The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-09 00:00:00

TilE LANQUEr TO M. BERRIER.

Laic night M. Berryer, the distinguished French
sdive.ar, was entertained oy the tbibt of England at &splendid
banquet in the hall of the Middle Temple. Large as are the
capacities of the hall, the apace was quite insufficient to
eceomroudste the members of the English bar who were de-
sirous of participating In the honour which was about to be
conferred on one of the great illnatnitions of forensic do-
views in France. With M. Berryer was associatedon this
ercseion M. Dcsmarest, batonuier of the French bar, and
M. Corod, a young French barrister. There were aver 400
members of tto English bur present. The company included,
theATlOß.\tt•t LI4 kiLll, who occupied the chair.
When M. Berryer entered the hall he was loudly
cheered.

Grace were sung before and after dinner by the choristers
of
the Temple Church.
The CiI.IIRSIAN proposed the "Health of the Q 11060,"
which was eotbusiestically drunk, as was the " Health of
their E s.i II igi,nesses the Prince of Wales, the Prinaess of
Wales. and the rest of the Royal Family."
The CII.%IIOIAN, in giving the health of the Emperor of
the Freucii, said—l now propose that we shouldashow our
respect to the great nation to which our distinguished guests
belong, and our estimate of the value we attach to our
frieudl) .I;iiitt•Clf with that aeon. I give you the " Health I
ef
their sovereign the Emperor of the French." (Cheers.)

The toast was drunk with euthasiann.
]be C111411:MAH, propsing the next toot, said—Thin
are three great and inestimable things which we enjoy
in this country, and we should be glad to see all
ethers enjoy in the rent of the world. lint I venture
to say t'oot wherever any one of the three is found there
public liberty cannot be extinguished. What are those
three things !—• free press, a free parliament, sod • free bar.
(Cheers.) Now, I must Say that I believe there is 110 country
in the wurel the bar of which has deserved greater honour
than the liar of France—(cheers)—aud I *culture that I shall
Barry your assent with me when I add, that at no
period in the brilliant history of that great nation has
there been at the head of that bar a more honest,
a more sinuous, a more eloquent, or a inure
persevering advocate than our illustrious guest. (Cheers.)
His name is connected, in a way which time will never dis-
sever, with the history of his country. At the age when
most tneu hegiu their legal studies, this great man began a
great public career which to this day be his continued to
fulfil. The son of a father scarcely lees distinguished than I
himself, he was the advocate of Marshal Ney io the time
of the ascoodaucy of those principles of which my illustrious
friend has ever been the faithful edvocate. (Cheep.) But
the ascendancy of those principles did not prevent him from
opposing to the utmost the exorbitant and excessive abuse
of power. (Cheers.) Not only on that great historical
°erasion, but in the defence of other distinguished
men involved in like misfortune, did M. Berner
stand forw.a..l, and it is well karma to you that whilst his
own political principles were in the ascendant, his voice was
ever bused for is ederation and fur justice to those whose
fortunes were then on the decline. (Beer, hear.) We have
nothim; to do with the various vicissitudes in the political
fortunes of that great country, except on this occasion to ;
admire the consteney and nobility of the man who under
all aimunuitances bore himself so well. Afterwards, when I
his primly's% were no longer in the ascendant, he did not
retire calmly from the service of his country ; his voice was
still raised bravely, yet without any possibility of accusing I
him of being the advocate of disorder on the side of liberty I
and egkfust the prevailing powers ; and still, when
called upon at the bar, he was found to be j
equally the willing and the fearless edemas' of
any uofortunate men in any station of life. Why, it is
almost o volume of history Wolf to say that this distin-
guished man was the advocate of Lamennais, of Chateau.
hriand, end of the present Emperor of the French. (Cheers.)
These men, and many more, whatever their opinions might j
have been—when they needed a word to be spoken for them .
—to whom did they go! They went to M. Berryer, and
when the wheel of fortune turned round again we find him
the same men, never refusing his services to his country in
any way he c icsidered them useful. Still he lifted up his
voice as tee advocate of freedom, of writing and free speech, j
as in the famous trial of Count de Mootalembert. (Cheers.) j
At an advauced age he is still sustaining not only the dig.
pity, het the power, the influence, and the brilliancy of his
younger days. (Hear, hear.) But I feel that I have de-
tained you too dons; from that which is much more desirable
than to hest his eulogium feebly expressed by me—the
honour of that drinking his health, of wishing him a cordial '
welcome, and then hearing from his own lips an example of
that unrivalled eloquence for which he is famed. (Cheers.)
The toast having been drunk with much enthusiasm,
M. MFERYER spoke io French. We give, however, a
totoslatiou of his remarks :—" You will believe me
when I tell you that I am deeply moved at the •
aspect of this imposing and almost fraternal recep-
tion. (Cheers.) I find myself in the midst of great '
and free Eugiand ; you will not be astonished that there
ahoulsi lie 10(119 confusion in my manner of expressing fey
thanks. Yesterday, Mr. Attorney• General, I congratulated •
you, and I cougratulate this great and eoble country on
seeing the.t ttorney-General—a rare spectacle for us—display.
log a zeal as enlightened es wise in seconding associations
which have fur their object the perfecting of the law.
(Cheers.) To-day, as advocate, lam moved at seeing you
speak as chief of the bar, in toe name of the advocates ;
grand and beautiful spectacle which reminds me that such
was the custom of my country when the Frocureurs.
General and the Advocates-General called themselves
generals of the advocates. In speaking to me
in the name of the English bar you deign to
compliment me upon the labours of my life. I confess that
I feel hnniiliated by these compliments. I call to mind
what English advocates have been, those who have honoured
me with their friendship ; what was Lord Lyndhurst, whose
lose we all deplore—(ceeers)—and that other great man
who was ready to initiate me in all the grand things of
this country, that noble promoter of all progress,
of all linen' iustitutions even in this free England, that
great nine whew I recognise in Lord Brougham. (Loud
cheers.) After fifty yens' 1 ibours I received from my French
oolleagces a teeinisey of fraternal sympathy. But there
I was is the midst of my own countrymen ; I was sus-
tained by fifty years' friendly relation. I repeat
that I was with my own countrymen ; but by
your side, I know not how to express what I feel.
However, let me attempt to any what I feel : it steles
to me that it is the voice of posterity that falls from your
lips. (Cheers ) Tilers is • thought more fruitful for the
future than beinage rendered to au individual man ; there
is the ellieoco of the bars of the two moat civilised nation.
of the world. 1 have been present in all the courts cf
justice vi your country, at all the judicial deliberations,
and I have biro struck with the situation which your tf.r
occupies. N,•Cliug could touch me more thin those
familiar ee.vereitions between the judge and the advo-
cate. That shows to the advocate the attention which
is accor le 1 to Liu', end I see in it a guarantee
for the sereitueut lof independence which should
belong to this noble profession. I cherish ardent
wishes that the alliance of the two ban may 1 e
lamented. (Cheers.) We cannot in France have those re.
unions which the law authorises' in this country ; but we
can place °fleecing in communication with each
other, and from these communications will spring, I
hope, toe ui, het of intelligencss. The F. eoch Ler
has not, like the English bar, furnished meo for all the
situations of political life. In the midst of our revolutions
men who respect themselves have not wished to accept
officer. The bar has remained the asylum of
those who, wounded in their convictions, did not
desire to vis:.l. We reckon among its number the
most eminent men. ((been.) 'We posses. free
trade ; was most not limit ourse'v-s to the exchange of
kilo .• .! there must be the free exchange of ideas.
(CLe..•.; \ou w.ll lie able to find no ing us many things
which ..is woith taking ; we shall meet among you learned
and u!.ghts nod writers—a powerful press, which is want-
ing isotli I vote for the alliance of the two bars, arid I
beg ...y • • to second fly vote." (Loud cheers.)

bare carried intellectual glory to a greet height ; both
hare shone in public neenales ; lasalj, both are members
of the French Academy. (Cheers.) I confer that I should be
ocucerned if I had to present here only the tribute of my
own gratitude. But se soon as I was informed of your
I kind invitation, I profited by the legal meetings autho-
rimed in Franca to tell our advocates of the honour
which bad been paid. All, young and old, replied, 'Go
to England.' I had not time to consult the mem-
bers of our . provincial bar, bat all would have
held the same language—all. I see the grand spectacle of
the judicial world of Franca giving its band to the
judicial world of England—a preliminary step to the
bringing about a more intimate alliance between us,
according to the beautiful idea of him who ought
to be our perpetual Wormier, and who always
is our moral &skinnier. Gentlemen—permit me to say
my dear colleagues—yon have set us an example, and rest
assured that it will be followed. One of your statesmen,
the illustrious Chancellor of the Exchequer, said on a
recent oceasioo, with that Moomparable eloquence which
recalls the best days of antiquity, that in the time in
which we live the progress of civilisation should be accom-
plished by more gentle means—gentler than in past
times. These words. which meet many difficulties, h►ve
found an echo in France. I sign with you a treaty of
,alliance, which will serve for the pacific conquest .1
progress." (Loud cheers.)
M. GoROD also returned thanks.

The CitetzYaa proposed the health of the guests, coupling
with the toast the Dame of Lord Brougham. (Cheers.)
Lord BROOOIIAII, in returning thanks, said—Sir, you
have ruy hearty thanks for thitgreet kindness with which
you have proposed, and you, gentlemen, have received the
proposal, of my health. It is only the respect which I
Dever fail to receive among that profession of which I have
the honour to be a member. On all occasions I meet with
the greatest respect, and what is even more valuable, the
greatest affection of that noble profession to which we both
belong. On the present occasion your attention is called to
other guests, sod more especially to that illustrious man
who ails near me-51. Berryer. To whom should I com-
pare bins! Not certainly to any of the advocates of ancient
and classical times, but to one very superior to them all—
to our own Erskine—(clumers)—the first advocate who ever
appeared in the world, and I put M. Berryer on a level with
him. (Hear, bear.) I have carefully attended to
the careers of both of these gentlemen, sod I find
that both Lord Erskine sad IL Berryer possess that great
faculty of conducting cause* with perfect skill and with
matchless eloquence ; they had both that quality M per-
fection,! and, in equal proportion, indomitable courage.
(Cheers.) As to Lord Erskine, however pressed, there
was Done he feared, neither the court nor the King
(bear, beta)—but be did his duty to his cheat in spite of
all that power held out to intimidate, and in spito of
all the opposition even in those courts in which he prac-
tised, and of which he was the ornament and pride.
And the same great qualities I have constantly observed
in AL Berryer—that which is the first of all the duties
of an advocate—to reckon everything subordinate to the
interests of his client--(bear, hear)—to have no purpose
except to serve his cause effectively, to make no devia-
tion, no digression to please either jury, or judge, or the
populace, or the crown, but to do his duty, looking only to
the success of his client. (Cheers.) It has been said that
the administration of jastios In this country pommies a great
advantage over that of many other nations, and that depends
partly no doubt, in the first place, upon the purity of our
judges; but, in the next place, on the skill, the prudence,
the discretion, and the courage of the advocate. (Cheers.)
I can see no worse fate before the country than its losing the
purity of its administration of justice ; nothing more tending
to this than anything trenching on the independence of the
bar, or which may weaken that courage of the advocate of
which such an illustrious example is now among us. (Hear.)
Of the orators in the French Senate, our esteemed guest, IL.
Barrier. is one of the most distinguished ; bat it is hiscrown.
ing glory that in every instenoe in which he has been engaged
as an advocate he bus put down, with the force of bie
learning, his eloquence, and his courage, all attempts to
injure or oppose his fellow-citizens, (Cheers.) I have de-
tained you too long—(cries of "No, no")—but I could not,
having teen called mpou, sit down without offering to you
the expression of my sentiments. (Cheers.)

The next tout was, "The Jadsse of Eogl►nd," which
w►s acknowledged by Lord Chief Justice COCGI3I:II.V.

The CHAIIUUN then race and said—There is one more
toast which the presence amongst us of other illustrious and
eloquent guests on this occasion has rendered necessary. It
is a toast on all occasions Englishmen are glad to drink-1
mean the two houses of parliament. (Cheers.) The Lords
and Commons of &stead, with which I beg to couple the
name of one of our most honourable and learned judges-
-1 mean Lord Kingsdown—(cheers)—and one of our most
illustrious statesmen, whose presence on this occasion I sup-
pose we owe to the happy accident of his also being con-
structively a judge—(a laugh)—l mean Mr. Gladstone.
(Loud cheers.)
Lord KLNOSDOWN briefly returned th►du for the House
of Lords.

Mr. tiLaDSTONT., who wee received with cheers again and
again renewed, said, in the course of his reply—l have known, .
&sail in this country have known, that the bar too is inn-
parable from the national life and the perfect security of
our isstatutions ; but never, as long as f looked at England
►lone, did I understand the true secret of its value. It
was my fate came fifteen years ago to be witness of '
cruel oppressions in a country in Southern Europe, in •
country where the executive power did not merely break
the law, but supplanted and set aside the law, and es-
tablished blabbed • system of arbitrary will. But, to my
astonishment, I forted that the audacity of tyranny itself,
which b►d put down Chamber., which had put down mini- I
cipalities, which Lad extinguished the press, could not put
down 'one thing—and that was that it could not silence
the bar. (Great cheering.) I heard in the cocas of
justice, under the bayonets of the soldiers—for these
courts bristled with the bayonets of soldiers--in the teeth
of power, in contempt of corruption, in defiance of violence,
li of arbitrary rule, lawyers rise in their *cm to defend
the cause of the accused against government, and venture
to speak with • fearless honesty of purpose that could not
have been surpassed in happy England, and that could
scarcely have been surpassed by M. Berryer himself,
(Cheers.) lie knows well, no man knows better, that we
are not here to enter into and discuss the merit' of parti-
cular schools of political opinions. We are here for more
purposes than one, and one of those purposes I confidently
believe is to render and add another to the many testi-
monies which recent history has afforded of the growth
of • cordial union of heart and sentiment between tbe
two great nations of England and France. (Loud
cheers.) We are here also to render • more special
homage to an object more narrowly defined. As there are
ties which bind together classes of the same country, so
there are electric currents which, passing over the boun-
daries of political distinctions, establish sympathies which
run through the world. (Cheers.) These sympathies are
deep in the heart of our illustrious guest aria his distin-
guished companions, and these sympathies throb with an
equal truth and power within the breast of every member
of this assembly. lam permitted—and a high privilege
it is—to look upon you from without; Lut I echo Lack
at least the sounds of favour, confidence, and admira-
tion which have been rendered to M. Berryer personally
for the great achievements of his life ; but yet, great
as that life has been, not to that life only for what it has
been and is in itself, but to that life because it is a symbol
of something greater still—namely, of the indestructible
priori, .les which are involved in the constitution of a free
and independent bar, namely, of the high obligations to
speak, under all circumstances, the voice of truth, and
to follow truth through whatever difficulty and danger ;
to have faith in the moral force which my eloquent friend
near me has so well defined ; and in the belief that ice the
, wise counsels of Providence from day to day, as the world
grows elder, we may hope te hare by sure, if by slow de-
grees, the domination of that revival force progressively
widened and enlarged, arid to see the rival power of
mere brute and barbarous violence gradually assert less
[ and less an effective action upon the conduct of man-
kind. (Loud cheers.)
The remaining toasts were " The Committee," responded
, to by Sir Fitzroy Kelly, and " The Chairman," proposed by
Lord Justice Knight Bruce, and gracefully replied to by
the Attorney. General.
, The banquet was furnished by Messrs. Bing and Brymer.

Th. '.• i•-xt gave the health of Doin.areitaLl
the 11x Lca brr. Ile said that M. Desmareet was the halo.
nit r of the French her— an office which he had the honour
of ri:!ir 4 by 0., and upon none could it be more wor.
thil) cool. mil.
M. I .t.-,x•••.1 -1- delivered an address, of which the fol.
is a 11.tll •Llition I am moved when I rise to
nevoid t t„.,0 so kind and so cordially proposed to the
bar of Pali.. Uni in between the two bars has been my
dream. When one considers the affairs of the world,
even alhe haul:let so splendid as this, it is impossible
not to !lee that there are in the world two influences—force
and (Cheers.) I do Lot wish to speak ill of
force. .hs fur justice, it in becoming here to speak well of
sawl,f your present and past glory, and permit tor
toad'., in rbs presence of those two standard.bearers of
law and Lord Brougham end M. Berryer. (Loud
'beers.) There is a great similarity in their characters.

iPsWICII AND FrtixsTow RAILWAY.—A line Lae
been projected between these points. The necessary surveys
hare been wade with a view to au application to parliament.
MODERN 311RACLE8.—Telegrams sew, trete Heli-
goland, narrating the progress of the naval action between the
Danes sit berinaus, were received, owing to the slilfcreuce in
linsaituile, us the 1.11 icing oriler :—cent from Heligoland at
11.23, received at 12.1 a . sent at 2.10, received at 1.49. Ibis is uo
cure a miracle than the tame current applied by Herring's
magnetic bruilbs and youths, perfectly restoring the colour to
crey hair, and eradicating beUralgla, nervous headache, and
r he cum( wui.—l.nia es, 3., Ewslugliadwtreet, Ludo:I.—LAU verti.e.
went.

THE EXPRESS,. WEDNESDAY EVENING,
LAW INTELLIGENICE.
.
EQUITY COIJRTS.—Nov. &
(Before the Muter of the Rolla and • Jury.)
GLIM! V. Barra.
The bill in this ease is filed by • youag lady, still •
minor, byname Miss Harriet Frames, Holpte Gedsey, for
the outpost of obtaining • declaration of her being the WWI
of Mr. Patience Arthur Holgate Gedney, by his late wife,
Berrien fi Gedasy, and for the execution of be trusts of
two settlements made oa the marriage of Mr. P. A. H.
Gedney to hie said wife on the 29th of May, 1851, and by
one of which a sum of 2,0001. was settled to the separate
use of the wife for life, with remainder so the appointees of
the husbead and wife jointly, or (in default) to the w•
pointem of the survivor of them, with remands, in default
of any appointment, to the child or children of the VOW
nap, and (in default of such children) with remainder over
to Mr. George Stapylton Smith, the wife's father. (He is
now deed, and his representative is the first defendant on
the record, Mr. John Appleby Stapyltoo Smith.)
The plaintiff claims to be the daughter and only child of
Mr. P. A. H. Gedney and his said wife, and to have bees
bore on the 10th February, 1854. Mrs. Gedney died on the
18th of March, 1837, and on the 20th of Febru 1863,
Mr. P. A. H. Gedney made en appointment of the fund in
question in favour of plaintiff, as being his daughter by his
mid wife.
The defence raised is curious, via, that Mrs. Gedney
never had a child at all, but that. not being well treated
by her husband, sod thinking that if she were to have •
child she might meet with better treatment from him, she
did, in the early part of 1857, come up to London anat.
tended, as if for the pirpose of being 000 tined, find did,
through Dr. Cord, prOarre from • lying ia hospital in
London • suppositions child, which she gamed off as her
own, such child being, as they my, the plaintiff.
Several witnesses were examined viva voce in court for
the plaintiff—viz., Dr. Farr, who deposed to having
attended Mrs. Gedney io March, 1857, as fora confinement ;
Mr. Gedney himself, and also • friend of his late wife. On
the other aide, Dr. Gorse, Dr. Grantham, Dr. Porter, sod
• number of womb. formerly in the service of Dina
Gedney.
It may be mentioned that oertaie physical reasons were
urged by defendant's counsel against the possibility of
plaintiff being the child of Mrs. Gedney, in support of
which evidence was given of a character unfit for publi-
cation.

-41 r: Edward Jamey Q.C., Mr. Selwyn, Q.C., and Mr.
Tauter, appeared for plaintiff ; and for the several
defeadants, Sir U. Cairo'. Q.C., sod Mr. Cracknall, Mr.
Basically, Q.C., sod Mr. Ferrer* and Mr. Bathurst.
The cede was not coucluded when the court roes.