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spect, alas! how different from their predecessors-they have made themselves despised as the ready and willing tools of any ministry; instead of forming, as they might, a compact body which would cause itself to be respected, and the opinions of which no government would be so venturous as to disregard.

In another respect the bar, as at present constituted, is peculiarly different from that which flourished at the time when the "Sketches" appeared. Then Bushe, Plunket, Saurin, O'Connell, and others, towered pre-eminent above their fellows, and their superior talents were universally admitted. But at present, although some are in greater request than the others, it would not be so easy to select even three or four who, by the unanimous voice of their compeers and the public, are allowed to surpass in ability the rest. On the contrary, there seems to be a vast level of mediocrity, above which few rise, and those few to a scarcely perceptible height above the crowd. There are a great number of clear-headed and well-read lawyers, any one of whom would be fully competent for the discharge, and skilful discharge, of business; but scarcely one the securing of whom for the conduct of a suit would be looked upon as an all but certain pledge of success.

In eloquence, particularly, have we sadly fallen off. Mr. Whiteside is undoubtedly eloquent, and unsurpassed by any one at the bar in mocking, sarcastic, and even humorous raillery; and Mr. Butt as undeniably the most powerful and original advocate we possess; but neither of these learned gentlemen are entitled to be called orators. Neither of them would produce the effect upon a jury which Curran, by his almost superhuman fire, Bushe by the force of his accomplished oratory, Deane Grady by his pantomimic fun, and to come nearer our own days, O'Connell by his wonderful talents and matchless effrontery, are known to have done. At the same time, however, there are several who can make a very good, effective, and even telling address. This change is not surprising. Curran and his contemporaries had a school of eloquence wherein to study seldom if ever surpassed-the Irish House of Commons; and they lived at a time when every Irishman was an orator, and when subjects for debate equalling in interest the events which fired Demosthenes and inspired Cicero, almost daily presented themselves for discussion. Their immediate successors had Curran himself and Bushe to copy; but at the present day no model remains for our imitation; no school exists wherein to take out a degree in eloquence.

The Irish bar was formerly, also, particularly distinguished for wit. And, indeed, from the bon-mots still retailed, and the numberless anecdotes still recounted of Curran, Plunket, Bushe, we can readily believe that it well deserved the reputation it enjoyed. In this respect we have also deteriorated. A pun may now and then be perpetrated; an entertaining scene of humorous retort and amusing cross-examination may sometimes enliven a trial at Nisi Prius; but few, if any, claims can be made to real genuine wit. It thus appears upon the whole, that with the increase of our legal knowledge, our wit and our eloquence have proportionably declined.

Shiel, in one of his "Sketches," alluding to the crowded state of the profession at that time, says: "I was particularly struck by the numbers

of young men (many of them, I was assured, possessed of fine talents, which, if differently applied, must have forced their way) who, from term to term, and from year to year, submit to trudge the Hall,' waiting till their turn shall come at last, and too often harassed by forebodings that it may never come." The crowded state of the profession is still the great topic of almost universal complaint. It is the regular remark with which each term invariably opens; a remark, by the way, which appears to us a kind of a hint to the person to whom it is addressed that the sooner he leaves himself the better. Dire are the anathemas uttered against the folly and the madness of young men coming to the bar when the list of "calls" is a long one; but a comparative degree of good-natured compassion is displayed when only one or two (as now occasionally happens) are venturous enough to endue themselves for the first time with the barrister's wig and gown. There is, however, unfortunately a great deal of reason in the complaint of the numbers at present at the bar. We are so numerous, that were all the business now transacted to be equally divided amongst all the practising barristers (adopting the definition of "practising barrister" given by a learned judge, that it means one who goes down to the "Hall" during term), we much question if the income derived by each would average fifty pounds a year. In fact, our only chance of success lies in outliving our compeers; and there is a kind of barbarous politeness in making inquiries about the health of any of our brother barristers, for it is only a civil way of asking if there is any chance of his soon departing, and leaving the business he may be so fortunate as to enjoy to be divided amongst his survivors. Our vast numbers are now peculiarly felt in consequence of their disproportion to the diminished amount of the legal business of the country. Indeed, we sometimes find our thoughts wandering from the pages of Coke upon Lyttleton, Plowden's Commentaries, or any other erudite black-letter folio, which lies pretendingly open before us, and engaged in a calculation as to the number of years which will elapse before we can hope that our seniors will quit the scene of their toil and lucrative labour; the result of which is the melancholy conviction that, if our calculation of the chances be correct, we shall have attained the respectable age of fifty-five before we can hope for an opening.

This leads us to the consideration of the prospects of the bar. But here such a dismal scene of protracted hopes, and broken down spirits, opens upon our view, that we have not courage steadily to regard it. Blinded not with the "excessive bright," but with the "darkness visible" of the prospect, we gladly shut our eyes, and thus endeavour to remove from our minds the sad impression which the mournful vision is so calculated to produce.

Visions of evil spare our aching sight,

Ye unborn horrors crowd not on our view.

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

THE great interest which is felt in the existing crisis in the East, more particularly in what regards the state of parties within the Turkish empire itself, is sufficiently attested by the number of publications that have issued from the press, and the quantity that has been written, often almost at random, and with a very partial acquaintance with the facts of the case, since we last took up the subject.

As to the crisis itself, the Russians have, as was anticipated, occupied the Dacian provinces; and, as we further anticipated, no casus belli has been made of the said occupation. The Tsar has avoided all discussions as to his right to the said invasion of territory founded upon treaties, by the miserable subterfuge-it can be called nothing else of throwing the responsibility of that occupation upon the attitude assumed by the English and French fleets. "The two maritime powers," writes Count Nesselrode, in his circular of the 2nd of July, "did not consider it proper to defer to the considerations which we recommended to their serious attention. Taking the initiative before us, they have deemed it indispensable to anticipate at once, by an effective measure, those which we had only announced to them as eventual, since we left the act of putting them in force in dependence on the final resolutions of the Porte; and that at the very moment I write the execution of the said measures has not commenced. They sent their fleets at once into the Constantinopolitan seas. They already occupy the waters and ports under Ottoman domination within reach of the Dardanelles. By this threatening attitude the two powers have placed us under the weight of an accusing demonstration, which could not but, as we had intimated to them, add new complications to the crisis.

"In presence of the refusal of the Porte, backed by the manifestations of France and England, it becomes more than ever impossible to modify the resolutions upon which the Emperor had made the adoption of certain measures to depend.

"In consequence, his imperial majesty has just sent to the division of the army now stationed in Bessarabia, the order to pass the frontier, and to occupy the principalities."

Now, one word to all this diplomatic twaddle. Would England and France ever have moved at all but for the hostile attitude assumed by the Tsar? To carry out the same argument, England and France might say that they did not go to Constantinople till Russia occupied the principalities. Russia might retort, that it did not cross the Danube till England and France passed the Dardanelles. England and France, on their part, did not destroy the Russian fleet till Russia had fired the first gun; Russia did not enter Constantinople till England and France had begun the war; and so on complication might be heaped upon complication, with neither moderation to guide counsels, reason whereon to found measures, or principles by which to carry them out, or bring them to any tangible solution or termination.* If matters go on this way, that which

* M. Drouyn de Lhuys has written an able official reply to the extraordinary statements made by Count Nesselrode. The French minister points out, that on

originally was a mere case of protocols, harshly insisted upon, will become a case of princely jealousies and imperial dignities, and war, disastrous to all parties concerned, will be inevitable. It is to be hoped that reason and moderation will, however, still be admitted into the counsels of those in power. England and France have undoubtedly been hasty in propping up their tottering ally. There was a rivalry between the two fleets as to which should be first in what Count Nesselrode chooses to dignify, for diplomatic purposes, "the Constantinopolitan seas;" once there, they were as loth to advance further as they were hurried to arrive in the Ægean. Wisely has it been so. There is thus still time for negotiation. Russia avers nothing but pacific intentions. It does not enter the principalities with warlike intentions" pour faire à la Porte un guerre offensive;" the occupation is to be a merely temporary one; there is no idea or intention of conquest; no upraising of the Christian population of Turkey is sought for; the principalities will not even be put to any expense; Russia will retire the moment the satisfaction demanded is granted, and the pressure exercised upon them by the two maritime powers ceases. All this is very absurd ; Russia will remain in the principalities unless bearded out by the Western powers, till the resources of Turkey are exhausted, the Greeks have risen in rebellion, or every requisite concession and humiliation has been granted.

ment.

Now about these Russian demands, which, according to some writers, should be resented by immediate war, what are they but the right of protecting their co-religionaries in Turkey? It has been asserted, and we have repeated it, that as well might France assert a claim to protect the Roman Catholics in Great Britain; but this argument has been fairly disposed of by the author of a pamphlet before us. The Romanists of Great Britain and Ireland are under a civilised and a Christian govern"Were it Hindoo or Buddhist," says G. D. P., "there might be some analogy-though neither of these religions is fierce, savage, and brutal in its propaganda, as is that of the Osmanlis." The Christians of the East dwell under a Muhammadan and semi-barbarian government; one under which they positively require protection. If the Western governments fear that the extent of protection demanded by Russia towards her co-religionaries is too great to be consistent with the independence of the Porte, let them procure a similar treaty or arrangement in favour of the Christians of other denominations, and surely no party has a right to complain. If the Tsar is really so little influenced by pride, ambition, and love of conquest as he assumes to be, he will not refuse to be gratified in his demands in common with other Christian nations. This is the true and only solution of the present crisis; it has presented itself to the minds of many.

But in the mean time the barbarian Turk, backed by the manifestations of England and France, is withdrawing all right of protection on the part of Russia, and grievously complicating affairs.

"If we were for a moment," justly enough remarks Count Nesselrode, "to admit so absolute a principle, we must tear with our own hands the treaty of Kainardji, as well as all those which confirm it; and willingly

the 31st of May, when it was impossible that the resolutions adopted by France and England could be known at St. Petersburg, a last ultimatum was addressed to Reshid Pasha by Count Nesselrode himself, announcing the proximate occupation of the principalities.

give up the right which they conferred upon us to see that the Greek worship should be efficiently protected in Turkey.

"Is that what the Porte wants? Does she intend to disengage herself from all anterior obligations, and to work out of the existing crisis a perpetual abolition of a whole order of relations that time had consecrated?

"Impartial Europe will understand that if the question is placed upon such a footing, it would become for Russia, notwithstanding its truly conciliating intentions, incapable of a pacific solution. For, with us, it would implicate all our treaties, our secular influence, our moral credit, our dearest sentiments, both national and religious."

The Russian diplomatist insists—and not without good show of reason, even supposing his loyalty to be open to doubts-that the bearing and extent of protection demanded by Russia has been altogether exaggerated. "C'est," writes the count, "à ce triste malentendu que tient toute la crise du moment." The misunderstanding here alluded to is the oft reiterated statement that the independence of Turkey is threatened by the demands of a religious protectorate-a protectorate that has existed from ancient times, and has only been renewed in the present day because the bigoted Muhammadans grant treaties which they never intend to put in force, and promise protection where they permit insult, outrage, and robbery with impunity.

But take up this question of threatened independence in another point of view-taking Asiatic Turkey into the question; it is altogether a phantom. In Turkey in Europe it assumes, from the parity of populations, a more serious aspect, and the consequence is, that the moment the long anticipated crumbling to pieces of the Ottoman power looms in the horizon, we have a whole host of pamphleteers that rise up to fight on the one hand for the rights of the Panslavonic party to dominion; the other to defend with equal vigour the Hellenic. This alone shows how difficult the question is to settle, the discussion of which is further complicated by the presence of the English and French fleets.

With regard to such questions we have already expressed our political sentiments, founded on seven long years' personal acquaintance with the countries in question, to be in favour of the separate nationalities. We have seen some strong arguments against such an arrangement; one of which is, that the existing Christians of the Turkish empire are too debased by long prostration to be capable of self-government. There is a great deal of truth in this, and they would require at first a common protectorate. But this is no more than the revived kingdom of Greece itself required. Another is, that a strong government is required, a revival of a Byzantine empire to check Russian ambition. We doubt this; separate states, even when confederated, would be less threatening to the peace of Europe than a little civilised and very vain Byzantine empire. Nor are there, indeed, materials for such an empire; and the consideration of this question meets at once the supposed influence to be obtained by Russia by the concession demanded, and the eventualities of war in calling forth old nationalities to independence or dominion.

It is impossible to arrive at a precisely correct estimate of the population of Turkey in Europe, but the following may be considered as the best approximation:

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