CHAP. His proceedings in London. It was the end of March before Wedderburn reached London, and the circuits going on, he was disappointed in finding neither the courts of law nor the Court of Chancery sitting, and that almost all the eminent lawyers were out of town. However, through Dr. Clephane and others, to whom he had letters of introduction, he inquired into the course of legal education in England, the manner in which business was at first acquired at the bar, and the chances of professional advancement. Although presented to Mr. Attorney General Murray, he could not enter on such topics with so great a man; but he contrived to make acquaintance with some junior barristers on their return from the circuit, who initiated him in all the mysteries of the study and practice of the law in England. His courage rose. He was relieved from all apprehension of being obliged to submit to a tedious course of lectures and examinations before he could be called to the English bar. He was told that zealous friends might do a good deal for a young barrister at his first start: he thought that the whole of the Scotch interest might be exerted in his favour, there being no countryman to divide it with him; and instances were mentioned of the fortune of a young barrister having been made by a single lucky opportunity. In after life he likewise confessed that he felt increased confidence in comparing himself with some English counsellors who were succeeding well; for, though they could quote the classics glibly without any misgiving about a false quantity, he found that he had a much greater store of general information, and that he was infinitely better acquainted with Vinnius and Voet. The chief obstacle he dreaded was his defective knowledge and vicious pronunciation of the vernacular tongue. Although he could write English, as well as Latin, with tolerable purity, in common conversation he was often reduced to great embarrassment from not being sure that he knew how to express himself properly about the most trifling matters; and he could easily perceive that, notwithstanding the politeness of the Englishmen he met, they had great difficulty in commanding their gravity when he spoke in the native CLXII. accent of the Canongate, and still more when he rashly CHAP. attempted to imitate them, and came out with the jargon. called "High English." His letter to his father, proposing that he abandon should for the Relying, however, on his own perseverance, energy, and good luck, he wrote a long letter to his father, pointing out his superior chance of success in Westminster Hall than in the Parliament House, and praying for an immediate and absolute change of destination. Chesterhall, himself still la- the Scotch bouring at the Scotch Bar to little purpose, could not deny English the truth of a good deal of Alec's reasoning, but was appalled bar. at the thought of the adventurous youth being swallowed up by a troubled ocean on which no Scotsman had ever embarked before. His prudent resolve at last was to give his consent to the boy entering himself of an Inn of Court, and keeping terms, so that he might be qualified hereafter to be called to the English Bar if such a step should be deemed expedient, but on the express condition that he should at the same time complete his legal curriculum at Edinburgh, pass His father's advocate there, and in the first instance seriously and earnestly try his fortune in his own country, where his prospects, though less splendid, would be more secure; at all events he would thus have two strings to his bow. conditional consent. entered of the Inner Wedderburn piously submitted to this compromise, and He is acted upon it with entire good faith. He immediately entered himself of the Inner Temple in the following words:- Temple. "Alexander Wedderburn, gentleman, son and heir-apparent of Peter Wedderburn of Edinburgh, Esquire-admitted 8th May, 1753." He remained in London a few weeks longer, and dined ten times in the Hall, by which Easter and Trinity Terms were kept, and he returned to Edinburgh before the termination of the summer session in the Parliament House. To please his father he immediately entered upon his "Civil Law Trials." It has often been said that he "passed advocate," or was called to the Scotch Bar, while still under age, but this was impossible. On the 28th of February, 1750, the Lords of * Books of the Inner Temple. CHAP. CLXII. and enters on his trials to pass advocate, Council and Session passed an act of sederunt, ordaining "that hereafter no person shall be admitted a member of the He returns Faculty of Advocates but such as having been effectively to Scotland, tried upon his proficiency, not only in civil law, but also in the municipal law and practice of Scotland, shall be found duly qualified by the examinators appointed by the Faculty for that purpose; as also, the private examinators are hereby prohibited and discharged to proceed to the examination of any intrant upon the civil law, unless he shall previously produce reasonable evidence to their satisfaction THAT HE HAS ATTAINED THE AGE OF TWENTY YEARS COMPLETE; which proof or evidence shall by them be reported to the Dean and Faculty, if he shall be found duly qualified by his knowledge in the civil law. And the said Lords further statute and ordain, that no person shall be admitted to the trial of his knowledge of the municipal law and practice foresaid until one full year shall have elapsed after his examination upon the canon law." Having passed his civil-law trials very creditably, Wedderburn devoted himself to Craig, M'Kenzie, and Bankton, comparing the Scotch with the English system of jurisprudence, through the medium of Blackstone's Commentaries recently published in London,- and when the proper time had arrived he was fully prepared for a compliance with all the prescribed requisitions prior to putting on the gown. In addition to his trials in the municipal law, he had now to write a Latin thesis on a juridical subject, and to defend it against all impugners. Our northern brethren, like ourselves of the English Inns of Court, had relaxed much the strictness of ancient discipline on such occasions. Fifteen public examinators (generally the fifteen junior members of the Bar), were still appointed by the Faculty to impugn every thesis, but they showed no pugnacity, however questionable might be the positions to be impugned. * Soon after, even the form of appointing impugners by the Faculty was dropped, and the usage since has been for each impugnee to choose some of his own friends at the bar to go through the farce of impugning. This is pretty much on a footing with the disputation in Lincoln's Inn beginning with the In due time, before the appointed day, appeared on the College gates the following notice and challenge:- "DISPUTATIO JURIDICA Ad Tit. I. Lib. XIX. Pand. FAVENTE NUMINE Ex auctoritate clarissimi ac consultissimi Viri, Inclytæ Facultatis juridica Decani, Ex ejusdem FACULTATIS Consensu et decreto, pro publicæ disquisitioni subjicit, ALEXANDE WEDDERBURN, Auct. & Resp. Ad diem 29. Junii, 1754, hora 12 meridiana, loc. sol." Then and there did he thus begin: "Quintus Scævola, Pontifex maximus, summam vim dicebat esse in iis arbitriis, in quibus adderetur EX FIDE BONA, fideique bonæ nomen existimabat manare latissimè, idque versari in rebus emptis venditis: in his magni esse judicis statuere, quid quemque cuique præstare oporteret. Hinc oritur disquisitio de actionibus empti venditi, quæ, ut uterque contrahentium, quod sibi invicem præstari oportet, judicis auctoritate, etiam ab invito, consequatur, comparatæ sunt." He then proceeded to lay down very learnedly the law of vendor and purchaser, fortifying all his positions by references to the Corpus Juris Civilis, and stating the points on which doctors differed. Thus :-"Neratius ait, venditorem in re tradenda debere præstare emptori, ut in lite de possessione potior sit; sed Julianus, l. 15. Dig., nec videri traditum, si superior in possessione emptor futurus non sit, l. ii. § 13. ff. h. t. Si tamen emptor incertum quid, veluti jactum retis, emerit, venditor tantum tenetur præstare quantum in se est; si igitur retem jactaverit, etiamsi nihil ceperit, emptore pretium præstare necesse habebit, l. ii. § 18. ff. h. t. in fin. Si vero jactum retis emerit et jactare retem piscator noluerit, incertum ejus rei æstimandum, Celsus ait, 7. xii. ff. h. t." There is a tradition that the young impugners started some puzzling ob statement of the case "John Danvers seized in fee," and they stand equally in need of reform. CHAP. CLXII. A.D. 1754. His Latin thesis. CLXII. A.D. 1754. tation. CHAP jections to him respecting the cast of the net-—putting analogous questions touching the sale of the fees of an advocate during his first session, and whether the price would be due"etiamsi nihil ceperit"-and the degree of diligence with which he would be required to ply in the Parliament House and how far he would be held bound at the instance of the "emptor" to be civil to the solicitors? But the aspirant answered them triumphantly. He was accordingly in due form presented to the Fifteen as worthy to be made a member of the Faculty, and he was invested with the long robe, wearing a cocked hat over his powdered hair, - for barristers' wigs were not yet known beyond the Tweed. Dedication to Lord Aberdour The following is the entry of his call in the Records of the Faculty of Advocates: 66 Edinburgh, 29th June, 1754. "Mr. Alexander Wedderburn, son to Mr. Peter Wedderburn, Advocate, was publicly examined upon Tit. I. Lib. XIX. Pand. 'De actionibus empti venditi,' and found qualified.” Under the Imprimatur of Sir Gilbert Elliot and Sir David Dalrymple on behalf of the Faculty, he printed and published his thesis with the following dedication: "SPECTATISSIMO ET ORNATISSIMO SCIOLTO CAROLO DOMINO de Aberdour JACOBI Comitis de Morton FILIO DIGNISSIMO; FELICEM ANIMI INDOLEM OMNIBUS VITE CULTIORIS STUDIIS SUB OPTIMI PATRIS AUSPICIIS COLENTI; DISPUTATIONEM HANC JURIDICAM AMICITIAE A TENERIS ANNIS EXCULTE MONUMENTUM, D. D. C. Q. ALEXANDER WEDDERBURN. |