proceeded with. It was not till July, that (through the intervention, as it is believed, of Mr. H. H. Fowler, the Liberal Member for Wolverhampton and a member of firms of solicitors practising in London and Wolverhampton) the Government became informed that the Conveyancing Bill could be treated as distinct from the Settled Land Bill; and on the 6th of July a Select Committee was allowed to be nominated. The Committee, which included several leading Queen's Counsel of the Chancery Bar, besides the Judge Advocate-General and the Attorney-General, and Solicitors of considerable experience, met for the first time to transact business on the 19th of July, and took a favourable view of the Bill; but the time left for considering the Bill was so short that in order to enable it to pass, several clauses not immediately approved by different members of the Committee, or considered likely to give rise to opposition in the House, were struck out. The Bill, as amended by the Select Committee, was returned in August to the Lords, and the amendments were agreed to, after a protest by Lord Cairns against the omission of some clauses, particularly that abolishing acknowledgments by married women, the special object of which was to reduce the cost of title and conveyance. The Conveyancing Bill and Remuneration Bill received the royal assent on the same day, August 22nd. The Settled Land Bill was never allowed to go before a Committee.

The Settled Land Bill not having passed, settlements of land, whether made by deed or by will, must, if complete, still continue of the same length as heretofore. All other documents (except leases, which, on account of their special provisions, cannot be materially reduced in length) may, by the effect of the Conveyancing Act, be brought within comparatively small dimensions. Deeds may be written bookwise with plans interleaved, and supplemental deeds may be annexed to or bound up with

them. The title to an estate can thus be formed into a fairly readable volume of moderate size. The deeds will contain little more than the necessary operative parts, copies may take the place of abstracts, and in many cases it may answer to print deeds. These changes involve some alteration in the mode of fixing the remuneration of Solicitors, which can no longer be made to depend merely on the length of documents. The Remuneration Act is therefore a necessary companion to the Conveyancing Act.

According to amendments made during the progress of the Remuneration Bill, but not originating with Lord Cairns, the body empowered to make Orders under the Act consists of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Master of the Rolls, and two Solicitors. Perhaps it may occur to some reader to ask how it has happened that, in a matter vitally affecting the interests of a large proportion of the members of the Bar, Solicitors, and Solicitors alone, are associated with these three Judges. The answer is plain. The Bar, unlike the profession of Solicitors, is unorganized; its members have no representative body competent and ready to watch legislative proposals affecting them and to guard their professional rights. The Bar is indeed constituted into three large societies and one smaller society; but all these societies are entirely under the control of a small section of the members, namely, the Masters of the Bench, who are self-elected, and are, with very few exceptions, chosen from one small class exclusively, namely, members of the Inner Bar. At Lincoln's Inn the rule is that no member of the Outer Bar is ever admitted a Bencher (a). But more than this, nearly

(a) There seem of late years to have been only two exceptions, namely, Lord Macaulay and Lord Eversley. Lord Macaulay had long ceased to have more than a nominal connection with the Bar, and it does not appear by the Law List that Lord Eversley is a member of

one-third of the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn have retired from all active practice of the profession. At the other Inns the proportion of Benchers who have retired is somewhat less, and the Outer Bar is not absolutely excluded (a). The most active and prominent members of each Bench, being Queen's Counsel in large practice, have little or no time to spare from their heavy work, and it almost necessarily follows that the direction of affairs falls into the hands of those who have leisure and but little acquaintance with the wants and feelings of the great body of the Profession. It is not surprising therefore that the humbler and more numerous members of the Bar, whose involuntary contributions largely support these four societies, should feel that their material interests are neglected. The time has surely come when an organization adapted to modern exigencies should be established. Other professions of not greater importance have within recent years organized themselves under Royal Charters and Acts of Parliament. Why should not a Bar Association be constituted under public authority, with a governing body truly representative of the Profession, empowered to enforce discipline, to settle authoritatively all matters affecting the practice of the Bar, and generally to keep watch over the interests of

the Bar. The late V.-C. Wickens was treated as ineligible till he became a Judge. If none but Judges and Queen's Counsel are elected, and if all Judges and Queen's Counsel are elected sooner or later, the Bar, which prides itself on its independence, is, at least at Lincoln's Inn, governed by nominees of the Crown.

(a) The reader is referred to an interesting paper by the late Mr. Edward Webster On Promotion at the English Bar, Juridical Soc. Papers, vol. ii. p. 475 (1862), from which it appears (p. 485, n.) that in 1799 the number of Crown Counsel was only fifteen. The majority of the Benchers must then have been of the Outer Bar. The number of Queen's Counsel is now one hundred and eighty-seven. If, consequent on the extinction of Serjeants' Inn, all the Judges of the Queen's Bench Division are to be Benchers, they will displace a corresponding number of members of the Bar.

the members? With such a body in existence, the Remuneration Act would hardly have passed in its present

form.

But there are further trials for the Profession in prospect. If the Orders made under the Remuneration Act provide for an ad valorem payment, covering all but very exceptional charges, as is now the rule in Scotland, the fees (if any) to Counsel must be paid by the Solicitor out of his own pocket, and will bear no fixed proportion to his own remuneration. The result must be that, unless some special difficulty arises, Counsel will never be consulted, and the Conveyancing branch of the Profession will practically cease to exist. When to this it is added that pleadings no longer require to be signed by Counsel, and can be, and are, drawn by Solicitors; that already a very large proportion of the business, including even more or less of the contentious business, in actions, is transacted in the Judges' Chambers by Solicitors or their clerks; and that the abolition of written or printed pleadings seems imminent,—the business of the Outer Bar is likely soon to be reduced to that of the Advocate alone. There would then remain no means by which the student could learn either the business of conveyancing or the practical conduct of an action, except in a Solicitor's office. The claim of Solicitors to be admitted to the Bar, immediately on ceasing to practise as Solicitors, must then be conceded, and the two professions would be practically amalgamated. In the end the public might benefit. Young men, after practising as Solicitors, would come to the Bar more or less trained in the conduct of litigation, having done useful work, received pay and gained experience, during years when, if commencing their work at the Bar, they might have remained without income or the means of properly learning their business.

The Bar ought not to oppose any obstacle in the way

of reforms required for the benefit of the public, but they are entitled to use all legitimate means in order to prevent unnecessary prejudice to their Profession by the great changes that seem inevitable. To meet effectively on the part of the Bar these changes, it is clear something more is wanted than government by Masters of the Bench, who have little present interest of a material kind in what concerns the mass of the Profession. What immediately presses is the position of those whose business is wholly or mainly conveyancing. If anything is to be done, it would seem that they must act for themselves, and promptly.

LINCOLN'S INN,

December, 1881.