ABSTRACT OF ADDRESS

OF

EDWARD J. PHELPS,

PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION, AT ANNUAL MEETING, 1879.*

Mr. Phelps, in opening, alluded gracefully to the circumstances which caused his appearance before them, and then referred to the successful career of the association since its inauguration a year ago, and said that it had more than satisfied the expectation of those who projected it. Its membership, already nearly one hundred, would before the close of the present meetings be largely increased, and its influence as an elevator of the professional standard in the state would undoubtedly become stronger and stronger. He next briefly recounted the raising of the subscription by the association toward the fund for the support of the Anderson children, orphans by the yellow fever at Memphis, whose education has been undertaken by the bar there, and read two elegant letters of thanks and acknowledgment from members of the Tennessee bar. He was glad that the very first act of the association was to respond to this appeal. Other organizations had with pomp and ceremony laid their corner-stones. He was willing that this act should stand for theirs. Better than even Ehrenbreitstein, the bright stone of honor, was the bright stone of charity. Having made these preliminary re

*Mr. Phelps' address was extemporaneous, and this abstract is made from minutes taken at the time it was delivered.

marks, he announced that the subject of his address would be, "Observations upon the English Bar," partly founded upon what he had himself seen during visits to England. Of course, he said, every member of the profession would feel a natural interest in exploring its origin and tracing its history. In some cases, as Saxe remarked, it was perilous to trace one's pedigree; but lawyers had a very aristocratic professional origin, because, for the first century and a half at least in which any trace of them is left in history, they belonged to the clergy. From the time of William Rufus to the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Edward the first, the English Justinian, all lawyers were clergymen. Edward first decreed that the attorneys-at-law should come from the laity. Mr. Phelps then traced the rise and growth of the common lawyers, sergeants, barristers, and students into the powerful and privileged body which they had become by the reign of James the first, and said that the origin of the Inns of Court, their great seats of learning, is supposed to be coeval with the fixture of the Court of Common Pleas in London, in accordance with the provision in Magna Charta. He gave a most interesting description of the architecture, surroundings, constitution and life of the Inns of Court, of which the surviving are the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Gray's Inn, and Lincoln's Inn. He believed that their influence upon the character of the English bar had made it what is. There they have studied, lived, practiced, worshipped, and, in many instances, been buried. The halls are adorned with memorials of the illustrious dead, and the living are stimulated perpetually thereby to emulate the virtues of the great lights now quenched, and to maintain the honor of the profession unimpaired. Mr. Phelps dwelt for some time on the picturesque life of the inns; described vividly the old churches in which the benchers, members and and students worshipped, the old halls in which they eat, and the chambers in which they studied and practiced, and in

which many of them lived, and said that no American lawyer could help being greatly attracted and interested by them. Adverting to the details of professional practice in England, he explained the various grades of lawyers which had existed there until the passage of the Supreme Court of Judicature act a few years ago, and distinguished between sergeants and barristers, between inner barristers and ouster barristers, and between barristers generally and attorneys. To-day there are only two ranks left, barristers and attorneys, and in his opinion that distinction would soon be obliterated, and the American system of combining the attorney and the barrister would prevail. In England he thought lawyers were more complete and finished in the learning of their profession than in America, mainly owing to the sub-division of practice. Here a lawyer must not only be attorney and barrister at once, but he must be somewhat acquainted with every branch of the law. There, not only is a barrister relieved from the labor of doing attorney work and preparing the evidence in the cause, but he rarely ever pretends to practice in more than one department of the law. A commercial lawyer never tries a divorce case ; a criminal lawyer never tries a civil case of any kind; a parliamentary counsel never argues to a jury. This sub-division tended to make them absolute masters of their respective fields. He praised highly their skill in cross-examination, but said that in oratory they did not compare with American lawyers. In fact an Englishman was afraid to say anything that resembled eloquence, and their best jury lawyers usually talked to the jury in a conversational tone. As an example that American training in all phases of the law was beneficial, Mr. Phelps instanced the rapid rise of Judah P. Benjamin at the English bar, and said that he was now the leader of the Northern circuit, and that his practice was said to be worth £30,000 per year. It was Benjamin's wide knowledge of the law and mastery of its practical application to business that gave him such a lead, in his opinion. There was one thing

that struck him very forcibly in England, and that was the absolute confidence which people had in the uprightness and integrity of the bench; how none doubted the correctness of their decisions.

It was indeed true that when there was a va

cancy in the bench the very best man, and no other, was invariably appointed to fill it, and a judgeship there was such a prize that the best man at the bar could look forward to it as a full reward. He gave many interesting anecdotes illustrative of the strict etiquette of the English bar, and their delicacy in the matter of fees. In fact the address was replete with striking illustrations, entertaining anecdotes, and the sparkling wit peculiarly characteristic of Mr. Phelps, which no one can hope to emulate, though all admire, and which it is absolutely impossible to give even an idea of within the limits of this report. He closed with a fine statement of the noble character of the law as a profession, and said that no lawyer who lived below its highest standard of conduct and character was worthy to belong to a body which had conferred such benefits on mankind.

LUCIUS B. PECK.

PAPER READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, 1879,

BY

BENJAMIN F. FIFIELD.

MR. PRESIDENT :

One of the purposes of this association is to perpetuate the memory of distinguished members of the bar, and to me this is its most attractive feature. If this had been done half a century ago, the memory of such men as Bell and Mattocks and Cushman, and a host of others, would not rest upon tradition alone: but we of to-day should have known at the least the prominent characteristics which rendered them so conspicuous in their day. There is nothing more fleeting and evanescent than the reputations of the great mass of lawyers. The most learned and exhaustive arguments, upon which depend millions of property, may provoke comments of admiration from the bench and the bar; the passionate appeals of the advocate may carry away court and jury in a whirl of excitement, but when the lawyer dies no permanent record remains of his labors and talents. A few traditions of great bursts of eloquence, or elaborate argumentation, or happy hits, or sharp repartee, may be current for a few years, perhaps for a generation, and then they who knew of these things know of them no more. No "Old Mortality" is found to perpetuate their memory. It is therefore appropriate and fitting that the bar should see that this is done.