AVOCAT, a French word, derived from the Latin advocates, and correspond ing to the English `counsellor at law.' [ADVOCATE.] From the middle of the fourteenth century the avocets were dis tinguished into avocets. plaidans,' who answer to our barristers, and avocets consultans,' called also juris-consultes,' a kind of chamber-counsel, who do not plead in court, but give their opinion on intricate points of law. Previous to the Revolution the advocates of Dijon, Gre noble, the Lyonnais, Ferez, and Beaujolais were entitled to rank as nobles ; in some places the order was freed from the de mends of the farmers of the king's taxes. Before 1600 the advocates of Grenoble enjoyed a transmissible nobility ; but this privilege was subsequently contested • and in 1756 or 1757 the privileges of the forty gentlemen of whom the order consisted were limited to the droit de Chasse comae les noblestaine sans avoir fiefs. Foreign Quarterly Review,' No. 66, p. 352.) Un der the old monarchy the avocets were classed, with regard to professional rank, into various categories, such as avocets au conseil,' who conducted and pleaded causes brought before the king's council they were seventy in number, wen appointed by the chancellor, and were considered as attached to the king's court; and avocets generaux,' who pleaded be fore the parliaments, and other superior courts, in all causes in which the king, the church, communities, and minors were interested. At first the t‘ a vocats gene• raux' were styled ' avocets du roi,' and the other barristers who pleaded in private causes were called avocets generaux,' but towards the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century these appellations were changed. the avo cets du roi' were styled ` avocets gene raux,' and three of them were appointed to each superior court, while the counsel who filled the same office before the in ferior courts assumed the name of avo cets du roi." Avocet fiscal' was a law officer in a ducal or other seignorial court of justice, answering to the avocet du roi in a royal court. The order of advocates
was suppressed by a decree of the llth September, 1790. The persons who per formed the functions of counsel were then termed homma de loi, and any one might act as counsel. Out of six hundred of the ancient advocates, scarcely fifty, it is said, attended the tribunals during the violent period of 'the Revolution. In 1795 something was done by the French Directory to re-organize the bar, and in December, 1810, another step was taken in the same direction. The Empeior Na poleon had a great aversion to the bar, and when the Legion of Honour was established not a single advocate received the decoration ; but they were mm e favourably treated under the Restoration. In 1827, on the trial of a Neapolitan priest for a brutal assault on an infant of tender years, the president ordered the bar to leave the court.
At present there are in France avocats an conseil du roi,' as formerly ; avocats &drum,' of whom there are five at the Court of Cassation, or Supreme Court, four at the Cour Royale of Paris, besides substitutes, and two or three at each Cour Royale in the departments. The prac tising barristers are classed into avocats a la Cour de Cassation,' who are fifty in number, and who conduct exclusively all causes before that court ; and avocats la Cour Royale,' who plead before the various royal courts. All avocats must be bachelors at law, and must have taken the oath before the Cour Royale. There is a roll of the advocates practising in each court. Candidates are admitted by the Council of Discipline after a proba tionary term. The members of the Coun cil are elected by the advocates inscribed on the roll. The avouds ' (attorneys) also plead when the number of advocates is not sufficient for the despatch of busi ness. (Code des Avocats ; Code des Of r. iers Ministeriels ; Histoire de P Ordre des Avocats, par Bouchier d'Argis.)