Lawyers have seldom had a good press. According to Shelley's father-in-law, William Godwin, a lawyer could 'scarcely fail to be a dishonest man', though that, he added, was 'less a subject for censure than regret'. Shelley's friend and biographer, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, being himself a barrister, could not go quite so far, but his verdict was almost as sweeping:

LRB 23 March 1995 | PDF Download