Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/585

 548

THE GREEN BAG

available, for many are called who never intend to practice. By comparing the esti mates of well-informed judges, barristers, and solicitors, it seems that the legal busi ness of the kingdom is handled by so small a number as from 500 to 800 barristers. One circumstance rather indicates that the popular estimate of fees is above the truth, and that is the acceptance of judgeships by the most eminent barristers, but judicial salaries in England are high — £5,000 — to say nothing of the salaries of the Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor, which are more. Solicitors' clerks occasionally haggle and bargain with barristers' clerks in an undig nified manner, but of this their masters are supposed to be in ignorance. It seems that the matter of fees is some times abused. In the case of a celebrated barrister, now dead, it is whispered that his clerk would receive a retainer of 500 guineas on behalf of the K. C. who would be miss ing upon the case being reached. The clerk would then tell the solicitor's clerk that the K. C. was overcrowded, and he did not believe he could get him into court unless 250 guineas were added to the fee. After grumbling and protesting, the addi tion would be forthcoming, whereupon the clerk would readily find the K. C. strolling in the Temple Gardens and fetch him to court; but this was not regarded as honest and the story itself is doubted. COHESION OF THE PROFESSION. One of the most striking features of the English bar — in fact of the legal profession which includes the solicitors — is its great cohesion. The profession is tightly bound together in one compact body, which commands the public respect which is its due, determines the status of its members by elevating the worthy, disciplining the unworthy, casting off and excluding the impossible. To begin with, every barrister hails from some Inn. Whether he be an Inner Temple

man, a Middle Temple man, a Lincoln's Inn man, or a Gray's Inn man, he has "eaten his dinners" whilst reading, and still dines at intervals at his Inn. He looks up to the benchers of his Inn, who are the governing body and who, at the stated dinners, dine at a slight elevation at the end of the historic hall. Later, he may him self, as a bencher, look affectionately down at the juniors at his Inn. His preceptor's chambers were, and his own now are, in some ramshackle old house in a crooked street within the general quarter of the town known as his Inn. He resorts to his Inn library for books he has not got. In short, he belongs to his Inn for life with all the enthusiasm of a university man's loy alty to his alma mater. His rise is almost wholly dependent upon professional — not public —• reputation. He knows lawyers are the best judges of a lawyer's skill. The worst ill which can befall him is professional oblivion or ostracism. At the head of this coherent body is a lawyer, dispensing the opportunity for ad vancement; for it is the Lord Chancellor who converts lawyers into judges and creates king's counsel. He, with the Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls, in rota tion, appoint the masters to their coveted positions. Juniors select devils from the most promising young men. Finally, leaders, juniors, and the whole bar look to the trained observation of the solicitor for approval and employment. This strongly knit body not only dis ciplines its members for actual misconduct, but enforces by hearing and mandate the observance of etiquette and strict propriety by censuring the slightest departure. An almost incredible and rather absurd example of the extent to which this may be carried, which was laughed at by the English bar, was the occasion of an investigation of the charge that a barrister about to leave town had recommended another barrister to a solicitor — the objection apparently was that such an act might savor of cooperation