The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-28 00:00:00

THE BAR MESS OF THE NORTH-
ERN CIRCUIT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE " YORK HERALD."

SlR,—Having been obliged to leave York on Sun.
day evening last, on business of pressing importance
requiring my attendance in town, I take the earliest
opportunity of forwarding to you a statement relative to
certain occurrences which took place .at the Bar mess
of the Northern Circuit, on Saturday last, and which
I feel anxious to lay before the public.
I premise by saying that, as a barrister, I joined the
Northern Circuit for the first time at the present
York Assizes—that I have not had any discussion or
disagreement with any individual member of the Bar or
Northern Circuit, previously to the occurrences to
which I am about to allude—that I was at college with
several of them, and was unaniously elected a member of
the Bar mess on Monday the 11th inst., on the introduc-
tion of Mr. Cresswell and another member, having
been introduced to the first named person by a letter,
which I invite him to publish without the name of tire
writer, from an eminent Queen's Counsel, who had two
months previously spoken to Mr. Cresswell, in--Lorrckm,
about me, and received his consent to propose me. As
I have been very unwell for a month past with an affec-
tion of the throat, I left the dinner table at 7 on Monday,
and did not dine at mess again until Saturday, being the
day on which the whole bar are expected to attend, but
dined with the Judges one day. On Saturday I was
detained in Court all day by business which I bad no op-
portunity of introducing, and at last was relieved from it
by the kindness' of a gentleman at the bar, purposely to
enable me to save my fine by attending the mess, it being
then six o'clock. Before *leaving Court, however, I
made an appointment with Mr. Seymour, the Under
Sheriff, to meet him at nine that evening, for the pur-
pose of my being sworn before hint as a Master Extra-
ordinary in Chancery, to an affidavit
,pElk.,:aat import-
ance, which I had unexpectedly received from town,
and which required to be sent back by that night's post.
I had supposed that this arrangement would leave
ample time for the dinner. I must here mention that I
have not lived in technical legal society, and though of
six years standing at the bar, and never till the 11th
instant joined a circuit, and knew, consequently,
only the usages general among gentlemen, and
not that peculiar custom about to be mentioned,
namely, that of impeding the parting guest after
dinner, which was still usual among English squireens
about A.D. 1700, and yet perchance lingers in Lap-
land. Also, I must add that my proposer had never
spoken to me since my introduction to the mess, when
the only advice he gave me was (with my six years
standing) to take the lowest seat at the table, which I
have always done, and also that all my seconder had
told me, as I recollect, in the way of advice was.

" not to be seen with attorneys." I went to the
Music Hall, and found nearly ninety members din-
ing. After dinner a ceremony, which I deemed a
mere farce, of locking doors, was- gone through by
Mr. Watson, who, I understood, was elected mes-
senger or doorkeeper for the evening. An hour probably
after the locking, or form of locking, several members
came in without knocking. I draw a veil over the pro-
ceedings which ensued, and at once say that at a quar-
ter to nine I wrote in pencil the following note (the
original is now deposited with Mr. Etridge), and gave it
to Mr. Watson, the doorkeeper; it was as follows :
" Please to let me go : I have appointed nine this even-
ing to be sworn to an affidavit in a lunacy petition coming
on before the Chancellor on the 20th, in my own private
affairs, which must be forwarded by post to-night. C. F.
Barkley." Mr. Watson having spoken to the Hon. Stuart
Wortley, said he must refer me to the Junior, Mr. Mon-
teith. After showing the slip of paper to Mr. Ho; gins, I
walked over with it to the Junior, Mr. Monteith, who does
not remember having seen it, but recollects my applica-
tion ; Mr. Adolphus was then speaking, and who, instead
of pointing out any form of obtaining permission to de-
part, said—" I can do nothing, wait five minutes and all
will be over ;" or words to that effect. I returned to
my seat, and contemplating Mr. Seymour's not choosing
to be detained so long after his appointment for nine, and
fearing great difficulty in getting sworn elsewhere so late,
and not being in health to travel to town direct day
and night on Sunday if I lost the post, I was in great
perplexity and anxiety about my affidavit, and at last
at half-past nine, believing my course sanctioned by a
remark from an older member, I rose to go away, it
being two hours after the removal of the cloth. On
reaching the door, having gone round to take my hat
and coat, I found Mr. Watson had arrived before me,
and with his back to the door he denied me egress. I
remonstrated very quietly, saying only " Mr. Watson,
I am not a child." Presently the guests commenced
booting and making indescribable noises directed at me.
Mr. Watson now said aloud to the party, and for
it I thank him, " Mr. Barkley really has irn.;'
portant (or urgent) business." Supposing it, I
conjecture, to be of another description, there
was then a sort of merriment, mingled with a
growling of " Hat off," " Scat," &c. In compliance
I returned to my place without my hat, and from it
addressing the whole room, alleged the nature of my bu-
siness to the effect of my note above written. The noise
then redoubled and became more angry, on which I
added firmly that I pleaded the general usages of society,
and that as I had even told the nature of my business, I
therefore must go and would go. On this Mr. Cresswell
from afar offarose,and most imperiously and authoritative-
ly told me he spoke the sense of the meeting (and this
made mein error suppose him in the chair. I now find, how-
ever, that he was a volunteer, for he had a senior present,
viz., my successor as a candidate for York, Mr. Serjeant
Atcherley), "and that if I insisted on going I could
never return." I thereupon, without hesitation, said
that, although the most humble member of the circuit,
and he the leader, I maintained my right to go, and
that I accepted his alternative of giving up the mess,
and to it I would never return. I walked again to the
door, which Mr. Watson opened, and I arrived at Mr.
Seymour's house, at ten minutes to ten, and disturbed
him at his supper. I supposed the matter would
end here, I having clearly and distinctly withdrawn
from such arbitrary scenes for ever. Judge my
surprise and indignation at receiving, next dav,
Sunday, at half past twelve, a visit from Mr.
Monteith, the junior, with an epistle containing the
following passage, decided upon three hours after dinner,
it is true, and with which I end my narrative, for the
present. The passage alluded to is, " Resolved, that
Mr. Barkley be hereafter excluded from the Grand
Court of the Northern Circuit, and that the 71. 7s. be
returned to him, which he paid into the wine fund."
This money I refused, as having already resigned, and
therefore having no lien, and not being able to accept
charity. Thus has a gratuitous and supererogatory offence
been offered me, which (where the true cause, namely, that
I wished in the year 1839, to leave a dinner table, two
hours and a half after the cloth was removed, when all had
taken wine enough, and I was pressed by urgent business,
may be unknown), is calculated to prejudice me in pub-
lic opinion, in society, and as I have beard a hint, pro-
fessionally. If that prove so, then must 1 investigate
the pretension of any body of persons, Ist, to arrogate im-
portant functions under the cover of convivial purposes,
and to raise inferences injurious to those who do not
join them, which they thereby force every one to do ;
2d, to subject those who do join them, the serious as
well as others, and even to compel them to witness mat-
ters, I will no further allude to, by fines and penalties,
when fresh from harrowing scenes, such as that of Satur-
day's trial ; 3d, to cr..st a stigma for ever on the repute-
tion of any unfortunate gentleman, who cannot submit
to be bearded under such circumstances as I was placed
in, by the Member for Liverpool, by Mr. Cresswell,
with whom nearly the whole blame of this occurrence
rests ; first, as having neglected to advise and inform me,
and subsequently to protect me ; and thirdly, as:having
led and concentrated against me, if what I am informed
be true, the feelings of men under excitement and im-
perfectly comprehending the matter ; and finally, for
having driven me by his alternative, into an impasse,
moral as well as physical, in which situation
no man of any spirit could have hesitated to
adopt my course. Some of the meeting may have
begun to hoot and so forth, for excitement, and only
ended in earnest ; but this is dangerous Play when a
man has honour and his interests both jeopardised.
and his sense of the injustice of the parties acutely roused.
There is an awful levity in such a course. As I be-
lieve in the justice of the public, which fears with rea-
son all monopolies, I shall pursue, and I believe its
opinion expressed through its organs will support me
in so doing, my humble professional duties in Court,
and my other legal avocations on the Northern Cir-
cuit, which with me are now a duty. I hope,
also, to find courtesy and consideration from some
individual members of the bar. If consequences, in-
jurious to my pecuniary interests, flow, however, from
that source, then I shall look to another remedy,
and another class of the same profession, for
pro-
tection. This publicity is painful to me, and will
be more so to all those connected with me ; and for the
gentleman who introduced me to Mr. Cresswell, I deeply
feel, but a public duty combines with my personal inte-
rests, in bidding me thus arrest the disastrous whisper of
slander. No body of persons, however powerful, can ha
permitted by a free man, in this free land, to interfere
directly, or otherwise, to impede by combination, any
man's individual course in earning, or in adding to his
means of livelihood.—l appeal, Sir, to public opinion, and
—I have the honour to remain, your obedient humble
servant, CHARLES F. BARKLEY,
London, 20th March, 1839.

Fanny Eisler met with a fall on Wednesday last
at Paris, which is likely to keep her from the stege for two
or three weeks.

The intelligence of the Old Newcastle Bank,
or the firm of Sir M. W. Ridley, Bigge, and Co. having, by
a conjunction with the Northumberland and Durham District
Banking Company, become extinct, excited a considerable
sensation during the pzu Cweek, and has been for several
days one of the principal topics of conversation. Messrs.
Lambton and Co.'s highly respectable establisment is now
the only private bank left in the town. —Tyne Mercury.
IEXTRAORDINARY DEFENCE OF BIGANIY.—
At the Tyrone assizes, a man named Henry O'Neill, was
tried for bigamy, and in his defence called as a witness his
second wife to prove that she had bought him from the first
wife, and had paid her 3/. for her husband, being 1/. more
than she asked. This witness said that the first wife had
told her she had bought the prisoner with her father's
money, and that she had therefore as much right to sell
him as a cow or a pig. The prisoner on this seemed to
feel that he had made out a complete case. The Jury,
however, on being charged by the Judge, immediately
found him guilty ; and, to his dismay and horror, his Lord-
ship sentenced him to seven years' transportation.