* * * *
Successful banisters, accustomed to influence twelve good men and true, have powers of suasion over that larger jury, the reading public, which many a professional writer must envy ; there are few volumes of legal reminiscences without their " plums " of anecdote and adventure. Mr. Edward Abinger's Forty Years at the Bar (Hutchinson, 18s.) is full of exciting scenes, such as the author's dramatic last-minute intervention in the case of Stinie Morrison, Lord Carson in the disrobing. room after his cross-examination of Oscar Wilde, a murderer trying to kill his accomplice in dock while the jury consider their verdict, Lord Russell of Killowen's defence of Parnell, and King Edward in the witness-box in the card- sharping case that convulsed Victorian society. Nor are the' Law Courts the only scene of action : Mr. Abinger has been in burning houses, runaway hansoms and disabled ships ; he tells his stories with a just economy of words and a lively sense of humour.
Previous page
