The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-01 00:00:00

THE IRISH. CHANCELLORSHIP.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN
Sun,—Believing that your Journal is conducted on the
priticitle of giving fair play to all classes, I solicit the
admission Of a few' reinarka on the above-named subject.
I gin one of those who forget the just feeling gene-
rally manifested towards Ireland by the Wee/it Ministry;
and for that reason I would forego any observations en
the appointment of Lord Carcipbell to the Irish Chancery,
but that some misrepresentation and great error exists
in this country as to the opinions and the treatment of
the Irish bar. Bid first permit me to notice some topics
urged against the appointment : my dissent from which,
although disapproving of the appointment, I the more
willingly record, as, where no party feeling exists, it is
as undesirable its it is unjust to take advantage of an un-
founded objection, however plausible or popular. It is
objected that Lord Campbell has been chiefly
a practitioner at the Common Law bar. Was
Lord Eldon a bad Equity Judge, although taken
from a Court of Common Law, to be placed
on the Chancery Bench ? Was Lord Lyndhurst not an
instance to refute the objections entertained against one
of the best qualifications which a Chancellor could have?
Much as it was the fashion to decry- Lord Brougham's
merit as a Chancellor, has not the attempt been defeated
by the result of the appeals against his decisions ? The
well-known rd3xim, 6` Equitas sequitur legenz," has been
fully exemplified by the generally superior success of
eminent common law practitioners, when called to the
Chancellorghip. Another objection is, that the Whigs,
although at present holding office by a precarious tenure,
have appointed a new Chancellor at the commencement
of the long vacation, a cha,;7ze of Ministry being pro-
!Able before the beginning of terns. It appears to me
that no ditty is more imperative on any AiSnistry than
that.of performing their public acts in accordance with
public convenience, without regard to the vicissittielcs
to which all Ministries are subject. The ques-
tion hers is, was a change in the Irish Chan-
cellorship necessary, or at least useful, to the public ?
Painful as it may be to speak of the growing infirmity
of a great man, it is not unkind to tell the English reader
what the Irish practitioners have for some time known.
That the number and the result of the objections to
many of Lord Piunket's later decrees, give warning
which it does not disparage that Nobleman's fame to re-
spect. The special agreement regarding the retiring
pension removes all ground of cavil arising from Minis-
terial vicissitudes ; and, assuming the propriety or a
change, no period of the year can be more suited to the
public interest than at the commencement of a recess
which afthrds to the new official who, especially if a
stranger, needs leisure to study the local practice and
peculiaritiee. To me it appears that the real, and the
only, ground of objection to the appointment of a stranger
is, that it deprives the Irish bar of that fair share of pro-
motion to which they, as well as Englishmen, are en-
titled. It is for, the public benefit that a profession, en-
gaged in such responsible duties, should have the ordi-
nary incentives.. But, in this case, the Irish Solicitor-
General (the Attorney-General being a Catholic, is ex-
cluded by the sectarian legislation of this country),
the Irish Sergeants and the leading men of the Irish
bar, are passed by on the occasion of a vacanoy,, which if
it had occurred in England, would, as every one knowe,
have been tilled up from the EngliSh Bar alone. The
English newspapers affect to accuse the Irish Bar with
exclusiveness—they repeat the liberal-hearted proposi-
tion (made by Spring Rice !) that Ireland should be
called West Britain, in order to cement the friendly
feelings between the two countries. All this kindness is
to result in a reciprocity all on one side. No Irish bar-
rister has ever yet sat on the English Bench. But the
liberality has been evinced merely by placing English
barristers on the Bench in Ireland and in Scotland ; and
here let me define the words, for they have been used in
a sense calculated to lead the people of England astray—
the words English, Irish, or Scotch barristers mean not
to deSignate the birth-place of the individuals, but the
bar for which they have been trained, and to
which they have committed their prospects in life.
Charles Phillips
.is a 'amber of the Irish Bar, but he
does not by virtue of that degree practise here. If a
man were of fifty years' standing and practice as an Irish
Barrister, or as an English Banister, he is compelled,
on becoming desirous of transferring his practice from
one country to the other, to become again a student,
and keep terms, as such, in the Inn sOi Court, and to
pay over again the cost and charges of taking a Barris-
ter's degree. The Scotch Bar is similurly circum-
stanced, but with some show of reason, seeing that the
course of legal study in that part of the United Kingdom
differs to a very considerable extent from that requisite
in England and Ireland. Some observations in The Sun
of Friday last, are calculated to create mistakes on this
point, for in no instance is a Scotch or Irish Barrister
admitted to practice in the Courts here, unless he goes
through the full course in the. English Inns of Court, and
pays the full fees, according to the rules laid down for
students in this country. The House of Lords and the
House of Commons are Imperial and not provincial, as
all other Courts in Great Britain and Ireland are, and by
virtue of that quality, barristers of all parts of the
kingdom, have equal right to practice before the two
Houses. The Irish bar does not deserve the non-
sensical charge of exclusiveness urged by the English
press against the recent manifestation of disapproval.
The objection to the placing of English barristers on the
Irish Bench is that there is no reciprocal equivalent—
that no Irish barrister was ever yet appointed to the
English bench—that the man who devotes himself to
the Irish bar, has but a part of the Irish promotion,
whilst the English barrister, together with his exclusive
promotion in his own country, is generally quartered
upon Ireland whenever the highest vacancy occurs there.
The objection to Lord Campbell's appointment is but an
objection to the one-sided system which the Irish are called
upon to bear—with liberality ! !
The place of Lord Campbell's birth, or of any man's
birth, has nothing to with the question. No one ever
objected to Judge Burton's appointment to the Bench, of
which he is an ornament. He is an Englishman, but he
is also an Irish barrister. But it is not fair that a man
who throughout his career has enjoyed the splendid
prospects of the wealthier bar, should retire on the emo-
luments which should of right be bestowed on an Irish
practitioner. I am, Sir, &c.
AN IRISH BARRISTER.