THE LAWYER AS SOLDIER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 209, 15 September 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LAWYER AS SOLDIER.

A PROFESSIONAL RECORD At first sight the idea of a lawyei doffing his wig and' gown and donning boots and spurs seems an absolute anomaly, for the whole mental and moral outlook of a lawyer is opposed in every way to that of a soldier. A lawyer spends his lite, it is true, meddling in other people's quarrels - - but n nine cases out of ten he tries for his client's sake to gain his point with. out going to law—and in order to do this he has to compromise. Compromise involves two things—firstly,a liability to see two sides of a question, and to look at a matter from Sour opponent's po ; nt of view; secondly, a habit of giving way on certain points in order to gam others. A good soldier should be deficient in these qualities, although a good strateg : st should be able to imag : ne in advance what the enemy is doing. A soldier is essentially a man of action and of resolution. Action js foreign to the lawyer's training. Resolution may breed mistakes, [or things do "turn up" in law suits. Lawyers have the habits of compromise and of awaiting developments so firmlv fixed that they do not seem able to throw them off and proceed boldly on the ]ne that there is only one argument in the case, and that :s the argument of necessity.

QHCK-CHAXGE ARTISTS. It comes therefore with something ol a shock to discover that the histoiv of England shows that originally * all our great lawyers were soldiers'first; 'ii fact they were a species of trimt f—lawyers, divines, soldiers—the majorit> of our early lawyers being ecclesiastics, and almost invariably armed men. As an almost pre-historicexample, we mar take the case of the Chief Justice or England, Odo. the brother of William of Normandy, who came over with the French soldiers. When William's army was I'ned up before Hastings. Odo, duly vested, addressed the men, exhort ing them to deeds o valour, celebrated mass, and then, earliest of quick-change artists, laid aside his bishop's vestments, mounted his white war-chnrgor, and led the Normans into battle. Throughout the time of the Plantagenets this kind of lawyer was common, but during the 16th and 17th centuries the custom of the legal man b?mg also a cleric fell into disuse. The military spirit of. the lawyers was rojised. however, during the Civil Wars. They were found ranged in large numbers on the opposing sides'. By fat tl« greatest number chose the Parliamentary standard, so we may infer from that on the whole thev thought Cromwells' point of view the more constitutional. Whitelock and St. John, two famous lawyers of the t'me. were among the first to rally to Cromwell's side, and were two of his most trustod lieutenants.

"SONSOFZERNIAH.'' Oddly enough, in spite of the help given by numbers of legal men in the Roundhead army, the Puritans conceived a great dislike of lawyers, and dubbed them "sons of Zeruiah." So strong was the feeling against them thatw hen Parliament met, the members would not allow lawyers to sit un less they had borne arms. It is worthv of record that all the great lawyers jf the period showed themselves ready anJ. able to defend what they considered the liberies of England, not only with the pen, but with tha sword. One man in particular deserves nfantion for hs nilitary prowess. John Somers, the father of Lord Chancellor Somers, although squire in a royalist part of Worcestershire, promptly rased a troop of horse for the Parliament and accepted a commission as captain in Cromwell's army. He was quartered for some time at Upton, near his own estate at Stoke Severn, and an amusing story is told of how he incensed the rector of his parish church Sunday after Sunday in his uniform.

The rector, an ardent Royalist, attempted to retaliate by preaching at him from the pulpit, and the congregation was edified and amused to witne>s its squire being lectured soundly "i public Sunday by Sunday. Somers put up with it for a wh:ie, and then, finding that the tirades be came more vehement, he sent a friendly letter to the rector asking that the. should cease. The parson's only reply was to become even more condemnatorv of everything non-Royalist. The following Sunday, in the middle of the rector's denunciation of the evil-doers o ftlie Cromwellian army, Somers quiet, ly drew a pistol from his pocket, aimed it deliberately at the preacher, and then, raising his hand as he pressed the trigger put a bullet into the sounding hoard above the pulpit. The scene in church was indescribable, women fWed, and men sprang up excitedly: and then, realising the trick that had been played, the congregation burst into laughter and streamed out of churc i. After service the squire sent' a letter to the rector warning him that, if his tirades continued, his aim would get lower each week, until the bullet found its mark. This time the letter had the desired effect, and the weekly sermons thereafter contained no more denunciations.

JUDGE JEFFREYS. Another noteworthy instance of th-.» combination of legal with military powers was when Judge Jeffreys -b'i out in 1685 on his famous circuit m the west, " armed not only with a commission of Oyer and Termlnger, but also an authority to command the forces in chief in the disaffected countries." This was tantamount to the modern title, of Commander-in-Chief —and it .s hardly surprising to find that, even in those names, he earned the nickname of the "General of the West." In the early part of the nineteen;!) century lawyers again took a conspicuous part in inltary matters as volunteers. I.nioln's Inn and the Temple each raised a Volunteer Corps, and when Sheridan nicknamed the Tempi' l Corps : 'The Devil's Own," the m >'> christened the Lincoln's Inn men "The Devil's Invineibles." There was great rivalry between the two corps. Tim was intensified by the Templars' attitude of superiority due to the fact that, they admitted no one to ther corps who was not a member of an Inn »: Court, while the L : nculnites aJlowed attorneys to join their ranks. This fact gave rise to a good story against tlu: Lincoln's Inn detachment. It is assert, ed that on one occasion when LietitSolonel Fox, the Master in Chancerv, who commanded the corps gave the Order "charge." two-thirds of his rank and file took out their notebooks ;ind wrote down "six and cightpenee." Interest langirshed after a while, and thc Lincoln's Inn Corps was d : sbanded. Tho Temple men maintained their corps and re-christened it the Inns of Court Riiie Volunteers, admitting the harristcs from the Devil's Invineibles into theie ranks. This corps has done good work ever since, and proved invaluable us an Officers' Training Corps when the great war broke out. It is now one of the very few recognised channels for commissions, though, of course, it has been obliged to open its doors to men who have not the advantage of being a member of an Inn. It is probable that if this restriction had been enforced the corps must have been given up al f, >-

gether— for it is a proud fact that upon the commencement of hostilities almost all th-J unmarried practicing barristers of military age immediately applied for commissions. Hardly* any other class of the community sent «i> high a percentage of its eligible men to the front, and when Lord Derby's scheme came into operation the Tempi" again proudly rose to the occasio > and the remaining marred men of m;!;tarv age attested almost in a body. THE LAW CLERK. It would be an injustne to 'be lever branch of the legal profes.o;i to overlook the way in which sol;-cor.-, too, have responded to the caL u> tliecolours. In numberless cases not only all the young clerks" went, but tlio pa'tners, forsaking everything, hive fi.-.t up their offices, and taken to Ml and musketry. The barristers' clerk-. mi.tvJ the same sturdy spirit of patriotism .As for the lawyer men eft beirn i tbt-j wore to ho found on Saturday in all sorts of unfamiliar uirforms training • s volunteers. It se.mis as if volunteering were in the lawyers' blood . What sort of soldiers ii tliw cx-long-robers make? Loo\- at th-m firit of all from the point of .-<-w f discipline; they are sticklers for discipline The lawyers whole professional Ife is hedged about by rules, regulations, and precedent. A good deal of the soldier's life is, too. and that part of the military life is taken to as a duck to water. Xextly as an officer. The lawyer is brought more closely than any class into contact with all sorts and conditions of his fellow man. and this aawy from the home, where men are often largely artificial. Moreover, compronrse demands some handling of individualities. The first duty of an officer is' to learn how to handle his men, and tlie lawver does it well. Again the lawyer's work consists in making himself familiar with now and unfamiliar things and topics hefore applying his legal knowledge to the facts. He becomes what theatrical folk call a quick stud/, or, to put jt in another way, has a ready grasp. He understands easily, and iii lower commands is ready to do implicitly what ho is told. In military parlance he makes "a good officer." On all sides we hear of cases of ready promotion. What of the Irgher Commander? Brig. adier-General Seeley was for so long a politician that it may be forgotten that by profession he is a barriser. We will instance him, and let his brigade speak of his powers and capabilities.