9 JUNE 1883, Page 12

THE BARRISTERS' AGITATION.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:] SIR,—The letter signed "A Member of the Junior Bar," in your issue of Saturday last, is, I am afraid, of a nature likely to arouse unnecessary misapprehensions, if allowed to pass without comment.

The new Bar Committee is not designed to be a "Trades Union," nor is there any ground for the conjecture that the recent pronouncement of the Attorney-General upon the point of etiquette referred to by your correspondent was made in response to its inquiries, or at the instigation of its members. It will be an object of the Committee, no doubt, to protect the Bar, wherever and whenever it is necessary to do so; but there ought to be, and there need be, no antagonism between the two great branches of the profession. Each is necessary to the other, and both to the public.

On the contrary, it is to be hoped that the formation of a Committee thoroughly 'representative of the whole Bar, and with whom the Incorporated Law Society may be able to confer upon the various matters affecting both branches of the profession which from time to time arise, will do much to dissipate any unworthy feelings of jealousy or animosity which may have been silently gaining hold and strength under the old regime.

In reply to a somewhat common sneer levelled at lawyers, which has been repeated by a certain portion of the Press since the present movement took shape, let me point out that there is no profession or class in the country so strongly represented in Parliament which has shown itself so entirely disinterested in the matter of legislation as the Bar of England.—I am, Sir, T. C. EEDDERWICK, • Hon. Secretary of the Provisional Bar Committee. 2 Mitre Court Buildings, Temple, E.G., June 4th.