REPRESENTATIVE MEN AT HOME.

Bush Advocate, Volume V, Issue 354, 16 August 1890, Page 7

REPRESENTATIVE MEN AT HOME.

SIR OHAHLES RUSSELL. Q.C., M.P. Sir Charles Rassell is a very difficult man to got hold of. He himself seems to be about the last person in London likoly to be able to toll you with any accuracy when you may get a Quarter of an hour with him at his chambers in Lincoln's Inn. How it might be if one were a solicitor trying to get at him with a big brief I cannot say ; though I am inclined to think that in that ease one's way might be smoothed considerably by a gentleman who sits in an outer chamber, and whose important function ia to look after the f«M of the famous Q.C I come with no bnot, however, and again and again I look in, only to find consultations going on, and persons waiting for interviews several deep. 1 am ushered into an apartment juat under the shadow of King's College Hospital, and for a time sit patiently scanning the backs of long rows of brownbacked volumes, speculating on the life dramßs in which my fellow waiters are engaged, and wondering why it is that about all lawyers' offices a certain degree of diriginess and dust seems to be deemed absolutely essential to respectability. An electric gong eve^y now and again jorks out a nummons to the famous advocate's sanctum, and the double doors admitting to it keep swinging to and fro while clerks and gentlemen in wigs and robes pass in and out. But the consultations novor seem to come to an end, and the jrong jerks out no summons for me, and again and again I lose patience and take my leave. If I am to get at Sir Charles Russell Jfc seems clear that it will not be at hia chambers, and I therefore betake my6elf to No. 86 Harley street, and ring a merry peal on his street door-bell, which ia promptly answered by a young man in neat livery. Yes ; Sir Charles is in, and will see me at once, and I an ushered up a broad staircase in one of those Bpacioue and imposing, but rather gloomy, town mansions whioh seem . to render a country seSta matter of absolute necessity. A roaring firs is shedding a cheery light over the haU, and a closed stove is warming the staircase. The softest of carpets- end -the heaviest of curtains, marble statuary and fine pictures, all combine to render this Harley street interior a sumptuous and beautiful home ; but somehow one cannot help feeling that it all requires to be looked at in cvniunotion with that other horne — Tadworth Court at Epsom — where, during some of the summer months, the illustrious lawyer and his large familycan betake them for air and sunshine, and some intercourse with. Nature and her ways and -works. Sir Charles Russell is a keen 1 sportsman, is fond of riding I,'1 ,' and has the reputation of being aa shrewd a judge of a horse as he is of a witness, and during Derby week Tadworth Court ia usually full to overflowing. But this is the town house, and I. am led upstairs, through an arched doorway, across a short landing, from which an iron Btaircase and a email 'lift' run down, I presume, into the kitchen department, and the servant throws open the door of a small room and announces me. A tall, burly form rises from an arm-chair beside a blazing fire, and comes forward with, a hearty, vigorous sort of greeting, of the sincerity of which it is impossible to doubt, and in another moment I am seated on a well-ouahioned couch audaciously bent on cross-examining tha greatest cress-examiner of the modern bar. II About that cross-examination, " observes Sir Charles Russell, " {here is a great deal of exaggeration and misapprehension in the public mind. Counsel are commonly supposed to revel in an opportunity of turning a witness inside- out, and blackening his character, and raking up everything they can possibly find against him. It is all a*mistake. No counsel who knows what he is about would think of going a single, step beyond what ia absolutely necessary in this way. It is wrong; it is unpopular with the bar ; and the judges are very muoh against it, and juries very apt to resent it." "No competent counsel, then, would blacken the oharacter or expose the oircumetances of a witness if he oould avoid it ? " " Certainly not. And there is another point upon which a good deal of misapprehension exists, and that is with regard to the effect of cross-examination. It rarely hurts a really honest witness. People think' that anything can be done by cross-examina-tion ; but, as a matter of faot, if a witness ia ; honest, it dan do very little. Speaking for myself, I can say that I never rise to oross- ! examine a witness with any heart or interest unless, from something I know of him from I my brief or from his demeanour in tho box, I have reason to believe that he is not tolling the truth." 41 How long have you been at the bar, Sir Charles Russell?" " Thirty years," is the ready reply. "Well, now, please tell me something about your early experionoo. I have heard it stated that you came from Ireland and pushed your way without friends or influence |of any kind. Is that so ?" " I hadn't a friend or any influence what- [ ever in any quarter." " And how did you push your way on ?" "By devilling for men in good practice. By the way, the foe for my first consultation I nover got paid," laughed the famous advocate, who is commonly reputed to have had since that early experience fooß enough to have allayed very effectually any vexation he may have felt at the time. "It was a knotty point connected with a will made before the Statute of Wills, a matter upon which I should find some difficulty in expressing an opinion now, and I fancy the man who came to me -with it made a chance hit. I had jußt come out first in the certificate list of the year, and he took me just because I stood first, atid he didn't mean to pay for it. Howover, it led to a valuable i introduction — Mr. Yates, of Liverpool— and the late Mr. Aspinall, Recorder of Liverpool, a very able man, for whom I did a great deal. My first year I made 240 guineas, and in | each of the two succeeding years I doubled my incomo — that ia to say, tho i<ocond year I made 480 guineas, and tho third year just about a thousand." '•A very exceptional achievement, I should imagine, Sir Charles Russell." 11 Oh, I've known one or two naen who have made a thouaaud guineas the first year." " Ay, but they probably have not doubled it over and over as you did." " No, they haven't done that. There are some very absurd exaggerations abroad as to the earnings of men at the Bay. For instance, I pjiw it stated recently that in a single week I had received fees to tho amount of 3,000 guineas." " Yes ; I saw that too, and waß going to refer to it. Wasn't it true /" "No. A tenth of that sum would bo much nearer the mark. One result of such statements is that I get shoals of begging letters from all sorts of people." " One mustn't say, I suppose, that you habitually respond very generously to such appeals, or 1 might bring down a greater dolugo upon you." Sir Charles Russell, I observe, however, doesn't offer nny very strenuous protest against such a suggestion ; indeed, if ho had been in tbo witness-box, und I had been his tormentor iv wig 1 and gown, I fancy I should havo detected in hia manner ovidonee of an uneasy consciousness nf a weak point-, and I should havo overhauled him severely. My suspicion wtw cozinrmed when be proceeded to tell me of a very pathetic incident that lately occurred. The daughter of a man who a few yours ago hold iv relation to the working cluasey very muoh the position Mr. Burns holds now, wrote to him from ono of tho London workhouses, eutrcatuig him to send her a little help. Sho hud two of hor children in tho workhouse, and there were two others outside, /\nd «he wanted to get out and sco after them. Sir Charka Russell cannot auswer letters very promptly, fts a rule. They arc bound to accumulate for a time, and thon they got answered in batches. ThuH a fortnight elapsed before he sent to the inaater of the workhouse a letter enclosing 10s. Imuvwfciately after he got a reply telling; him tho poor oreatnre had died only the day before. "Wtoafc was to. become of tho poor child^," a&dfcd tha gxeat ad.vo.oate, feelingly,

"God only knows. I have tried to find oat and have failed." " What do you take to be the most important qualifications for the Bar?" " I should say the first is health," was the reply. " A good, strong constitution. There ! is a great deal of hard work to be undergone." 11 And you are accustomed to add to your hard work at the bar the labours of Parliamentary lif« and political speaking. It ia amazing that you can carry on the two." " One of the judges, in writing' to me the other day, said he was eorry t© find that I wasn't looking so well as he should like to have seen me after the vacation. • It's all that platform speaking,' ho said. I replied that I should go on speaking until I fouud that what I said was considered important enough to get reported verbatim, and then I should drop it. It is no trouble to speak," continued Sir Charles, "on any subject that you've a knowledge of ; but, of course, if you get fully reported, your speaking mm t involve a good deal more care and trouble. But in any case, no doubt, political speaking does involve a certain amount of exhaustion, especially if you got under excitement, as I do." " You do get excited ? " " Oh, yea, certainly. I feel strongly on the subjects I epeak about, «nd f doubt if there is any possibility of addressing au audience effeotively without it." A little interesting further debate on this point followed^ and Sir Charles Russell was then induced to revert to the qualifications that should bo possessed by a^young, man entering the Bar. " Sound health should ba the lust thing, and a real love of the profession should be the next. A man who has not a love of the work will be Bure to find it intolerable drudgeVy. But a young man is not likely to have a real liking for the Bar unless ho is well fitted for it ; and if you. ask me what are the characteristics he should possess in order to fit him . for it, I should say. good, common-cense, business faculties. Who was it — Swift, I think — who said that a young man whe isn't good-looking enough for the army, and who has too much ability for the church, is sont to the Bar ? There is some truth in that, and the consequence is, I believe, that there is a greater amount of ability at the Bar than in either of the other professions ; but much of it is ability of the wrong kind. The profession is no doubt very muoh overcrowded ; but for those who have the requisite qualifications there is still plenty of room." Sir Charles Kusself is of opinion that mere eloquence is of less importance than is commonly supposed. There are cases in which eloquent advocacy has its value ; but he ib inclined to think that the importance and the power of it are very much overrated. It is a mistake, in his judgment, to suppose that juries are very easily dazzled by oratorical fireworks. He has a great respect for juries, and he declares his emphatic behef that upon an average the ability of juriea to arrive at sound judgments upon facts befoie them (apart from oases in which strong prejudices may exist), is quite as high as that of judges, and that it is not so easy to throw dust in their eyes as is often assumed. They don't want oratorical flourishing ; they want facts put before them in a clear, telling, forcible way; and the power of thus putting foots, Sir Charlea Russell believes, is of much greater importance than the ability to make a fine speech. A man, then, who is to succeed at the Bar, should have a power of dealing with facts in a common-sense, business-like way ; he should have a quick eye for the' strong point in his case, and he should have the wellbalanced judgment that will enable him to Bee the attimgth of his opponent's position as well as his own. He should see at a glance his own strong point, and should concentrate all his power upon it; and he should recognise the strong point of his opponent, and prepare the jury for it. Sir Charles Russell mentioned the name of a very capital lawyer and a very brilliant man, who never seemed to be able to adopt theso very simple rules. He appeared to be like a Japanese artist— without any sense of perspective. If he had one strong point and five weak ones, ho would bring them all to the front. Instead of bringing out his really strong point with all the power he could command, and relegating the other five into the background, he would often spend his strength on the five to. the neglect of the one which was really all important. "But, after all," declared Sir Charles Russell— and I thought it showed very strikingly the clear-headed, impartial judgment of the man — '^far losb depends on counsel than the pubuo generally suppose. Verdicts generally go by the weight .of evidence; and I can hardly recall a single case of jinjr importance in which the result would have been different if other men had been engaged in it." By this time the eminent lawyer has come to the end of his short leisure ; and the visitor takes his leave more than ever convinced of the shrewdness and strength, the real power and merit, which have placed Sir Charles Russell in the proudest position among the advocates of his day, and made him everywhere one of the most popular and respected of men.