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LAW AND LAWYERS.
A Vision And a Retrospect.
Glimpses of Melbourne's Early
Legal History. n
Are the jibes sometimes levelled at mem
bers of the legal profession no longer jus-
liable? The question was raised by Air.
0. H. I.ucas, retiring president of the
Law Institute of Victoria, xin an address
delivered to members last nigbt and en
titled,. "Tho Status of the Lawyer iri tlie
Community. Even Shakespeare, the
speaker admitted, had put it into the
mouth of Jack Cade to say, "The first
thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,"
while Balzac, with his rascally lawyer
Draisier, Cbarlos Dickens, was his cele-
brated Jarndyce v. Jarodycc, and many
other famous authors had made striking
outbursts at the expense of the profes
sion. The immortal Dr. Johnson had said.
"1 cannot exactly tell you, sir, who he is,
and I would be loth to speak ill of any
person who for all I know may not de
serve it, but I am afraid he is an at
torney." But whatever might have been
the juotification then for the taunts, it did
not exist to-day. Just ' as evolution had
produced from tlie three-toed horse of
antiquity, the two-toed horse, and it in
its turn King Ingoda (a laugh), .so from
the pettifogging attorney of bygone days
had cvolovcd the modern lawyer, who was
included among the most respected mem
bers of the community. Such a case as
Jarndyce -v. Jarndyce in the Court of
Chancery to-day Wbuld provide food for
great invective to say nothing, of the law
as to imprisonment for debt in Dickens's
time, the Fleet prison, the practice in
Doctors' Commons, and the procedure for
obtaining probate in the bad old days. All
the had changed, and the profession now
earned and received the respect of the
public in a measure incomparable with
earlier days. ' . .
Comparing tbe "happy lotr of Victorian
clients of to-day with those of earlier
times, Air. Lucas instanced extracts from
the ledger of Richard Ooock, solicitor, of
Alclbourne, who practised in the Supreme
Court of New South Wales for. the. district
of Port Phillip from 1813 until ms aeatn
in 1853. Air. Ocock was the eleventh to
enter the roll of Melbourne attorneys and
solicitors when Judge Willis, and after
wards Sir Win. ..Jeffcott, and Judge Roger
Thcrry presided over the Supreme Court.
Among his clients were the superintendent
and Captain Wm. Lonsdale and Lonsdale
v. SimpBon, re John Batman, deceased, was
a hardv annual, whieh seemed as kind to
Mr. Ocock as Jarndyce v. Jarndyce was to
Mr. Vlioles and his brethren. Page sfter
page of attendances were recorded, half of
which would now be superfluous. At
every turn Mr. Ocock consulted Air. Croke,
the first barrister enrolled in Melbourne,
and there were declaations, replications,
reports end exceptions almost without nuin-
-er. These all spelt fees, and, though he
(the speaker) had been unable to trace;
the history of the estate of John Batman,;
deceased, but the dairies suggested that any
one of tlie beneficiaries would have been
ready to agree with Chesterton when Jie
wrote of the law's delays in. Chancery suits
of old, "It's anger is patient and plod
ding, like some historic revenge. Moreover,
it slowly and oarefnly creates that psy
chology of oppression, that endless formal
ity .that endless unemotional urbanity, the
el idles 7 hope deferred. These things make
one. feel tho fact of iniustice more than
the madness of Nero. For it is not the
aetjvonosa of tyranny that maddcnB, but
its pan own ess. We hate the deafness of
the god more tlian his strength. Silence is
the unbearable repartee."
Continuing, the speaker said the name of
J. B. Were could stil Ibe sen on a Collins-
street, bras plate, and it was interesting .to
note that Mr. Were was swearing affidavits
and adding to costs as far back as 9th
December, 1842. John Pnscoe Fawkner
figured as a client, and tbe solicitor had
an entry "Attending viewing the Alel
bourne Hotel, Flinders-street, when I foun
tdhe same empty and attending you there
on, 13/4."
Several years ago an agitation m Vic
toria succeeded in lessening the number of
legal men in Parliament, and for a while
unskilod cgisatbrs had a free hand. It waa
an experiment which faied signally, and
it was significant that there was no serious
comment or intelligent criticism of the pre
ponderance of lawyers over all other occu
pations among the candidates for the forth-
enmme Federal elections.
Looking at the future, lie hoped that
his siicccR-iors in another decade would
speak in a Law n statute building, rent and
interest free and its own freehold: that
the institute wotdd have tho custody, as
in England, of the practitioners' roll, en
rolling and striking off without reference
to the oourt, simplification of hills of
costs, the repeal of the antiquated statute
requiring a lawyer to wait a month before
lie sues, «nd a better income for lawyers.
The 1921 income tax report showed that
310 lawyers were in receipt of incomes
under 501. 164 under £1001, and only 10!)
over £1001, lei vim: 643 who did not need
to furnish a return.
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