Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/476

 London Legal Letter.

441

LONDON LEGAL LETTER. London, September 1, 1898. NOTHING so conspicuously marks the difference between the barrister's man ner of work in England and the lawyer's life in America as the way in which the summer holidays are respectively regarded in the two countries. In America the actual day of the closing of the term is little observed and certainly marks no event in the busy lawyer's routine of work. He closes his desk when he gets the opportunity for a few weeks' rest and in all probability enjoys that rest only by the sufferance of his part ners, knowing that he will be obliged to come back to keep watch, in turn, while they take their respite. In this country there are no partners and there is no work to be done while the courts are closed. The closing day is a fixed feast, falling always on the twelfth of August, a day sacred to all Englishmen as the beginning of the grouse shooting. This year it fell upon Friday and on that day the massive iron gates were closed at the entrances of the Royal Courts of Justice, and the great building was practically sealed to the outside world, not to be opened again until the last week in October. Still more femarkable was the changed appearance of the courts and squares and lanes of the adjacent neighbor hood, made up of the Inner and Middle Temples and Lincoln's Inns. Here even on Sundays there is ordinarily some life, for many barristers have residential chambers in the upper floors of the buildings, while on week days they are thronged with counsel in wigs and gowns passing to and from the courts, with clients with papers and clerks and office boys and the usual attendants of busy professional men. This was the scene on Thursday, the eleventh; on Friday the twelfth, the courts and squares were as deso late as college buildings the day after a Com

mencement day. Of the thousand or fifteen hundred barristers who make their living, or attempt to make it, by the practice of their profession not a corporal's guard was left. And this corporal's guard was hardly rec ognizable, for those who composed it had doffed the black clothes and the tall hat, which are the invariable parts of a profes sional man's costume in England, and ap peared in sporting garments and straw head gear. It is true that the courts are opened once a week when a vacation judge sits to hear applications for summary relief, but the bar which practices at this weekly court is not only meager as to numbers but is composed for the most part of younger members of the profession, who take this opportunity to pick up work that would otherwise go to their seniors. The length of the vacation is not only a hardship to those who are strug gling to make a living at the bar, but it is a positive denial of justice to many litigants. A writ may be served during the holidays, but for upwards of ten weeks no pleadings can be delivered. The profession does not want so long a period of enforced idleness and laymen, whose cases are delayed and who are caused extra expense by it in more ways than one, have protested against it until it has come to be regarded in the light of a scandal. The reform rests with the judges and the leaders of the bar, many of whom are really overworked, and all of whom have immoderate incomes. To them the relief and recreation is naturally very welcome and the period of leisure is most gratifying. It is, however, not improbable that the agitation for a reduction of the holi days to six or eight weeks will prevail. It will at least result in a modification of the existing rules so that pleadings may be delivered and cases may be prepared for