13 JUNE 1958, Page 19

is strange that Mr. Constantine Gallop should c onsider it necessary

to reply to a moderate, reasoned and thoughtful letter like. Mr. Blom-Cooper's with a Personal attack that would be offensive if it were not rather pathetic. Such discourtesies amongst the gentry at the Bar are rare; can it be that Mr. Gallop '(of 1 Essex Court, Temple, rather than the Reform Club), nil° has the intellectual attainments (Certificate of -Tin our, Barslow Scholar Studentship, BCL, LLB), Her '" the seniority (called 1914) and the eminence (one of even :

aiesty's Counsel) to have become a Judge, and

v

en Perhaps the Lord Chief Justice, feels overlooked or neglected? It was surely the pity of that clever Mr. Levin's

ar

bele that he could not resist the thrill of an under-

graduate attack on the person of the Lord Chief JUstice so that the really serious matter contained in the article was so easily overlooked. That is that our system provides that an elderly gentleman who has s pent thirty to forty years of his professional life in °Ining an expert in Income Tax, Defamation, or

Patent Law is overnight expected to be an expert in penology as well. A fairly average criminal trial at assize may take three days; the time taken to recount to the Judge the facts about the convicted prisoner on which he must decide on his sentence is nearer three minutes. It was not Mr. Justice Avory who 'was at fault, but those legislators who did nothing to change the system under which he worked.

If one compares the letters of 1/1r. Gallop and `Psychiatrist' in your same number one realises that foolish frivolity is not the monopoly of youth.— Yours faithfully,