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    1046 THE LEADER. [No. 397, October 31,18...

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    HONEST LAWYERS. Tiie trite old proverb a...

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    Loud Canning. Wi-Ir Is Not Lord Canning ...

    vernment with an irritable persistency very unusual and very unlike the behaviour of some past Governors , who have actually assisted to develop abuses in India . The eyidences of this course of conduct are unmistakable . The communications which he has sent home , the copies of correspondence that have been received in the East India House , the very

    complaints of those whom he has thwarted or displaced , have been so many testimonies to the universal activity of the G-overnor-G-eneral , as it is seen , not only in every department , but in every province of the Indian Empire . There is , probably , no part of the Indian Empire , however remote , from which the correspondence received at the East India House and the Board of Control does not

    bear the unmistakable stamp of Xord Cakisrera ' s own . hand , —attending to the matter himself , directing business , settling disputes , overruling difficulties—in short , governing . Now when we reflect that , amongst persons of his class , this kind of diligence in business is not very usual , that it characterizes chiefly men of the highest stamp ; and wlien we recal the fact that Lord Canning showed the same activity , the same intelligence , and the same useful supervision of the Post-office , we can understand that he must stand very high in the official estimation .

    It it is be remembered that Lord Cabinin g is personally known to the members of the present Government , and to many others of the official class , and they are well aware of some personal traits that do not usually come before the public . He is ' a perfect gentleman , ' and lie possesses some of the highest qualities of the gentleman . His bearing is

    distinguished by courtesy , and yet he is able to fulfil his duty in a conscientious manner by speaking frankly , decisively , and even sternly , where he sees necessity for reproof . 3 Jet us remember how exceedingly Tare is this combination of qualities , and we shall understand how greatly esteemed the man must be . His views and resolutions are

    expressed in good language , not studied , not artificially turned , but straightforward , lucid , and vigorous . Even his handwriting , which is clear , gentlemanly , and even scholarly in its structure , helps to mirror the estimable character of the writer . How is it , then , that a man so intelligent and so conscientious can make such serious mistakes ? The reason is , partly , that his conscientiousness has drawn him into a false

    position . He is so anxious to fulfil his responsibility by looking after everything himself , that he has actually interfered in the details of thoroughly subordinate work ; and that not in one place , but , probably , throughout the vast Empire of India . The master ' s hand is perceptible in everything , but no man can spread himself over so vast a surface without enfeebling his own powers and abdicating the very nost to which Iiord Canning had been appointed—that of nrineiDal supervisor

    over others . He has made himself one of the clerks , and a most hard-working clerk ; for not content "with drafting public despatches ¦ which are written out in the usual way , he Bends , on important occasions , with the official paper , a private note of his own , a duplicate , enforcing , correcting , augmenting , or explaining away the ostensible document that is forwarded by his order . Imagine such an

    exertion ! There is , probably , no G-overnment in the world which distributes daily such an extraordinary mass of correspon donee as that of India . The evil has in some degree been corrected under tho now regime , alter the last revision of the charter ; but still tho correspondence cannot , perhaps , bo paralleled by . that of any Government in tho world ; and ti large part of thia correspondence , besides being personally directed by tho

    Grovernor-( xeneral , is accompanied by autograph duplicates , or variations . Here at once we see the reason why Lord Cannin g must , to a certain extent " , have lost his head , and must have forfeited the power of governing by _ dispersing himself in a personal administration over the whole surface of Indian details . That weakens the man . But besides , the species of degradation in rank to which he has sentenced himself , he is animated by a most unlucky spirit . An intelligent

    gentleman of our day , he has at his fingers ' ends the principal facts which are considered to embody the most valuable points of the current knowledge , and he entertains those opinions which are the intellectual coin of the best educated circles . Thus he is a moderate philanthropic man—not exactly a peace man , but preferring the arts of peace to war , and believing that one's principles must never be entirely laid aside . It is in the execution of his duty with these habits and views that

    Lord Canninc * has astonished the world by a pedantic sermon on peace , addressed to military commanders even before the y had the mutineers at their feet . In these views he has received a support from quarters which he must most value . It is understood that he has found a perfect sympathy in his own home , such as must be most engaging and nattering to a public man ; and of course that tends to confirm him in the path of duty as he has marked it out for himself . In the

    Council of India he has discovered similar views to exist , and no man has been more conspicuously active in maintaining them than Mr . Grant , who possesses , no doubt , a certain sort of tact , energy , and determination . In this manner has he laid down a rule for the conduct of civilians , who persist , iu the midst of rebellion and panic , in applying their dilettante maxims to the followers ot the Nena Saheb and his wandering master , the mock Mornil .

    1046 The Leader. [No. 397, October 31,18...

    1046 THE LEADER . [ No . 397 , October 31 , 1857 .

    Honest Lawyers. Tiie Trite Old Proverb A...

    HONEST LAWYERS . Tiie trite old proverb about tho pot and the kettle received a curious illustration tho other day . At tho Middlesex Sessions held by Mr . CitEAsr , the Assistant Judge , after a man had been tried and found guilty of the heinous crime of kicking a sheriff's ofiicer down-stairs

    the wife of the offender complained that she had employed a solicitor , one Mr . John Pateii , of No . 33 , Argyle-square , to defend her husband , for wliieh purpose she had paid certain moneys . "Upon hearing this statement , the accused lawyer , happening to be in Court , affected an indignation which reminds us somewhat of tho Avolf when the lamb

    meekly complained of his conduct , protesting , upon his honour as a gentleman ( by Act of Parliament wo suppose ) , that ho had been taken by surprise / and wished tho case to be reheard . Then ensued a scono of curious interest , and pregnant with instruction to those who know anything of the awful mysteries of Themis . Mr , Cueasy , tho presiding Judge , was animated by such virtuous indignation , that ho told Mr . Pater

    ' not to talk to him about flic honour of < o gentleman , or he should have to say something ho would not wish to hear ; for it was quite clear that ho had taken tho woman ' s money , and yet tho man had been tried without counsel . ' Nor was this all ; for when Mr . Pateii wished to urge something further in extenuation of his conduct ; , ho was impomtively ordered to quit tho Court ; , upon pain of instant committal .

    j Novv wo do not propose for one moment to offer any excuse for tho conduct ; of tho solicitor . If , na the woman allowed , and as there seems every reason , to believe , ho took the mouoy without doing tho work , such an act

    is , in morality , whatever it may be in law a gross and inexcusable piece of knavery . ' la it not already too much that" there should be in the midst of us a hand of men organized with terrible skill , and : drilled to act with fatal precision—of men who live upon the misfortunes of their fellow-creatures , and grow fat upon the necessities of the poor ? Human nature is eternal and invariable , and that which has once existed will always

    reanpear iu one form , or other . When , therefore men ask what has become of the brigands of the Alps , or the buccaneers of the S panish main , we would take them into Chancerylane and its purlieus , and there show them what they ask for under anew form ; men with hungry aspect and cruel eyes ; insatiable and unsparing men , Avliose hands are against every one , to spoil and destroy according to certain forms and traditions—armed too with

    weapons more deadly than the carbine of Era Diavolo or the dagger of the Ked Rover of the Seas . Is it not enough that this horrible conspiracy against the peace of the world should be suffered to proceed within what are held to be legal grounds ? Must the conspirators throw off the mask audaciously , and defy the very laws by favour of which , only they exist ? That , indeed , were an unendurable evil ; and that it is so held

    universally is clear from the indignation always excited by the lawyer who is detected , as a Jawbreaker . Without , therefore , entirely agreeing with Mr . Cjieasy as to the hardship of being' tried without counsel '—which seems in his eyes to have been the gravamen of the mischief—we are quite willing to concur in tho indignation with which he views the taking of the poor woman ' s money , and cheating her of that which she had dearly paid for . But what strikes us as the most peculiar feature of the whole business is the fact of a learned

    counsel rebuking ' one of the lower branch of the profession' for taking the money without doing the work . Why , Mr . Cue as r knows , and Air . Patkr knows— -the latter probably to his coat—that nothing is more common than for counsel themselves to commit this very oit ' enco ; that there in scarcely an honourable gentleman at the bar , who has any business at all , who docs not accept ; fees for work which he does not perform . % '' We are <[ iiite aware that there is a distinction to be drawn between the cases ; but the dilference is a le < ml and not a moral one .

    There is that magnificent fiction about ; i barrister ' s fee being honorary , which renders it , after it has once been paid , irrecoverable by law . But in our estimation there is no greater piece of humbug in connexion -with the law than this . A barrister is paid for his work just as a cabman is , and to call his wages fees makes no real diil'ercnco in the nature ot the transaction . It is true that as the barrister cannot bo sued on account of tees , so neither can ho suo : but the inconvenience of this is

    very trilling . By the etiquette of the protession , ho may always insist upon payment m advance , and as the non-paying attorneys soon become marked men , none but very young nud inexperienced counsel take much harm lrom their roguery . The evil ia a crying ono , and deserves tlio serious attention of those who govom tho ctiquetto of tho bar . It is a subject ; ot combarristers

    plaint among many respectable themselves , and among tho entire body ot solicitors ; ib ia a positive wrong to suitors . If wo pay 10 Z . 10 a . in order to He-euro tho attondancoof Mr . Serjeant Sii / vkh'I'onuu b » tuul ho leaves us and our case to tho incxptM-ionco of young Mvvv of tho Homo Circuit , to whom , out of regard for his family , our solicitor has entrusted tho junior briui ' , thon aro wo , robbed of our guineas , and pei-dianoo ° t our verdict into the bargain . \? ov fcki'VisR-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 31, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31101857/page/14/