The English and American Bar in Contrast. American lawyers seem to be heedless of the remark which Lord Mansfield once made to a barrister of very diminutive stature, who he thought was sitting, when addressing the court : " It is usual for barristers to rise when addressing the Court." I have seen lawyers in your own city addressing the Court cer tainly for some minutes, and retaining their seats with the greatest complacency. If this is a matter of small importance, why not intro duce the hired "claque" which historians tell us the famous lawyer Domitius Afer referred to as ushering in the decline of the Roman bar? After a long residence in London, I cannot see how Mr. Oakey Hall fails to understand "the carriage, demeanor, and address " of English advocates. The carriage, demeanor, and address of the English people is gener ally so sober as to have earned for them such uncomplimentary criticisms as may be found in the writings of writers of such different intellectual scope as Max O'Rell, Carlyle, and John Stuart Mill. Pope said: — "Words are like leaves, and where they most abound Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found."
The English people are not a talkative race, except on rare occasions, when matters of
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deep import are under discussion. They are distrustful of eloquence, although no one who remembers the orations of Mansfield, Brougham, and Erskine will say they are in capable of eloquence, or believe in the theory of "play-act ing "and "straight-jackets," which Mr. Oakey Hall humorously propounds. Cere mony rules the French law-courts more rig orously than those of England, and yet any one who has ever listened to the impassioned address of any of the leaders of the French bar, clad in their gowns and bands, and wear- . ing " birettes," or square caps, will scarcely be convinced of the depressing effect of the use of the toga on oratorical effort, or of the inspiration drawn from running the fingers "caressingly " through the hair. From a European standpoint the position of the American Bar may be characterized by the words of a famous French lawyer. It is " a group of men without traditions, without discipline, connected only by the kinship which similar occupation gives, and seeking what every person is looking for, to transact the affairs of the public as a means to help themselves on their road to fortune. The era of business has dawned for them, but that of Art has expired." Barrister.
