The Law and Lawyers of Thackeray.
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THE LAW AND LAWYERS OF THACKERAY. THACKERAY'S connection with the law and with lawyers began in the year 1831. After leaving Cambridge (and without taking a degree), he travelled on the Continent for a few months, being rather undecided as to what profession he should adopt. At Weimar, where he met Goethe, he read a little civil law, which he " did not find much to his taste." Nevertheless, in obedience to the wishes of his friends, he decided to read for the bar, and, in November, 1 83 1, he entered the chambers of one Taprell, at No. 1, Hare court, Temple, there to be initiated into the mysteries of special pleading. Thackeray looked forward to the law, not as a pleasure, but rather " as a noble and tangible object, an honorable pro fession, and, I trust in God, a certain fame." As might have been expected, he did not find himself happy in the legal milieu. His somewhat indolent temperament rebelled against the constant " grind." And so we find him writing in rather a melancholy strain to his mother as follows : " The sun won't shine into Taprell's chambers, and the high stools don't blossom and bring forth buds. I do so long for fresh air, and fresh butter I would say — only it isn't roman tic." Comfortable armchairs, as Mr. Eyre Crowe remarks in his excellent little article on " Thackeray's Haunts and Homes," are now the rule in lawyers' chambers, but in the thirties high stools were considered quite good enough for pupils. In this letter Thackeray sketched himself perched upon a very high stool, with a clerk vainly endeav oring to reach him by means of five folios and a step-ladder, while an old gentlemen with an umbrella (presumably a client) pla cidly surveys the scene. In the same letter there is another sketch of himself asleep upon a pallet bed, while a dream procession passes, with Thackeray leading in wig and
gown, followed by the Lord Chancellor in a gorgeous carriage, while — characteristic touch! — at the foot of the bed stands Death. In another letter we have his wellknown dictum on legal education as it was in the thirties: "One of the most cold blooded, prejudiced pieces of invention ever a man was slave to. A fellow should prop erly do and think of nothing else than Law. Never mind." But although, while he was in Taprell's chambers, Thackeray seems to have been a fairly industrious pupil, occa sionally he had lapses, and "did think about something else than Law!' For instance, just a month after he wrote the above letter, we find him so far from Hare court as Corn wall, where he was helping Charles Buller in his candidature at Liskeard. This oc curred in June, too, when he certainly ought to have been at chambers. Thackeray soon tired of special pleading. In a year or so he shook the dust of Tap rell's chambers from off his feet, and went to Paris to study art. No one can regret Thackeray's rejection of the law as a profes sion. No doubt, with his faculty of clear vision and keen insight, he would have made an excellent judge, whose decisions would have been models of lucidity and style; but we have had many excellent judges, and — it is a truism, of course — only one "Vanity Fair." On the other hand, no one can regret the time spent by Thackeray in the chambers of the estimable Taprell. To it we owe that charming and unforgettable picture of Temple life which he has given us in the immortal pages of "Pendennis." Thackeray's legal experien ces, however, were not closed by his depar ture from Hare court. It is not generally known that the novelist was called to the Bar in the year 1848 at the Middle Temple. Probably he had some thoughts of obtaining
