QUALIFYING FOR LAW

Evening Star, Issue 18534, 17 January 1924, Page 7

QUALIFYING FOR LAW

INTERESTING SCRAP OF HISTORY. Of the new members admitted to tho English Bar tho onier day, only one— Lord Shandon, ex-Chancellor of Ireland—was spared tho ordeal of an examination in law. Things were otherwise until comparatively recent times. To qualify as a barrister it was necessary only to pay a fee for admission to an Inn of Court and keep twelve terms. By keeping a term is meant eating a certain number of dinners in the hall of your Inn. There arc four terms in. tho year, and when the would-be barrister had eaten the regulation number of dinners and paid the regulation fee ho was called before the Bench of his Inn. A paper was given him from which he read: “ I say that tho wddow shall have her dower.” Bows were then exchanged between the senior bencher and tho student, and tho latter was declared to bo a fit and proper person to bo admitted to practise tho lawn Just over eighty years ago the administration of the Inns of Court was investigated by a Parliamentary Committee, which commended that men should not be admitted to practise at the Bar until they had passed an examination in, at any rate, the elements of law. Thereupon it was decided that before being called Bar students should produce cither a certificate of having passed an examination in law or a 'certificate of having read in a barrister’s chambers. Tho latter course was favored by those of an idolcnt type, as there wore plenty of barristers who, if you paid them for reading in their chambers, were quite indifferent whether you read in them nr not. Sir Richard Bcthell (afterwards Lord Chancellor Westbury) put a stop to this. Shortly after a law student with whoso family Bothell was friendly had been called to tho Bar ho chanced to meet the barrister who had given the necessary certificate, and asked what lie thought of the youngster. The barrister, on reflection, said : “f am afraid I cannot express any opinion. I only remember meeting him once, and that was at tho Derby.” Tin's so horrified Bethcll —who was thou chairman of the Council of Legal Education—that ho made it Ids business to get a compulsory examination before call for all candidates for the Bar,