VEXATIOUS REGULATIONS AT THE INNER TEMPLE.
nowt the statement of a project which has been going the circuit of the press, we should infer that the Benchers of the Inner Temple had suddenly suffered the misfortune of losing their wits. It is asserted that they are about to institute examinations in Greek and Latin, and as the conditions of admission to the bar, to require of students a classical, lite- rary, and pecuniary qualification. Considcrin,g how much time is already wasted in classical studies, the first proposal, which would
carryqhe fault a step further, is of conspicinus barbarity. They had better require evidence of competent skill in quadrilles, and turn the hall into a dancing-academy. If vexation is to be the order of the day, let it take a direction out of the schoolboy and college track. Let students be required to stand on their heads, dance sarabands on stilts— anything but another act of the surfeit of Greek and Latin. Look at some of the most eminent lawyers of our day, and reflect how surely they would have grounded for life on a classical examination. We could instance half a dozen who could not translate a fable of PrirE- DRUS, nevertheless they are crack craftsmen though wretched scholars. A late practitioner, of a great lead of business in the King's Bench, had a celebrity for the profundity of his errors in the learned tongues, and his application for two mandami is one of the standing jokes of the bar. But nevertheless he was a good lawyer, and good lawyers, not good scholars, are the persons wanted in the profession. The writer of an able article on this subject observes--
"The proposed examination in Greek is universally treated with indigna- tion, as at least an outrageous absurdity, to say nothing of any sinister effect. Not a word of Greek is ever met with in the books, and as an essential quali- fication for an English lawyer, a proficiency in the Sancrit might as well be required. Greek is seldom or never heard in the Courts. Latin is heard but sparingly, and of that which is quoted from the law-books, a large pro- portion must be admitted to be bad Latin.'\ There is even a rule of law from the former frequency of its occurrence, that bad Latin shall not vitiate any of the proceedings. Some of the best lawyers, and amongst them several now living, might be pointed out who have not always succeeded in making good English. * * * The effect of the proposed legal examinations would be to give an immense accession of patronage to the Benchers or the leading members of the Bar. Where difficulties are placed in the way of admission, there must be continual applications and solici- tations from families of rank to those who have the power to remove the obstructions and make easy the road to advancement. * * It has been stated as the declared intention of more than one of the mem- bers to call no one to the Bar who is not possessed of a certain amount of property. One Bencher has, it is understood, declared that he will call no one who is possessed of less than 400/. per annum ; and it was stated during the last Term to be in contemplation to require from each applicant for ad- mission a schedule of his property, in order that the respectability of the Bar might be maintained. It is stated, however, at the Treasurer's Office, that no such order is at present entered on the books. It is nevertheless believed, from the inquiries made of those recently called to the Bar, that an under- standing equivalent to an order exists amongst the Benchers that some quali- fications of this nature will be required. One member, the son of a trades- man, was remanded, as it was understood in the Hall, until it was ascertained that he had exercised no profitable employment, and had lived upon his pro. perty during the time he kept his Terms. Another member, recently called to the Bar, was questioned as to his private life and circumstances, his pro- perty, his morals, whether he was married or single, and as to his religioa."
As for the project of demanding a pecuniary qualification, it would be a monstrous and a wicked absurdity. The drudgery of the study of law is so distasteful, that not one man in fifty who can subsist with- out professional success will apply himself to it ; and the exclusion of industrious poverty would seem at once a mischief and a crime.
We again quote from the article which has so ably stated the bear- ings of these meditated innovations :—
" If such regulations as those proposed had formerly been carried into operation in their full spirit, they would have excluded the greatest ornaments
of the Bench and the Bar. Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell'' are the sons of a barge master, and small dealer in coals at Newcastle. Lord Stowell borrowed 40/. to go to the Circuit, and both supported themselves for a time by their
talents as private tutors. Lord Tenterden is the son of a hairdresser, and obtained an eleemosynary education, on the foundation of a charity belong- ing to the town. The Lord Chancellor is the son of Mr. Copley the painter. The Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas is the son of an attorney. Mr. John Williams, one of the Benchers of his Inn, is the son of a horse- dealer in Yorkshire. Mr. F. Pollock, another Bencher, is the son of a saddler of that name at Charing-cross. Mr. Bickersteth, also a Bencher, was not long since house-surgeon and accoucheur in the family of Lord Clifford. The mother of Mr. Gurney, the Bencher, kept a small book shop for the sale of pamphlets in one of the Courts in the City. Mr. Campbell, the King's Counsel, and son-in-law to Sir James Scarlett, was a reporter to a Daily Paper, at a time when such labour was much worse paid than at present. Mr. Sergeant Spankie was one of his colleagues. Mr. Stephens, the Master in Chancery, was also a reporter. Five of the Judges sent out to our colo- nies were reporters, and about twelve or fifteen of the present barristers were reporters for the Daily Papers. The present Solicitor-General, Mr. Sugden, is the son of a barber, and was clerk to Mr. Groome, the operative conveyancer to the late Marquis of Londonderry. It is remarkable- that the admission of Mr. Sugden was opposed on the ground that he had been a clerk; and but for the exertions of that most amiable man, and ornament to his profession, Mr. Hargrave, who contended for his admission, on the ground, that whatever he had been, he was a man of talent and had written a book which displayed qualifications of a superior order, he would now have been anything but Sir Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, Solicitor-General to his Majesty. These are only a few of the living examples. The greater number, perhaps, of the departed members of the profession, who became distinguished in their times, arose much in the same manner. Chief Justice Saunders, whose
Reports, to this day, form the best text-books to pleaders, was a beggar-boy, firsttaken notice of by an attorney, who took him into his office. Lord Kenyon was an attorney's clerk. Lord Harwicke was a peasant, and afterwards an attorney's writer and office-boy. Lord Thurlow, himself an illustration of his own rifle, used to say, that the surest cause of success to a barrister was " parts and poverty." When Erskine and Curran once dined with his pre- sent Majesty, then Prince of Wales, the Prince gave as a toast, "The liar." Erskine said, he owed everything to the Bar; and Curran added, "Then what may I say, since it has raised me from the condition of a peasant to the table of my Prince ?"
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