The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-01 00:00:00

THE BAR AND THE PRESS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—ln common with some dozens of gentlemen,
members of the English bar, who report for the public
press, I tender you my that ks for the leading article, on
the subject of the bar and the press.
Hitherto we have witnessed with silent astonishment.
the course which some of the members of the bar have
thought proper to take. The jealousy regarding those
who reported for the press has been long known ; and
those of us who have taken the " brief and fee" of the
press, and have rendered to it in return our knowledge
and ability, seeing the motives of that jealous•, have
simply despised it. You have " hit the nail on the head;"
the feeling originates in " envy, disappointment, and
jealousy," and in a " meanness" of soul unworthy any
honourable and liberal profession.
It is the boast of our English Constitution that the
highest offices in the State are open to any man who has
the talent and the learning and the industry to win
them ; our history is full of examples of men who have
" risen from the ranks," and have won them ; and no
profession exhibits among its brightest ornaments so
many examples of men who have thus risen, most of
them with the aid of writing and reporting for the public
press, as the bar.
But from whom does this offensive exclusiveness of
spirit proceed ? Look at the men who propose and
stickle for these resolutions excluding those who report
from a bar mess. The man of ability and of success
fears not competition: it is his proud intellectual position
to be able to say, "Let competitors come from what
rank of life or class of society they may—whether they
be skilled or unskilled, I fear them not." But the man
who never had brains or ability to earn a sixpence, and
who knows as little of the principles of the English
Constitution as he does of the principles of English law,
is just the man to feel jealous of, and to wish to exclude,
a junior who, before professional business fully occupies
his time, shows that he has the brains and the industry
to earn his guinea a day by reporting for the public

press.
It is the spirit of feebleness which dictates exclusive-
ness. It is this spirit which would degrade an honour-
able society, holding out prizes for an intellectual
struggle open to all, and in which he who succeeds
reflects back the triumph of his position on the society
by whose means he earned it, into a miserable close cor-
poration, into which only these who could afford to
give their sons some 3001. a year could obtain admission.
The society, and every bar mess, is open to every retired
costermonger's son—in fact, to anybody untainted by
dishonour, no matter how great a fool, or how unfit
soever he may be, provided his father before him has se-
cured him a decent maintenance. But the men who show
that they possess the vigour of intellect and the ability in
themselves to earn a competence ; who have knowledge,
and talent, and industry, it is now, it seems, attempted
by these incapabtes to exclude. The grovelling mean-
ness of the motive needs no exposition.
By such a resolution of a bar mess whols punished ?
Here are so many engagements, or fees, open to four or
five gentlemen on each circuit, enabling four or five
juniors to struggle through the difficulties of the com-
mencement of their career, honourably, by their own in-
dustry and ability. No, say some of these wiseacres,
our men shall struggle on, no matter how ; it shall be a
pocket struggle ; they shall not derive the benefit of the
fee. What, then, do they injure the press ? Oh, no ; for
the press gets others to do the duty. The circuit which
adopts such a resolution is, therefore, pretty much in the
position of the man who " cut off his nose to spite his
face." The real motive is to attempt to drive out of
competitima with their feebleness men of more intellec-
tual vigour ; hut the attempt will not succeed.
What makes men stoop to do dirty things ? Some
recent examples, which make the bar blush, show what
some members of the bar have done. The bar has
justly driven them out of its society. But had those
men been able to obtain a decent competency, even by
reporting, the probability is they would not have re-
sorted to the dirty tricks which have ended in their
punishment and disgrace. But not one of those persons
ever wrote a line for the press. By all means let every
dishonourable man be punished—let every man who
does anything unbecoming a gentleman he cut and ex-
cluded from a bar mess ; but to attempt to exclude a
man from a society, the members of which live by legal
and literary ability, on the sole ground that he evidently
possesses literary ability, sufficiently indicates the
class of men from whom a proposal so ridiculously
absurd can proceed. Carry out the idea in all its
absurdity ; let all the dunces who cannot speak, like all
the dunces who cannot write, vote addressing a jury,
a bore, and exclude from the bar mess every orator.
This, and one or two resolutions in the same direction,
will reduce the bar to that condition of feebleness which
those gentlemen who never could do anything hut spend
the money which, fortunately for them, their fathers got
before them, appear so anxious to secure.
I hope, however, that common sense, ordinary know-
led to of the biography of the most distinguished men of
the bar, and an acquaintance with the principles of the
English constitution, will rescue the bar as a body from
such a suicidal course, even though some few stupid
moneyed simpletons may sink in consequence of enlarged
and enlightened competition into their natural insigni-
ficance. I have the honour to remain, Sir,
A MEMBER•OF THE BAR AND A
REPORTER FOR 1 lIE PRESS.

Jaly 29.

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