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 The Hall of Four Courts.

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no man hath hired him. Even these, too, sion when the tenure of its present Chief congregate more in the Library; and the shall cease. Few doubt that Palles is the days are few when the visitor would en last of the Barons of the Court, and that one counter Shell's difficulty in threading the more " ancient form of party strife " is crowd, or stand dazed at " the tumult of doomed. some thousand voices in ardent discussion." At the top of a spiral staircase, at the far It is only since the time of O'Connell that end of the Hall, is the Library, — a long the gossips have ceased to come; and the building, with galleries atop, in which sit fathers of the bar, laudatores temporis acti, those Chamber lawyers who wish to escape from the dust and din still tell of the crowd - below. The first thing that thronged round to strike the visitor is the " Kerry council the Babel of tongues, lor " as he talked, sufficient, one would and of the bustle and laughter that filled the think, to make consul place, while they quote tation difficult and Tom Moore as only an work impossible. There is a throng of Irishman can : — barristers running to "I feel like one and fro, some to seek Who treads alone places at the crowded, Some banquet hall de serted; littered tables, others Whose lights are fled, to search for missing Whose garlands dead, bags or books, others And all but he departed." in answer to the sten The groups one sees torian hail of the door now are of the ordi keeper, whoannounces nary work-a-day sort. that a visitor seeks an Barrister and solicitor interview. At one end are in close consulta of the building is a tion, while the client small wing, supposed tries hard to catch to be set apart for the amidst the legal jargon Chancery Bar. But the THE COURT OP CHANCERY some details of his insidious Nisi Prius case. There is a small man haslongagoestabcloud of witnesses, and a sprinkling of jurors. lished a right to enter, and holds his consul Here and there a junior barrister runs (a tations with his fellows, hard by the Equity junior never walks, lest the observer think lawyers, deep in black letter amidst the din. that the Court is not waiting for him), or a The outside world is not admitted here; the senior passes with less haste and more dig solicitor, though he be the bearer of a brief, nity, from door to door. It should be said must have his barrister summoned to him, here that the name of Four Courts is now and adjourn to the Hall for further discussion. become, in some sort, a misnomer. From the gallery one looks down on a Besides the establishment of some minor legal microcosm. One hears the keen-eyed, tribunals, the Court of Common Pleas has! ready-witted advocate fight his battles o'er now become Queen's Bench No. II., and the i again, orteil the latest gossip of the Circuits. Exchequer is probably doomed. The ques ' or the last good story from the Courts. And tion of its abolition is to come under discus- the grave Chamber lawyer,