arrangement, erasure of the dame of any individual from the list is equivalent to a prohibition to prac tice. The French A. possesses the same privileges as to irresponsibility for his advice, And for the facts contained in his instructions, which belong to members of the corre sponding branch of the legal profession in this country. He is also entitled to plead cov ered (see I3AituErrE), and as lie has no action for his fees, they are, as with paid in advance. The French advocates have, on several occasions, resisted, as an encroachment on their privileges, the attempt to compel them to grant receipts for their fees. It further belongs to the etiquette of the bar of France that, in communicating articles of process to each other, no acknowledgment shall be exchanged; and we are told, with honest pride, that during the many centuries that this custom has existed, not one single instance of its abuse has occurred.
In Belgium, in Geneva, and also in those of the German states by which the code Napoleon has been received, the organization and discipline of this branch of the legal profession are similar to those which prevail in France. In the other German states, with the exception of Saxony, the formation of the advocates into a body has been per severingly resisted by the governments. A general assembly of German advocates was attempted at Mayenee in 1844, and in Hamburg in 1846; and in the latter city it actually took place in the following year, but it led to no permanent results.