Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-19


| on Saturday evening, June 90, an almost
unique event. The English bar had in
vited Mr.. Benjamin, Q. c., to dinner in
his honor on the occasion of his retiring
from the practice of his profession.
Though liberal in its hospitality, that
body is not prone to go out of its way to
honor even its most illustrious members
and to pay this mark of respect to one
who had not entered it by the
usual gates, who had come late in life
| to England to repair his shattered for
tunes and to join profession which has
all sorts of portals and passwords calcu-
! lated, if not Intended to exclude out
siders, is a rare event, and is, in fact,
without a parallel In the long history of
the bar. 1t is the strange and brilliant
ending Of a strange professional career.
! The attendance of the Chief Judges and
of upward of 200 members of the English
bar shows that Mr.. Benjamin has, in his
comparatively brief career here, won the
esteem and regard of men from whom so
often in forensic contests he must have
borne away the prize,
On Saturday little was said as to the
element Of romance in Mr.. Beniamin's
career, which is wholly wanting in the
commonplace histories of most success
full lawyers. But it formed background
of interest to the proceedings. In the
ana
tact, Mr.. Benjamin acknowledged the
warmth OF his reception, he stated that
he had retired from practice just as he
had completed the fftieth year of his
professional life. Into that half century
how much variety, what diversity of in
cident, experience, and scene have been
crowded. If Mr.. Benjamin writes his
autobiography, as it is to be hoped he will,
what materials for a stirring narrative
he may draw from his memory! When
some of the judges who had come to do
him honor were children, he was
already conspicuous at the New Orleans
bar. His earliest published legal work, a
digest of the reported cases of the Louis
lana courts, is dated as far back as 1884,
and his published arguments in i'm
pOrtant commercial cases, such as Lock
EFT agt. the Merchants Insurance Com
pany, made him known as long ago as
1910 throughout the Union as an admira-
BILE lawyer. In the Senate he was equally
successful as a powerful and deXterous
debater. He attained distinction as q
legal reasoner before the Supreme Court
at Washington, tribunal which has al
ways preserved high forensic standard
For some time before the outbreak of the
civil war called him to play a still
more conspicuous part, he was sought
after wherever acumen ana learn
ing were needed; and one of the greatest
of his forensic efforts was his argument
before the Federal District Court of Cali
fornia in regard to an important mining
claim-the United States against Castil-
lerOs. OF the share which he took in the
struggle between the North and the South,
it is enough to say that he showed no de-
ficiency in bOldnesS or skill, and that the
disasters which betell his cause were not
attributable to any lack of energy on his
part. When all was lost-when fortune
had pronounced her last word against the
Confederate arms-Mr. Benjamin came to
England to begin in English courts the
practice of the legal profession.
The experiment might well seem fool
hardy and hopeless even in the case of a
man of Mr.. Benjamin's energy and ability,
He was pretty well advanced in years.
His professional antecedents were not
obvious preparations for success here.
He had not been trained as a lawyer in
one of the States of the Union in which
the common law, with all its incidents,
had taken root. He was not Massachu-
sets or Pennsylvania lawyer, accus-
toned to handle English authorities and
to apply English rules of procedure. He
was trained in Louisiana, the jurisprJl-
dence Of which was formed of successive
layers of Roman, French, and Spanish
law, and the courts of which were ac-
custOmed, when the State codes afforded
no guide, to go in search Of gen.
eral principles to Roman, French,
or Spanish authorities. Probably this
apparent disadvantage was an advan-
tage in disguise. However great the
practical inconvenience of such a state Of
legal confusion, experience in such a To-
rum was calculated to train lawyers who
were more than mere tradesmen and who
possessed wide legal knowledge. In this
school Mr.. Benjamin might well acquire
that familiarity with and mastery over
general principles, which was the great
est of his gifts as an advocate. 1t was
not an accident that Edward Livingston,
the first American lawyer to direct atten-
ton to the subject of legal reform, began
his work in that State, Nor was it fact
of no consequence that Mr.. Benjamin re-
ceived his legal training in circumstances
in which it was essential to attain fa-
miliarity with general Jurisprudence.
When he arrived in this country the
fame of his ability had pre-
coded him, and sympathy with him,
as political exile and the
representative of lost cause, smOothed
his path. The late Lord Justice Turner,
Lord Hatherly, and Sir Fitzroy Kelly, be-
stirred themselves to procure for him a
dispensation from the necessity of under
going the usual period of probation before
being called to the bar. Eminent firms of
solicitors in Liverpool and elsewhere raj
lied round him, The publication of his
book on the Law of Sale advanced his pro-
feSslonal fortunes; and he rapidly rose in
favor until it became customary to retain
him as matter of course in all important
cases before the Court of Appeal in the
House Of Lords. He had attained to an
eminent position when his medical advis-
ers warned him that he must no longer
share in the excitement and tumult of
forensic contests, and he decided, much
to the regret of his brethren, to retire
from his profession,