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struct and lead public sentiment must assume responsibility. The most powerful agency of that kind is the press. If it should unite its efforts to those of the lawyers, useful results might be anticipated. But if it contents itself with being a mere reporter of news and an occasional commentator, frequently critical, it must bear a large share of the responsibility for the continuance of present conditions.

I do not fail to consider that there are lawyers who, through inertia, or selfishness, cling to technical and occult provisions of law and methods of administration giving opportunity for delay and obstruction, and that they thus increase the necessity for their employment. Fortunately, such lawyers are in a small minority, but with the uninformed public the motives of the entire profession are subject to suspicion and their influence is relatively diminished. As a matter of fact, no group in the community as a whole is so devoted to our institutions, so patriotic in their efforts to maintain them, and so self-sacrificing in devoting their time and attention to the correction of defects and insufficiencies, as the American Bar. But lawyers have no talent for exploitation or advertisement. Indeed, the teachings of their profession militate against methods of publicity freely and honorably resorted to by business combinations of every kind. With the enormous development in industrial matters which has resulted in the increased employment of specialists, fitted by cultural and technical education to meet large problems, the bar has ceased to be the most powerful group in the community, and it no longer wields the influence in public affairs attributed to it by Bryce in his "American Commonwealth," and before him by de Toqueville in his "Democracy in

America." Reforms proposed by the bar can only be effected through force of public opinion, and that can be aroused only through the combined action of business men, educators, professional men, sociologists, publicists, and, above all, an intelligent press.

XI

THE LONDON MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION*

EIGHTY per cent of the American lawyers who went

to London on the invitation of the four Inns of Court and the Law Society, Incorporated, had never been abroad before. They came from nearly every State of the Union, and they returned deeply impressed with the importance of preserving the principles of the common law and of maintaining relations of amity between the English-speaking nations of the world.

It was an extraordinary pilgrimage. Three thousand one hundred American lawyers gathered in Londonabout thirty per cent. more than had been expected. The steamship Berengaria carried a thousand of our company with their families, including Mr. Hughes, the president, and many Judges of State and Federal courts, including the Chief Justices of Ohio, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. There were also aboard many of our most representative lawyers.

We arrived in good time on Saturday, July 19th. The secular events of the week commenced on Monday with the most impressive event of the week in Westminster Hall. Nothing can be imagined of a more stately or elevated or significant character than the ceremonies attending the welcome extended to the Amer

* Lecture at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, October 9, 1924.

ican lawyers on that morning by the bench and bar of England and Canada. The environment was perfect to recall what our civilization and our system of jurisprudence owe to English history, English traditions and English philosophy of life.

We were in the Hall of William Rufus, built in 1097, destroyed by fire in 1291, and in 1398 provided with a ceiling and roof of vast size and without supporting columns-for centuries the wonder of builders. The great hall now forms a gigantic vestibule to the Houses of Parliament. It was originally a part of the Palace of Westminster, where the Kings resided, and while the structure continues to bear the same name, it has long ceased to be used as a royal residence. It has witnessed every change from the days when the sovereigns themselves as a Court of Requests, administered judicial and political powers alike. Gradually there developed from that Court, the Court of Exchequer, the Court of Kings Bench and the Court of Chancery.

I cannot attempt to recount all of the numerous historical events that have occurred in Westminster Hall during the last thousand years. They are the milestones along the road of development of Anglo-Saxon ideas of civil liberty, which have been the heritage of the American people. A bronze tablet in the floor in the middle of the great Hall marks the place where Warren Hastings was acquitted, after a trial extending through seven years. At a point on the elevated platform, indicated by a bronze plate, Charles I stood when he was condemned to death. In the great Hall Sir Thomas Moore dispensed justice, and here the bodies of Cromwell and Gladstone lay in state. No other place in England stands as a symbol so significant as Westminster Hall of

the bond of common law and civil liberty which spiritually unites all English-speaking nations. Every American lawyer was thrilled with pride of race and tradition as he entered this great Hall; and when he witnessed the pageant which followed and heard from the greatest judges and lawyers of England, America and Canada, the lofty sentiments expressed in tones and phrase appropriate for the occasion, historic memories were revived which gave him a sense of common ownership of great and inspiring traditions.

Westminster Hall was early filled to overflowing. Representatives of the junior and the senior bar of England and of the inferior courts first ranged themselves on the wide steps and elevated platform leading to the Parliament Building itself. Presently there was a hush, as with great pomp and ceremony and in gorgeous array, came from the rear entrance the highest representatives of the English bench, preceded by officials bearing the gorgeous Mace and Purse. Thus supported, the Lord High Chancellor moved majestically forward, clad in robes of black and gold, his train borne with impressive grace by an attendant in resplendent costume. Then followed the Lord President of the Council, and three ex-Lord Chancellors. Law Lords and Lords of Appeal came in their turn; and then the Lord Chief Justice of England, in his scarlet judicial gown. The Master of the Rolls and his attendants followed. The impressive procession ended as its color was blended in the setting afforded by the distinguished company gathered around the reserved places on the historic platform.

Speeches followed by the Attorney General, the President of the Law Society, the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, representing the Canadian Bar, by Mr. Jus

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