The opinion prevails almost universally in the East that a lawyer can do best in the West.  In some respects he can.  If he cannot do a good deal better, he is not compensated for going.  I had the pleasure of a conversation last summer with one of the most eminent members of the New York bar (Mr. O’Connor), on this very subject.  It was his opinion that western lawyers begin sooner to enjoy their reputation than the lawyers in the eastern cities.  This is true; and results from there being less competition in newer communities.  “A lawyer among us,” said Mr. O’Connor, “seldom acquires eminence till he begins to turn gray.”  Nevertheless, there is no field so great and so certain in the long run, in which one may become really a great lawyer, as in some of our large commercial cities, whether of the East or the West.  To admit of the highest professional eminence there must be a large and varied business; and a lawyer must devote himself almost exclusively to law.  And then, when this great reputation is acquired, what does it amount to?  Something now, but not much hereafter.  The great lawyer lives a life of toil and excitement.  Often does it seem to “break on the fragments of a reviving dream.”  His nerves are worn by the troubles of others; for the exercise of the profession, as has been said by a brilliant lawyer, “involves intimate participation with the interests, hopes, fears, passions, affections, and vicissitudes of many lives.”  And yet merely as a lawyer, he seldom leaves any durable vestige of his fame behind him—­ hardly a fortune.  But if his fame is transient and mortal, there is some equivalent in the pleasure of triumph and the consciousness of power.  There is no man so powerful as the great lawyer.  The wealth and the character of his fellow men often depend upon him.  His clients are sometimes powerful corporations, or cities, or states.  Crowded courts listen to his eloquence year after year; and no one has greater freedom of speech than he.  The orator and politician may be wafted into a conspicuous place for a brief period, and fall again when popular favor has cooled; yet the lawyer is rising still higher, nor can the rise and fall of parties shake him from his high pedestal; for the tenure of his power is not limited.  He is, too, one of the most serviceable protectors of the liberties of his country.  It was as a lawyer that Otis thundered against writs of assistance.  The fearless zeal of Somers, in defence of the seven bishops, fanned the torch of liberty at the beginning of the great English revolution.  Erskine and Brougham did more as lawyers to promote freedom of the press, than as Statesmen.