LEGAL INVASION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 August 1924, Page 13

LEGAL INVASION.

PREPARATIONS IN LONDON. LARGE AMERICAN PARTY EXPECTED. From skyscraper offices of the United States to the secluded chambers of the Temple and other Inns of Court, which rank among the Old World buildings of London—this is the abrupt transition which faces the members of the American Bar Association who are to visit this country in July as the guests of the Inns and the Incorporated Law Society, representing the two branches of the British legal profession,. A close view of the working of the law in England, with its atmosphere of quaintly mingled antiquity and modernity, will be provided for the visiting American lawyers, for whom reservations to the number of 1000 have been made to date, by the programme drafted for the visit here. Washington reports that the Secretary of State, Mr. Hughes, may accompany the visitors have. heightened interest here in the visit, arrangements for which already s,re well advanced. The iegal life of this country centres to a unique extent in the four Inns of Court—the Temple, Inner and Middle, which lies between Fleet Street and the Thames close to the Law Courts; Grey’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn. Here, in the old gray blocks of buildings, grouped around picturesque courtyards, sit the benches, the controlling and disciplinary bodies of the English Bar, and here, in ill-lighted, cramped apartments—“chambers” as they are called —destitute of almost every modern convenience, ‘work and, in many cases, live the barristers. When the American visitors are entertained at dinner in the panelled banqueting halls of the Inns of Court they will be on historic ground. It was from the peaceful garden of the Temple —of which traces still remain in the famous plane trees which dot the courtyards—that .sprang the War of the Roses, the civil war which devastated England in the Middle Ages. Shakespeare has immortalised the scene in the Temple garden in which the heads of the rival houses of York and Lancaster plucked red and white roses, which became the emblems of the parties in the civil war.

At that time the river came up to what is still known as the water gate of the Tejnple, and law students were in the habit of crossing the river in chase of snipe. The American visitors will hear the horn which summoned

them back, still used as the call to the communal dinners, a certain number of which custom ordains must be eaten by every student before he can be called to the bar.

Custom more than anything else rales the Inns of Court. “The life of the common law is not logic, but experience,” was a famous definition of the common law of England by Oliver Wendell Holmes, son of the novelist, and it applies equally to the life of the Inns. There may be little logic in some of the customs, but they are none the less strong for that. The Inns have rights as against the King and against the City of London which rest purely on custom, but neither the King nor the City Corporation has ever cared to challenge them. The gates of the Inns are closed at sundown, and the American visitors, though they will .have no difficulty in entering, have no more right of way through them than any citizen of London. It is , recorded that there was once a Master of the Temple named Vaughan, who ordained that no one should be admitted to the Temple at night without stating in a roll book the purpose of his or her visit. But the rule was withdrawn when a conspiracy of resident barristers, with the help of their women friends, had filled' 4 the book for a week with entries bearing. the names of well-known actresses, with the note in every case: “Called to see the Master of the Temple, 2 a.m.”

Limitations of space will unfortunately forbid that any formal service for the visiting American lawyers should he held in the famous Temple Church, dating from the time of the Knights of the Templar, the original holders of the site, from whom the Temple takes its name. This is the oldest part of the Temple, dating back to the twelfth century, while the hall of the Middle Temple dates only to 1567 —a record beaten by the hall of Gray’s Inn, dating from 1547. It is hoped, however, to hold a special service in Westminster Abbey, at which the Lessons will be read, one by a leading American visitor and the other by a leading representative of the British bench and bar.

Those visitors who are privileged to dine at Gray’s Inn—due. to their number, they will be distributed among thr various inns on the night during tinweek’s visit when they are entertainer by the Benchers—will he the guests o f the only one of the inns which still keeps up the old tradition of “mooting.” This is a form of legal debating society, intended for the training of students and barristers who have just been called. A legal question is selected for debate, and this is argued in

.exact accordance with the rules governing procedure in court, with a judge as chairman. Many of the leading members of the British judiciary made their first appearance at these “mootings” in the hall of Gray’s Inn, of which shorthand notes are taken, and a book dealing with these now is being prepared by Lord Justice Atkin.

Twelve thousand separate entertainments will be provided for the visitors by the legal profession alone, it is estimated by officials in charge of the reception plans here. The largest single undertaking will be the banquet to be staged' in the historic Westminster Hall, with its famous roof dating from the early Norman kings. On this occasion the old hall, spacious as it is, will be crowded to capacity to find space for 1200 guests. Aside from functions organised by the legal profession, commencing with a formal reception at the Law Courts, which will adjourn probably for the occasion, on the first week day after the visitors’ arrival, and including garden parties at Grays’ and Lincoln’s Inns and a reception by the Master of the Rolls at the Record Office, where Magna Charta and other historic documents will he exhibited, Royalty, Ambassador Kellogg, the Pilgrims, the City Corporation, and a number of private hosts also will entertain the visiting American lawyers. So far no definite arrangements have been made for the reading of law papers, but though almost every afternoon and evening during the official week hf the visit, from July 19 to 26, already has been filled, the mornings are being left free for those and other purposes. During the following week, while invitations to parties of the visitors to go to Dublin and Edinburgh are extended by the Irish and Scottish Bara, other parties will be given opportunity of seeing something of England outside of London. Sulgrave Manor will he visited by invitation of the trustees at the expense of Sir Charles Wakefield.- Visits also will be arranged to Stratford-on-Avon, where the Stratford Players will perform soeeiallv in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.' A visit to Stratford may be combined with one to Warwick- Castle, whose present American tenant, Henry W. Marsh, has extended invitations to parties of 250 a day for three days. Invitations to visit the university colleges also have been made to the American lawyers from Oxford and Cambridge;