Chapter X Concerning the Future

of Portia

Y Dear Portia,

It is flattering of you-and flattery has its uses at the Bar before some tribunals—it is flattering, I say, that you should ask an old Dogberry like myself, who has probably listened to more unskilful advocacy than anyone living, for some practical hints on your future prospects. You tell me that you want to become a legal "best seller," and I do not see why you should not succeed in your ambitions. Someone does, and it is always cheering to remember that the "best seller" is not necessarily the highest form of literature.

Your intention of going into Parliament and becoming judge, though not a new one, is according to precedent, and in your chosen profession deference to precedent is considered a virtue. At the same time, a barrister who becomes a member of Parliament does not always attain. to a judgeship, though the rate of exchange between a safe seat in Parliament and a seat on the bench of the High Court is often quoted in the lobby by political experts and allowed for in the odds by the bookmakers of the robing room.

But do not, I pray you, dabble too determinedly,

whilst you are a student, in the politics of the moment. It is scarce safe to attach oneself at an early age to any particular side or special patron. It does not look well in the public eye to chop and change your political principles too frequently, and it is impossible to foresee which side or which individual may have seisin of the demesne when in a few years you are ready to take the field.

I was glad to read in the papers that you had passed in Roman Law and that so many of your fair companions had gained honours in the examinations. Do not be disheartened by the somewhat unchivalrous reminder of a writer in the law papers that "examination successes do not justify the confident expectations that women will secure corresponding triumphs in the forensic arena." The unknown legal warriors who write in law journals must be suffered gladly. They know perhaps what it is to pass in Roman Law with confident expectation of forensic triumphs and to be non-suited in the battle of life.

And it is well that you should understand that, though examinations must be passed, yet when they are passed they are best forgotten. The Art of Advocacy in which your namesake made such a distinct hit has very little to do with a study of the Pandects. Success in advocacy depends mainly on character. The Domus rightly ex

pects that you should be a person of sound learning and religious education, since, as the great D'Aguesseau said, the order of advocates is "as noble as virtue." But the average solicitor will look for the more worldly attributes of judgment, courage, wit, and eloquence: and for my

part

I have never believed that these qualities have any sex consciousness.

As you know, I was for a long time in a hopeless minority in advocating the opening of our profession to women. My brethren were resolutely opposed to your entrance among them. This discourteous attitude was not, my dear niece, personal to yourself. You will find that the dwellers in the Temple are very gallant gentlemen, but they are also fanatical trade unionists and as such objected to you and your young friends as dilutees. It is a horrible word, no doubt, but you will have to learn and listen to many such jargonical words in your new trade; nor must you fail to study carefully all the shop rules of the Bar which are called " etiquette," and these you will talk about reverently and pay such heed to as shall not clash with your personal advancement.

You will find that the union makes much play about a minimum wage both for its own members and those unskilled labourers known as barristers' clerks. There is, however, no rule about maximum fees, and the greater the figures on your brief the higher the honour in which you will be held by the outside world. One curious shop rule will no doubt please you at first. You will find that all the members of your union go on strike every summer for two months. It is a preferable habit, no doubt, to the more common one adopted by most unions of striking at odd seasons without notice, but it is said to cause some public inconvenience. And now you are yourself a member of the union you must never forget that the strict boycott of the dilutee must always be maintained, and even during the Great War the Bar consistently

refused to permit dilutees to do even the unskilled work of consenting to judgment.

With these things in your mind you will not wonder, then, that many of your present colleagues were in the past very antagonistic to woman labour. But now that you have won the battle need not fear but that you you will be given all that Huxley and Mill and your best friends have ever asked for you-" a fair field and no favour." You will be freely allowed to enter for Parliament, the Woolsack, or any of the legal consolation stakes on the card. But you must remember you cannot be given a handicap. Every contest you enter for will be a real championship—not a ladies' championship. You will have to compete with your fellow-man under the same rules and drive off from the same tees.

When you are called to the Bar you will commence as advocate, no doubt, in the County Court, where you will find justice is administered quite as indifferently as it is in the High Court, except that there is more of it and the pace is quicker. It is like the difference between county cricket and village cricket. We have no three-day matches in the village court; everyone goes in for a short innings and a merry one, the game is brought to a conclusion in a reasonable time, and we play on after twilight to finish the match. The County Court of today is the advocate's kindergarten. And you will hear excellent advocacy there, though the bulk is not always equal to the sample. I look back over nearly thirty years and remember angelic advocates who are now High Court Judges, Attorney-Generals, even Lord Chancellors. I did not altogether entertain them unawares, and when their

triumphs are told I can shake my old head and say, “I told you so." Yes, yes, Dogberry is "a fellow that hath had his losses," for the best boys in the kindergarten are moved up to higher things and a new generation comes along to sharpen their wits at the old grindstone.

Nevertheless, the County Courts are well served at the present, and it is pleasant to think that the day is not far off when the younger men will in their turn have climbed the heights of fame. Indeed, my dear Portia, I shall hope to see you often before me down at Lambeth. There are many cases where the affairs of women are discussed where your practical knowledge will be very valuable to the Bench. Nothing to me is more unworthy of the dignity of the Court than our present dealing with dressmaking litigation. In Admiralty cases a judge is not expected to know how to hand reef and steer: he has the assistance of a nautical assessor, and where doctors disagree he may have a medical assessor. But in a dressmaking affray, which is indeed a fierce and furious contest, he has to rush in between Madame Mantalini and Miss Montmorency and listen to shrill complaints about gussets, flounces, and basting, and pretend to understand what has happened when a dress piece has been cut on the cross.'

At times a judge may be asked to interview counsel and parties in camera and observe with his own eyes the want of coincidence between the garment and the figure, a very delicate and embarrassing position for a shy and retiring personality and one which would be pleasanter to all parties if Portia were there to chaperone Dogberry and explain to him what it was really all about.