IT was a frequent source of complaint that there were too many attorneys, so that pettifogging practice was inevitable. It is obviously impossible to estimate how many attorneys would have been sufficient for any district, but it may be suggested that the figures put forward by the critics of the profession were generally too low, and failed to take into account the growing complexity of English society. The returns made to the House of Commons under the 1729 Act stated that there were 2236 attorneys of the Court of Common Pleas, 893 of the Court of King's Bench, and 1700 solicitors in Chancery. These figures, however, are probably not accurate, and they do not take account of the fact that many men were accredited in all three courts. Some information is available in the various town and county directories, but, again, this is hardly reliable as to numbers. The Law Lists do not begin until 1775, and these too, in the early stages, are obviously incomplete, omitting many attorneys, and containing the names of some who were not on the Roll. Browne's Law List was replaced by Hughes's in 1798. John Hughes was an official of the Stamp Office, and had access to the returns made to that office under the act of 1785 which introduced the annual practising certificate. The volume for 1798 is clearly incomplete, but by 1800 these lists, in so far as they tally with the Stamp Office returns, are the most accurate source available for names and numbers of attorneys. In the lists that follow, the numbers of attorneys in certain towns are given for the years 1790 and 1800. These figures are derived from the Law Lists, and I am grateful to the council of the Law Society for letting me examine these and other volumes in their library in Chancery Lane. The towns selected were not chosen with any special purpose in mind; they are merely the towns for which, for one reason and another, I happened to want this information.