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The Barristers of Toulouse in the Eighteenth Century (1740-1793)

1977; Oxford University Press; Volume: 82; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1865203

1937-5239

Ralph E. Giesey, Lenard R. Berlanstein,

Historical and Literary Studies

With its tribunals and law school, Toulouse was the legal city par excellence.In one corner of the city stood the Palace of the august Parlement.This was the second Sovereign Court of the kingdom in age and extent of jurisdiction, the court of last resort for an immense area encompassing fourteen present-day departments.The Parlement re ceived cases on appeal from fifteen seneschal-presidial courts, ten seneschal courts, and thirty-one royal jurisdictions. 4 Near another end of Toulouse stood the University, whose heart was the Law Faculty.Between the Parlement and the University were the numerous tribu nals which, though far humbler than the Parlement, were nonetheless active.These included the Seneschal-Presidial Court of Toulouse, the Mastery of Waters and Forests, the Salt-Tax Court (Grenier a sel), the Court of Coinage (Gour des Monnaies), the Municipal Tribunal, the Merchants' Court (Bourse des Marchands), the Bureau of Fi nances, and numerous others.The judicial institutions of Languedoc were heavily concentrated •in Toulouse; 5 they gave the city its profound sense of being a capital.No great commercial center, Toulouse depended on its courts and university to animate its economic life.Litigants traveling to the city required lodging, food, drink, paper, pens, and innumerable other items.So did the students who, by the end of the Old Regime, were coming in such large numbers.It was thus understandable that in 1789 the aldermen (capitouls) of Toulouse viewed the possible suppression of the Parlement with apprehension, claiming that the city's "princi pal resources, its unique means of work and existence, were founded on the great current of strangers whom the pursuit of cases and studies attracted here." 6Revolutionary administrators would seek unsuccess fully to create a textile industry in order to generate revenue formerly provided by the Parlement. 7 If these secondary and incidental expenditures of the litigants were important to the Toulousan economy, so too were the sums spent directly upon the legal procedure.A myriad of people were attached to the courts by profession.There were over 140 magistrates in Toulouse, including the 100 at the Parlement.Nearly 300 barristers and 120 attorneys (procureurs) handled the cases of the parties.Many barristers had secretaries, and almost all attorneys had one or two clerks. 8To 'Eugene Lapierre, Le Parlement de Toulouse, son ressort, ses attributions, et ses archives (Toulouse, 1869), pp.8-9.5 The Cour des aides in Montauban and the Cour des comptes in Montpellier were exceptions, but both lacked the eclat of the Parlement.6 A.M., AA-95, "Deliberations prises par le Conseil ... le 26 novembre 1789," p. 10. 'Henri Causse, "Un industriel toulousain au temps de la Revolution et de !'Empire," Anna/es du midi 69 (1957): 121-33.8 For a study of these clerks and secretaries, see Maurice Gresset, "Les practiciens a Besanc;:on au demier siecle de l'ancien regime," Anna/es de demographie historique, 1970, pp.231-36.of arousing public opinion in the client's favor. 39These printed briefs brought the advocate to the attention of a circle much wider than the officers of the court.The most learned memoires were collected in the libraries of advocates and magistrates.If the barrister used his expertise to defend private interests through pleading and instructing, a third important function, arbitration, was a sort of public service.Parties who wished to avoid an open airing of their differences often sought a private, amicable settlement through arbitration. 40This was a practice especially common in family quar rels.Disputing parties were not compelled by law to select barristers as arbiters, 41 but the fact that they almost always did so indicates the high level of public confidence that barristers enjoyed.42 Only with a reputation for insight and impartiality could they have imposed a settlement as arbiters.Consultation may have been the professional function barristers performed most frequently, and at its highest level, it was another public service of considerable importance and prestige.Barristers had no monopoly over the mundane matters of consultation: the proper way to compose a will, foreclose a mortgage, and so on.Toulousans could seek such advice from notaries, attorneys and a host of minor practitioners.But for the more abstruse legal problems, barristers were the final resort.In important cases, several barristers were consulted jointly, and their opinion had authoritative weight in a suit. 43A few especially learned and scholarly barristers specialized in consultation, and distinguished pleaders often retired to this activity after a long and successful career in the court chambers.These "consulting barristers" were recognized as the leading legal minds of the city and region, and they were honored as such.Colleagues customarily called upon these revered colleagues for advice when working on a difficult case.Magis trates, too, sought their help for solutions to intricate legal questions.The Parlement rewarded them with special honorific privileges, and if a chamber ever lacked the required number of magistrates, a consulting barrister would temporarily sit on the Jleur-de-lys bench.44Consulting barristers served not only clients and colleagues but also the law itself, by helping the magistrates to preserve and interpret it.In this age before legal journals systematically collected judicial deci sions, much of the jurisprudence of the Parlement would have been 59