ADVOCATE (Lat. advocates, one called to aid, from ad, to-}- rorarc, to call). In the time of Cicero the term advocates was not applied to the patron or orator who pleaded in public, but rather, in strict accordance with the etymology of the word, to any one who in any piece of busi ness was called in to assist another. Ulpian de fined an advocate to tic any person who aids an other in the conduct of a suit or action (Digest 50, title 13), and in other parts of the Digest it is used as equivalent to an orator (see also Aunal., x. 6), so that the word would seem gradually to have assumed its modern meanirw. The office of the advocate or barrister who conducted the cause in public was, in Rome, altogether distinct from that of the procurator, or attorney, or agent who represented the per son of the client in the litigation, and furnished the advocate with information regarding the filets of the case. The distinction between these two occupations is still observed in Great Brit ain, hut in many of the states of Germany, in Geneva, in the United States, and in some of the British colonies. as, for example, in Canada, they are united in the same person. In England and Ireland advocates are called barristers, un der which title will be found a statement of the duties and responsibilities which the advocate 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. In France the arorat and arrrue correspond very nearly to the barrister and attorney in England. The French advocate is simply a free man who has graduated in law and possesses the privi lege of addressing the tribunals. The advocates who practice in each court form a separate col lege, admission to which can he obtained only with the approval of those who are already Mein hers. The French advocate possesses the same privileges as to irresponsibility for his :olvice, and for the facts contained in I& which belong to members of the corresponding Manch of the legal profession in Great Britain. As he has no action for his fees, they are re quired to he paid in advance. Ili; functions correspond to those of the counsel, as distin guished from the attorney-at-law. in the l'uited States. In Belgium, in Geneva. and also in those of the German States in which the Code on has been adopted, the organization and discipline of this branch of the legal profession are to those which prevail in Frame. in the other German States, with the exception of Saxony. the formation of the advocates into a body has been perseveringly resisted by the governments. See ATTORNEY.