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lthMT ^ THE LEADER. [No. 397, October 81...
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HONEST LAWYERS. The trite old proverb ab...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Loud Canning. Why Is Not Lord Canning Re...
vernment with an irritable persistency very unusual and very unlike the behaviour of some past Governors , who * 'have actually aBsiatedto develop abuses in India . The evidences of this course of conduct are unmistakable . The communications which lie 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 Q-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 tbe correspondence received at the East India House and the Board of Control does not bear the unmistakable * stamp of Lord Ca . it-Nin &' 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 when 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 is to be remembered that Lord CA 3 Thtng 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 he 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 . Xiet us remember how exceedingly rare 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 , tliat 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 , hut , probably , throughout the vast Empire of India . The master ' s hand is perceptible in everything , but no man can Bpread himself over so vast a surface without enfeebling Iris own powers and abdicating the very jpost to which Lord Canninc * had been appointed—thab of principal supervisor over otherB . He has made himself one of
the clerks , and a moat hard-working clerk ; for not content with drafting public despatches which are written out in the usual way , he sends , on important occasions , with the official paper , a private note of hiB own , a duplicate , enforcing , correcting , augmenting , or explaining away the ostensible document that ia forwarded by his order . Imagine such an exertion ! There is , probably , no
Government in the world which distributes daily such an extraordinary mass of correspondence as that of India . The evil has in some degree l ) een corrected under the new regime , after the last revision of the charter ; but still the correspondence cannot , perhaps , be paralleled l » y that of any Government in the world ; avid R large part of this correspondence , boaidea being personally directed by tho
Governor-General , is accompanied by autograph duplicates , or variations . Here at once we see the reason why IJord Cajotina 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 , hut preferring the arts of peace to war , and b
elieving 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 Canning has astonished the world by a pedantic sermon on peace , addressed to military commanders even before they 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 flattering 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 sorb of tact , energy , and determination . In this manner has he laid down a rule
for the conduct of civilians , who persist , in the midst of rebellion and panic , in ap plying their dilettante maxims to the followers of the Nena Sahib and his wandering master , the mock Mogul .
Lthmt ^ The Leader. [No. 397, October 81...
lthMT ^ THE LEADER . [ No . 397 , October 81 , 1857
Honest Lawyers. The Trite Old Proverb Ab...
HONEST LAWYERS . The trite old proverb about the pot and the kettle received a curious illustration the other day . At the Middlesex Sessions held by Mr . Ckeasy , the Assistant Judge , after a man had been tried and found guilty of the heiuous crime of kicking a sheriff ' s officer down-stairs ,
the wife of the offender complained that she had employed a solicitor , 6 ne Mr . John Pateii , of No . 33 , Argyle-square , to defend her husband , for which 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 the wolf when tho lamb
meekly complained of his conduct , protesting-, ' upon his honour as a gentleman ( by Act of Parliament we suppose ) , that he had been taken by surprise , ' and wished the case to be reheard . Then ensued a scene of curious interest , and pregnant with instruction to those who know anything of tho awful mysteries of Themis . Mr . Cuisasy , the presiding Judge , Avas animated by such virtuous indignation , that ho told Mr . Pater
not to talk to him about the honour of a gentleman , or lie should have to say something he would not wish to hoar ; for it was quite clear that he had taken tho -woman ' s money , and yet the man had been tried without counsel * ' Nor was tin ' s all ; for whon Mr . Pater -wished to urge something further in extenuation of his conducb , ho was imperatively ordered to quit the Court , upon pain of instant committal .
Now wo do not proposo for ono moment to offer any excuse for tho conduct of the solicitor . If , an tho woman alleged , and as thcro seems ovary reason to believe , he took tho money without doing tho work . ' such an act
is , in morality , whatever it may be in law a gross and inexcusable piece of knavery . ' l 8 it not already too much that there should be in the midst of us a band 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 in one form or other . " When , therefore men ask what has become of the brigands of the Alps , or the buccaneers of the Spanish , main , we would take them into Chancerylane and its purlieus , and there show them what they ask for under a new form ; men with hungry aspect and cruel eyes ; insatiable and unsparing men , whose 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 Fra Diavolo or the dagger of the Hed Bover 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 lawbreaker . Witho ut , therefore , entirely agreeing with Mr . CiiEA . sr as to the hardship of being 6 tried without counsel '—which seems in his eyes to have been the gravamen of the mis chief—we are quite willing to concur iu 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 . J 3 ut what strikes us as the most peculiar feature of the whole business is the fact of a learned
counsel rebuking ' one of the lower brunch of the profession' for taking the money without doing the work . Why , Mr . Creas y knows , and Mr . Pateii knows—the latter probably to his cost—that nothing ia more common than for counsel themselves to commit this very offence ; that there is scarcely an honourable gentleman at the bar , who has any business at all , who does not accept fees lor work which he does not perform . We are quite aware that there is a
distinction to be drawn between the cases ; but tbe difference is a legal and not a moral ono . There is that magnificent action about a barrister ' s fee being honorary , "which renders it , after it has ouce 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 ia paid for bis work iuat as a cabman is , and to calL his wages of
fees makes no real difference in the nature the transaction . It ia true that as the barrister cannot bo sued on account of fees , bo neither can he suo ; b ut the inconvenionco of this is very trifling . By the etiquette of tho profession , ho may always insist upon payment ill advance , and as tho uon-pay ing attorneys soon become marked men , nono but very young and inexperienced counsel take much harm Irom their roguery . deserves tho
The evil ia a crying one , and serious attention of those who govern tlxo etiquette of the bar . It ia a Bubjoct of coinpluiut among many respectable barristers themselves , and among the entire body ot solicitors ; it is a positive wrong to suitors . If we nay 10 £ . 10 a . in order to secure tho attendance of Mr . Serjeant S iiiVjau'rom-i uw » ; int * ho leaves ua and our case to tho inexperie nce of young JVLuw of tho Homo Circuit , to whom , out of regard for , his family , our nohcitor has entrusted tho junior brioi ' , thon aro wo robbod of our guineas , and porchanco ox our verdict into the bargain . iA > r tfiiiVXR-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 31, 1857, page 1046, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_31101857/page/14/
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