tical law. Having successfully passed it, the student may then be called. The " call" is made on a certain night in each term, which is known as " call night." The ceremony is a simple one. The candidates assemble in the first glory and the uncomfortable newness of their wigs and gowns, and go into the great hall where the treasurer of the inn, or some other of the older benches, delivers a short address, in which he will probably revive the time-honored jest about the many who are called and the few who are chosen, and in which he will exhort the newcomers to preserve the honorable traditions of the English Bar. This being over, the candi dates, who are now no longer students but full-fledged barristers, take their places at the table and dine, without other distinction save that they keep on their robes and may invite a guest or two in to have dessert with them. But within a month or two the members of the joint committee of the four inns which regulates the admissions to the bar, has passed a rule providing that hereafter no one shall be called who is an alien, unless by particular request of the inn of which he is a member. This will work unpleasantly to the hundreds who have come every year from distant parts of the world to join the bar, and it will prevent any American in the future from attaining that end, unless he is willing to abandon his allegiance to his native land. Commenting upon the committee's report, a local news paper states some facts about the eastern consular courts which will have special interest for Americans at this juncture. It says : " Persons who are not subjects of the Queen, are evidently not acquainted with the
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method prevailing in consular courts abroad as to lawyers practicing there. They men tion as one of the objections to admitting aliens to the English bar that it might create difficulties in places where there are international or consular courts. But no such difficulty does, or can, in fact arise. In international courts all lawyers qualified according to the law of their own nation ality are admitted to practice, provided their nation is one having a treaty with the nation in whose territory the inter national court sits. In consular courts all lawyers admitted to practice in the con sular court of their own nationality are by courtesy admitted to practice in every other consular court, so that there is, in fact, an international bar in all those countries in which the extra-territorial system exists. Thus British, American, and French lawyers practice without dis tinction of nationality in all consular courts in the Levant, Siam, and China, and in the Egyptian courts; and no such difficulty as the committee contemplate can possibly arise. There are several aliens at the English bar, but only one—an American— is in general practice, and I may add that he is one of the most popular and esteemed members of the bar. It is difficult to guess what has led to this elaborate inves tigation and report." There are, all told, not more than four or five American lawyers permanently located in London. Of these only one, as above stated, is a member of the English bar; the others have offices where they advise on questions of American law and where they carry on such general business as results from the close connection between the two countries. Stuff Gown.
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