are most grossly deceived, who look down upon speculative lawyers as unfit to mix in the concerns of the world, and regard the persons most conversant with legal principle, the students of Jurisprudence, as unsafe advisers in the practice of the Law, and unfit guides to the lawgiver in his efforts to amend it.

Mr. Reddie's constitution was far from robust, and he never enjoyed an uninterrupted health; so that his powers of labour were only sustained by his habit of resolute application, his uniform temperance, and his naturally calm disposition of mind. During the last two or three years he suffered more from the infirmities of advanced life, and was obliged to pass a considerable part of his time in the retirement of the country. This, however, did not put a stop to his literary exertions, although it prevented him from attending in Court to the general business of his office. He retained almost to the last the entire possession of his great faculties; and died in the bosom of his family, on the 5th April, 1852.

In his private character he was as much to be respected for his perfect integrity and nicely honourable principles as he was to be beloved for the gentleness of his nature. He enjoyed, in a rare degree, the esteem of his fellow-citizens; and the confidence and attachment of the corporate body, with which he had for nearly half a century been connected

feelings not interrupted by the lawsuit which he had been obliged to maintain against it for the protection of the rights of his office. The Lord Provost, when he proposed the resolution, expressing the sorrow of the Magistrates and Council for the irreparable loss the City had sustained (a resolution adopted unanimously), concluded in the words of one who, his Lordship said, "had known him long and intimately"—that he had "the rare faculty of never making an enemy and never losing a friend; and had gone down to the grave with a reputation unsullied by a single spot, and illustrated by a thousand gentle virtues." Mr. Reddie had several children, all of them settled in highly respectable stations; one of them, whose loss the country, and especially the Legal Profession, had but lately to deplore, Judge

Reddie, of whom we have more than once had occasion to speak, and whose labours, both here and in the Colonies, and in the East Indies, have proved most valuable to the cause of Law Amendment.

ART. V.― THE PROSPECTS OF THE BAR. - LETTER FROM LORD DENMAN.

To the Editor of the Law Review.

Sept. 20. 1852.

SIR, Mr. Cox has conferred an honour upon me by the dedication of his important work', which I should have been eager to acknowledge had I not been informed that he is absent on a long continental tour. But he therein has also called upon me for an expression of my sentiments respecting some recent changes, anticipating a course which I am by no means satisfied that it would be right or expedient for me to take. For this reason, I trouble you with a few observations, flowing from the anxious wish I have always felt to assist in the improvement of the Law, and along with it the interest and honour of the Legal Profession.

"My Lord, I much fear that the glory of the Bar of England has departed, that its sun has set, and that it is doomed to destruction, or to a change of character and position that will be more lamentable than destruction.

"The recent revolution in the manner of administering justice, by substituting local tribunals for the great central fountains of Law in Westminster Hall, combined with the simplifications of procedure that annihilate all those minor fees by which the Juniors of the Bar have been supported hitherto through the inevitable period of probation, will so reduce the amount of employment for Barristers, that their numbers-already too great-will be more

1 "The Advocate, his Training, Practice, Rights, and Duties." By Edward W. Cox, Esquire, Barrister-at-law. Vol. I.

than ever disproportioned to the business, and hundreds, nay thousands, must go out of the Profession, or be starved out, before demand and supply can be equalised, and there will be a prospect of even a moderate provision for a few."

Again, at p. x. xi. :—

66

Many entertain sanguine expectations that the reforms now in progress in the Courts of Law will restore much of the lost business and even increase it. I cannot share this hope.

--

"The attractions of the County Courts to suitors who have disputes to try are such as no reform in the Superior Courts could rival. The rapidity with which trials can be heard, the convenience of a hearing on the very day appointed, without the cost and trouble of conveyance of witnesses to a distant place; the satisfaction of knowing that, when a case is tried, it is settled and cannot be disturbed again and again,- sources of vexation to suitors in the Superior Courts, which more trouble them even than the bill of costs that tell them that justice can be too dearly purchased these are tangible benefits which suitors will not readily resign. Improve the Common Law Courts as we may, they will never compete successfully with the County Courts in these particulars, and, therefore I entertain but faint hopes of any large revival of business in them; and certainly I despair of such as will compensate for the fees of the Bar that are swept away by the recent statute, and by which the Juniors subsisted, or were much assisted to subsist, while acquiring the experience necessary for leadership. If Juniors cannot now live by the Bar, whence are to come our future leaders-whence our Judges?

The inference is drawn in p. xi. :

"I trust, therefore, that if it should come to a question whether the rule as to taking briefs in the County Courts should be rescinded, your Lordship's influential voice will be lifted up against it."

No juster or livelier description of the benefits that were reasonably expected, and have actually been proved to arise from the establishment of Country Courts, has ever been given. It will, indeed, be unfortunate if their utility shall be found incompatible with the honour and interests of the English Bar. I do not share these fears, nor believe that the glory of that illustrious body depended on such causes, or

that the same qualities which have raised its character hitherto, will at any time fail to command equal estimation with that which it now deservedly enjoys.

It must, however, I think, be confessed that a considerable change is sure to be effected, and that those who have been most laudably anxious to establish County Courts have been somewhat careless in considering their probable collateral effects. The present loss of emolument may certainly bear hard upon individuals, yet, when we consider the items of which it was composed, one cannot but feel some regret that this loss should have been made the subject of complaint. Nothing could be more invidious than for an old barrister to revive the defunct catalogue of side bar rules, of motions of course, and motions to oppose and justify bail, and motions for leave to plead several matters, and rules to show cause why interest should not be computed on notes and bills, followed by motions that the Court would be pleased to make the said rules absolute.

In

Such was the description of business done, contained in the bill of costs delivered to the client for his information. fact, there was nothing to tell, except that the attorney had advanced the money to the barrister, and must be repaid it by his client. For the most part no service whatever had been rendered.' The guineas and half-guineas were simply law

1 The opposition to persons tendered as bail was, however, no sinecure. Counsel were employed to protect plaintiffs against being defrauded of a security to which the law entitled them, by what were called Sham Bail. Such persons frequented the Courts and the Judges' Chambers, and were hired for that office. Counsel examined them severely as to their means of paying all their just debts, as well as those sought to be recovered in the several actions in which they became bail, but were bound by their answers. They generally passed, even when every hearer was convinced of their insolvency. The scene was a lively one, and formerly was acted before the whole Court: afterwards a single Judge presided, and the three others had a holiday on the Great Bail Day. There was then a separate Court established for this drama, during the performance of which before one of the learned Judges, the other three went through the ordinary routine of duty. This change could not be effected without an Act of Parliament. Finally came the abolition of arrest on mesne process in 1838, and the total extinction of this branch of business. A respectable elderly practitioner, dying soon after, was said to have met his death from a suppression of bail.

taxes. Fees of Court were another set of law taxes, for which some nominal service was done; but the question wherefore these were levied must have been answered by stating that their purpose was to enable the attorney, at the suitor's expense, to put a little money into the pocket of a barrister, his kinsman or his friend. And he had no small proportion of these profits: he made a charge for drawing the brief of instruction to do nothing, and another for waiting on his counsel with the aforesaid brief.

The relief administered to the suitor by repealing the tax is one great and direct advantage to the public: the simplification of procedure, by which the repeal is effected may be described in the same language; but I doubt whether the indirect advantage is not far more valuable than either.

The "minor fees" were twofold, some paid by plaintiffs suing to enforce just claims, recoverable at law, but often not recovered in fact, from the debtors- many more paid by those debtors, as the price of the "Law's delay," which in general quickened and completed the ruin which it had been purchased to avert. If from these not very creditable sources a revenue was collected in the hands of attoneys, for the benefit of poor barristers, I cannot help thinking the cessation. of such patronage a great gain to the Bar. But I believe they were much oftener applied to the comforts or luxuries of private connexions and friends among the barristers, with little care for the future prosperity of the profession.

But there is a pressing difficulty of a practical nature arising from the constitution of County Courts. What course is the Bar to take? To insist on the intervention of an attorney in every case, or to be free to accept a brief and instructions directly from the client? To adhere to the etiquette which has prevailed in the Superior Courts, and is tolerably well understood; or adopt some new one, whose working, whose effects, and, above all, whose consequences, are wholly matter of speculation?

To reduce the number of cases in which the question may arise does nothing towards its solution. But if it be true that three fourths of all the causes tried in County Courts are, on both sides, conducted by the parties, without assist