WOMEN AND THE BAR.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—There seems to be some misunderstanding as to the action, or rather inaction, of the Judges in Miss Cave's case; at any rate, some comments assume that they might have compelled the Benchers of Gray's Inn to admit Miss Cave as a student. In truth, they have no power to compel any one of the Inns of Court to admit any woman, or man either. The Court of King's Bench, as long ago as 1825, declined to inter- fere with the discretion of Lincoln's Inn in the case of a man. No one has any more right to be admitted a student of an [nn of Court than to be admitted to a particular College at Oxford or Cambridge. Once admitted, indeed, the student ins an "inchoate right" to be called to the Bar on perform- ing and observing the prescribed conditions, that is, not to be refused his call without grave cause; and there is an appeal to the Judges as visitors as to the sufficiency of any cause alleged by the Benchers for refusing to call an apparently qualified student. As no such right exists at the earlier stage, the Judges had no discretion in the present case ; and if the Lord Chancellor's language is to be taken (which is not clear) as conveying any opinion upon the general question whether it be desirable for women to be admitted as legal practitioners in this country, that opinion was unnecessary and what lawyers call extra-judicial.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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