Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/544

 "Grand Day" ai an Inn of Court. . Ahab his father, Jehovah laid this burden upon him. ' Surely I have seen this day the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' saith Jehovah, ' and I will requit thee in this very plat.'" The words here put into the mouth of the prophet Elijah, threatening divine vengeance for Ahab's crime, probably expressed the in dignation of the people at the enormity of the offense, and at the prostitution of justice by the King and Queen. It was such un lawful assumption of authority on the part of

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the Kings that prevented the monarchy from flourishing in Israel. The old customs and laws which had been temporarily placed in abeyance during the reign of the Kings were revived immediately upon the fall of the Kingdom, and after the return of the Israel ites from the Babylonian captivity, and still later, after the destruction of the second temple by Titus, the reign of law revived and reestablished itself among the ancient people.

GRAND DAY" AT AN INN OF COURT. BY LAWRENCE IRWELL. MANY Americans have a very indistinct idea of English legal functions in general, but more especially of legal festivi ties, such as the precise share which "eating dinners" has in qualifying a student for the bar, the traditional fun of a circuit mess, and so forth. In addition, many persons, not only here, but in England, wonder how it is that men addicted to such grave pursuits as those followed by the members of the bar, are so much given to mirth and jollity and costly festivity. The answer to this is that, just in proportion to the mental tension superinduced by the demands of their call ing, is the recoil of their minds in an exactly opposite direction after that tension. Assuming, then, that the barristers of the Inn of Court, to which I belong, are not only a learned and laborious, but also, at suitable times, a convivial body of men, I propose to describe the proceedings in the Hall on the evening of a day when legal conviviality is believed to reach its culminating point, namely, on what is known as "Grand Day." I may mention that during each of the four legal terms there is a Grand Day, but the Grand Day of Trinity Term is the grand est of them all, and is styled " Great Grand

Day." Also, that these days are observed in each of the four Inns of Court, namely, Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple. Trinity Term be gins on May 2Oth and ends on June igth, under ordinary circumstances. I assume that the Grand Day which I am about to describe takes place during this term at an Inn which, for reasons well known to every barrister, I shall call Blackstone's Inn. It is a splendid summer evening, and as we approach our noble old Hall, both I and my companion soon perceive that something unusual is taking, place. There is the crim son cloth laid down for the distinguished guests who are always invited upon these occasions; and near the entrance there is a little knot of spectators of all kinds, from the elderly gentleman to the newspaper boy. The carriages are beginning to arrive; and it is time to go inside the Hall. But there is something to be done before we get there. We must first enter one of the ante-rooms. Here there is a great crush owing to the invariable preliminary to every dinner at an Inn of Court — tbe "robing," as it is called; for benchers, barristers and students are all required to dine in gowns.