The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-20 00:00:00

CANDIDATES FOR THE BAR.

We are informed that the Benchers of the Honourable
Society of the Middle Temple, in following the course acted
upon by two other learned societies, have recently adopted
the after-mentioned regulations, for the purpose, we appre•
bend, of securing a standard degree of talent and-character
in admissions to the bar. It is well known that of late years
the bar has been too easily accessible, and no doubt a pro-
cess of expurgation at the present lay would be attended
with beneficial results. It appears that in Trinity Term,
1789, an order was made by the then members of the bench
of the Inner Temple, and that the then Benchers of the
Middle Temple, in adopting the same, ordered, "That
from and after that time no articled clerk, either to an
attorney or solicitor, or to a clerk in the Court of Chancery
or Court of Exchequer, ought to be called to the bar until
his articles shall either have expired or been cancelled for
the space of two whole years, and stating that it was then
ordered by the Masters of the Bench then present that the
said resolution should be confirmed and adopted as the rule
of that society, in all future applications of such articled
clerks to be called to the bar." We now find that, in con-
formity with certain stringent rules elsewhere adopted, the
Bench of the Middle Temple has ordered that for the future
" No attorney-at-law, solicitor, writer to the Signet, or writer
of the Scotch Courts, proctor, notary, or Parliamentary agent,
or person acting as such, and no clerk of or to any barrister,
conveyancer, special pleader, attorney, solicitor, writer to the
Signet, or writers of the Scotch Courts, proctor, notary, or
Parliamentary agent, clerk in Chancery, or other officer in
any court of law or equity, whether such clerk be articled or
in the receipt of salary, or of other remuneration for his ser-
vices, shall be allowed to keep commons in the hall of
this society, available for the purpose of being
called to the bar; whether such person be already,
or may hereafter become a member of this So-
ciety, until such person, being an attorney, shall
have taken his name off the rolls, nor until he and every
other person above-named or described shall have ceased to
act or practise as such attorney, writer to the Signet, or
writer of the Scotch Courts, solicitor, proctor, notary, agent,
or clerk, as aforesaid, saving always to any person or persons
circumstanced as aforesaid, the benefit of any term or terms
which he or they may have kept in conformity with the or-
ders of this society." And that henceforth "No person al-
ready admitted, or who may hereafter be admitted a member
of this society, shall apply tor or take out any certificate in
pursuance of the statute 44 Geo. 111. c. 98, s. 14, without the
special permission of this society, under pain of expulsion,
and that such permission be in no case granted until the per-
sons applying for the same shall have kept such commons in
the hall of this society, as in pursuance of the order of the 16th
day of July, 1762, are required to be kept as a qualification
for the bar, and that such permission, when granted, do endure
only from the date thereof, but may be renewed annually by
order, upon petition."

SHIPWRECX.—On the morning of Sunday last, the
12th instant, about two o'clock, the principal keeper at Kin-
naird lighthouse, while on his watch in the light-room, was
attracted by the noise of some one knocking at the door of
the house. Having summoned the assistant keeper, it was
found that the person who sought admittance was a ship-
wrecked seaman in a very wet and exhausted state. When
his necessities had been provided for, the statement that he
gave was, that his name Was Alexander Hutchison, and that
his vessel was the Eliza, of Kirkcudbright, bound from Live-
rpool to Dundee, with salt. She struck on a rock on the 9th
instant in passing through the Pentland Frith, but from the
fog did not know exactly where it was. The wind was fa-
vourable for crossing the Moray Frith, and this they at-
tempted to do by working the pumps till the morning of the
11th (Saturday), at five o'clock, when the pump leathers
being worn out, and the water above the cabin floor, they de-
termined to abandon the vessel. In putting the boat out for
this purpose, however, the rope by which she was attached
to the sloop slipped, and she went adrift. Upon this the
crew, consisting of four men, jumped overboard, leaving a
boy, who was unable to swim, on board the vessel. Hutchison
was the only one who made the boat ; the rest all perished ;
and the vessel went down in about an hour after he left her.
He was unable to render any assistance, as there were no
oars in the boat, which was gradually drifted towards the
shore, which he saw in the afternoon. The wind changed
at night, and, afraid of being drifted off again, he determined
to swim to shore, about a mile distant, which he reached at
midnight, about a mile west of the lighthouse, and, keeping
the light in view, be arrived as already mentioned.—Edin-
burgh Paper.
ACCIDF4T.—On Monday last the Hon. William
Henry Leigh of Trinity College, son of Lord Leigh, of
Stoneleigh .Z.ibbey, near Leamington, was thrown from his
horse near Six-Mile Bottom, and received a severe concussion
of the brain, from which serious results were at first appre-
kended. We are, however, happy to learn that Mr. Leigh is
progressing towards. recovery in a very satisfactory manner.
.-Cambridge Chromcle,