10 N.C. 355 | N.C. | 1824
This is an application on behalf of two gentlemen to be admitted to the bar of this state, both of whom are aliens: one, it is understood, is now, and has been for some time, x*esident in South Carolina; and the abode of the other has been in this state for a year past; but both have signified their intention to renounce their allegiance to their present sovereign, and to become naturalized citizens, according to the laws of the United States. Their claim to an examination has been asserted on the ground of right; and if the ,act of 1777 shall, according to the usual rules of interpretation, appear to convey a peremptory direction to the Court to examine them, we can only yield obedience to it, however striking might be the mischief and impolicy of such a course of legislation. It is very true, as argued, that the act referred to does not in terms prescribe citizenship as one of the qualifications for admission to the bar; but neither does it profess to enumerate all the qualifications; nor does it appear to be mandatory to the judges to admit upon the applicant’s possessing the qua
■ Whatever discretion resides in the judges, relative to the admission of attornies, ought to be exercised with a view to the advantage and security of the suitors in the several Courts; for to them the licence is a guarantee, that in the opinion of the magistrates signing it, the licentiate is politically, not less than legally and morally, qualified to transact their business. Yet in the event of a war being declared between the United States and any foreign nation or government, the authority under which he practices would not protect the subject of such government, not actually naturalized, « from being apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as an alien enemy,” to the great injury, possibly the ruin of numerous clients. (3 Laws U. 8. 84.) Even the judges of the state themselves might become the instruments of such apprehension and removal out of the state, under the second section of the same law. No one should be presented to the public under the panoply of such a licence, against whom an injured suitor would not have the full benefit of such legal remedy as the laws of the state, provide* in the