Spa1n. — He must be a Spaniard. U. S. Amer1ca. — The following communica tion from Mr. R. Newton Qrane, an English Bar rister, and a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, has been received from the American Embassy : — June 24th, 1898. 1 Essex Court, Temple. In all of the States candidates for admission to the bar must take an oath " to support the con stitution of the United States and the constitution of the State "; but, except in the State of North Carolina, I know of no rule requiring that such candidates shall be citizens of the United States. It is a question for each State to decide, except as to admission to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. There the rule is that the candidate shall have been an attorney or coun sellor for three years past in the Supreme Courts of the State to which he "belongs.". This report has not been accepted by the Inns of Court, or at least has not been adopted, so that for the present at least no opposition will probably be offered to the admission to the bar of a student who is a foreign subject. The members of the bar themselves are in favor of the exclusion of such persons, not from the selfish or nar row personal reasons which too often lead professional men to attempt to make their profession into a trade union, but because they have a higher conception of the nature and duty of a lawyer. They consider him an officer of the court, and an aid and arm
of the judge, and they hold that in such a capacity loyal and conscientious devotion to the head of the State are necessarily re quired. But on the other hand there is a feeling that England is so connected with the development of commerce and civiliza tion in all parts of the world, that she can well afford not only to accept students from all parts of the globe, and instruct and educate them in her laws, but call them to her bar that, ultimately, they may go back to their respective countries to there aid in extending English civilizing influ ences. Every year from twenty to twentyfive per cent, of those called to the bar are not English subjects, and yet of these, those who are now in active practice at the English bar could be counted on the fingers of one hand. The others are scattered over the world — in the West Indies, the West Coast of Africa, the Cape, the Australias, India and Ceylon, and all over the Eastern ports, and in China and Japan. They not only practice in the courts of their respective countries, and in the consular courts, but many of them are judges and legislators, and have weighty counsel in national and imperial affairs of State. The technical view of the English barristers as to their exclusion from the English bar may be right, but the imperial instinct of the English commercial class is wiser.
Stuff Gown.
