Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/497

to his Majesty's Court of Common Pleas to indulge their taste for farce. Where such men gathered, the talk must, of necessity, have risen above things legal; and so the Hall became the rallying-point of the wits of town rather than the ante chamber to a Court of Justice. Much the same crowd of dandies, politicians, and men of genius who gathered at night with the women of fashion in the salon of Lady Morgan, were found in the morning under the dome of Four Courts. Here theflaneur of

Dublin strolled and lounged away the morn ing. The po litical Atheni an, " anxious to hear some new thing," sought it here, and was, we may suppose, not often disap pointed, since each man had his budget of always amusing and occasion ally . veracious gossip to un ТНГ-: HALL OF load. With these various groups were, of course, others using the hall for its legitimate purpose. For it was the meeting-place of lawyer and client, of bar rister and solicitor, and of witnesses waiting to be called. The litigant then came to the Hall of Four Courts knowing that he could interview his counsel and hear the latest news of his case. Nowadays most of these latter functions are transferred to the Library, and the Hall has lost much of its old-time bustle and activity. There was yet one other use to which the Hall of Four Courts was put. Had any man been the victim of an injustice which

he wished to revenge by methods more summary than those the common law allows, it was here, if possible, that the chastisement took place. Not only do many historians allude to this custom, but the last year or two has proved that it has not alto gether died out. Nor is the reason of the choice of locale far to seek. In the first place the aggressor was sure of an audience, — in itself no small inducement. Moreover there was probably a keener satisfaction in taking the law into his own hands in the outer court of the Temple of Justice. The Bar it self was re markably prone to invoke other than legal aid in the settle ment of dis putes. When the duel was at its zenith, no barrister was thought to have completed his legal training unless he had been "out."

FOUR COURTS Few reports were more com monly in use than those of the pistol. To demur to a declaration was, in some eyes, a personal affront, and the wigs which nodded defiance at one another in a court of law might meet " on the green " in the morning. It might have been thought that they who achieved distinction in the one practice would be unknown to fame in the other. But proficiency in both was by no means unusual. Curran went out four times, his opponents comprising a Lord Chancellor, a Major, a victimized witness, and a brother barrister. This last affair, in which his antagonist was " Bully " Egan, had a certain air of farce about it. The Bully was a man