DR. GRACE AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1181, 21 October 1882, Page 2

DR. GRACE AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

A Southern contemporary makes merry over a speech delivered by Dr Grace in the Legislative Council last session on Sir George Grey's Law Practitioners Bill. It says : — “The Doctor was referring to the jocular clause of the Bill, which provided that Tom, Dick, or Harry might appear as counsel in any Court of Justice provided he gave the Judge no impertinence aud charged no fee. For some reason the Doctor did not relish the thought of anyone being anyone else’a lawyer, and he delivered himself of the following trenchant remarks, which are flowers in their way:—‘ Let them figure to themselves a man of surprising fluency (a thing by no rare in this colony); of surprising audacity (an equally common attribute of colonisits); of marvellous self-sufficiency and astounding readiness to accept responsil i ity Let them consider such a man arguing with a Judge of the Supreme Court as to what was or what was not evidence ? The result would be that the Courts* would be a laughing stock in the country, and seats in the gallery would be at a premium. We all know the character that the playful doctor had in his eye; the fluent, audacious, self-sufficfent, man, we have met him many a time and oft, nor do wo believe him to be altogether colonial, as Dr Grace would make him. He will do you any* thing under the sun. Do you wish to know how to treat a horse with the glanders, he will tell you how ; do you want your land brought under the Transfer Act he will do it for you ; do you want to break in a bull pup or to interview the manager of your bank, he alone is equal for cither undertaking. And his native lights, too, no doubt could determine iu the twinkling of an eye, what is evidence and what is not. He is unquestionably a character that ought to succeed iu the struggle for existence, and it is to be hoped that next session Dr Grace will have somethiug more to say about him.”