"THE BARRISTER GIRL."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

"THE BARRISTER GIRL."

A RHETORICAL COMEDY AT GRAY'S INN.

AUSTRALIA'S CHIVALROUS CHAMPION AND IRELAND'S COMEDIAN.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, May 17.

"The most famous champion of women's rights among modern statesmen"—so the President of the Gray's Inn Debating Society introduced Sir John Cockburn to the large assembly that crowded the picturesque old hall of the Inn last Tuesday to hear the "Ladies' Night Debate" of the Society. Sir John, in moving "That the time hud arrived when women should be admitted into the legal profession" began with an appropriate allusiou to Queen Bess, the tutelary deity of Gray's Inn, whose portrait hung just above his 'head, and went ou to say that a large portion of the Federal Parliament had been returned by female suffrage, lv Australia they had taken down the notice-board "Trespassers will be prosecuted in the political arena." The nineteenth century was the age of women, and had witnessed their entry into several learned professions, la all of which they had proved themselves successful, notably Ilia own—medicine. The policeman of Time was continually telling uh to "move on,'mid our ideas as to what was woman's sphere progressed rapidly. The key of the past would not open the locks of the future, The highest afid holiest profession was that of wife and mother, but women should not be driven Into matrimony as a means of subsistence. We should not give the worst professions and keep the best for ourselves -give them the husks and keep the fruit. Matrimony was not ail roues and down. A vigorous "Hear, hear" from the back caused a burst of laughter from the audience at this point. Sir John contended that the burden of rebuttal was on the other side. The reasons against the admission of women to the Bar were the old stock arguments that had been urged against every progressive movement since the world began. They should be tabled on the wall ot the hall and numbered, as he had once suggested in the South Australian Legislature with reference to the arguments against female suffrage, and the speaker, pointing to the list, should say, "Mr Speaker, 1, 10, 3, and so on." Sir John then ran through the qualifications necessary for a lawyer, all of which he said women possessed, the ability to get up a case quickly and give a rapid opinion, insight Into character, eloquence (who ever heard ft woman stammer?), persuasiveness (a special class ot adamautlne Jurymen would have to be summoned), secretlveness, bravery. If bars existed they ought to be removed. Sir John then referred to the countries in which women could practise law, and mentioned that evi'n In England the seven women inspectors under the Factories Acts appeared in the Courts as prosecutors in cases of breaches of the Acts. Nothing but Inveterate custom prevented there being an

"open door" to women in law. Sir John wound up his glowing peroration with his favourite quotation from Goethe's "Faust" —"The eternal womanly lends us onward

and upward."

The opposer, Dr. Rentoul, X.C.M.P., who by the way is a strong supporter of the movement for female suffrage, replied in a tone of genial Irish banter, with numerous anecdotes that tickled the audience Immensely but had no relevancy to the question at lssue.He admitted that woman's Intellect was equal to man's. In his family three brothers and three sisters indulged in the pastime of a university education. The three girls all got first-class honours—v distinction attulned by none of the brothers. He also admitted women's fitness to exercise the franchise. When he stood for the ttrst L.C.C. elections, there were 1200 women In his constituency, and as far as he could find out every woman that went to the poll voted for him. He. must therefore admit woman's power to make a proper choice. As to being driven Into matrimony, he wasn't going to make a tragedy of that nfter the fashion of the young dramatist who wrote a play In tragic verse, but instead of killing off all his characters in the last act married them all to one another. The manager said, "Why, my dear boy, this is a comedy. In a tragedy people are killed, but in your play they all get married." So the dramatist went home and re-wrote his tragedy In five acts. He killed off all the characters In the third act, and left the last two acts to be carried on by the cxc cutors! With quips of this kind Dr. Rentoul beguiled his audience, at the suuic time calling attention to the seamy side of this "glorious profession," as Sir John hud deseribeii it—the profession which contains 10,000 members and hus work only for 300, and in which the only avenues to success are undefended divorce suits, the Old Bailey, where women and children are frequently ordered out of Court, and the County Court, where the young barrister hangs about for a couple of days, 20 minutes away from any place of refreshment, and by addressing a jury of costers earns a guinea which he doesn't get paid. The drudgery, the long period of waiting, the brutal, blusterftig, and brow-beating cross-examination of these days demanded a roughness and coarseness and a power of lung and body ani.l endurance that a woman had not got. Dr. Rentoul concluded by inviting every woman present to vote "like a man" against the resolution.

As each of the leaders had spoken for more than 45 minutes, it was 10 o'clock before the selected members of the society, budding barristers, could display their rhetorical powers. Half a dozen entered into the arena and spoke mostly in a jocular vein. One declared that there had been too much hilarity already, and that even Sir John, while pretending to be quite serious, had trotted out all the old chestnuts about "women's bright eyes" and so forth. A young Canadian spoke in impassioned terms of the freedom of the colonies, and the impudence of man in arrogating to himself the function of the Deity in deciding what should be woman's sphere; and several lady visitors who were invited to speak, including Lady Hamilton, widow of a former Govenor of Tusmanla, and a representative of. the Pioneer (,'lub, endeavoured to impart a tone of earnestness to the discussion. Earl Russell wound up the debate in a neat little speech distinguished by clearness and common sense, and as the visitors were streaming away towards the refreshments at 10 minutes past 11, a snap vote was taken, which resulted in the carrying of the motion by 72 to 64.

Husband: "Have yea done your best to economise this month, Mary, as I requested?'" Wife (brig-hfly): "Oh, yes: I spoke to the grocer, the butcher and the landlord, and got them to put off sending in their bills till next month."