And of juries: Do not your juries give their verdict As if they felt the cause not heard it? It is unfortunately true that individual evil reputations will reflect upon the whole body, as a drop of ink will pollute a basin full of clear water. But wholesale condemnation of the profession based upon the delinquencies of the few fails in its effect, and the ebullitions of the satirist become simply an amusing theme. Lord Campbell in his letter to Mr. Payne Collier on "The Legal Acquirements of Shakespeare," says that the word "attorney" was equivalent to 'a disreputable legal practitioner," and that, while sincerely honouring that branch of the profession, he was ready to support a bill, if it would please them, to change the name to "solicitor." " It should be explained that at one time there was a distinction between attorneys and solicitors. Those who practiced in the Common Law Courts were called attorneys. The pleadings and practice in these Courts were highly, nay absurdly, technical, and afforded abundant opportunities for delay or perverting an ultimate decision upon the actual merits of the case. All actions for injury to the person or to property were brought in these Courts, as well as all criminal prosecutions, revealing the worst side of human nature. It is an old saying that you cannot touch pitch without being defiled, and it seems to have been confirmed in the case of some attorneys who were frequently wading in it. Thus the system nourished a large number of very undesirable attorneys. Those who practiced in Chancery were called solicitors, and the subject matters of their disputes were cleaner. (Separate from both were, and still are, the barristers, who alone have the right of audience in the Courts.) The change of name, however, would not regenerate the disreputable attorney, as is amply shown by the fact that in modern times the name has been changed, and yet disreputable practitioners have not wholly disappeared. Taken as a whole, however, perhaps no body of men contains a larger proportion of honourable constituents than the profession of law. In course of a life-time of practice untold sums of money pass through their hands, entrusted to them solely on the security of their honour, and the number who betray their trust is infinitesimal in proportion to the number of the whole body. It is pathetic, however, to contemplate cases in which unfortunate litigants have been ruined in health, mind and purse by the delays, vexations and exactions of litigation. In "Bleak House" there is a faithful reproduction of the state of affairs in the Court of Chancery at the time when Dickens wrote-now happily superseded by a simpler and more rapid procedure. The great case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce is not overdrawn, for such things were possible. The members of a whole family were set by the ears, the death of one of the parties was hastened, if not caused, by the anxieties engendered by the interminable suit, and the whole estate was wasted in the costs of litigating about a will which, only too late, was discovered not to be the last will of the testator. Poor Peter Peebles, in "Redgauntlet," is another specimen of the unfortunate litigant, embroigled and tangled in the knots of the law, until his mind was unbalanced, his thoughts ran entirely upon law, and his whole conversation was interspersed with law phrases and terms. Quite distinct from the unfortunate litigant is the man who conceives that he has a grievance for which the law provides a remedy. He probably belongs to the same class as the hypochondriacs. The latter, however, do no harm to any one but themselves; and they are rather proud that their fancied ailments baffle the whole medical faculty. The limit of absurdity was probably reached in one of George A. Birmingham's characters, who, having tired of Christian Science, determined "to take up appendicitis" and go to Dublin to be operated on. The persistent litigant is generally a sour and disagreeable fellow. He is a nuisance to his own solicitor, and perhaps to several others, not to mention his opponent. He gets access to a law library, or buys a law book, and with distracted mind reads up his case until he becomes convinced either that his own advisers know nothing of their business, or are deliberately misleading him. If he succeeds in getting his hopeless case before the Court, he meets with the end described by Pope, Book II., Satire I., ad fin: In such a case the plaintiff will be hiss'd; My Lords the judges laugh, and you 're dismissed. He is then ripe for a condemnation of the whole Bench of Judges, and he usually does not spare them. In no place that I know of is this character more faithfully and gracefully drawn than in “The Dynamiter," by R. L. Stevenson, although it must be confessed that it would have been a pleasure to act for the delightful little lady of The Superfluous Mansion who thus describes her woes:-" But I am of the stamp of those who, when they have once begun a task, will rather die than leave this duty unfulfilled. I have met with every obstacle, insolence and ingratitude from my own lawyers; in my adversaries that fault of obstinacy which is to me perhaps the most distasteful in the calender; from the bench, civility indeedalways, I must allow, civility-but never a speck of independence, nor that knowledge of the law and love of justice which we have a right to look for in a judge, the most august of human officers. And still, against these odds, I have undissuadably persevered." It is not my purpose, however, to defend the profession against attack, nor to set up the system of law and the whole body of lawyers as perfect in the midst of a world of imperfections. It is rather to exhibit the use which writers have made of allusions to law to elucidate their meaning, or to construct their plots. And, for the lawyer at least, a great deal of entertainment can be derived from an examination of these instances. Perhaps I may be allowed to present the following passages from metrical translations into English of Greek and Latin classics as a contribution to the theme. In the Odyssey, when Ulysses ran foul of Charybdis and his mast went overboard, it was returned to him by the swirl of waters after an interval of time measured by the time of the judge's repast; in Pope's rendering of the passage in the 12th book of the Odyssey: What time the judge forsakes the noisy bar The practice of adjourning Court for luncheon must have been a very well known one, or it would not have been selected when so many other familiar illustrations might have been given. The noise of the wordy battles in the Court is also taken for granted as a wellknown phenomenon. It apparently came very readily also to Virgil's pen thus to describe lawyers when he was relating Aeneas' tour round the site of the future city in the 8th book of the Aeneid. I quote from Dryden's rendering of the passage: They viewed the ground of Rome's litigious hall; Horace also has a reference to lawyers, and shews that if a lawyer cannot attain eminence in his profession, he may at any rate deserve the esteem of his contemporaries. In the Earl of Roscommon's rendering of the Epistle on the Art of Poetry, we read: But, Piso (tho' your own experience, Joined with your father's precepts, make you wise), Woe, therefore, to him who would plunge into poesy, for -poesy, whose end is to delight, Admits of no degrees, but must be still Toronto. E. DOUGLAS ARMOUR. THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW is the organ of the Canadian Bar Association, and it is felt that its pages should be open to free and fair discussion of all matters of interest to the legal profession in Canada. The Editor, however, wishes it to be understood that opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the individual writers only, and that the REVIEW does not assume any responsibility for them. It is hoped that members of the profession will favour the Editor from time to time with notes of important cases determined by the Courts in which they practise. Contributors' manuscripts must be typed before being sent to the Editor at the Exchequer Court Building, Ottawa. TOPICS OF THE MONTH. LAWYERS IN LITERATURE.-We publish in this issue the first of a course of lectures by the late Mr. E. D. Armour, K.C., on "Law and Lawyers in Literature." These were delivered by Mr. Armour to the students at Osgoode Hall Law School, and we have obtained the privilege of publishing them from his son, Mr. A. D. Armour, M.A., who has been good enough to edit the text. The late Mr. Armour, in addition to his high professional attainments, had a wide knowledge of literature. His writings in prose and verse are all worth while. The writer cherishes an autographed copy of Mr. Armour's charming little volume of "Law Lyrics" (1918), which he had the pleasure of reviewing when it appeared. We have every reason to think that our readers will be glad to have an opportunity of reading the lectures we are now undertaking to print. * HONOURS FOR BENCH AND BAR.-The English New Year's Honour List did well by the Bench and Bar. Lord Dunedin, who began his career at the Scottish Bar over fifty years ago, as Mr. Andrew Graham Murray, has been created a Viscount. From 1905 to 1913 he was Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session; in the latter year he became a Lord of Appeal, and has since greatly distinguished himself in the House of Lords and on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Right Honourable Sir Ernest |