The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-07 00:00:00

[TWOPENCE

SIR RGUNDELL PALMER ON LEGAL
EDUCATION.

The fourth inauguration meeting of the members
of the Articled Clerks Society was held yesterday evenit g
in the great hall, King's College, Strand.

Sir It. leteeen, Q.C., M.P., presided, and on taking the
chair, delivered an address, in the course of which he said
it was with great pleasure that he complied with the invi-
tation addressed to him by the Fucitty, that be
would endeavour to advance the cause of legal education
by delivering an address containing such advice as his ex-
perience might suggest. In the first place, he invited
them to go back to the consideration of the position and
the duties for which they were preparing themselves at
this season of their lives. Everything must be made re-
levant to the qualifications and the means of obtaining
them, and the right view of those qualifications and those
duties would at once direct their studies, enlarge and ele-
vate their purposes and their motives, and at the same
time prepare them for all those prospects which no man
could foresee. What then was their position, and what
were their duties e They all belonged, or were pre-
paring themselves to belong, to one great profes-
sion, one and indivisible in all its branches and
departments, every one of theta essentially connected
with and dependent upon the other. The departments of
the profession were four in number, and eerily one of
them was essential to the very existence of society, and
under no conceivable circumstances could the office and
function which they filled be dispensed with. The first
and highest was the judicial department. The second de-
partment was that of advocacy, which in this country
was generally, but not universally, filled by the bar. The
third was the department of conveyancing ; and the fourth
department was that of practising attorneys and solicitors.
The articled clerks, as their very name indicated, were
preparing themselves for the fourth of these departments.
Al.' had their different parts 111 a common duty, that
common duty being the administration of justice and
the application of law to the wants and necessities of
society. In days of transition like these, it was worth
while to dwell upon the office of each in reference to the
position of the other. The judge was, speaking generally.
taken from the profession of the bur. But had not the judge
to trust to the assistance, the integrity, and honour of the
attorneys and solicitors, as well as of the barristers!
Could he well discharge his duties if he did not Naomi
that confidence! It could not be. There were positions
open to attorneys which introduced them to places of a
judicial though of a subordinate character. The attorney
might become chief clerk of the judge in Chancery, or
mutter of one of the courts of law, and advising clerk to
magistrates, discharging the moat important duty of ad-
ministering both criminal and civil justice. Therefore
that training was necessary which, when a man was called
to these duties, would make him not unequal to the task.
To pass from the judge to the barrister, the position of the
barrister would stand or fall in this country according to
its intrinsic merits. But he saw some important advantages
which were gained by keeping up the distinction between
those two branches of the profession. It existed in France and
in many other countries with the sane public benetita as here.
but not at all events with the same conditions and circum-
staoces in the United States and in some of our colonies.
He would not for a moment, certainly not upon any
ground of e. if Jr a.rps, or upon any sentimental ground,
maintain a distinction of that kind if it produced a mono-
poly unsuited to the wants and requirements of the
country. If local jurisdictions and summary procedure
were extended throughout the country, in the changes
that might take place attorneys and solicitors might be
called upon still further to discharge theduties of advo-
cates, and he had no doubt they would discharge them
well And what he would impress upon them was, that
they should endeavour to discharge that duty in the same
spirit in which it had been ordinarily discharged by the bar
of England—with the same independence, with the same
sense of duty, with the same self-respect, with the same
reepect for the judge, and the same regard fur the sub-
stance of justice. In all their preparations let them re-
member that this was a part, and an increasing
part, of the duty which the attorneys and solicitors
throughout the country had now to prepare themselves
for, and that it was of essential importance that it should
be done well, and that the preparations for it should be
substantial. He sow came to speak of the separate duties
of attorneys and solicitors themselves. The bar stood be-
tween the people and the judge, but the attorney was in
direct contact with the people, and brought the law home
to the people. He was the people's lawyer, and his law
was in the main the people's law. It wee manifest that
nothing could be more important than such a calling. The
attorney became the confidential adviser, the negotiator in
all matters of business, for every class of society which had
legal business to do. Attorneys had great opportunities
for good or for evil. It was not too much to say that they
had a large part of the property of the country in their
hands and under their management, and they had not only
the property, but the secrets of families in their hands.
They were as much trusted, and trust in them was as
needful as in the clergyman or the physician. Of
course their influence, both in public en .l private affair,
was proportionidly great. Wilat, then, was their duty?
To give sound law to the people ; to be killed in business,
capable of giving good advice. But, above all, it was
their duty cot to make a trade of law ; not to create or
foment differences and disagreements between man and
man, but to reconcile and soften them whenever they
could. The opportunities to do this were infinite, and he
believed that day after day they were all over the country
conscientiously used. There were teary occasions on
which it was not a man's duty to take advantage of the
law. The attorney should know those occasions. It was
his business to exercise a sound judgment, and not to con-
fine himself to the mere technical view of legal rights or
legal obligations. Then with regard to the qualifications
necessary for tee prosecution of the study of the law.
These were of primary importanoe. They were of two
kinds—moral and mtellectusl. The mural qualifi-
cations of which he smoke were these : first,
there must be • right conception of duty, •
duty which was in its degree somewhat correspon-
dent to that of a minister of justice. The man who
would make a good lawyer should have • love of justice,
should love what is right and hate what is wrong. Con-
nected with that was the love sod practise of truth end
honour. Besides these there were other qualities, though
of a lower rank, without which nu lawyer could get on—
patience, firmness, temper, tact, and courtesy ; in fact,
he might my all the qualifications of a eenticinen. What
were the intellectual qualifications necessary! They
wanted logical accuracy, order, 'netted. system, power of
aniuigenient. What was further wankel was the power of
intellectual impartiality, the power of seeing what there
was un both sides of • case, • power infinitely valuable
to all who had to advise about or to conduct fit**.
tion. They wanted quickness of apprehension, quickness
of combination. They wanted a thorough command of words,
to know what they meant so as to be able to use them
with exactness. Law was not a subject which would
admit of loose talk. He would now address a few words
to them which were specially applicable to them as • class.
Their professional studies were to be divided laic those
which were sjwcial, having relation Maier immediate leeal
duties, for which they attended certain lectures and went
through a certain course of examination ; and, secondly,
general studies,
_ with a view of acquiring knowledge for
its own sake. He warned them against too much " mem "
against obtaining a meresmattering of knowledge to meet
a number of questions without understanding any of them.
He set no value on that kind of knowledge whkli came in
at the eye and weld out by the ear as soon as the exami-
nation was over. He advised them to read the best
books on the carious breeches of law—reel Property law,
testamentary law, and mercantile law. He also adviseei
them to read carefully Hallam's " Constitutional
History of England," Reeves's " History of the Sta-
tute Law," Coke's "Second and Third Institutes." These
were books well worthy of the attention of any one who
wished to become acquainted with the history of the law
of this country. General mental improvement, general
information, everything that was compohended in a round
system of general education was of direct and essential
importance to the lawyer. He was glad to find that this
society cultivated the art of public speaking, and that it
held discussions on various legal euhjects. There could be
no better method than this of practising early and obtain-
ing those quelitiration* by which they hoped to succeed
in later life. If he Welt be peimitted to re'er to his
Oxford experiences, he might state that during the four
years that be was an undergraduate at Oxford, be found
the advantage of the taercise of public bpi:eking in a de-
bating society, and in the one with which he was con-
neetod he bad the pleasure of beiag associated with young
men who had since risen to greateminesice. Amongst them
were Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert. sifter-
wards Lord Herbert, Lord Dalhoueie, Lord Canning,
Lord Elgin, the Duke of Newcastle, 31r. Cardwell, Mr.
Lowe, the present Bishop of London, and Archbishop
Manning. In the education of it lawyer no kind of know-
ledge was thrown away, and the knowledge of men and
their effeint was as essential ton lee) era education as •
any other branch of knowledge. In fact no kind of know.
ledge came amiss to a lawyer.
At the °occlusion of his aside's', which was listened to
throughout with great attesition, and mirages of which
were nheered, the hon. and learned gentleman presented
the Davis Prim, which consisted of • complete copy of
Lord Ilacaulay's works, to Mr. George Lewis. Afterwards
• discussion took place on the following subject:—" That
to render the rose= ' Ignorance of the law exceseth no
man' just in its operation, the law should be materially
simplified by codification or otherwise, and greater publi-
city should be given to legislative alterations."