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23

WESTMINSTER HALL.

THE stranger who may have chanced to be in Parliament Street about two o'clock on the afternoon of the second day of November in any year, will probably have beheld a curious procession slowly wending its way along that thoroughfare. He will have noticed that it consisted of some twenty carriages-in the interiors of which about double that number of rubicund faces, enshrouded in enormous wigs, can be perceived. Vague ideas that it was the Queen proceeding to open parliament in person will probably have flitted through the spectator's mind, only, however, to be dissipated by the remarks of the passers-by, which inform him audibly enough that 'it's h'only those h'old judges a-goin' to h'open the law-courts!' And the information would have been correct; for in accordance with an old custom, the judges and leading Q.C.s invariably breakfast with the Lord Chancel

lor, at his private residence, upon the first day of Michaelmas term (November 2); after which the judges proceed in state to Westminster Hall to open the law-courts, and thereby inaugurate the legal year.

First

If the spectator's curiosity induced him to follow the string of carriages down Parliament Street, he would see them draw up in succession at the principal entrance of Westminster Hall, and he would behold their occupants alight in order of precedence, and slowly make their way through the narrow lane kept for them by the police among the spectators to their respective courts. would come the Lord Chancellor-erect, pale, and gorgeous to behold in his gold-embroidered robes; whilst, closely treading upon his heels, would follow the Lord Chief-Justice of England, attired in scarlet and ermine, and with the massive gold chain of his office depending from his neck. Then there would come the Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas, and the Lord Chief-Baron of the Exchequer; after whom, but longo intervallo, the

comparatively — insignificant crowd of puisne judges of the three courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer. In a few moments, the spectator would see the judges disappear within the doors of their respective courts, and

the crowd of spectators which had filled Westminster Hall disperse.

Let us, however, my reader, instead of following the unthinking multitude, which departs the moment the show is over, enter the first door on the right of Westminster Hall—namely, that which leadeth unto Her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench. Pushing back the door, we find ourselves in a narrow passage-the first object in which that attracts our attention is an apple-woman's stall! Yes, my country reader--you whose ideas of the precincts of a court of law are taken from the assize courts of the town of Cotton-cum-Barley, from which such a sacrilegious intruder would be ruthlessly expelled by fussy policemen-it is right that you should know that there is actually established at the very door of the supreme court of common law in England that most familiar of objects, an apple-woman's stall! Nay, it is even whispered in Westminster Hall that an eminent Attorney-General has been seen more than once to stop and buy a piece of hardbake of the decent old woman who presides at it. This report must, however, have surely been set afloat by those misguided men who assert-what I, with my respect for the constituted authorities of my country, will never bring myself to believe that an eminent Lord Chancellor is in

the constant habit of travelling during the parliamentary session from Lincoln's Inn to Westminster by the penny-boat from the Temple pier!

However, let us raise the red curtain which hangs just beyond the apple-woman's stall, and by so doing we shall pass into the Court of Queen's Bench. The court, this being the first day of Michaelmas term, is sitting (what lawyers call) 'in banc,' and therefore you behold four judges established upon the judicial bench. The second seat upon this bench-carrying the eye from left to right-is occupied by the Lord ChiefJustice of England, whilst upon his right hand sits the senior puisne judge, and upon his left the other two puisne judges. Fronting the judges are three rows of seats, which are, by an agreeable fiction, supposed to be reserved' for the use of counselthe simple fact being, that unless these seats are actually occupied by counsel, they are invariably appropriated by aspiring members of the general public. The front row of these three is, however, really reserved for the use of Q.C.s and serjeantsat-law, who 'you observe' wear silk gowns. The second and third rows of seats are occupied by 'junior counsel'—that is, men who, not having attained to the rank of a Queen's Counsel or a serjeant-at-law (although most of them, as you may

yourself see, are men of forty), are still, by a pleasing legal fiction, denominated 'juniors'—probably to induce them to believe that professional promotion is not yet hopeless!

Behind the seats intended for the bar are those for the accommodation of the general public. Who the general public are who daily throng the back seats of the Court of Queen's Bench, has always been to me a social problem of the greatest possible interest. No matter how uninteresting may be the details of the case which is being heard, no matter although, from the technical nature of the argument, they can understand no more of the merits of the case than if it had been conducted in Greek, that crowd of greasy, ill-dressed men never quit their seats. Before the judges take their places in the morning, these strangers are in theirs, and save when the court rises for luncheon in the middle of the day, they never quit them till nightfall. Day after day, the same faces appear in the same places. Are they, I wonder, former litigants, who, having spent their little all in feeing lawyers, now haunt ⚫the scene of their ruin? Are they retired tradesmen, who having, in an evil hour, resigned their businesses, are now so afflicted with ennui as to be driven to kill time by spending their days in the law-courts? Are they-and this I am assured is

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