In the article ATTORNEY, the substance of the statute 6 and 7 Vict. c. 73, is stated, relating to the qualifications required for the admission on the rolls of the superior courts in England, as well as solicitors as attorneys, the stamp-duties they have to pay, the service of a clerkship, and the examination to be passed. The practitioners in chancery, or courts of equity, are termed "Solicitors," and in the common law-courts, "Attorneys-at-law." Attorneys were first recognised by the statute of Merton, 20 Henry III., in 1235; but solicitors were not mentioned in any statute till the 3 James I. Formerly, in both classes of courts, the proceedings were taken by clerks in court, a limited body of men, to whom the business of the suitors was brought by attorneys or solicitors, so that in each action or suit there were two agents for each litigant, and the expense was largely increased. In the Queen's Bench and the Common Pleas this was reformed; but it was not till 1830 that the Exchequer of Pleas was thrown open to the attorneys. In the Court of Chancery the offices of six-clerk and sworn-clerk were abolished in 1842, and their duties transferred to the solicitors.

The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts in regard to wills and administrations, and divorce and matrimonial causes, was also abolished in August 1857; and attorneys and solicitors, as well as proctors, enabled to practise in the new courts of probate and divorce, with liberty to the proctors to be admitted within a year on the rolls of the courts of law and equity.

Thus the practitioners in all these courts now consist of barristers or advocates, and of attorneys or solicitors, except in the probate and divorce courts, where proctors also are entitled to practise.

A bill is pending in Parliament to establish further tests of the educational qualifications of attorneys and solicitors, and for their better regulation.

(S. M.—M.)