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between that discovery and '' -Sir-Richard ' s " transportation , and so it seems , the bar is vin * dicating itself in the eyes of the public , and Mr . BoVill is winning consideration for the profession . But how , impartial laymen ask , is this ? An honourable profession lets logic out for hire , and judging very properly that the majority of litigants are blockheads , provides them with a number of gentlemen ( whose ears are concealed , and whose heads are , kept cool , by means of horsehair ) , to be the exponents of
their grievances , and to state to thirteen individuals , one of whom knows something about the law , what is the grievance they complain of . The gentlemen of the honourable profession are the patrons , the persons of the litigious turn of mind the clients , but the gentlemen of the honourable profession gracefully lessen the obligation of the litigants by accepting an honorarium for their disinterested services . At this point the barrister , having received his fee , and not having been offered any other case to attend to , goes into court as the cool exponent of his client ' s wrongs . His duty is to state the case entrusted
to him , and to require that either it be fully met , or that its claim , whatever that may be , be at once conceded . Such a duty any man can honourably , and to the uttermost , perform . Why should he throw up his brief , when he stands there soliciting the opposite side , if they can , to trip up his case ? Had he chivalrously taken it up from mere love of the right , and from a lofty conviction that he ought to battle for the wronged , one could understand his disgust as new lights broke in upon his mind , and the suspicion crossed him that his sheep was a wolf ill disguised . It would be some insult to the judge ,
to the jury , and to the opposing counsel , to suppose that they could not see the truth as well as he , but the sentiment would be pretty and the action only absurd . But Mr . Bovill does not profess to be chivalrous in these matters . No barrister couches his lance till he has ascertained his fee ; and we must question the right of any mercenary to take the hire , and then cultivate the scruple . A Quaker we can very much admire ; . but a battlefield convert to that persuasion is scarcely an estimable object . For look at theresults . Granted , " Sir [ Richard "
is an unmitigated scoundrel . Were his counsel in any way , except by their own act , identified with his scoundrelism ? All that they had undertaken , if they were honorable men , was to cooperate with the opposing counsel in placing before the judge and jury the true state of the case . Theirs was the exposition ; the decision was the
jury ' s . But they mistook their duty , and looking on themselves as hireling advocates , not as disinterested exponents , grew ashamed of their employer , turned witnesses against the very man whose money , or rather , whoso backer ' s money , they had in their pockets , and pronounced the verdict which they were there to influence and avert .
In this case they have done no harm beyond casting a slur upon Sir Frederick Thesiger ' s ablitics by their gratuitous assistance , and being guilty of an impertinence to the jury by an usurpation of their functions ; and they have , on the other hand , the credit of showing that the bar has no sympathy with a criminal after ho has paid , and when ho is detected . But it may happen that , fired by this example , some youthful barrister will on a future occasion throw up a brief when the world is not so sure that his client is a scoundrel .
It may happen that tho jury , believing that the counsel must know more of tho case than they , may accept hia ovidonco against his om-]> loyor , and arrive at a result , in consequence of lis conduct , opposite to that to which , had ho gone on , tho case would havo brought thorn . What , then , will bo said of tho morality of a
profession , tho members of which toko money for tho advocacy of cases without inquiring on which side they are ongaged , pursuo tho causo , careless whether they arc right or wrong , till it looks hopeless , and then , to win , a smile from a tired judge , announce , amid tho jingle of their client ' s guineas , that ho—about whom they " opdnod" bo magniloquontly—is a villain P (
Considering that in every trial , ovory burriBtor of any ability must know before tho closo of his case which way tho verdict ought to bo , wo boo no ond to tho throwing up of briefs , if once counsel aro to be allowed to constitute themselves jurymen . JLob them bo careful what
they advocate , if they will ; but do let them remember that they are paid to be the exponents , not the betrayers , of the cause which they have undertaken .
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HOW JUSTICE MAY BE MAULED . The reply to the Judge ' s verdict at Warwick in the Von Beck case , as it is still called , was the meeting of George Dawson ' s friends in Birmingham on I \ ionday . It was felt , that by whatever form of law justified , the Court had slandered a man whose character is best appreciated by those that know him best . Conspicuous for his liberal opinions in matters of politics , faith , and the true relations of life , it is natural that scandal should be incessantly on the watch to find him tripping , and the first opportunity is taken .
George Dawson , the theological student , is convicted of a mistake in forms of law ; and the precautions taken by a private gentleman in Birmingham to prevent the escape of an impostor , without risking wrong to a woman who was perhaps innocent , are charged upon George Dawson as a violation of hospitality . For he is made the scapegoat of the whole . If the lawyers made mistakes , he is the man by name primarily and publicly called to account ; he is censured for the violation of hospitality in another man ' s house !
The whole case has been before the public and the jury for some time . If before any considerable number of men , Constant Derra de Moroda , the Hungarian nobleman , and George Dawson , the religious teacher of Birmingham , were placed side by side * and the question were asked , which of these men is the worthy man , —which of them is it whose character is thoroughly known in household and abroad , —which of them has laboured to do good , and has done it ? We make no doubt of the verdict . How then could the jury get so far astray ?
Some account for it by the peculiarities of the judge . We do not mean his biographical peculiarities—his reputation of jocularity and good fellowship ; but we mean those occurrences which were observed in the Court . It appeared , for example , that he read his notes with difficulty . In his summing up , Birmingham became " Manchester ; " Ryland , who went to London , became " ¦ Dawson , " and there were other blunders of the kind . But Mr . Justice Maule used to be
regarded as a man of keen reasoning , and the jury would naturally follow his lead . Now , on the side of the defendants , while it had been denied that Von Beck was known at the Court of Vienna , it was not denied that she had lived at Vienna , and the Court is held at Vienna : so , to the judgment of the judge , that appeared to be the same thing . There are ladies well known to gay men about town , who live in " St . James ' s-place , " and the Court is held at St . James ' s ; wherefore it follows
that these ladies would have the right to pass as frequenters of the British Court . Mr . Justice Maule observed of George Dawson that his faculties had been cultivated until he could make distinctions too subtle for the judge ' s intellect . It is not for us to deny Mr . Justice Maule ' s disclaimer ; but tho occasion for his saying so renders tho remark more singular , since the distinction which he ascribes to Dawson had been drawn by the plaintiff ' s counsol . Thoso who wcro on tho side of the defendants
were unfortunate in tho epithets that the judge applied to them . George Dawson , for example , wassaid to havo paid "his Birmingham shillings , " a slight , not only upon Dawson , but upon Birmingham , and even upon shillings that happen to go to Birmingham . " Democrats and tyrants " wore epithets conjoined in an allusion to Jiajnik . Over night llacidula was dancing : a circumstance which might at all events show reason why tho defendants did not anticipate her sudden
death ; yet to tho judge it became tho occasion for a pathetic remark that it might be called " the dance of death . " If those on tho side of George JDawaon wero unfortunate- perhaps in an excess of attention to those minute and damaging allusions , tho balance was made good by passing over circumstances that might havo told in thoir favour . Their disconnection with tho Pulszkys , for example- ; and the admission of Dorm do Moroda tnat Vcfctor had cautioned him against liuoidula as an adventuross .
Tho strongest habits aro apt to bo developed by tiino . Mr . Justice Maule is celebrated for his jocoflo resources . Aro wo to regard the trial as " Maulo ' a last ? " If bo , however , it is a very
bad joke , indeed ; but perhaps that is the light in which it had best be regarded .
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THE MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE . The daily ugliness in the lives of our " labouring class" is the indirect result of a course of- legist tion which has left undone those things which it ought to have done , and done those things which it ought not to have done . The settled habits of English society have aided the more immediate operation of the laws . Our city craftsman has no means of relief or pleasure in his idle hours . In Italy the peasant may hear an opera for twopence , and in audience of Bellini or Mozart finds an evening occupation and a healthy excitement . " The Englishman cannot appreciate high music ;" for a good reason—he has never heard it . The cheapest London concert ever organized requires a shilling , a good coat , and , for the artisan , intrusion among people of an upper rank . The public gardens are very dear pleasures to a man earning at best three shillings a day , and all their arrangements , vulgar as they are , are made for people with plenty of money . The London labourer finds no pleasant walks near his home . If he take a trip by a Parliamentary train he finds it made ingeniously uncomfortable—stopped for hours on sidings , shoved out of the way like a
poor relation at a rich feast . His excursion train is taxed , and his Sunday pleasures shortened by Sabbatarian shutters on public buildings . He is like a boy shut up in a room without toys , sweetmeats , or books ; the boy breaks the windows or hurts himself ; the working man behaves no better . We have put down prize-fights ; but there remains no other arena as a safety valve for the physical excitement natural to unlettered men . The men who , twenty years ago , would have fought their match , now beat their wives . The increase of towns has increased the evil .
Factories have-drawn from out-of-door habits to close town life thousands of men who find in domestic cruelty the only excitement in lieu of rural games . We close up the bettinghouses , and drive the apprentices to the ginshops for another " amusement . " And if the worker _ seeks in his craft the stimulus of advanced wages , he finds his rise checked by a combination among masters , backed by the police . Look round London , and where can you
find the means for a cheerful evening for the working man ? Can he spend it at home amid the inevitable dirt of a small room in a close court , where a wife , soiled and defaced with the lines of hard housekeeping , keeps up a shrill din in hushing one baby and scolding another P Why , if as his only resource he gets drunk and maims that woman , the prison will be a palace to that den , and the hard labour will be a trifle to one with tough hands , coarse nerves , and no sense of shame . We have allowed our labourers to
live so wretchedly , that our prisons have no terrors for them . Again and again do husbands return from gaol to renew their regular outrage upon their wives . Five such cases have occurred within the fortnight . Two points present themselves . There are ruffians whom no mild treatment can reform , and no ordinary punishment dctor . The whip alone can compel such men to refrain from violence and wrong . But the general state of the population demands a remed y of deeper purpose and wider application . Wo must not allow our people to progress to brutality : for without
comfort , cleanliness , or pleasures , our working men must como to that . A healthy society would compass them in all thoir ways with provocations to worthy pleasures , and prevent thorn in all thoir doings by a continual education in the nobler endB of life . With all our wealth and beneflcenco , tho only enterprise with such design is tho People ' s Palaco at Sydenham , yet tho promotors of tho publican ' s Sabbath threaten to class that beautiful Book of Art and Waturo with tho tavern and tho penny show , denying it tho open privileges allowod without check to tho worst dens of London vice . .
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"A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . The only Parliamentary proceedings of tho week liavo been at Spithead . All ' tho institutions of tho country havo boon , literally , at sen . Lords and Commons , like Coalition Governments , havo exposed thoniHolvtw gal " lantly to the raking- iiro of two Oppositions ; and Sir JnmuH Graham , who provided steamers and « odu water , is genorall y declared to have done the tiling very well . { Said Mr . Hume when he camo bnok from Spifchcnd , on Thursday , " Yefl , it was a flno eight ; but really as
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782 THE LEADER . [ Saturday /
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 13, 1853, page 782, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1999/page/14/
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