330
The Green Bug.
LONDON LEGAL LETTER. ON, June 7, 1893. "D OYALTY has been much with us of late. Last
- ^- term it was the Prince of Wales who graced
the festal board of the Middle Temple with his august and genial presence. Yestereven being grand night of Trinity term at Lincoln's Inn, the centre of attraction was his Royal Highness the Duke of York, who was recently elected a Bencher. Sir Charles Russell, the Treasurer of the Inn, hur ried over from Paris and the Behring Sea arbitra tion for the occasion. Besides the Duke of York, there were present the Archbishop of York, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief-Justice, the Marquis of Ripon, and the Comte de Franqueville. The company present would number, I think, somewhere about four hundred. Speeches and toasts are not the rule at Lincoln's Inn, but last night an exception was made. After dinner the Treasurer rose and proposed the toast of "The Queen." When this had been suitably hon ored, Sir Charles Russell then proposed a toast which he said, like the last, needed no preface, and to it the company would look for no response. It was the health of the Duke of York. It gave them the opportunity, of which they gladly availed themselves, of offering their congratulations to his Royal Highness upon a coming event so full of interest to the nation and so full of promise of happiness to him. The toast was, " Health, long life, and happiness to the Duke of York, Master of the Bench of this ancient Inn of Court." The toast was received with great enthusiasm. Members of the Inner Temple and their friends are eagerly looking forward to a Grand Ball which is to be held in the Hall of the Inn on the 23d of this month. It will be a very brilliant affair, as these functions are always conducted in the most sumptuous manner possible. There has been an immense demand for tickets, and the labors of the organizing secretaries have been far from light. In a recent letter I referred in terms of praise to the numerous Bar Associations which appear to figure so largely and play so important a part among the lawyers of America. Since then some of the more enterprising leaders of opinion at our own bar have decided to form a Bar Association which
shall be to their own profession very much what the Incorporated Law Society is to Solicitors. Practi cal steps have been already taken; a draft consti tution has been published, and a thoroughly repre sentative Provisional Committee will presently take in hand the details of organization. It is pro posed that the association should consist of a President, elected annually, an executive council, to be formed of a number of representatives of each Inn of Court, — members of the several cir cuits, and the Chancery, Parliamentary, Admiralty. Divorce, Bankruptcy, and Criminal Bars being, as far as possible, included. It is suggested that the annual subscription should be five shillings; such a sum would obviously exclude no one, and at the same time, if an adequate number of barristers become members, would suffice to provide work ing expenses. The Executive Council will hold a quarterly meeting, one probably in each legal term, while there will be an Annual Gathering of the Association under the Chairmanship of the President in one of the Halls of the Inns of Court, where the President will deliver an address review ing the legislation of the year. Reports of Com mittees will be considered, and papers read and discussed. The new scheme has met with con siderable favor at the hands of the profession, and will in all likelihood get a good start. It is obvious enough that no serious objection could be taken to the idea; at the same time I cannot profess to think that the new Association has a great future before it. The same causes which have stunted the career of the Bar Committee, now to be absorbed in the Association, will operate unfavorably for the latter. As I have said more than once in my letters, the old Inn of Court system, each Inn with a governing body jealous of its prerogatives, stands largely in the way of any other system of professional organ ization. I have no hesitation in predicting that such an Annual Gathering as is proposed would be a failure; it would be voted dull and uninteresting, and only faint curiosity would follow its proceed ings. It certainly will require a number of yearsof hard and successful work before the English Bar Association can claim a permanent position in our legal system.
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