THE LONG VACATION.
rITLY, the pace of progress in England is " killingly slow." Among the good things which the Reform Bill of 1832 was expected to bestow upon its supporters and the country, were cheap law and speedy justice. It took close upon a quarter of a century before any attempt was made to reform judicial procedure, whether in the Courts of Common Law or Chancery. It took twenty years more until the "Courts that were manifold dwindled to divers Divisions of one," thereby avoiding one of the chief causes of delay and expense to suitors. It has taken half a century to bring about any abatement of another of the great legal nuisances, the suspension of all law for a quarter of the year. Now that the abatement has been made, it is a very halting remedy, indeed. The Council of Judges has been educated up to accept, at the dictation of the Lord Chancellor, a reform which it rejected by an overwhelming vote when proposed by the Lord Chief Justice two years ago, and has actually consented to shorten the Long Vacation,—by nearly a fortnight. The sittings are to end on August 12th, instead of the 10th, and are to begin again on October 24th, instead of November 2nd. After the tremendous flourish of trumpets with which the Lord Chancellor's intentions were promulgated in the leading journal, it is somewhat astonishing to find what a poor little result has followed. It is to be supposed that Lord Selborne knew what he was about, and that no better measure could have been extracted from his colleagues on the Bench. But it is to be hoped that neither he nor his colleagues suppose that they have satisfied the public demand in this matter. If a whole month had been bodily cut off the Long Vacation at the end, if the sittings were to begin on October 2nd, in- stead of November 2nd, it is possible that if the public would not have been satisfied completely and for ever, yet it would have had its mouth stopped for a very long time. As it is, in these miserable thirteen days it has only been given enough to make it ask for more.
What the public asks, and has asked for a century, and will continue to ask until it gets a satisfactory answer, is,—Why should there be a Long Vacation at all ? Why for a fifth of the year should there not only be no Courts sitting, but the possibility of preparation for the time when the Courts begin to sit again be denied to suitors or would- be suitors? Why should not only the Judges, but the Registrars and other officials, get ten weeks' holiday at the pub- lic expense, and meanwhile the public themselves not be allowed to carry on their own legal business, and deliver pleadings, and so make their cases ripe for the return of the holiday-makers ?
It cannot be said that Judges alone, of all public servants, require ten or twelve weeks' holiday at a stretch. They, no doubt, work their brains harder than the ordinary Mr. Ten-to-four ; but then they also are paid in thousands, while he is paid in hundreds, and their work has considerably more variety and con- siderably less drudgery than his. Moreover, it is only the Judges of the High Courts who need this lengthy repose. The County- Court Judges, who are made of the same stuff, and work even harder, do not get more than a month or six weeks. But even if the work of the Judges were so tremendous as to need such lengthy relaxation, the holiday ought not to be taken, to the detriment of the public, by the whole body at once. If a Long Vacation be indeed necessary, it should be taken by the Judges in rotation. It may be urged that there are not enough Judges to be able to spare half a dozen at a time. This is, no doubt, true ; but it is a reason for having more Judges, not for taking them all off work together. More Judges, in- deed, are imperatively required. The abolition of the Long Vacation would make the requirement even more apparent than it is. A serious curtailment of it might, for the moment, make the requirement less apparent. But the relief, if any (which, in the present state of the Cause Lists, is doubtful), would only be for the moment. Every improvement in the law, and every increase of facilities given to the suitor, will for a long time to come increase the number of cases and of suitors. But the question of legal vacations must be treated independently of the question of the supply of Judges. The present inadequate staff may be an additional reason for curtailing vacations ; it cannot be an adequate reason for keeping them as they are.
Nor is there may reason why, even if the Courts are shut, there should be a stoppage put to pleadings which are matters between the parties, and would not interfere with the august repose of Judges. It is easy to understand, however, that the Judges are averse to any shortening of the Long Vacation, whether for themselves or others. Having attained to that haven of rest, the Bench, they desire to enjoy their dignity with as much otitnn as possible. Moreover, remember- ing the terrible wear-and-tear which, as leaders of the Bar, they have had to undergo, perhaps beyond all other professional men, they naturally carry with them a notion that the Long Vacation is an ordinance of Providence and a necessity of Nature. But though the exhausted " nature " of Queen's Counsel may require to " know no law " for twelve weeks, it is by no means clear that the hungry junior, the eager solicitor, and the anxious suitor are in need of the same vacuum. The hungry junior, indeed, has not given tongue on the question. He has no means of doing so. But if the silent evidence of his multitudinous presence in the neighbourhood of the Vacation Court can be trusted, he would plump for the abolition of the Vacation, if only because it might lead to a more equal distribution of briefs. The Solicitors have spoken with no uncertain voice in favour of the reform. Indeed, as solicitors mostly hunt in couples, if not in trios or quartets, and can, therefore, always have an alter ego to represent them when away, it is obvious that the closing of the Courts for so many days simply means the loss of so many chances of making money. It is pretended, however, that the anxious suitor is only anxious for his holiday as soon as August comes, and that he would be the first to cry out, if he was dragged back to recover his property or clear his character very long before November. It may be that in days when nearly all England was devoted to agriculture, and wanted to go off and do its harvesting and autumnal ploughing, and the inhabitants of cities could get all their cases beard in a few days of Guild- hall sittings or Assizes, that this pretence was a reality. But it can hardly be put forward as a serious argument to-day. Indeed, the suitor, as represented by the lay Member of Par- liament, has shown dangerous symptoms of rebellion, and of taking the law into his own hands. Two years ago, a motion to curtail the Long Vacation was only defeated in the House of Commons by a few votes. A gallant attack on that institution, led by Mr. H. Fowler, last year, in the debate on the new Rules of Procedure, failed, because the actual motion made would not have had the desired effect, and was made in a House almost wholly consisting of lawyers, not because the sense of the House was against it. In fact, the Long Vacation is advantageous only to a score or two of leading barristers, to her Majesty's Judges, and perhaps to some of those ornamental young gentlemen who call, as it were, at the Bar, on the road to the county bench or a seat in Par- liament. To every one else, it is an obstruction. To the suitors, it is an unmitigated wrong, a delay and denial of justice, clean contrary to the provisions of Magna Charta " in that case made and provided." Nor will it be long before another attack is made on this antiquated institution. The days of the Long Vacation will soon be cut even shorter than they now are. If the Council of Judges do not educate themselves up to the cutting place, as another august council is in the habit of doing, rash and irreverent outsiders may try their own hands at the scissors, and perhaps cut it off altogether. Some way or another, we may be quite sure that the reform will get itself effected, and our sons will wonder how it was that the interests of the many were so long sacrificed to the convenience of the few.
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