SERJEANT BALLANTINE'S EXPERIENCES.* THESE volumes are chatty and pleasant reading,
and they have this recommendation for those who are fond of light reading, that they may be opened equally well at almost any page. Their contents are thrown together without any attempt at anything like systematic arrangement, so that we find what ought to have been the preface imbedded in the middle of the second volume ; an anomaly of which the author is thoroughly conscious, and confesses with droll naivete. He "rarely kept a diary, and only interjectionally, at long intervals and for short periods, and then only of private matters." Then "his mind is naturally of an irregular type," so that "the circumstances that come into it during the progress of his book refuse to maintain any order, and defy every endeavour to. preserve the dates." He admits, indeed, that it might be just possible for him, if he really tried, to arrange his materials with more regard to order ; but that would require a degree of indus- trious application which, he says, is foreign to his nature. The result would certainly be an "orderly book ;" but, on the other hand, "my identity would be lost, and so, if my details are con- fusing, I must throw myself upon the mercy of my readers, and ask them to pity my infirmities." Notwithstanding this self- depreciation, however, there is a good deal of method in the book, which also furnishes abundant evidence that the learned Serjeant is not so incapable of industrious effort as he would.
have us believe. Serjeant Ballantine criticises with can- dour a great variety of things and persons, but his criticisms. are thoroughly good-natured, and his book is written in a genial and kindly spirit throughout. The only person whom he treats with anything like malice is the late Lord Campbell, whom he cannot forgive for having once spoken of Serjeants' Inn in lan- guage which the author does not consider sufficiently respectful'. It is evident that Campbell, for whatever reason, was no favourite with the Seijeants. Serjeant Storks, we are told, "used to say that Lord Campbell had got on as much by trickery as by real merit, and that he was the greatest jobber that had ever flourished at the Bar." We cannot say, however, that we think the accusation even colourably proved by the" one instance of his accomplishment in this capacity" which " Storks used to relate," namely, "that in his reports Campbell, for the first time, published the names of the attorneys in the various cases," albeit that fact may have "led to useful introductions." The relatives of Lord Campbell need not blush for him, if no more damaging case of jobbing- than this can be proved against him. It is fair to add, however, that Serjeaut Ballantine does full justice to the learning and judicial capacity of Lord Campbell, though even here he is tempted to remark that Lord Campbell's judgments as Chief Justice "are greatly indebted." to the aid which he got from Lord Blackburn. With this exception, however—and it is not a flagrant one —Serjeant Ballautine's Experiences overflow with goodwill and kindliness, not only to his fellow-creatures of the human race, but even to the inferior animals. He is a strong anti-vivisectionist, and delivers himself of some acute observa- tions on the subject. He maintains—and we agree with him— that the deliberate infliction of torture on dumb animals could not be justified, even if it could be proved to result in benefit to the human race. But Serjeant Ballantine, after a careful examination of the evidence on both sides, is convinced that the alleged benefits from experiments in vivisection are extremely problematical. There are confessedly so many differences be- tween the brain action of man and that of the inferior animale, that experiments made upon the one kind of brain may evenbe mislead- * &Me atPiri4IMS +la Barrister's Life. By Yr. Serjeant Ballantine. 2 vole. London : Bentley and Son. 1882.
ing in the case of the other. Serjeant Ballantine also contrasts the conflicting statements of eminent surgeons on this subject. Sir J. Paget, for example (than whom no more humane man lives), has stated that the use of anaesthetics, and the Hunterian discovery of tying up arteries, are due to vivisection. Sir W. Fergusson, on the contrary, declares that "all the experiments upon the lower animals have been performed" since the use of anass- thetics has been ascertained, and that Hunter's first experiments in tying arteries were made on the human patient. While on the subject of doctors, we may quote an interesting illustration of Sir Astley Cooper's acuteness of observation. Called to give evidence in a case of murder, he inferred, from the position of the dead man's body at the time and from the direction of the wound, that the shot was fired by a left-handed man. The accused assured his counsel that he was not left-handed, but, when called upon to plead, held up his left hand.
Serjeant Ballantine's experience is not favourable to the oath system as a safeguard of truthfulness in Courts of Justice. His experience is that "perjury is greatly on the increase," and that "the feeling of sanctity that probably once attached to an oath becomes deadened, in the minds of those who are taking it every day." Our own conviction is that the effect of the oath system has been to depress the general level of truthfulness all . round. Very fallacious inferences are sometimes drawn upon this subject. We remember, for instance, a recent speech of the present Bishop of St. Alban's on this subject. He related the case of a young couple who had once applied to him for a marriage licence. The young man represented himself and his companion as both of full age. Before signing the licence, however, the Bishop asked, "On your oath before God, is all that you have told me true ?" "If you put me on my oath," was the reply, "it is all false." And the good Bishop considered this a striking illustration of the value of the oath system. To our minds the incident suggests an opposite conclusion. What it really did prove was that the young man thought there was no harm in telling a deliberate falsehood, so long as he was not on his oath. Another conclusion to which Mr. Serjeant Ballantine's experience has led him is that " a thoroughly innocent person" is rarely convicted. Juries may sometimes convict without sufficient technical evidence, but it is generally in cases where there is moral certainty of guilt. One exception, however, wears to him, namely, in the case of "charges preferred by women against the opposite sex." "The tears of a good-looking girl efface arguments of counsel and the suggestions of reason," and Serjeant Ballantine "has seen many grave errors com- mitted by juries," to the ruin of "many innocent people."
Serjeant Ballantine naturally devotes a good deal of space to the two most famous trials in which he has been professionally engaged, namely, the Tichborne Claimant's suit and the trial of the Gukwar of Baroda. Serjeant Ballantine declines to give any opinion of his own on Arthur Orton's claim, but it is not difficult to infer it, notwithstanding. He evidently does not believe in the Claimant's story, but thinks that it was sufficiently plausible to ensure his acquittal at the second trial, if his cause had been conducted by a more skilful and prudent advocate than Dr. Kenealy, who made the fatal mistake of undertaking to prove his client to be Sir Roger Tichborne, instead of throw- ing on the prosecution the onus of proving him guilty of perjury. He plainly distrusts the evidence for the tattooing of Sir Roger, and thinks that it must have broken down under the ordeal of a proper cross-examination, and thereby damaged the prosecu- tion so much as to ensure the Claimant's acquittal. There is one curious circumstance connected with this case which has not received the attention it deserves ; we mean the possibility of forgetting in a comparatively short time a language which one has thoroughly well known, even one's mother-tongue. French was the real Sir Roger Tichborne's mother's tongue, and he spoke it with more ease than English down to the time of his dis- appearance; yet the Claimant could not speak a word of Vrench, after (according to his own story) sixteen years' disuse of that language. This told strongly against him. And yet the writer of this review can testify from his own ex- perience that the thing is quite possible. After sixteen years' disuse of a language with which he was perfectly familiar for the first eighteen years of his life, he discovered, to his surprise and chagrin, that he could not speak it at all, and could understand it with difficulty and very imperfectly. So far, his testimony would be in favour of the Tichborne Claimant ; but on two other points it would be fatal to him. The Claimant—sup- posing him to be Sir Roger—had opportunities of picking up his French again, but it did not come back to him, and his pro- nunciation of French words betrayed no lingering echo of a forgotten language. On the other hand, the present writer found the recovery of his lost tongue an easy matter, and his ear never lost the true pronunciation, even while the faculty of speaking the language lay dormant. We believe that a lan- guage acquired in childhood, and spoken for the first eighteen years in life, may be clean forgotten, all except the pronuncia- tion, but may very easily be revived. Serjeant Ballantine is convinced of the Gaekwar's entity innocence of the crime of attempting to poison the British Resident, and he shows clearly enough that there was an entire absence of motive. His sugges- tion is that Colonel Phayre was the dupe of a clique of natives who were bitterly hostile to the Gaekwar, and certainly the facts look strongly that way. The author is unstinted in his praise of Sir Lewis Pelly's courage and tact and judgment; and it occurred to us, while reading his panegyric, that it seems a pity such qualities should be allowed to rust at home. Would it not be possible to find employment in Ireland just now for one or two men trained in India? We cannot help thinking that it would be well to make the experiment of moving out of the old ruts, and trying some new blood and some fresh methods of administration. Sir Lewis Pelly's share in the disastrous Afghan policy of Lord Lytton ought not in fairness to be prejudicial to. him, for he had no part, as far as is known, in the initiation of that policy. His exceedingly interesting book on the Persian Passion Play shows how capable Sir Lewis Pelly is of entering into the feelings and modes of thought of a foreign people—an invaluable quality in a ruler of men.
Serjeant Ballantine's Experiences are interspersed, as might. be expected, with some amusing anecdotes. He was counsel, on one occasion, under somewhat comical circumstances, to Sir Edwin Landseer, who was sued by a fashionable West-end tailor for the price of a coat. The great artist refused to pay, on the ground that the cut and fit of the coat "violated every princi- ple of high art, and he refused to countenance such a devia- tion from its true principles." The coat was produced in Court, and Sir Edwin was invited by the Judge to' try it on. With a wry face he consented, but could not manage to get his arms through the sleeves. He suc- ceeded at last, however, with the help of a Jew tailor, who happened to be on the jury ; "and then stood as if spitted, his back one mass of wrinkles." The Jew, thereupon, was invited to give his opinion, which he did very decidedly against the coat, and Sir Edwin Landseer left the Court in triumph.. Gamekeepers, it seems, are under the impression that good ad- ministration of the law and good shooting do not go together. The author tells a story of a Judge who had a knack of knocking over his game so unfailingly that the gamekeeper would not believe he was a Judge. "He a Judge 1" he exclaimed ; " take my oath he's been a poacher !" The genial Serjeant him- self had some experience of the ready humour of the London "rough." He was recognised on his way to the Derby once, in a carriage with some friends, who had taken the butler with them, arrayed in his white tie. "There goes the Serjeant 1" cried a rough, "with his domestic chaplain." This was only rude humour, but the following retort by Phillipps, Courvoisier's advocate, is really witty. A rival, whose practice he had gradually absorbed, lost his temper one day, and said to Phillipps, who was an Irishman, "You remind me of the three B's,—Blarney, Bully, and Bluster." said Phillipps, "you never complained of my B's till they began to suck your honey." Equally witty, and under more trying circumstances, was the answer of Mr. Merewether, when he stumbled coming out of an insolvent bank, where he had lost some money, and was asked by a friend if he had hurt himself. "Oh nor said he," I have only lost my balance." We will make Serjeant Ballantine a present of, and at the same time conclude our review of his pleazant book with, another story of his friend Merewether, who used to bubble over with fun and humour on the slightest provocation. On a certain occasion, a train, which Merewether had gone to meet, was somewhat late. A testy old gentleman, a stranger to Merewether, got out of all patience at the delay, and exclaimed :—" What an infernal station this is ! They try to irritate one on purpose. Look at those girls in the refreshment-room ; why do they dress them all in black ?" "Don't you know ?" said Merewether, in a most solemn tone of voice, and with an awe-struck look on his face. "No," replied the stranger, in a subdued voice, and looking quite alarmed. "Why," said Merewether," they are in mourning for the late train !"
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