Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/490

 The Law and Lawyers of Thackeray. ing beer like a coalheaver, and yet you couldn't but perceive that he was a gentle man.'' But poor Warrington was quite devoid of ambition, legal or otherwise. He was quite content to earn his bread by contributing to the "Law Review" and doing miscellaneous newspaper work. Warrington might easily have climbed high in the legal world, with his strong sense and scholarship, but for the false step which ruined his life. Two or three other barristers appear in the pages of" Pendennis " — Percy Sibwright, that young gal lant, whose wig Miss Laura Bell tried on upon one occasion; and Mr. Bangham, who "did not come to chambers thrice a term, and went a circuit for those mysterious rea sons which make men go circuit." We take leave of " Pcndennis " with regret. To the real lover of Thackeray, the memories of the Temple which come first to mind are not those of Goldsmith, or Johnson, or Lamb, but of Arthur Pendennis and George War rington, and the rest of the little circle which gathered in the dingy old chambers in Lamb court. "The Adventures of Philip " is not one of Thackeray's great novels. It contains much good work, and has all his old charm of style, but it has many faults, both techni cal and artistic. Thackeray did not care to invent a new type of hero, and so Philip Firmin is really only a combination of Clive Newcome and Arthur Pendennis. Like Clive Newcome in appearance (tawny beard, blue eyes, etc.), he resembled Arthur Pen dennis in that he, too, was a member of the legal profession, who dabbled in literature for daily bread, and refused to take his law seriously. " Like many another gentleman who has no intention of pursuing his legal studies serjously, Philip entered at an Inn of Court, and kept his terms duly, though he vowed his conscience would not allow him to practice. His acquaintance lay among the Temple Bohemians." It was not his conscience, we fear, but his indolent, easy

455

going temperament which was the obstacle. In due time he was called to the bar, and we have an account of his call supper in Parchment Buildings. But Philip was not the man to settle down to a steady " grind." True, he got one brief at the parliamentary bar, which nearly scared him to death! He passed a night of frightful torture in the committee-room. During the night, he says, his hair grew gray. His old college friend and comrade, Pinkerton, coached him on the day previous; and, indeed, it must be owned that the work which he had to per form was not of a nature to impair the in side or outside of his skull. A great^nan was his leader: his friend Pinkerton fol lowed; and all Mr. Philip's business was to examine half a dozen witnesses by ques tions previously arranged between them and the agents." Philip Firmin was destined never to become a shining light of the law, and we heave a sigh of relief when, in the last chapter, he obtains possession of a for tune. " The Adventures of Philip " also con tains an account of police-court proceedings. The Rev. Tufton Hunt, when arrested for being drunk and disorderly, complains to the magistrate that a bill of exchange, ac cepted by Philip Firmin, has been stolen from him. (The bill was forged by Philip's father, and was actually abstracted from Hunt by "the little sister.") Philip de posed that he had not accepted any bill of exchange, and the case was dismissed. Turning for a moment to Thackeray's miscellaneous works, it will be remembered that " The Book of Snobs " is, on the con fession of the author, incomplete. The great deed was too great for one man, and many varieties had to be passed over. It is just possible, of course, that there are no snobs in the legal profession, but we rather think that Thackeray on "Legal Snobs" would have, been very good reading. As it is, he merely hints at the snobbishness of lawyers' ladies in the following passage, taken from the chapter on " Continental Snobs " : " That