Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/532

 The English and American Bar in Contrast. THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BAR IN CONTRAST HALL'S OPINIONS CONSIDERED. Д LTHOUGH the world has become very -*"*• cosmopolitan within the last fifty years, yet nothing testifies so much to the variety of the conditions under which people live on different sides of the Atlantic as the crowds of tourists who are continually seek ing something new and interesting in coun tries away from their own homes. One of the mistakes which the travelling portion of any country is likely to fall into is, that insti tutions which are managed under different ideas or are subject to different customs than those which they find ruling in their own country do not supply the wants for which they are intended, or that there is no necessity for their existence at all. I re member once hearing an animated discussion between a French and American . lady, in which the latter severely commented upon a French custom which she thought limited the freedom of the fair sex in France. She was cut short by this reply from her French friend, " Pourtant, madame, nous sommes françaises, et vous, vous êtes américaines." There are many of your " blue blood " Ameri cans who would be horrified at the sight of a French lady drinking a bottle of claret at her midday or evening meal; and yet in France people would stare in amazement if she were so unorthodox as to drink water. Londoners think that the overhead railway of New York, and its cloud of electric wires are little short of being intolerable. New Yorkers wonder how business is done in London, for they tell you Englishmen have not awakened to the necessity of " rapid transit," although countless trains and thou sands of public conveyances are plying through the great business centres for eigh teen hours out of the twenty-four. It is not then a matter for wonder that English lawyers should find their brethren across the Atlantic mercenary, wanting in dignity, and unprofessional among them

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MR. OAKEY

selves; and that your American " brothers" should wonder at the formal dress and man ners of English lawyers, their cold and logi cal delivery in court, the solemnity of the proceedings before the judge. But English lawyers are under the impression that no where in the world is the administration of justice marked with fewer blemishes than in the home of the common law; and that the entire machinery of the law, such as it is found in England, works with less positive injury to the subject, and with as much ad vantage, as any system of law in any other country on the globe. It is true that in the Old World there are many customs observed, many principles followed, which are supposed to be useful, and which must yield before the answer " Cui bono," by which Mr. Oakey Hall (in the May number of the " Green Bag") wishes to test the custom which allows barristers alone of all other people in the world, to-day, to array themselves in the costume which the courtiers of England and France affected two hundred years ago. May I not ask of the black robe, which the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States alone have the privilege of wearing, "Cui bono? " And if the gown may be used as a mark of distinction, why not the " band" and wig? "Cui bono" the gilt lace and plumed helmets which American officers have not disdained? From our point of view the answer to Mr. Oakey Hall's question may be found in Mr. Bagehot's book on the English Constitution. He points out that there are two parts in our Constitution, each of which discharges its own proper functions, — the working part and the theatrical part. The Queen and Royal Family compose the the atrical part; but I am not aware that it is of any direct utility; and yet no one acquainted with English public feeling will deny that this royal show is of some indirect advan tage in the administration of public affairs.