The barristers are getting restive. We understand that at the
last Liverpool Assizes a case occurred in which the Judge had to interfere between hostile Queen's Counsel of high standing, and in the Common Serjeant's Court, on Tues- day, Mr. Ribton behaved with so much impropriety as to compel the Common Serjeant to adjourn the Court. Mr. Ribton, it appears, was indicating his line of defence for his client in a key which would enable his witnesses to hear what he wished them to say. The Common Serjeant objected to this, and, according to one report, Mr. Ribton asserted that he always spoke loud when he was nervous, and that he should continue to speak loud. The Common Serjeant, of course, could not permit conduct of this sort, and Mr. Ribton protest- ing his hope that the case would be reported, the Court was adjourned. On the following day Mr. Ribton, no doubt dis- covering that public opinion was not very favourable to his procedure, apologized to his Lordship, and the apology was gracefully accepted. The bar has always needed a strong hand over it, and generally the strong hand is not wanting. The practice of advocacy probably encourages emphatic, not to say angry, habits of mind, and intellectual insolence is nowhere more rampant than in a barrister of some repute and more physique.
Previous page
