Lawyers and Law Practice. on the back of a brief, and may at length give tip in despair; but when once a man of learning and eloquence docs get a start his rise may be very rapid, and the income of an " eminent counsel " is larger than that of the most " respectable " solicitor. There are probably a score of men now at the English bar whose incomes exceed;£ 10,000 ($50,000) a year. I don't know more than one or two solicitors who have any such in come, although I know scores who have half of it. ¿3000 a year is a large income for a solicitor, but double that is not very large for a barrister, especially a Queen's Counsel, who has been long at the bar. I ought to explain, for I am repeatedly asked how counsel attain the rank of Queen's Counsel, and what arc its advan tages. Every young man " called " to the bar looks forward to this promotion — al though to many it proves ruinous, a mere shelving of themselves for life, — and I have known dozens of men who have bitter ly rued the day on which the stuff gown was exchanged for silk, and the charmed letters Q. C. were added to their names. After a man has been a number of years, usually about fifteen as a minimum, at the bar, and has acquired a considerable amount of work, he may apply to the Lord Chancellor for "silk," i. e. to be advanced to the honor of a Queen's Counsel. It does not follow that he will get it at once, or indeed ever. The Lord Chancellor consults the judges, who are better acquainted with the merits of counsel, and then he from time to time creates a new batch of men, selected from among the applicants, who then don their silk gowns and furbelows, put on new or newly powdered wigs, and are formally "called within the bar" of the several courts. Thenceforward they occupy the front bench of the bar (the seats and desks assigned to counsel) and become "leaders" instead of "juniors." But a man should well weigh his chances before seeking this advancement; for a large, the larger, part
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of his work must be forever relinquished as soon as the change is made. Henceforth he can no longer draw or settle pleadings (which forms so large a part of the work of a junior), or advise on evidence — except in rare cases in consultation with a junior — or do very many things which brought him abundance of fees before. Henceforward he is a leader, and all men who are not Queen's Counsel, however much his senior in years, are his juniors. In most cases there are two or three counsel on each side of a trial. There may be two Queen's Counsel on one side, but this is rare (and in such case the " senior by call " leads), but in all cases a Queen's Counsel leads a stuff gownsman whatever their respective ages, and a Queen's Counsel almost invariably has a stuff gowns man briefed with him as his junior, and few Queen's Counsel will accept a brief of any kind without a junior. If, perchance, a Queen's Counsel for a plaintiff happens to be without one, the judge assigns to him the youngest counsel in the court, and he opens the pleadings, that duty being below the dignity of a Queen's Counsel. There are very many men, even at the bar, who are splendid lawyers and admirably equipped for junior work who are not at all adapted to the work of leadership; splendid as plead ers (that is, in settling pleadings), writing. opinions on evidence, prompting leaders, searching for precedents, or even arguing questions of law in bane, who are quite un fit to cross-examine witnesses or address juries; and so it happens that with many men of enviable position as juniors, the silkgown has proved to be the professional shroud. The distinguished man who has become the Lord Chief-Justice of England, and a recent visitor to our shores, was full of fear as to whether such might not be his fate if he took silk, and ultimately left it to two or three chosen friends at the bar to determine the question for him. The judges are usually, but not always, selected and " raised to the bench " from among
