"Grand Day" at an Inn of Court. is by mere inspection upon my part. In truth, I am really face to face with a world as veritable and as varied as that outside, only compressed into a smaller compass. Here may be seen old, worn, sombre-looking men, some of them bending under the weight of years, and actually wearing the identical gowns — now faded like themselves — which adorned their persons when first assumed in the. heyday of early manhood, health, high spirits and bright hopes. Among these old faces, there are some that are genial and pleasant; but, beyond a doubt, I am in prox imity to many of those individuals who help constitute that numerous and inevitable host with which society abounds — the unsuccess ful and the disappointed in life. I see very clearly that upon many of these patriarchal personages the fickle goddess has persistently frowned from their youth up, and that they have borne those frowns with a bad grace and a rebellious spirit. To this feast, also, have come those who began their career under the benign and auspicious influences of wealth and powerful friends; yet many of these are now a long way behind in the race — have, in fact, been outrun by those who never possessed a tenth part of their advantages. Such men form a very melancholy group, and I gladly pass from them to another class of barristers. These are the men whose lives have been a steady conflict with hard work, and often with hard times, but who, uninspired by that devouring ambition which is so often met with in lawyers, have not experienced the disheartening and chilling disappointment which has preyed upon some of their rivals. These men, however, have seen many of their hopes and aspirations crushed; but they have borne the grievance with patience and cheer fulness. They may have had a better right to expect success than some of their more sanguine brethren, but they have not sneered at small triumphs because they, could not achieve greater ones, and they have never been ashamed to be generally recognized as
509
plodders. Most of them are gentlemen in every sense of the word — men of whom uni versities are proud, and who have also hon ored universities; men who, if unknown to the world at large, have yet enlightened it; men whose bright intellects have elucidated for the benefit of mankind the mysteries of science, or have contributed their full quota to literature, art or law; and who, without having been large donors to so-called chari ties, have yet been genuine benefactors to their species. But in spite of all this, they are men who, destitute of the practical art of saving money, are quite often in want of it, although many of them earn large incomes. It is almost unnecessary to say that they have never condescended to ask favors of others, and they are content to live in their own peculiar way. The majority of them do not practice law. Intermingled with such members of the Inn as I have just mentioned are their opposites — those who must be regarded as having been distinctly successful in their legal ca reer. How bland are the smiles which light up their comfortable-looking countenances! There is no lack of geniality here, and one feels certain that these gentlemen possess happy, if not hilarious temperaments, the buoyancy of which is never endangered by the intrusion of any such " pale cast of thought " as wears away the existence of some of the others to whom I have referred. This species of " successful " barristers, fortunate though they are, must not be con founded with the men who are actually " at the top of the tree." The latter are usually men of remarkable power and indomitable energy, and the daily newspaper has made almost every Englishman familiar with their names. It is from this class that the judges are drawn, unless some exceptional qualification is required to enable the occupant of the bench to fulfil some of the new duties now demanded by the statutes. All "successful" barristers, of course, have had to fight, and those who have come to the front have possessed the
