Omaha daily bee., 1888-01-20

whether he does we'll or i'll, he is under no
legal liability TO the man by whom he is paid
The brief may not have told him all the facts {,
he may not have read it; he may be in
another court when the case is being
tried; but the client is absolutely
in his hands and cannot sustain any legal
claims, even for return fees which have not
been earned. Yet there are now solicitors
who would make great advocates, there are
barristers who would do thoroughly well
solicitors work, and by letting each do work
for which he is best fitted we should give the
litigant larger area of choice and save him
from the useless burden of being bound to
employ two persons instead of one.
The English barrister who goes to
practice In the colonies or India has to act
both as solicitor and COUNSEL and finds no
difficulty in doing so. Again in the United
States the system has been long established
and while the incomes OF the leaders Of the
legal profession there are not, ! believe, in
ferior to those earned in this country and
partaken Of by lawyers in public life very
considerably, all who have read reports of
legal proceedings in the States recognize the
ability Of their advocates and the sound
learning which is found on their judicial
bench. The young man now coming to the
bar, II he find 10 clients to intrust
him with briefs, can earn no money at all in
his profession. If he were allowed to do So
lcitors' work and receive solicitors remuner-
alton, he would almost certainly be able il
he had made himself known for his capacity
and industry, to earn at least that small in
come which would enable him TO wait pa
tiently and safely for an opportunity for
higher distinction. l think the work of ad-
vocacy would be very often more thoroughly
and intellgently performed if the advocate
had closer practical knowledge of the con-
duct of his cause in its earlier stages and
clearer appreciation of the Importance and
meaning of the different steps that have been
taken. The struggle of the man who comes
to the bar without very powerful patrons to
force him into practice has always been
hard one, but believe it becomes harder of
late years. Many barristers go to the ranks
of literature, others seek secretaryships
agencies or some small appointments in the
colonial service. Others, having sacrificed
years of their lives in compulsory ideness
because no man gave them anything to do
turn away to the other branch of the pro-
fession, and in so doing abandon with a sigh
all the generous ambitions with which they
started. There are other subjects to be con-
sidcred and the matter of legal education is
one of the most important at present So far
as the bar is concerned it is left entirely to
the inns of the court. Now the inns are
venerable, interesting institutions, but their
staunchest admirers hardly contend that
they do any substantial work in the way
of legal education. 1t is hardly
likely that the anomaly will long
be allowed to continue that
admission to practice in the courts of Justice
should be practically in the discretion of the
benches of the different inns who are only
anxious to attract members to the inn to
which they respectively belong and are alike
unable to enforce any real course of legal
study or attract a sufficient number of real
students, even by Offering substantial
scholarships and prizes. I think that in
these inns we have material for much bet
ter system. Let the whole profession
be one body alike in the requirements
of education-alike in its privileges.
alike in its opportunities for
the achievement of public distinction
and obtaining professional rewards: and the
inns of the court, with their stately halls,
their excellent libraries, and the large re-
sources they possess might fitly be colleges
i'll winch the work or real legal education
could be carried on.'
The American lawyers who read this will
naturally ask: "Can the reform be carried -
He may read the barometer in this fact {:
That to-day's tory Globe, which believes in
| the rigid tory maxim, ''Let i'll as also well
alone relentlessly proceeded to attack the
the reform. Progress to a strict tory is as Il
red rag to bull, and the an
swer is found in the fact that Lord
| Charles Beresford, like Lord Randolph
| Churchill, has resigned because his tory col
| leagues and associates refuse to sanction his
| aims and progress and reform IN the navy
and an old fogy admiral of the time of the
| Crimean war has been selected in his place to
| bar the attempt to make English war ships
equal to Britain's mercantile marine. Per-
| haps Sir Edward Clarke will now be hunted
| out of his Office by the Salisbury ministry.
The German Military Bill.
Vn,, Tla TN