London Legal Letter. into account. Density and character of population, race antagonisms, and, in the older communities, respect for tradition, are all important elements. A hard and fast code well adapted to one part of the coun try might prove a failure in another. The Federal statutes cannot, of course, recog nize sectional lines in prescribing penalties
for crime. Hence the wisdom of such an elastic system as the Curtis bill proposes, whereby, in all save a few instances, the degree of severity with which a crime should be punished for the best interest of society in any particular district is left to the dis cretion of a jury of the vicinage. — Harpers Weekly.
LONDON LEGAL LETTER. LONDON, Feb. i, 1897. 'T'HERE is nothing in connection with practice at the A English bar which is so puzzling to the visiting American lawyer wandering curiously through our courts ар the distinction between the Queen's Counsel and the ordinary barrister. It is, indeed, very difficult to explain to him the difference that divides the functions of the solicitor from the barrister, and when once he has finally mastered this intricate boundary question, it is discouraging to be told that there is still another and even more subtle division, although a very grave and practical one, that separates the members of the so-called upper branch of the profession into two classes of advocates. At the last Thanksgiving Day dinner of the American Society in London, a witty woman who responded to one of the toasts suggested that American women ought properly to give thanks that they were not English lawyers, " for they are such incomplete sorts of men. There are the solicitors who have learned the law, but who have to get the barristers to practice it for them; and the barristers who practice law, but can't do so until the solicitors give them the chance. So that it really takes at least two legal minds in this country to constitute one active intelligence." The speaker might have gone one step further and invoked the aid of still another mind — that of the Queen's Counsel — before the actual intelligence is perfect. If, for example, a layman desires some wrong, under which he fancies he suffers, righted, he must go, in the first instance, to a solicitor. He cannot take the advice of counsel directly. The barrister who may ultimately be brought into the case may be his most intimate friend and trusted companion. Nevertheless he must, for the moment at least, pass him by and go to a solicitor. The solicitor, after hearing all the facts will then set them out in a ".state ment of case for advice," and lay this statement before counsel. If the latter advises that an action will lie, the advice is given to the solicitor, who in turn communicates it to the lay client. The next step is for the solicitor, if the matter is one of any technical importance, or involves any responsibility, to ask counsel to " settle " the indorsement
that is to be made upon the writ. Thus indorsed, the writ is issued. It is returnable in eight days. Then the plain tiff has six weeks in which to deliver his " statement of claim." This the solicitor likewise asks counsel to settle for him. If, after the defendant has delivered his defense, any question arises as to the reply, the solicitor again submits the matter to counsel. The same course is pursued with regard to any interlocutory proceedings — applications to inspect documents, for particulars, and the like. • It is within the province of the solicitor to attend in person at the disposition of such matters, but as the costs of briefing counsel to look after them will be allowed in the final taxing of the case, he delegates the duty and the re sponsibility to the barrister. Finally, when the issues have been joined, and the case has been set down for hearing, the brief proper is delivered, — a voluminous document reciting a history of the antecedents of the parties, the occasion of their dispute, and its circumstances. With it are submitted what in America would be known as a " trial brief," that is, a list of the points involved, citations of authorities on ques tions likely to arise, and elaborate "proofs "of the witnesses, or what, after examination by the solicitor, they are ex pected to testify to. There are also copies of the plead ings, the correspondence between the parties before the writ was served, and of such documents as bear on the case. These voluminous papers, all of a uniform size, generally fourteen inches by eighteen inches, are all neatly folded and indorsed on the back with the title of the case, and the fee of counsel; and then, if the matter is of more lhan very ordinary importance, appear the words " With you Mr. Blank, Q. C." Here is where the Queen's Counsel for the first time appears. He has not been consulted at any preliminary slage of the proceedings, and his brief, identical in all respects with that of his junior, will probably not have been delivered to him more than three or four days before the case is called for trial. When at last the case is reached, a " consultation " is held, sometimes in the lobby outside the court, but generally on the morning of the trial at the leader's chambers, when the matter is hurriedly run over. Upon assembling in court, the leader occupies a place in the front row of the benches
