The Times of Tuesday last has a most excellent leading
article on the question of admitting aliens to the Bar,—a question which is now being considered by the Inns of Court. Unfortunately, a Joint Committee of the Inns appears to have reported on the matter in a very narrow spirit, but it is greatly to be hoped that the united Benches will give a very different decision. As the Times points out, the first effect of the prohibition—aliens have hitherto been "called "—would be to prevent men coming to London from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal to obtain their legal education. Surely that would be a very disagreeable result of legal exclusiveness, for it would mean that the abler and more enterprising lawyers among the Boers would henceforth receive their legal education in Berlin or Leyden, and not England. The Times leader very wisely goes on to suggest that instead of discouraging aliens, our Bar should encourage them, and further, that the Inns should make liberal regulations for allowing barristers " called " in our Colonies to become members of the English Bar. The in- tellectual greatness and high character of the English Bar will not be protected, but deeply injured, by pursuing a policy based on jealousy and timidity.
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