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London Legal Letter.
LONDON LEGAL LETTER. London, June 6, 1894. AT the annual dinner of the Union Society of London the other night, Mr. Justice Gainsford Bruce, who was the guest of the even ing, gave an interesting account of the early struggles at the bar of some of his contem poraries. He made special reference to the protracted period of inaction which Lord Herschell had to endure after he joined the profes sion : for seven years at least the future Lord High Chancellor of England had no work at all, and my impression is that it was more than ten years after his call before he really secured any considerable amount of practice; he grew so tired of what seemed an utterly hopeless sphere that only the urgent representation of one or two family friends prevented him seeking another vocation. To mention one or two instances within my own knowledge, Mr. Frank Lockwood, Q.C., had very few briefs as a junior counsel, and it was not until he took silk that he had an opportunity of developing those great gifts of forcible and humorous speech which speedily thereafter brought him wealth and fame. But perhaps the most striking case in our time of a dismal probation preceding a career of signal triumph is that of Lord Watson, the Scottish Lord of Appeal, who waited twelve or fourteen years at the Parliament House in Edinburgh, without gaining the ear of the lower branch of the profession, when briefs came however they came in profusion, and during his fin:il years of practice in the Court of Session, he enjoyed one of the largest which has ever been known in Edinburgh. This is Derby Day, and all London has flocked to Epsom Downs; many grave pro fessional men whom no other known human temptation can entice from their daily toil, rush out of town on the sixth of June to see the race with the unrestrained joyousness of children. Mr. Justice Hawkins, who is of course impervious to any petty criticism that may be passed on his conduct, rose this forenoon within an hour of taking his seat on the bench, that he might be true to his reputation as a leading
turfite. No man's presence on the course is more welcome to great and small than that of Sir Henry Hawkins. The new Solicitor-General, Mr. R. T. Reid (he will be knighted shortly), is a tremendous smoker; he is hardly ever to be seen without pipe or cigar, the former in cham ber, the latter when he walks abroad. Mr. Justice Wright is another inveterate slave to nicotine, and indeed most of our men smoke hard, al though perhaps those I have mentioned enjoy a special reputation. The Solicitor-General has become famous for his political dinner parties, which are never too large, and always eminently sociable. Mr. Reid is a capital host, and very popular in the House of Commons. The Hardwicke Society holds its Ladies' Night debate shortly in the Hall of Lincoln Inn, a function which always attracts troops of the fair sex, which never fails to welcome an oppor tunity of invading the purlieus of the law. Nothing excites more mournful reflections than the disappearance of a venerable and excellent custom. This remark is suggested by the dis continuance for the second year in succession of the annual banquet given to Her Majesty's Counsel by the Attorney-General at the Albion in Aldersgate Street, City, in commemoration of the Queen's birthday. Last year it was not held because Sir Charles Russell was engaged in Paris before the Behring Sea Arbitration at the time, but his successor, Sir John Rigby, had no such excuse this year. Sir John is a man of genial disposition and given to hospitality; his action is all the more commented upon because the At torney-General's dinner was a very popular feast and all the Queen's Counsel attended. The Albion, by the way, is very famous for its cuisine; although situated in the City it has always con trived to rival in popularity its West End rivals, and a great many regimental dinners are still held there. There is a substantial shrinkage in the pro fessional incomes of men at the bar just now. Legal work of every kind is very scarce, and the practices of even well-known men are seriously reduced.
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