its very smallness, be kept under a strict control, may cherish a strong professional feeling, and may therefore be with safety allowed certain exceptional privileges. In the immense mass of the whole profession it is all but impossible to maintain an equally high standard of honour and duty. The scientific character of the law, its precision and philosophical propriety, may perhaps be best secured by setting apart (as in England) a section of the profession who can the better devote themselves to it in that they are not distracted by undertaking work which is not properly legal, such as is much of the work done in an attorney's office. The conscience or honour of a member of either branch of the profession is exposed to less strain where the two branches are distinct. The counsel

him the facts, get an off-han l opinion, if the case be a fairly simple one (as it is nine times out of ten), and issue his writ with some confidence: whereas under the English system he would either have to wait till a regular case for the opinion of counsel was drawn, sent to a barrister, and returned written on, after some days, or else take the risk of bringing an action which turned out to be ill-founded. It may also be well believed that a case is, on the whole, better dealt with when it is kept in one office from first to last, and managed by one person, or by partners who are in constant communication. Mistakes and oversights are less likely to occur, since the advocate knows the facts better, and has almost invariably seen and questioned the witnesses before he comes into court. It may indeed be said that an advocate does is under less temptation to win his cause his work with more ease of conscience, and perhaps more sang-froid, when he knows nothing but his instructions. But American practitioners are all clear that they are able to serve their clients better than they could if the responsibility were divided between the man who prepares the case, and the man who argues or addresses the jury.

by foul means, since he is removed from the client by the interposition of the attorney and therefore less personally identified with the success of the client's scheme. His relation to the judge is a more independent one than if his fee were to depend on his success in the suit, as it does where a share of the proceeds or a commission on the proceeds is given to the The client, however, is also a member advocate, a practice hard to check where of the nation, and the nation has an in- the advocate is also the attorney: he is terest, over and above that which some therefore less likely to lead a judge astray of its members have as litigants, in the ad- or take advantage of a judge's corruption. ministration of justice and the well-being He probably has not that intimate knowlof the legal profession. It is concerned to edge of the client's affairs which he must have the scientific character of the law have if he had prepared the whole case, maintained and the work of legislation and is therefore less likely to be drawn done, not only with substantial good sense, into speculating, to take an obvious inbut with elegance and symmetry of form. stance, in the shares of a client company, It is also concerned to see that those whose or otherwise playing a double and disoccupation makes them the natural guard- loyal game. Similarly it might be shown ians of the law and a check upon any mis- that the attorney also is less tempted than conduct of the bench, should maintain their if he dealt immediately with the judge, influence and exercise it with zeal and and were not obliged, in carrying out the public spirit. The political functions of schemes of a fraudulent client, to call in the legal profession, important in all States, the aid of another practitioner, amenable are perhaps most important in a democra- to a strict professional discipline. And cy, where it is an element of permanence, lastly, it is urged that where, as in Engadvising and controlling the ever-fluctuat-land and generally in America, judges are ing currents of popular opinion. These taken exclusively from the bar (whereas functions cannot be rightly discharged on the Continent the judicial profession is unless the profession sets an example to the country of purity, dignity, and selfcontrol. Now the most important part of the profession, for political purposes, is that part, corresponding to the bar in the English sense of the term, which is in direct contact with the judges which conducts causes in the courts, which cultivates oratory, and thereby influences representative assemblies and public meetings. This comparatively small body can, owing to

distinct from that of advocacy), it becomes specially important to provide that no one shall mount the bench who has not proved his talents as an advocate, and acquired in that capacity the confidence of the public.

Such are some of the arguments which one hears used in America as grounds for preferring the double system, and they are worth considering, although it may well be thought that their force would be greatly diminished if some more effective tribunal

existed than now exists there for trying and punishing professional offences.

nobles; now fraud takes the place of violence, and we have to fear the influence of huge masses of ignorant men swayed by unscrupulous leaders, and of prodigious individuals and companies. Fortunately, the danger in America is less than it might appear, less than it would be in a sinall country like England. The territory is so extensive, the different States so

Which way the general balance of advantage lies is too intricate a question to be discussed at the end of a paper. But accumulations of wealth in the hands of most people will admit that our present English rules are not satisfactory, and that the example of America is on the whole in favour of a somewhat freer system. It has, for instance, been suggested that there should be an easier and quicker independent, and in many respects so unpassage from either branch of the profession to the other than is now permitted here; that barristers should be allowed to be retained directly by the client, even though he must have the attorney's part of the work done by an attorney; that barristers should be permitted to form partnerships among themselves, and to do work for lower fees than etiquette now allows, even gratis if they wish, maintaining however the prohibition to bargain for a payment by the result. It is argued, and with much force, that there is no reason why students preparing for the one branch of the profession should not be educated along with candidates for the other, and allowed to compete in the same examinations. In any case, it is pretty clear that a change of some kind will come, or rather that the change already begun by the establishment of the County Courts will be carried further. There is still time to provide that such change should take a good form, and should not consist as some reformers wish it to do, simply in the absorption of the bar by the attorneys. This, I venture to think, would be a misfortune, not perhaps for the present members of the bar, but for the country at large.

Our English bar and bench have been in so wholesome a state for the last two centuries, despite the political crises we have passed through, that we are perhaps too apt to fancy such a state of things normal, and to underrate the dangers of a lapse. The circumstances of New York City, whose judges were forty years ago as reputable as those who sit at Westminster is a serious warning that the evils whose existence we have so often heard of in Spain, Italy, and France, may come to prevail in English-speaking communities also. As fresh pestilences arise when the old forms of disease seem worn out, so the perpetual vices of mankind assume a new shape in a new era, being in substance still the same. In the Middle Ages the perversions of justce were mostly due to the oppressions of a king, or of powerful

like one another, the general tone of the population so healthy, that the infection need not spread quickly, and may be checked (as at this moment in New York) before it has spread far. The moral, however, which the bare existence of such mischiefs teaches, is none the less grave. That moral is, in its most general form, the extreme importance of repressing corruption in all its forms; and in doing so, of not simply trusting to public opinion, however sound for the moment, but of providing some regular means of noting and pouncing upon the evil in its first beginnings. More particularly, it suggests to us the desirability of doing everything to enhance the dignity of the judicial office, and to quicken in its holders a sense of their responsibilities; and it warns us to keep within moderate limits the jurisdiction of local courts, whose judges have not that protection against dangerous influences which their social position, their incomes, and a watchful public opinion give to the eminent men who sit in the Superior Courts of Common Law and Equity.

The example of our country is of the more consequence, as it influences so many communities elsewhere, and especially in the colonies, communities exposed to dangers and temptations similar to those of New York. That its example is on the whole so good is legitimate matter for satisfaction. Much has been said lately of the decadence of England; nor is there any harm in having our weaknesses pointed out, so long as suspicion is not thereby sown between ourselves and our true natural allies. But no country can be in a state of decay while it continues to uphold public purity

the purity of the bar, of the bench, and of political life. Such purity is not only a chief source of a people's happiness, but the great source of its strength; for it is the foundation of that mutual confidence between citizen and citizen, between the governors and the governed, on which, in moments of national peril, everything depends.

From The Saturday Review. THE STORY OF THE TICHBORNE CASE.

broken English and certain oddities of manner exposed him to some ridicule when he joined his regiment, the Carabineers. He was a tempting subject for little jokes, which were sometimes carried too far; but, on the whole, he seems to have been pronounced a good fellow by his companions, and to have passed muster as an efficient,

THE Claimant in the Tichborne case has submitted to a non-suit in his action against the Tichborne family, and although he is technically at liberty to reopen the question on payment of the expenses of the suit just closed, the intimation of the jury that they had heard sufficient evidence | though not a smart, officer. When stationed practically amounts to a verdict against him. The testimony produced during a protracted trial of 103 days would fill a moderate-sized library, but we will endeavour to compress it into a brief and connected narrative, with a view to illus-up had left a painful impression on his mind, trate the origin and development of what appears to be one of the most daring and extraordinary impostures which have ever been brought to light.

with his regiment in Ireland, and also during his visits to England, he went a good deal into society, and knew how to bear himself like a gentleman. The domestic storms amid which he had been brought

and he was more at home at his uncle's, with Lady Doughty and his cousin Kate, than with his own parents. He was after his father, the next heir to the baronetcy, and First, there is what a dramatist would Sir Edward took a paternal interest in call the prologue of the play. The Tich- him; but when it was discovered that bornes are an old and distinguished family. the cousinly regard between Roger and If you turn to any guide-book of Hamp- his daughter was passing into something shire you will find that Tichborne Park, is deeper- at least on Roger's part Sir supposed to have been in the hands of Tich- Edward strongly discouraged it. He obbornes from before the Conquest; the baro-jected to the marriage of cousins, and benetcy dates from the reign of James I. The sides, Roger's character was not yet quite estates are valued at some 24,000l. a year, settled enough for him to have full confithough at present heavily mortgaged. In dence in it. He was young and certain 1854 Sir Edward, who had added the name bad habits, such as drinking too much, of Doughty to that of Tichborne was still might pass away or might be confirmed. alive; but he had no son, and Mr. James It was arranged after a time that if at the Tichborne was his heir. Mr. James Tich-end of a year or two there were no other borne had married a daughter of Mr. Seymour, who had been born and brought up in France, and who was essentially a Frenchwoman. The marriage was not a very happy one. Mr. Tichborne was apparently a warm-hearted, generous man, but violent in temper; his wife was flighty and eccentric, and inspired by a feeling of intense suspicion and hostility towards her husband's family. Their eldest son, Roger, inherited some of the peculiarities of both parents. He was shy, whimsical, and impulsive, of weak character and moderate intelligence; he had been educated in a loose, patchwork kind of way-first under French tutors, then for three years with the Jesuits at Stonyhurst; and afterwards he had been for three years in the army. In appearance he was sight and somewhat insignificant. Without being a student, he was fond of reading, and had a good stock of general information. His letters show that, when travelling, he liked to look up the history of any place he visited. He spoke French better than English, but he wrote a very fair English letter, and had some knowledge of Latin and natural science. Stonyhurst probably did a good deal to polish him up; but his

objections to a marriage, that of cousinship should not be pressed. Sir Edward and Lady Doughty showed the utmost affection for their nephew, yet he could not but feel that, even though they might consent to the match, they would prefer that it should not take place. It was under the influence of this disappointment that he threw up his commission and resolved to visit South America. He parted on good terms with all the family, wrote to his mother, aunts, and other friends from different points on his journey, and pressed them to write in reply. He looked forward to returning after a year or two, and desired to have his name put up at the Travellers' Club. He had arrived at Valparaiso in June 1853, had made an expedition to the Cordilleras, and visited Santiago, Buenos Ayres, and other places, From Buenos Ayres he wrote on February 20, 1854, to an intimate friend, Vincent Gosford, still harping on Kate Doughty, deploring the discord in his own home, and congratulating himself on being out of the way for a time now that Sir Edward was dead and that his father had succeeded him. Except for his fears of his cousin's marriage, he wrote in good spirits,

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and as if enjoying the independence and va- | papers, giving the Dowager's description, riety of his life abroad. On March 12 he only somehow leaving out the word "thin." wrote to Lady Doughty from Monte Video By a remarkable coincidence, he had no in a similar strain. He was going to Rio, sooner taken the job in hand than an old thence up the Amazon, and then to Jamai- friend of his at Wagga-Wagga wrote to ca and Mexico. He was most anxious for say that he had spotted "the man; and letters, and gave repeated directions where immediately the Claimant appears upon they were to be addressed to him. On the stage. Mr. Gibbs, Cubitt's corresApril 20 he embarked at Rio in the Bella pondent at Wagga-Wagga, had there for New York. Six days afterwards a made the acquaintance of a slaughterman long-boat, bottom upwards, marked on the who went by the name of Tom Castro, stern, in yellow letters, Bella, of Liver-and whose pipe he one day observed bore pool," was picked up at sea by a passing the initials, scratched on it with a knife, vessel, which also, near the same place, fell "R. C. T." Mrs. Gibbs had previously in with some broken spars, a round-house, and some straw bedding. The owners of the Bella had no doubt that she was lost, with all on board; the underwriters paid the insurance; Roger Tichborne's will was duly proved, and on his father's death the inheritance passed to his younger brother, Alfred, who also dying in the beginning of 1866, left a posthumous son to enjoy the baronetcy and estates.

Years had passed over without anything occurring to disturb the belief that Roger had perished in the Bella. The Dowager, Roger's mother, was the only person who refused to accept this conclusion. She had, as she said, "a settled presentiment" that he must somehow have been saved, and that she should see him again. She was constantly talking of him, and even started inquiries about him in Australia. Once she questioned a sailor who came begging to Tichborne Park and who was ready enough to say that he had been in Australia, and had heard of the crew of a ship having been picked up at sea and brought to Melbourne, and that he rather thought the name of the ship was the Bella. After her husband's death she became more anxious and excited on the subject. She advertised for Roger, or for any information as to the crew of the Bella, in the Times and in various Australian and colonial papers. It became a kind of standing joke in the servants' hall, and among the people round Tichborne Park. More than once there was a report that Roger had been found, but nothing ever came of it. She began advertising at least as early as 1863. The advertisements caused a good deal of talk, of course; they were copied into many papers, and gave rise to innumerable paragraphs. In 1835 the Dowager had got into communication with Mr. Cubitt, who had a Missing Friends' Agency in Sydney, and who readily undertook to find the missing man if he was to be found at all. He advertised on his own account in the Australian

called her husband's attention to the advertisements for Roger Charles Tichborne, and Gibbs at once put the two things together. Castro had about the same time been in the habit of cutting the same initials on mantel-pieces and every bit of wood that came in his way. He, too, had previously seen one of the advertisements. A Hampshire man had shown it to him, and may possibly have added some remarks of his own, either as to the old Dowager's notorious craziness on this subject, or as to Castro's likeness in expression or feature to the missing Roger. Castro, having placarded his initials in this conspicuous manner, affected to be very much annoyed that Gibbs should have "spotted" him, but allowed himself to be persuaded that he had better surrender his secret and go back to his mother. It is clear from the correspondence which has been produced in this case that the Dowager communicated a good deal of information about Roger to Cubitt, through whom it may have reached Castro, and also that Castro at first went altogether astray in his demonstration of his identity with Roger. To convince the Dowager, he mentioned two circumstances known only to her and to himself—“the brown mark on my side, and the card case at Brighton." But, as it happened, the brown mark was Castro's exclusive property, Roger never having had anything like it; and as for the card case-referring apparently to a wellknown trial for cheating at cards, with which Roger had nothing whatever to do