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    Untitled Article

    jj-pctfoe Cursetjee , a Parsee Vakeel or pleader , of co nsiderable faculty and much pertinacity , lately asked the presiding Judge to define what the distinctions and privileges of the European barrister should be ? This appears to be a very simple question , and capable of direct answer ; but what was the reply of the Court ? "We will not entertain your petition , because when

    we called on a case of yours the other day you were not prepared with it ; and also on one occasion you addressed us without the expression of respect usually used by native vakeels in addressing the Mofussil Courts . " This shifts the ground , and one has to inquire what are the expressions of respect ? Of course they must be different from those used by European barristers , one of whom had not long previously thus

    addressed the judge :- —" Look here , Mr . Frere . " Between the barrister and the European j udge in . the S udder Court of Bombay there appears to be , fully established , " liberty , equality , and fraternity . " But there is a distinction as applied to the vakeel ; in the Mofussil Courts , addressing Company ' s Judges they are accustomed to call the presiding gent . — " Your Omniscience . " ! N " otr , let us understand that the presiding judge in many of those Courts is not a person who can be placed on a footing of equality with any police magistrate in the CJnited Kingdom . In many eases he is not fit to be a judge at all , either by attainment , habits , or character ; not

    bred to the law , not learned in anything , and altogether a very irregular species or gent . He is , however , presumably a Christian , and being , moreover , a judge , he expects the dark skinned pagan barrister standing before him to call him , " Your Omniscience . " Ought not the Mofussil Judge , revelling in the pleasant freedoms and oriental exultations of this superhuman kind- —sur ** rounded by his Myrrhas and his myrmidons—to

    liave before his eyes the fate of Mr . Charles Kean ? —to contemplate with awe the moral of the Princess ' s , where , amid live and instructive hieroglyphics , pride nightly has its fall—and goes to supper ? English pride is encountering its destiny in other quarters ; its moral nose is brought to the sternest of grindstones . Has not the employer , in more than one instance , declared to the

    working-class , that he would not recede ?—and yet , has he not receded ? Has he not preached political economy , and then forsworn his creed P Has he not been obliged to ask the dismissed workmen to returnP Painful humiliation !—but so it is . There is , however , a yet deeper lesson . There is a region whore the hard-working man suddenly

    hnds himself at the top of society . He is the man of substanee ; ho is of the wealthy class . As for educated persons , who are only educated , and have not stout limbs and constitution , they may take up their discontented abode in Canvas lown ; or they may wander about Melbourne , begging for employment—Dorhans becirinfr for

    tho Australian penny , which is a shilling ; and getting tho shilling , but not , employment . Tho true- costume of your man who has a right to sivaggor in affluence of purse and conscious importance is a leather coat , and thick stout boots Wto a navvy ' s , or a waterman ' s jack boots , such as are worn in California . As to that lank lMsrsoa in black coat , with white hands , and a J'ultivatod articulation—ho perhaps is " only a > jrt > yernmont clerk , " or , worse still , an " M . A . " 1 -t is truo that some of theso gentlemen liavo wiown better da , ys , ovon in tho colony ; and they "" ffutoxpect that their former dnnnnrinnta wrmlrl

    j , ii ) v . £ ob by-gone days . Perhaps , however , " oso dependents remembor the days too well . ¦ i »> o momal remembers the short word , tho harsh , v , i \ ? , ° , Bli " faulfc- If tho servant has won tlio broad of tho master , it was in a sepah-o room , as a stranger—more conscious of tho langoneaa because , day after day , it was never » ko , i through . If the servant was aide , tho 3 (? r . <> r tho mistress was "kind" to him—as a mtlos ^ nswn . Indeed , every act of Christian di « , ' p mosL lilcoly tt « compaiuod by a tlu , J ! ° ° , T , - 10 r which Perpetually romindod » i ; iv ; l i . ll 18 < lGl > a 8 ° d position—mocking tho « S ofGol' - tOllS himf " alUro ° qUal in th 0

    lonirnL dopontlont—depondent now no amlto « i i i toforffofc thosouno ° mft > rtablo days , thowr ,. i f i m | wtov as man to man , beginning onn fZ f ° V ° ' lb la ^ otalmiys that tho " muster lor got . Ib ^ something of tenderness of

    conscience which makes the gentleman dislike to receive favours at the hands of those to whom they were given in a spirit in which he himself would scorn to accept them ? "Would he dare to take with , gratitude a crown piece . fromthehand into which he had flung it , with a haughty sense that the fee was worth more than the service it acknowledged . He used to give the crown for the solace of his own pride , and to make the obliging menial know his place : but now he would sooner starve before the man whose eyes

    his own haughty eyes would never meet at that time , than let the vails come back in the form of charity to himself . Even if his conscience is not thus wrung , there is one feeling that makes him hesitate to plunge into the only employment suitable for a colony of great working wealthhe is as ashamed to dig as he is to beg , — -and especially is he ashamed to dig as one amongst a community of diggers . Nay , if he has not his pride , the working man

    has his ; and so far have prejudices between the two classes been fostered by the old arrogance of the one , that positively there are working men well-to-do in Victoria who arrogantly refuse to employ " a gentleman . " Lately a journal—and this appears to us to be the deepest lesson of Christian humility the world has ever seen—rebuked this pride of the working man , and vindicated the common right of the poor gentleman by an appeal to the " Christian feelings" of Australia ' s nouveaux riches .

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    RESPONSIBILITY FOR « ACCIDENTS . " In former times , when there was less talk of sanitary matters , less horror of war , less selfish and servile love of life , the death of twelve men engaged in the service o £ others would have been sufficient to call forth a demand that the blood of those men should be accounted for . The event at the Crystal Palace is called an " accident ; " but we have so many experiences of the

    laxity with which that term is used , that we wish to know what hind of accident that was on Monday . If it was an accident of the railway kind , then we know that , although juries will acquit the originators of such disasters , for the want of some local proof to trace the fatal process back to its great first cause and directors , yet in the public mind , and in the common sense of common juries , it is associated with such a disregard of human safety as amounts to manslaughter .

    There are certain facts , therefore , to be ascertained before we can pronounce upon the character of this so-called accident . Was it totally unforeseen P Had there been no forewarnings , no forebodings P Because if there had , then the occurrence which followed was not , properly speaking , an accident , but a neglect . Is there any difference in preparing works of

    the kind ; when those who are to bo risked aro persons of consideration , or whon they aro only working men P Wo know , indeed , that men of the higlier classes will run risks as freely as any others . It is notorious in tho army , that officers advance into tho danger more uniformly , and further than their men will do ; but what is tho obvious cause P It is , that tho officer can obtain distinction . Ho would not rush to tho cannon ' s

    mouth if it were not for tho sake of tho reputation that ho can find there . To condemn a follow creature , therefore , to risk without the chanco of distinction which ho might obtain for it— 'Without his chanco of taking tho thousandth part of the thanks in tho Gazette , —is a fraud upon his energy . In plain mechanical operations , wlioro tho whole of tho work is under tho control of the

    manager , no structure should bo used that is not tested , and proved to bo quite sufficiont for its purpose , especially when the- life of fellow creatures is to bo entrusted to it . This rulo ia observed in many canon , —in mines , in railway bridges , ijv ships . Usually tho duty of ro-examlnation ia tho bout performed by thoso who aro themselves the most prepared to run into danger . Perhaps thoro ifl no caro in tho way of precaution '

    bo groat as that which is habitually taken by tho officers of ships at sea—men who ivro , in thoir own case , tho vory models of unmeasured daring . They aro impollod to thoir office by a senso of duly , and by that sympathy with thoir follow creatures which an habitual sharing of danger always causes . jNow wo have to bo informed whether or not a similar duty was performed on behalf of the mon who woro sacrificed on Monday . It is not that wo make any accusation

    against the Crystal Palace Company , or the contractors , or any individual whatsoever ; it is not even for the coroner ' s jury to pronounce upon the merits of the case . The true accusation which stands against them—only partially , modified by any possible verdict from the jury—consists in the blood of those men . They have not yet distinctly proved , in detail , that the accident was one which could not have been provided against .

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    A BARRISTER'S DUTY TO HIS CLIENT . In another column we print a letter expressive of "deep regret" at the observations we felt it our duty last week to make on the Smyth case . Our correspondent deserves notice ; we thank him for having asked it , as perhaps our remarks needed explanation . He writes on the assumption that we were specially criticising the conduct of Mr . Bovill in a particular case , and that fault was found by us with that gentleman for not making himself the " accomplice" of a villain , in a wicked attempt at fraud . Had we preached such a doctrine we know not what amount of penitence would have entitled , us to absolution ; but the fact is , we have been misunderstood .

    There came before us , in our journalistic capacity , a case of great interest and importance , upon which public attention had fixed itself , and in " connexion with which editorial comments would be expected . Appropriate , healthy , commonplace abounded ; a column of it would have been easy work ; reflections on the policy of honesty might have been approved , and they would have been easier . But obvious moralizing is not our forte . Everybody had heard before Saturday that murder will out , and so had concluded that what does " out" ¦ must be akin to mnridfir ,

    Observant persons had also noticed that messages go more expeditiously by the electric telegraph than by the post . Gentlemen with memories had been reminded , like Sir Frederick Thesigcr , of the Tawell case ; the more communicative of them had said so , though without Sir Frederick's oath . We were left no alternative but to break new ground ; and the first point that seemed to iis noteworthy was the connexion subsisting between the plaintiff and the plaintiff's counsel . W " e took that up and examined it , not with a view to blaming the barristers whom everybody seemed

    to approve , but for the purpose of testing the grounds of this , as it seemed to us , too general approbation . It will be remembered that when , the other day , contemporaries by the score wore attacking Mr . Sleigh for an error , which , as ho acknowledged , he had committed in court , wewero silent . His error was an accident , and therefore excusable ; it was a visible wrong , and therefore needed no exposure . Our first intention in that case was to draw attention to tho real delinquent , tho barrister paid for his work , who had handed

    over his brief to Mr . Sleigh too late for him to read it ; but , on second thoughts , we gavo up iho idea altogether , and left tho case as it stood . Had Mr . Bovill ' s conduct in the present case been as exceptional as Mr . Sleigh ' s in that , and had there been a howl about it in tho country , wo should have taken the same courso that wo adopted ia Mr . Sleigh ' s case ; but as it seemed to be actually tho subject of applauso , and clearly tho offspring of a false professional morality , wo attacked it . Wo will restate tho grounds of out complaint against tho " indignant virtue of tho bur . "

    The barrister in paid by the client to stato his cause . Apparently lie may refuso to do so if ho p leases , as did Sir F . Kell y and Mr . Koafcingin this case . It was—unfairly , wo think—loft by tho newspapers to be inferred that those gentlemen ' s absence was to ho accounted for by their suspicion of their client ; the much more natural conclusion—especially after Sir . Kitroy's scrupulously moral ynd" hk ; hly probnblo apple-pip defence " —beinjr thai ; they felt that a pauper client

    could a ( lord only a contingent honorarium . JJut ; howevor that may he , thoir ro /' u . s / il to attend , and tho colour given ' to it , show that it is not { ronerall y considered , whatever it may bo named , an infringement of bar etiquette to look into your brief before accepting it . Now , this it appears Mr . liovill and Inn friends did not do . They , on the contrary , accepted foes , and wont into Court , with tho knowledge that alleged fraud was the defence , and in possession of tho fact that sonior counsel had washod thoir hands of tho case . Wo say , thon , that having , for a consideration ,

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    Atjopst 20 , 1853 . ] THE LEADEB . 807 '

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 20, 1853, page 807, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2000/page/15/