Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-12-20

Sergeant Ballaasine's Table Talk.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.
There used to be an old Greek saying about
Importing pigs to Attica which correspondent
to the English one about carrying Goals to
Newcastle" Sergeant Ballantine's reminis-
censes. on the same principle, would be stale
Ia London, where the English bar is crammed
with similar anecdotes, but they find kindly
audience in New York as diversion from its
own forensic anecdotes. There are few ed
ucated and prominent men in any profession
who could rot thus bring forth out Of the
treasury of recollection things new and old,
and, as this is par excellence the age OF REM
iniscenses Sergeant Ballantine deserves to be
regarded as very good company for vacant
hour. His memory reaches back to the days of
Waterloo, when Napoleon was the bugbear Of
every British nursery and Frenchman was re-
garded as half devil. half frog. The learned ser
geant's discourse was not a lecture. he described
it as talk, y and as he leaned over his desk
Familiarity in delivering 1t we may call ii his
table talk Some of our contemporaries seem
to regard this style of addressing a refined New
York audience as rather too free and easy.
but it is just the style which has made the
veteran counselor so effective with British
jury. John Bull s extremely sensitive as to
attempt at intellectual superiority or Dictator
ship on the part of a pleader makes him unc ON
fOrtabiy suspicious of his own understanding
and his sympaties are on the side ofthe barristcr
who addresses him Familiarity in the ''you and
know very welr' style. 1t is surprising to notice
the effect such equal terms have upon an Eng
fish jury. When addressed like schoOlbovs
being taught their lesson. they get obstinate if
not angry; when told by counsel that he never
before had the privilege of beholdng such an
of nf mos fhnyc, oil pof.
but when, putting his left hand in his pocket
and extending to them the right hand of i'm
aginary fellowship, he assumes perfect under
standing and agreement with him on their part.
they sit at ease and smile upon him with faces
made unctious by his invisible soap. On the
other side OF the channel, juries are rather more
suspicious of familiarity on the part of counsel.
and the Dublin jures do not dislike IAN eye like
Mars to threaten and command" SO long as the
pleading is powerful. This is why an eminent
Irish lawyer, when asked why he was not so
cogent with jury as usual. replied. MY jury
eye is out of order through influenza"
During the long period Of Sergeant Ballan-
tines connection with the English bar, many
extraordinary cases have been tried, like that
OF Courvoisier for the murder OF Lord William
Russell, case the more memorable from the
terrible dilemma in which the eloquent Irish
pleader, Charles Phillips, then practising in
England. was placed by receiving, in the midst
of his intense advocacy of the friendless Swiss
whom he thoroughly believed to be innocent,
confidential message one night from the pris
Oner that he wished to see him. In that inter-
view, without witnesses. Courvoisier confessed
the crime. The advocate had to choose between
the knowledge OF guilt and the plea for inno-
cence. He went privately to each of the Eng
fish judges and the answer was the same:
" You must keep the prisoners secret and make
as great effort to save him by all legal means as
il he had not confessed to YOU" Most untruly
it was stated afterward that Phillips had ap-
pealcd to Goo in attestation of the murderer's
innocence. The Judge who tried the case exon
Grated him years after when appealed to- but
the lie broke his heart and killed him profess
siOnally.
In the case of the Palmer trial for the muir
der of his friend Cook. Sergeant Shea also an
Irshman. and subsequently made Judge de-
clared with certainly unfegned emotion and
sincerity that he believed the prisoner as nnO-
cent OF murder as an unconscious infant and
that II the jury hanged him he would be him
self a murdered man. But the wholesale pois-
Oner can deceive the very elect"
The Mannngs and James Bloomfield Rush
have also been conspicuous murderers. tried
within Sergeant Balantine's legal experience
though he was not of counsel for the crown or
the prisoners. In the Tichborne case he was
actually engaged for the claimant, and his unique
experience as the only counsel ever sent from
England to India to defend the Guikwar of
BarOda on the charge of trying to poison the
British resident made him prominent man.
trial. in which he was successful. though the
royal prisoner was deposed by the Viceroy for
maladministratiOn of his province. was 10000.
which in England was thought immense. But
If some of the successful lawyers in New York
are financially candid with him. they will make
him open his eyes and think himself i'll paid.
Two hundred and fifty Thousand dollars and
$50 GOO were the counsels fees paid to the late
Hon. John B. FELTON, in two civil cases in San
Francisco.
That Sergeant Ballantfne did not refer to the
more interesting cases that have come within
his experience may perhaps account for the
fact. to which he good naturedly alluded that
his audience in New York was larger when he
began than when he finished. 1t must be re-
membered however, that he has already pub
lished book Of Experiences of a Barrister's
Life, in which the pieces de resistance have been
served up His present table talk is supple
mentary, and some Of his stories, especially
the actor. were certainly worth telling as parts
of travelling barristers minor recolections.
On the whole, we do not think that the inner
circles Of New York society, which made so
much of the la-de-da velvet sentiment of Oscar
Wilde. ought to be disappointed in Sergeant
Ballantine He has come however, at an I'M
fortunate time. The young esthete is pill not
yet digested. and Mrs. Langtry s acting has dis
appointed the neighboring metropolis. AS a
learned brother Of the law, whom Sergeant Bal
lantine must remember-the late Sergeant
Adams-remarked in court. when Sir Herbert
Jenner Fust was the Judge and did not give him
much show, 81 see it is ttist come, Jfust served
In this court" 1t is the same way with the
social and artistic Court OF Appeals in New
York.
The New Permanently.
That that new penmanship method can be de-
pended upOn, every time to take the character