Of the custom of Lincoln's Inn, in this particular, I am unin formed. For a student to keep his term, it is necessary in the Inner Temple, that he should dine in commons twice in two full weeks, for which he pays as much as he would pay if he were to dine every day in those weeks; but the annual expense of dining in commons is very inconsiderable. The Halls of the Inns of Court, particularly that of the Middle Temple, being large and noble rooms, and those of the Middle Temple and Gray's Inn being elegantly roofed with timber in the Gothic style, it is no unpicturesque sight to see the members of them at dinner, on what is called grand day, which happens once in each term, and when, the dinners being better, they are of course better attended. Athwart the top of the Halls, on a raised platform, which is what our ancestors called the state, * is the bench table, at which dine the masters of the bench, or benchers, in silk gowns; down the right side of the Hall runs the bar table,- at which dine the barristers in their gowns; and down the left runs the students' table, at which dine the students in under-graduates' gowns without sleeves. In the centre of the Halls, blaze large open charcoal fires; and, the rooms being well illuminated, the whole scene has a grand and imposing effect. After dinner, the benchers retire into their room of business, or parliament chamber, as it is called, to take their wine, and the barristers and students take their's in the Hall, where no one re mains any longer than he chooses to do. The economy of the tables, and the customs of the Halls, have an air of antiquity and curiosity about them; but I am afraid you will think them too minute and trifling for description. The Paying, eating, and waiting, are now the only qualifications for admission to the bar. All preparatory mootings, or exercises, are now either compounded for by an amercement of 5%, as they judiciously are at the Inner Temple, or gone through as a mere matter of form, as they ridiculously are at the other Inns. Society of the Middle Temple still act the following farce every term:-The students are in turn appointed to argue pro and con, on a question; for instance, Whether under certain circumstances, A. takes an estate in fee or in tail, or, for life or in fee; and on a fixed day in the term, after dinner, a bencher and the appointed students of the Middle Temple walk in procession to New Inn, E 6.6 the * The phrase is of frequent occurrence in the old dramatists: as in Macbeth, "Our hostess keeps her state." The state," as Mr. Gifford observes in a note on Massinger's Bondman, was a raised platform, on which was placed a chair with a canopy over it." The raised platform is with us to this day, in our old public dining halls, where, in Colleges the fellows, in Inus of Court the benchers, and in trading companies the court, 66 keep the state." the Inn of Chancery belonging to Middle Temple, and, knocking at the door of New Inn Hall, where the members of that society are at dinner, formally demand admission. This is granted them, and they proceed to the top of the hall, to moot for the instruction of New Inn. The bencher of the Middle Temple acts as moderator, and the student appointed to argue first on the pro side, rises and 66 says, Upon the whole, I am of opinion, that A. takes an estate in fee;" the second arguer follows on the same side, and says, "After the very able argument of my learned friend, I can do nothing but express my agreement in his opinion;" the third then rises and says, Really the arguments have been so completely exhausted by my two learned friends, that I find myself unable to add a single word to what they have so ably said." The arguers on the other side then go through the same farce; and the members of the Middle Temple leave those of New Inn as wise to they found them. It is time, if the Inns of Court cannot make more of their mootings than this, that they all followed the example of the Inner Temple, and discontinued the pretence of them. 66 All that remains of the lectures, which the barristers of a certain standing used, with much "pomp and circumstance," to read to the students both of their own Inns and of their dependent Inns of Chancery, consists, in the Inner Temple, of a lawtreatise of about two minutes in length, for the instruction of its Inns in Chancery, which a barrister of the Inner Temple reads to them, after a procession and formality similar to that of a mooting by the Middle Temple. When the student has received the degree of Barrister at Law, he is entitled to the addition Esquire, and to rank as such, and the degree of Serjeant at Law entitles its possessor to rank im. mediately after a Colonel, and immediately before a Doctor. Barristers at law seem now, says Tomlins,* in full possession of the title of Esquire, though originally, as it should seem, attained by usurpation; and being perhaps nearly the same kind of unnecessary addition to their superior degree, as if it were to be annexed or prefixed to that of M.A. or L.L.D. The Court of Common Pleas, however, refused to hear an affidavit read, because a barrister named in it was not called Esquire.+ The public, however, are no sufferers from the readiness, with which the Inns of Court call their members to practise at the bar without knowing them to be qualified for that practice; for unless a man has really studied the law in his own chambers, he will in vain look for reputation and business either there or in court. There * Law dictionary. 1. Wilson, 244. There are many instances of learning and talent neglected at the English bar; but I do not know one of ignorance and dulness promoted. The long time, during which a young barrister must wait before he obtains any quantity of business worthy the name of practice, is made proverbial in that saying, which is current in the profession, 66 many are called, but few chosen," and is accurately described by Colman in the comedy of the Clandestine Marriage: "Mr. Serjeant Flower. Pray, Mr. Trueman, how long have you been called to the bar? "Trueman. About nine years and three quarters. "Mr. Serjeant Flower. Ha! I don't know that I ever had the pleasure of meeting you before. I wish you success, young gentleman."* This is no exaggerated picture of the language of a serjeant towards a junior barrister. A man may easily have been at the bar"nine years and three quarters" without having ever been "met" by a serjeant before; he is very successful who comes into practice in that time; and till a man is called to the degree of Serjeant at Law, or appointed King's Counsel, he is always called 66 young gentleman," let him be as old as he will; just as at our universities, the man who graduates bachelor of arts is called juvenis, whether he be twenty or forty years of age. The Pythagorean silence, which most young barristers are doomed to observe, may be to be partly attributed to the high sense of honour, by which the profession is actuated in its abhorrence from what it calls huggery. Of this crime that barrister is guilty, who directly or indirectly courts business; and, as overt acts of the crime, are reckoned, over-civility to attornies, or over-anxiety to be ac quainted with them, travelling the circuit in a stage-coach where attornies or clients may be met and conciliated, dining with attor nies during the circuit, &c. &c. The fair and honourable wish of the bar is, that business should be distributed to merit and not to interest; and the members of the whole bar, or of each circuit, take upon them to cut any individual of their body, who seeks to gain it by any other pretensions. When a man is called to the degree of Barrister at Law, and sworn in at Westminster, he is entitled to practise in three courts, viz. those of Chancery, King's Bench, and Exchequer; but the practice of the Court of Common Pleas, except when that Court sits at nisi prius, is confined to those who have been called to the degree of Serjeant at Law, to which a barrister is not entitled till he is of sixteen years standing at the bar. When a barrister is called to that degree, he is invested with the dignity of the coif with E 2 * Act iii. scene 1. with much ceremony, and gives rings with mottos; "and, by custom, the judges of the courts of Westminster are always admitted into this venerable order before they are advanced to the bench."* The word coif is explained by Dr. Johnson to mean a serjeant's cap, and certainly nothing less than this could hide the tonsure of such renegade clerks as were still tempted to remain in the șecular courts in the quality of advocates or judges, notwithstanding their prohibition [from doing so] by canon," for which purpose Sir Henry Spellman + conjectures the coif to have been invented. I know not whether a serjeant now is invested at his inauguration with such a coif as this; but the only coif he wears in court is a black patch at the top of his wig. A serjeant is also distinguished from a barrister by the variety of his gowns, and the greater closeness with which they wrap him; a serjeant has both a purple ‡ and a black gown, and a king's serjeant has besides these a scarlet These coloured gowns are worn only on dress occasions, when the king's serjeants and king's counsel change their bar-wigs for judges' ones. On ordinary occasions, the kings serjeants, and on every occasion, the king's counsel, wear black silk gowns, and sit within the bar of their respective courts. one. To these gentlemen it will be the business of my future letters to introduce you. In the mean time, I am, My dear ARTS VI.-On the Claims of Propertius. MR. REFLECTOR, I hope that the following account of Propertius will not be considered a presumptuous attempt to overthrow the character of a well-known poet, but rather as an honest endeavour to justly appreciate a man, whose works have, in my opinion, been strangely over-valued. A numerous class of beings, called commentators, whose usefulness every reader of literature is bound to acknowledge, but who are by no means to be esteemed as unerring Blac. Com. iii. 27. + Glossary, 335, It was this habit that furnished Mr. Jekyll, the king's counsel, with the idea of the following Epigram : "The Serjeants are a grateful race; Their dress and language shew it: erring guides in matters of taste, have heaped praises on this elegiac poet without measure and without discrimination. Indeed Propertius has some claim on their gratitude: for his perpetual allusions to Greek fable, and his frequent obscurities, have furnished them with ample room to display their learning to advantage; and such an ostentatious and immense display have some of them made, that, in their editions, the poet's text is scarcely' discernible amid the mass of notes with which it is surrounded. "Minima est pars ipsa puella sui," or to borrow a simile of Swift, Propertius, enveloped in his commentary, looks like a mouse under a canopy of state. After reading his poems, I never could discover that he possessed one requisite for elegiac poetry. He has neither ease, nor tenderness, nor simplicity, nor perspicuity. Oh! but, say the critics, he had a genius too high for amatory poetry; he should have written epics; as if a writer' who has none of the above-mentioned excellencies (as the critics seem generally disposed to admit) was fit to write epic poetry, or any poetry at all. It would be waste of time to ask these critics, does Homer or Virgil want ease, or tenderness, or simplicity, or perspicuity, or rather are not these their chief beauties? I was a good deal amused a few days ago at a sort of compliment paid to this writer by a French poet, M. Berenger. He is with great liberality praising his contemporaries; and, wishing to exalt two writers of elegies, he sayɛ, "Cubières et Bertin, èmules de Properce, Font sourire l'amour à cet heureux commerce." Here, according to the laudable custom of Boileau, the poet having no doubt written the second line first, must have been considerably puzzled to find an amatory poet whose name would rhyme to "commerce:" Catulle and Tibulle were perfectly in. tractable, and so nothing remained but to put down "Properce." I know nothing either of Cubieres or Bertin, but I think I may venture to assert, that a gallant Frenchman would never insult his mistress with such pedantic roundelays as Propertius wrote. Dr. Jortin, who was an elegant critic, and himself composed excellent Latin verse, says of Propertius, that he wrote in a desultory manner, and that in his poems there is sometimes no connection to be found. Those who are intimately acquainted with the Doctor's most discriminating mind and liberal spirit of criticism, will think his authority on this subject nearly conclusive.Marullus, who has written a catalogue, in verse, of the Latin poets, has omitted Propertius, though it must be confessed that no great deference is due to his taste, since he has omitted also the names of Plautus and Ovid, for which he has received a most severe censure from the sensible Gravina. As this last-named Italian critic is generally esteemed and admired, I will, with your |