On Friday week Mr. Asquith was entertained at dinner by
the Bar of England in the Inner Temple Hall. Mr. Asquith, although not the first "practising barrister" who has become Prime Minister, is the first who has combined great distinction at the Bar with the supreme place in politics. It was fitting that he should be entertained and congratulated, not at the customary Circuit dinner, but at a dinner of the whole Bar. It is a common form of humour, as speakers at the dinner reminded one another, to depreciate the "gentlemen of the long robe" and the "nisi prius mind" ; but a profession which has so many of its members in the present Government can afford to smile tolerantly at its mis- guided critics, and it did BO on Friday week. "There is no profession," said Mr. Asquith, "which has done so much to define, to develop, and to defend the liberties of England," and he added that the common law of England is "at once tlo organ and safeguard of English justice and English freedom." Both those statements we believe to be true. For the rest, the entertainment was a delightful example of the famous good-fellowship of the Bar. The speeches were excellent in taste, feeling, and substance. The Bar is naturally and justly proud of Mr. Asquith, and Mr. Asquith in being honoured by the Bar said that he had received "one of the greatest honours of his life."
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