The Portland daily press., 1895-06-22

&|oo JOd Sc1IllOU I6ly Ou UIldU IuuGu
backing to get called to the bar. 1t is a
very expensive and tedious process. You
will have to pay down 30 pounds, give
security for another so pounds, and get
two established lawyers to back your bond
before you are allowed to commence eat
ing your dinners. These blessed dinners
you shall have to go on eating-like quail
on toast-for three years, and how do you
propose to support yourself in the mean
time?'
: Benjamin had no plans, but he said he
could write in few weeks book or
pamphlet on the commercial relations be-
tween England and the United States,
which might be the means lof procuring
employment in some lawyers office. SAT
all events, he added, "I am going to
hire room for a week, live on bread and
milk if 1 can't get anything else, and
write my pamphlet. Something will turn
up Man is man and master of his
fate ~
"My dear fellow" said his friend,
you'll do nothing of the sort. Let me
be your banker for the present I've got
more money than know what to do
with. You shall go on straight to Lon
don by the next express and take good
furnished chambers in the Temple, where
the lawyers work. Your political opin-
ions and affiliations are not mine, but
you're one of us now, whether you like
it or not; and as you are bound to do
credit to my country-and yours-you
must let me have a hand in the pie.
Here's check for thousand pounds
or perhaps we'd better have it cashed be-
fore you start. Spend that as rapidly as
way. There's plenty more where that
came from If you require ten thousand
to start you fair just say the word and it
is yours. You must not be understrapper
to any English lawyer. You're equal to
the best of them, and when you begin to
get your hand in I'll come and dine with
you. That's all right, isn't it?''
Benjamin stopped on the street pave
ment and looked in through the shop win
dows. When returned to look at his COM
panion there were tears in his eyes.
This is very unexpected" he said "It
is making the road too easy for me. But,
of course, don't want to waste any
time, and I'm getting on in years. There S
no use arguing with you. I'll take you
at your word. My health is good, and
I'm not broken, I hope, in mind or spirit.
Yes, Tll go on by the next express, and
I'll write to you what don't care to say
on the street.
He went on to London and soon got his
"hand in''--both bands-and within five
years attained reputation at the bar
which was scarcely second to that of any
man in Great Britain. When he began
to study law in England he was just 81
years of age.
Before leaving the lunch table at the
Inns of Court Hotel the two Massachu-
setts men promised to spend the evening
the Temple. Conversation soon drifted
to the American civil war and the battle
of Gettysburg From that we soon got
to the dedication of the cemetery and to
Lincolns speech Funeral orations then
became the main topic of discussion The
barrister, who was something of an ora
tor himself, stood on his hearth rug and
repeated slowly the great speech of Presi-
dent Lincoln. The Boston men were
somewhat surprised. They knew the pur-
port of the address, of course, but they
had never thought of committing it to
memory. One American, mildly critical,
pointed out that the memorable sentence
about government of the people, by the
people, for the people, was taken from
Webster's reply to Hayne.
'tIt doesn't much matter where it was
taken from, said the Englishman, elm
coin revitalized it in the new combina-
tion. - The only funeral oration of the
ancient or modern world fit to be COM
pared with it is, of course, the speech
which Thucydides records as having been
made by Pericles over his countrymen
who had fallen during the first year of
the Peloponnesian war, 431 B. c. 1t is
truly great but it is all about A thens
and the Athenians. Even to Pericles the
world outside of Athens was scarcely
worth considering. Four centuries had
to pass before the note of human brother
hood was sounded, and nearly twenty
five centuries before it was declared in
terms of a political constitution by
people powerful enough to carry the de-
claration into successful action that all
men everywhere are born with equal
political rights.
Our host then took up the speech made
at Gettysburg Nov. 10, 1863, and read
aloud each sentence slowly, pausing oc-
to comment upon the pregnant
concentrated feryor, lofty elo-
quence, and fine literary balance of GER
tain pass ages.
From this subject conversation lapsed
into consideration of the men in England
who, in the troubled times of the United
States, had adopted in whole-hearted
measure as their own cause as we'll as
that of humanity, the cause of the Union.
The work of John Bright was not for
gotten, but our little circle occupied
itself more in detail with the influence of
the great writer, whose support was never