STACK / 
 
 ANNEX 
 
 105 PRICE 6d. ; POST FREE, 70.. 
 
 629 
 
 A DEWSBURY, WAKEFIELD, AND DISTRICT 
 
 LAW STUDENTS' SOCIETY. 
 
 [NAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered on the 16th October, 1877, 
 
 SERJEANT SIMON, M.P., 
 
 HOHOEAEY PEESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 Cnpiet may le had from J. H. SIMPSON, the Hon Secretary of the Society. 
 
 DEWSBURY : 
 PRIKTKD JLT TH " REPORTER " OFFICE. WKSTOATS. 
 
 1877.
 
 THE ADDRESS. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : my first duty to-night is to express the gratification 
 which I feel in taking my official place among you, of 
 Honorary President, to which high position you have done 
 me the honour to appoint me. I have next to congratulate 
 this, infant Society upon the success which, according to the reports ; 
 just read, it has, in a very short time, achieved. Considering 
 the number of members already enrolled, and your present 
 financial condition, I can have no ,fear that the spirit which has 
 hitherto animated you will continue to do so, and that this Society 
 will, before long, take its place among those Associations of a like 
 character which have already stamped their influence upon the legal . 
 profession. Gentlemen, in the course of the observations which 
 I sh ill addre-s to you this evening, when I speak of our profession, 
 I wish it to be understood that I include both the professions of the 
 Barris.ter nd the Solicitor. I, for' one, whilst advocating the > 
 division^ of labour, believing that it is for the interest of each 
 branch, believing, also, that it is for the benefit of the community, 4 
 which, alter all. is, arid should be. the primary consideration, am , 
 of opinion that Ihe noble profession of the law. divided thouirh it may ; 
 be into branches, should be one united b:>dy. regarding each branch 
 as members of the same hi^h. honourable calling, and not as the % 
 members of a disunited family, set one against thfi other; and" 
 among the law reforms to which I look forwarder that, in no 
 distant time, you will find that the profession of the law. consisting still 
 of JJarristers and Solicitors, will embrace the one united calling, each, 
 branch pursuing a different line of pract ice, but, accessible and open to 
 each other according to the option of its respective mem ,ers. 
 
 Now, the fralue and importance of Associations like this cannot be 
 exaggerated. All Societies that bring men together in unity of 
 pin pose must l>e beneficial, not only to their members but, to those 
 wjth whom they hold more or less special and important external' 
 relations ; and a profession like the law, which h^s ch irge of 
 the dearest interests of society, a profession in which, on the 
 one hand, the bar is called upon to plead for the rights and liberties 
 of the subject, where the highest to the lowest will find udvocates, " 
 able and learned, who will earnestly and fearles'sly discharge their"' 
 high and responsible duty 10 their client, whether it be a Malasherbea 
 pleading the cause of a crowned Mqnarch, a Brougham the case of 
 a. Queen of Knglaud, or a. young man at Sessions defending some 
 miserable creature on trial for a petty larceny, I say such a pro-" 
 
 2071427
 
 fession, in the hands of high-minded, learned, and able men, is a 
 grand and noble calling, and affords a fine illustration of a country's 
 freedom. Take, on the^ther hand, the branch to which you or 
 the greater number of thjtSociety belong, or are likely to belong, 
 what can possibly exceed the importance, the difficulty, and the 
 delicacy of the functions which a Solicitor has to discharge ? Not 
 only the most intricate and difficult questions of law, the most 
 ^bstrnse problems of juridical science, hare to be unwoven and ex- 
 plained by him, either to his client or the counsel whom he consults, 
 but he has charge of the most sacred interests and confidences of 
 family life, so that he must be not only an able and well-instructed 
 lawyer, but essentially a man of honour. 1 know of no profession 
 4hat makes a larger demand upon the intellectual powers, none that 
 makes so great a claim upon the moral sense of the man. Well, 
 then, your Society has been formed for the purpose of " advocating," 
 as I see by your rules, "and promoting the interests of the 
 profession at large " ; for the " cultivation of the art of public 
 " speaking, and for the promotion of information upon subjects 
 " connected with the- study and practice of the law." These are 
 the objects of your society, and you propose to accomplish these 
 objects " by means of debates upon subjects of a legal and jurij- 
 " prudential character, the delivery of lectures and the reading of 
 w papers upon the above mentioned subjects, and such other means 
 *'as tlio committee fo? the time being shall from time to time 
 *< provide." That is an excellent programme; nothing can be 
 t>etter. nothing more likely to conduce to the objects for which you 
 have been associated I cannot attempt to-night to go through 
 every one of these topics, but I shall advert to one of them, " the 
 study of the law, and the manner in which that stndy should be 
 pursued." What is the study of the law ? It is the study of those 
 rules which bind society together, that hold us linked in social 
 ^harmony, that protect life and limb and property, that preserve 
 order, Ivtli without and within, even our domestic life. The study 
 of this important science is pursued, for the most part, I am sorry 
 to say it, in n manner not calculated to present its highest aims to 
 the minds of its aspirants. The study and practice of technical 
 routine has Iiiih"i1o, to a large extent, absorbed the attention of 
 students of both brandies of the profession. Each young man is 
 .sent to the law as a calling by which he shall earn his bread, and 
 possibly something more. Some start with the something more in 
 thf foreground, that is, high pecuniary reward. ; others f.ir honour 
 and eocial position. Now, for my own part, although, of course, 
 we all must live by our profession, I have always looked upon the 
 professors of the law, whether Barrister or Solicitor, not as the 
 members or followers of a trade, but as the ministers of the law. 
 "When you consider the functions which the Lawyer, whether 
 "Barrister or Solicitor, is called upon to discharge, the sacred trusts
 
 which he undertakes, the great public duty cast upon him, how 
 nmoh the honour of families, the Welfare of honourable homes, the- 
 pence of society itself, are. so to speak, ii\ his keeping. the stu-.ly 
 which is to qualify 'the practitioner fdr* duties so grave arid so 
 exalted, should be approached and pursued with a deep sense of 
 responsibility, and with an honourable ambition befitting its high an<F 
 noble purposes. I say, then, the first counsel which I would offer 
 to the young men of this Association is this, not to regard your 
 profession as a trade, not as a means of living merely, or of 
 securing wealth, but us an honourable calling, in which you hare to 
 discharge sacred duties to the public ; a calling which is one of 
 honour; which, although it may not throw fortune into your lips, 
 or plnce you in the position of millionaires, yet gives you that which 
 the mere possession of wealth is unable to procure the consider- 
 ation and respecfc of good mew, of the thoughtful, the high minded, 
 and most honoured members of society. It is among these that 
 it hou!d be your object to take your place. Your profession is in 
 itself one of social position and rank, although you might not have 
 shilling in your pockets. You can hare no more striding proof of 
 the freedom aud elevation of a people than their respect for the 
 law, and the consideration in which they hold its professors, to 
 this country, especially, the profession of the law is held in the 
 highest honour, and a man at the bar who makes 10,000, lo,000, 
 or '20,0007a6^ successful advocate, is content to go upon the 
 Bench at 5,000. Why ? Because he finds compensation, rewrd, 
 in tho honour and the consideration which the public pay to the 
 exalted office of the Judge. Well then, in studying th law, I 
 would counsel you to study not only the technical rules of practice, 
 but the principles of Law as a Science, its aims in it- several 
 branches, its foundations as a system, its history. It is not sufficient 
 to he able to say. " ltd Ux Seripta erf " ; You must be instructed 
 in its first principles. With our complicated and progressive 
 development of law, and the great accumulation of judicial decisions, 
 it is hardly possible for 1 a lawyer who has confined his attention to ona 
 osrro.r groove to decide for himseif, mneh less declare to others, 
 what the law is. Yon must be able to follow out, and to trace 
 priori, the cgurse of judicial reasoning, to compare one set of 
 principles, one set of arguments, one chain of reasoning with 
 another, and so evolve inferences for yourselves; conclusions 
 which might in due course reoeive judicial confirmation. fa 
 this difficult and complicated system of ours, to be a lawyer 
 does not simply mean the power of citing cases, or pointing to 
 precedents ; it means the power of analysis and comparison, and 
 probing the depths of legal reasoning ; of thinking out a legal 
 question for yourselves, through a complicated and jarring mass of 
 decisions. Again, in the study of the law is involved the study 
 of legal history. And what is the study of legal history ?
 
 6 
 
 Leibnitz ^divides it into tw,o branches, external? and internal 
 liistory, and many writers since his time have adopted that 
 division, though with some modification. The two, to my mind, 
 are inseparable. j^|MtfUUMfMi*pNMMkMi4iiU External history 
 treats of the manner in which laws came into existence, and the 
 manner in which the science of law has from time to time been 
 cultivated and developed. It explains the' political events which 
 have had an influence upon the progress of legislation, and it gives 
 a chronological account of laws and law-givers, and legal writers. 
 No hi tory, you will see. can do thjs without giving an account of, 
 the laws themselves. On the other hand, the primary object of 
 internal history is to trace the variations in .the doctrines, of the 
 laws themselves ; for example, to consider the different nles pre- 
 vailing at different times with. respect to property, personal rights, 
 judicial organization, procedure, criminal law, <he relations of 
 personal st itus and so forth, It is obvious, then, that the history 
 of law^must comprehend both, and not be confined to either. 
 Attention must be directed to the progressive development of the 
 s./cial state and the general spirit of those institutions, social m I 
 political, which affect the national character, both in public 1 an I 
 private, life How inseparable, in the nature of thinus. are the 
 subjects of external- and internal legal history is evident when you 
 consider how the habits and thoughts of a people give rise t-> 
 actions and political events that produce change in legislation 
 that act and react alternately upon the habits and character of 
 nations. So much then for the study of legal history ; and why lo 
 I counsel you. to pursue the study ? It is that you may bring en- 
 larged minds, in place of narrow understandings, to the pr.ctice of 
 jour profession. At the present day the positions open to the 
 members of hoth branches of the legal profession are numberless. The 
 bar a n.d the bench, the magistracy in all its branches, municipal 
 ollices., and appointments requiring. high legal training and adtuin- 
 'istrative ability, are open to you. But apart from these o >jeat.s 
 .of laudable ambition, I counsel you to approach the study of your 
 \ roles-ion for its own sake, with elevated views of its aims and 
 -duties, as a noble vocation ; to bring to it cultivated intellects, to 
 preserve and increase your mental culture, so as Ijever to sink to 
 the level of the mere lawyer. 
 
 There are few nations whose history can be wri'i-i without 
 .a careful study of their jurisprudence, not only a> it concerns 
 the governing power, but us it relates to the constitution 
 -and the rights of. individuals. In these respects there, is a 
 striking analogy between the Romau people and ourselves. T:h 
 history of either would be incomplete did it not include an account 
 of their legal institutions. Like ourselves, the Roman people were 
 imbued with the spirit of their laws. Like us, they were accustomed 
 to legal solemnities, and o|ten regarded with greater jealousy an
 
 infringement of established form than a violation of ciril lioerry 
 uii'ler the cover of constitutional observance. The Roman citizen. 
 was. so to speak, educated in the law. His children were examined 
 in tlip Twelve Tables, ;nd the Rom in adult _ delighted in; the 
 litiirious contentions of the Forum Enter any of our Courts of 
 L-.<\v now and you will find the same spectacle, the same keen 
 interest of the English citizen in the administration of justice. If 
 we examine the character of both nations, we shall find them what 
 1 venture to call eminently legal. 
 
 In regere imperio populus Roniani memento, 
 
 - - - - - - facis-que impuncre morew. 
 
 The same may be said of our nation. In the cultivation of an 
 elaborate system of jurisprudence both have manifested the sania 
 special genius. , After the discovery of the Code at Araalfi. what- 
 ever there was of Gothic law or customs was superseded by the 
 Roman Civil Law. and that law, I may say, almost to the present 
 time, or within a period compa atirely recent, w-is the universally 
 acknowledged law of most Europ an countries. We alone cin la/ 
 claim to a system of law at once original and peculiar to ourselves. 
 1 need not stop to discuss the high antiquity of our common law, 
 re achi <g, according to Fortescue and other writers, as far back as 
 the ancient Britons. Perhaps in some degree that opinion is not 
 without foundation, but considering. <g Blackstone observes, the 
 conquests which took place, of Romans, Picts Saxons. Danes, and 
 Kormans, nw and strange li\vs arid custom-: must have been 
 insensibly introduced and incorporated with ma'ny of our own. 
 '"Our laws" says Lord Bacon, "are as mixed as our language, 
 and as our language is so much the richer, our laws are the more 
 complete." But, however this may be. one thing \s certain, the. 
 common law of England was and is substantially a code peculiar 
 to itself, comprising principles and customs peculiar to the character 
 o the Anglo Saxon race, and it owes its origin to no foreign source. 
 After the Norman conquest, while other European nations, as 
 hive said,' submitted to the rule of the civil law, the common law 
 of England was a le to resist and defeat the attempt 'to introduce 
 the newly-discovered system of jurisprudence. Whatever may 
 be said in derogation of the, so-c died, system of " Judge made 
 law," it has, by what I venture to term, its elastic character, its 
 power of adaptation to new conditions and ever-changing circum- 
 stances, the soundness and simplicity of its first principles, and, on 
 the whole, its wise and liberal development by learned and able 
 Judges, well stood the test of long trial, and may fairly lay claim, 
 to the designation of a fiue. as well as original, system of juris- 
 prudence. Side by side with it, at a later period, grew up 
 the system called '" Equity " Equity which has supplanted the 
 common law, and relaxed the strict, unbending severity of its rules,
 
 8 
 
 affording remedies of a kind which did not exist before, and which, 
 it was said, the common law in its nature was unable to afford. I 
 shall not enter into the vexed controversy now. You no doubt 
 know the nature of the contention ; how the common lawyers have 
 asserted the reverse of the proposition, insisting that the common 
 law was in itself sufficiently pliant to have effecte '., in dne course, 
 what was brought about by means of the King's Chancery. Bat 
 taking the two systems together, blended, asunder recent legislation 
 it has been the object to blend them, into one uniform bod? of 
 jurisprudence, howereV it may be the fashion to decry our legal 
 system, and ready as I am to admit its shortcomings and defects, 
 I venture to affirm that, besides the Roman people, no people have 
 shown such a genius for law as the Euglish people ; and 1ft us hope 
 that recent attempts to improve our judicature will bring about 
 the system of codification. It is to you, aspirants of that branch 
 for whuh you are for the most part, intended, that ire may fnirly 
 look for suggestions, for practical views, in the direction of law 
 reform and. codification ; for after all. we at the bar, who pursue I 
 say so not in an invidious sense the purely intellectual branch of 
 the profession, sitting in our chambers, reading onr law b >oks, 
 studying our briefs and passing our time in the Courts, \ve are ty 
 no means as capable j-s you. who are in personal contact with your 
 clients, and with the outer world, seeing and knowing by d*iily ex- 
 perience where the pinch of legal defect lies. It is to you that the 
 public may fairly look for wise and practical suggestions of law 
 reform. 
 
 I have endeavoured to lay before you the true character 
 of our profession, its aims and its duties, and the manner nnd the 
 pirit in which the study and practice of the Law should be 
 pursued. I nov? pass on to another object of your Society, which 
 is the cultivation of the art of public speaking. Now, some of 
 you. I dare say, have read books on this subject, and found th;*t 
 they contained a great many precepts. For my own' part, I think 
 very little of the advantages to be derived from books on Rhetoric. 
 The best, because the most practical of the kind, is Archbishop 
 Whateley's book, aad I recommend it to your attention. Most 
 writers upon Rhetoric will tell you that you are to do a 
 great many things ; you are to cultivate a good style, 
 good pronunciation, good manner, good modulation, good 
 action, the study of good writers, committing to memory 
 choic* passages from the best authors, and so forth. With 
 regard to the last, I agree with them. I think that the 
 more you read, the more you expand your minds, and become imbued 
 with noble, lofty sentiments expressed in fine, appropriate language, 
 so you will become familiur with the forms of thought and expression 
 which tend to make a man what is called, if not an elocraeat, at 
 any rate, a good speaker. My owu observation has been this,
 
 that a man not over nervous, if he has anything to say, will always 
 be able to say it. Most failures in public speaking arise either 
 from nervousness, or more frequently, in my judgment, from 
 ignorance of the subject, or pietentious attempts at eloquence. 
 Nervousness is caused very often, and is always increased, by thinking 
 that because the speaker is addressing a public audience he must 
 say something' very much out of the common way. Now my 
 advice to you is, whatever you intend to speak about in this 
 Society or elsewhere, read it up well, get it up well, inform 
 yourselves upon it ; and when you have got all the facts of 
 the case in your mind, think them out and see what you can 
 make of them, for yourselves and by yourselves ; and when you rise 
 to speak, be natural; have no recourse to art, to rules of elocution, of 
 intonation, and BO forth. If you understand and are well informed upon 
 what you are going to talk about, you will find that language 
 will come to give expression to what you have to say. Do not 
 shoot off after grand thoughts and high sounding phrases. If grand 
 thoughts are in you, appropriate phrases in which to clothe them 
 them will come naturally without effort. If, on the other hand, the 
 grand thoughts are not in you, the attempt to create or to express 
 them, will cud in disaster, and your speaking will be mere 
 empty wordiness and rhodomontade. The first thing a I hare 
 gaid, is to set up your subject well ; master it, think it out for your- 
 telves, make it your own, identify it as it were with your own minds, and 
 then, I repeat, adopt a form of expression which is natural to you. 
 When you have done that a few times, depend upon it you will begin 
 to improve and to feel confidence, for you will have tested and 
 proved your power, and you will become fluent and possibly eloquent 
 speakers. But there is another thing I would recommend for your 
 consideration. Some persons are more or less gifted with the 
 faculty of speaking, and to those wlro are not so gifted, 1 would say' 
 don't be unnerved because you happen not to be so ready as others. 
 And you who are gifted as ready speakers, give a charitable and 
 generous hearing to those who happen not to be so endowed. (Hear 
 hear.) If you see a young tnan stammer and falter, so far from 
 laughing, or indulging in ironical cheers, listen to him and encourage 
 him to go on, otherwise your Association, instead of fulfilling the 
 important object of your programme, of cultivating the Art of 
 public speaking, will be a benefit only to a few, perhaps three or four, 
 out of a large body. There is another thing I would recommend, 
 write out your speeches. Th greatest orators of our time have 
 done that. Demosthenes wrote out his speeche* ; Cicero wrote out 
 his speeches, and there are speeches of both these great orators of 
 antiquity which have come down to us, and which are studied as 
 models of oratory, which were never spoken at all. In recent thnes, 
 and this is no secret, Macaulay wrote out his speeches. Lord Lytton 
 wrote out his speeches, and it is said of Lord Lytton. though 1 don't
 
 10 
 
 li-ke to affirm it positively, that he delirered them from memory. Lord 
 IJrongha.m wrote out his peroration of his defence of Queen Carolina 
 no less than nine times. I do not say that he committed it to memory 
 and delivered it accordingly, and I do not recommen I that to be done. 
 It is dantrerous. to say the least, to be a speaker by rote, and that 
 reminds me of a couplet which has become so hackuied that I must 
 apologise for quoting it : 
 
 " They say of Dudley that be has no heart. 
 
 But I deny it ; he has a heart, and yets tiis speeches by it." 
 
 Now I do not recommend th it practice of Lord Dudley's. You 
 should write out your speeches, because the subject upon which you 
 art. about to speak will be better impressed on your minds ; you 
 will be better able to test .the soundness of your views, the 
 con-eel ness of your reasoning, and the accuracy of your language. 
 r i he habit of writing produces accuracy of thinking, ami 
 T;U'icly. as well as c <rrectness and elegance, of expression. 
 There is another point upon which I desire to say a fevr . 
 Words. I have often heard it said by students of societies 
 like this. "I d >n't care which aide of the debate I take; 
 ' I will speak < n any side, merely for the sake of argument/' 
 I- have always thought this a great error. In the discussion of any 
 subject of interest, even of a question of law, a student sh uld take, 
 the side which he c; nscienti usly considers to be the right one, and 
 Done other I d n. t believe in the benefit to a man. of cultivating 1 
 a pure y intellectual profess at the expense of the moral feelings. 
 You may acquire mental p >wer. you m ty quicken the mental faculties, 
 and become a keen and ready reasoner, but you will have deadened, 
 if not crushed out. the moral sense. But it may be said. " this 
 is strange counsel from a. member of the bar, who takes the side of 
 the client who first retains him, without reference to its merits." 
 The cases are wholly different.- there is no analogy between them. 
 r j li adroeate at the bar takes a case riot because he is. or should 
 be,- personally identified with it; .on the contrary, he is not a wise 
 or a go d advocate who personally identifies himself wilh the case 
 c-f his .client. (Applause.) Jt is not his business to do so. He is 
 ;tii>;ply the medium through whom the rights or the wrongs of the 
 subject are placed i efore the tribunals of the land. He is bound to 
 bring to bear all his learning and the powers of his mind in order, 
 to do this. He has no option, no power of refusal. He is public 
 property, and is bound to give his services to the lowest, as well 
 -as the highest, who mUht require them. This is the footing, the 
 only footing, upon which he can- claim to stand. Were it otherwise, 
 were the advocate at liberty to exercise an option, and to say that 
 he will k&Q one case and refuse another, according to what he; 
 .eonsidenrits merits, he would be assuming the place of the tribunal 
 which is appointed to decide; and the rights and liberties, which it* 
 is his duty to guard and protect, instead of being adjudicated upon
 
 11 
 
 by the constituted authority of the Courts of Law, would be settled 
 and determined by, it may be the caprice, or the prejudice of m 
 irresponsible individual. There is no analogy, then, between the 
 duty of the advocate and the case of a Debating Society, of which 
 ] have been speaking. The advocate, moreover, is bound by the 
 rules of law, and, intheoenduct of his case, by a just deference to 
 what is reasonable anS^^nt^nd beyond this no advocate has any right 
 to go. (Applause.) Heis not to win per fas aut nefas. Now, I am afraid 
 I have detained you to an undue length ; but on this, the first occaRion 
 of my appearing before you, I did not feel that I should he dis- 
 charging my duty as Honorary President if I limited myself to a 
 formal routine course in opening this session. I do not think that 
 it would have been respectful towards the Association which has 
 done me the honour to place me in the high position which I occupy. 
 I have felt it my duty to place before you, from a high standard, the 
 great functions of the profession to which you aspire, and its im- 
 portant duties which you will be called upon to perform. The 
 work which your Association has undertaken is the promotion, not 
 only of your personal interests, not only of the interests of the pro- 
 fession of the Law, but, through that profession, the interests of the 
 great community whose trustees you will hereafter become. Many 
 of you will rise, no doubt x to high and honorable places ; some may 
 not succeed so well as others, but there is no difference whatsoever 
 in the duty cast upon you young men, aspirants of a noble calling ; 
 that duty is, to uphold the dignuy of the high and glorious pro- 
 fession of the Law, to make that profession respected, to make a 
 law abiding people still more devoted to the Law which is their 
 protection and their pride ; for " of Law," to quote the grand word* 
 of Hooker, "of Law there can be no less acknowleged than that 
 her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the World; 
 all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feel- 
 ing her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power, 
 both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever ; though 
 each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent ad- 
 miring her, as the mother of their peace and joy." (Applause.)