The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-21 00:00:00

The Lord Chancellor and the Bar.

(From the Law Times of To-day.)
Mr. Daniel, we are credibly informed, has been with the
Lord Chancellor, to try to induce him to give his sanction
to the exclusive citation of the projected Bar Company's
reports. Such a request would be quite in accordance
with the ulterior view set forth in Mr. Daniel's original

" Remedy," although policy drew a curtain over that view,
both when the report was drawn up in Lincoln's-inn, and

when it was afterwards discussed and carried in the Hall
with a majority made up by the benchers and committee-
men on the platform. Originally it was proposed in the
"Remedy" (p. 59) that the new speculative reports should
be called so and so, and "from the time of their publication
should be the only reports citable as authority" (italics Mr.
Daniel's). " This last object will be effectuated without the
necessity of resorting to the exercise of any power inherent
in the Judges, if the Bar resolve that the privilege of

appending the barrister's name to a report for the purpose
of citation as authority" (italics again Mr. Daniel's) "be
exercised in subordination to the authority of the council."

The Bar did not think fit so to resolve. Now, therefore, re-

sort is had to the Judges in the person of the head of the
order. The Lord Chancellor is too well experienced in

affairs to give Mr. Daniel a chance of embarrassing him
with an impractical scheme of reports for exclusive citation ;
_ _ .

moreover, the Lord Chancellor has sufficiently shown his
disapproval of a close, protective system by his public de-
claration in court that he knows of no " authorised" reports.

and by his equally public praise of the periodical reports.
Mr. Beavan, it is true, in the very next part of his Rolls
Reports, took upon himself to gainsay the Lord Chancellor
by a counterblast, in the shape of an initial paragraph, that
those were the reports authorised by the Master of the

Rolls. N.B. The genuine are all marked at full length
with the name of " Charles Beaven, Esq., M.A., barrister-
at-law ;" all others are spurious ; be particular to ask for
Beavan's Reports ; please keep this notice. But inasmuch
as the Lord Chancellor is an appeal judge from the Master
of the Rolls, the authority to Mr. Beavan entails the ridi-
culous result that the 'sources of the unwritten law in the
subordinate and appeal courts are not to be the same.
It would have been a treat to be present at the interview
of Mr. Daniel with the Lord Chancellor. As we were not
asked by either party to form a third on the occasion, we
may, Landor-like, imagine some of the interrogatories
which the Lord Chancellor would administer in those
measured, meditative accents, which compel the respondent,
however illogical and impetuous by nature he may be to

make some show of reason and heedfulness in his answers.

" Suppose," Mr. Daniel, " counsel arguing before me cites a
case which is not reported in the authorised exclusive re-
ports, but in which he was himself of counsel, and of which
he made a•note at the hearing of it, am I to refuse to listen
to that case so cited ?" " I apprehend, my lord, that we do
not propose to go so far as that." " I must be guided by
that case, must I not, if it be in point ? I should not be
expected, should I, to stop the cause before me until the
cited case were put into the authorised exclusive reports,
and have the cause set down again then for hearing ?"
" We did not contemplate such a hindrance, mylord, to the
administration of justice." "Then it would follow, would
it not, that I must allow that case to be cited, although it
did not happen to be in your Bar reports ?" " That would
appear to be so, my lord." "Now suppose, Mr. Daniel,
that the gentleman whom I have conceived to be arguing
before me were a reporter in one of those series which
come out monthly or weekly, and report the cases to the
latest date, and which, I may say, I have found very use-
ful to me both when I practised at the bar, after 1 ceased
to grapple with the reports generally, and since I have held
my present position ; and suppose this reporter, citing be-
fore me a case in which he was of counsel, cited it not from
his manuscript note of the case, but from the print of that
note in the shape of his report in the monthly or weekly
series, am Ito say to that gentleman, No, I cannot hear
that case cited from your printed report'--I who am
very from being averse to printing legal matter ?" "We
should be sorry to urge your lordship to adopt any course
inconsistent with your own views on the subject of print ?',
" That is not exactly the point, Mr. Daniel. Could I, con-
sistently with the first supposition that I put to you, refuse
to receive from.the reporter arguing before me this printed
report of the case in the serial ?" "Perhaps not, my lord."
"It would seem so. We have supposed, Mr. Daniel, that
the gentleman arguing before me is the reporter himself.
Let us, if you please, make one more supposition." "If
your lordship pleases." " It is only that some other gentle-
man than the reporter himself cites the same case from the
same serial : am Ito say to that other gentleman, No, sir,
you are not the reporter ; you cannot cite that case from
that serial?' Would not that place the gentlemen of the
Bar who are not reporters at a disadvantage ?" "It would,
my lord, seem to do so." " Yes. Besides, Mr. Daniel, is
there not another party concerned in all this matter who is
not, if I may use the phrase, yet before the court ? It is a
party that was not present at your meetings in Lincoln's-
inn Hall. " There were representatives of the benchers
of all the Inns of Court there, my lord, and a mixed meet-
ing of the Common Law and Equity Bar." " But the
public, Mr. Daniel ?" " Oh, my lord, public reporters were
admitted for all the newspapers." " You do not quite un-
derstand me, Mr. Daniel ; has it never occurred to you that
the public has an interest in the decisions of courts of jus-
tice ? I might almost call it a property in them ; certainly
such a property that the public has a right to the benefit
of every decision (save the mark!) so as to have it brought
to the notice of the courts by those who have the right of
audience there—l mean, by counsel." " That view may
have escaped us, my lord, unless indeed, now I think of it,
Mr. Denman did say something to the effect of your lord-
ship's remark, but at the time our minds were rather pos-
sessed by our own side of the question, and perhaps we did
not consider the public quite so much as your lordship
would be disposed to do. We were considering the matter
among ourselves, and have applied to your lordship as our
head." "Yes, Mr. Daniel, only the Lord Chancellor is not
the Lord Chancellor of the bar, but of the kingdom. In
these days the bar must look a little out of the window. I
have no doubt that you understand me. Think the matter
over again, Mr. Daniel, with your friends, after what we
have said. Anything practicable and useful I shall be
happy to hear from yourself or any of them."

The Emperor Napoleon's Life of Julius
Caesar.

The Ath,enmunz of to-day says, in regard to this forth-
coming work :—" The Emperor Napoleon has adopted a
new style of publication. His Life of Caesar' (of which
we have had a peep, and can pronounce it to be remarkable
in style and method) will appear in French, English, and
German at the same time. No name is to appear on the
title-page except that of Caesar. The writer is to be under-
stood, not expressed. So far as Napoleon goes, the omis-
sion will count for nothing, since no man in Europe will be
ignorant of the fact. But for the translators it is not so con-
venient, we should think, though their names will also be
pretty well known. Mr. Wright, the antiquary and historian,
has been appointed the English translator. It was impossible
for the Emperor to have made a better choice, Mr. Wright,
is a thorough master of the two languages ; his French
style being almost as good and idiomatic as his English
style, the purity and vivacity of which requires no certi-
ficate from us."

The Queen speaks of the same work as follows :—" The
first volume of the Life of Caesar,' by the Emperor
Napoleon 111., is, at last, about to be printed. An edition
in quarto of a thousand copies, called edition de luxe, is in
the press at the Imprimerie Imperials, and is to be simul-
taneously issued with a smaller ono in octavo, printed by
M. Plon, the editor, who has engaged for translations in
German and English to come out at the same time.
This edition is to be a popular one, while the former
is reserved by the illustrious author to be
offered to crowned heads, ministers, and various literary
academies, and Institutes. His Majesty is said to have
devoted many of his leisure hours to the above work, for
which most minute and laborious researches have been
making during the last few years. An engraving of the
head of Julius Caesar, by Ingres, the aged painter, is to be
affixed to the work ; and, none of the busts or likenesses
extant of the Conqueror of the Gauls being, as a whole,
entirely approved of by the critical eye and taste of the
imperial author, the artist is to compose and delineate one,
partaking of the chief characteristics of those heads and
portraits of Caesar which we still possess, and if possible,
thus to combine one, answering better to the Emperor's
ideal of his subject."

---
THE LATE MISS CATHERINE SINCLAIR.—From a
grateful tribute to the memory of the late Miss
Catherine Sinclair, which has just been published forprivate
circulation, we select the following :—ln her younger days
she was a frequent visitor at Abbotsford. Sir Walter Scott
was at that time well known or generally understood to
have written the Waverley Novels, but had not publicly
avowed the authorship. Miss Sinclair one day amused him
greatly by presenting to him a small engraving of himself,
with a scrap of very thin muslin over the face, and the fol-
lowing inscription underneath :—" The Great Unknown !"
On another occasion a question arose as to the chieftainship of
the clan Macdonald, when the rival claims of Lord Mac-
donald, Glengarry, and Clanranald were discussed. Sir
Walter, knowing that Miss Sinclair was descended, through
her mother, from Alexander, first Lord Macdonald, began
jocularly to disparage the claims of that family, the Mac-
donalds of Sleat, or Slate, as he affected to call them, after
an obscure parish in the Isle of Skye. Miss Sinclair inter-
rupted him. "Well, Sir Walter, say what you please, you
will always find the slates at the top of the house t" She
then added, "did you ever hear my uncle's reply, when
Glengarry.wrote to say that he had discovered evidence to
prove himself the Chief of the Macdonalds ? It is a reply
that I am proud of"
"My dear Glengarry,—As soon as you can prove your-
self to be my chief, I shall be ready to acknowledge
ALD. 'u yo ;
in the meantime, I am yours, MACDON
" That letter," exclaimed Sir Walter, "is the most pointed
that I ever heard or read of !" Miss Sinclair, conversing
with the old Earl of Buchan, brother Chancellor Erskine,
expressed astonishment at some instance of ingratitude.
" Never be surprised at ingratitude," said the aged peer ;
" look at your Bible. The dove, to which Noah thrice
gave shelter in the ark, no sooner found a resting-place for
the sole of her foot than she returned no more to her bene-
factor." "Very true," replied Miss Sinclair; "give a man
a ladder to go up, and immediately he turns his back upon
you."—Manchester Guardian.