Capital law, Sir Gervaise; had it from the baron--first hand." Now, one of the peculiarities of England is, that, in the division of labour, few know any thing material about the law, except the professional men.

Even their knowledge is divided and sub-divided, in a way that makes a very fair division of profit.

Thus the conveyancer is not a barrister; the barrister is not an attorney; and the chancery practitioner would be an unsafe adviser for one of the purely law courts.

That particular provision of the common law, which Baron Wychecombe had mentioned to his brother, as the rule of the _half-blood_, has been set aside, or modified, by statute, within the last ten years; but few English laymen would be at all likely to know of such a law of descent even when it existed; for while it did violence to every natural sentiment of right, it lay hidden in the secrets of the profession.

Were a case stated to a thousand intelligent Englishmen, who had not read law, in which it was laid down that brothers, by different mothers, though equally sons of the founder of the estate, could not take from each other, unless by devise or entail, the probability is that quite nine in ten would deny the existence of any rule so absurd; and this, too, under the influence of feelings that were creditable to their sense of natural justice.