At the station he found three or four other lawyers, all bound for Birmingham. Indeed, during this fortnight the whole line had been alive with learned gentlemen going to and fro, discussing weighty points as they rattled along the iron road, and shaking their ponderous heads at the new ideas which were being ventilated.
Mr. Furnival, with many others--indeed, with most of those who were so far advanced in the world as to be making bread by their profession--was of opinion that all this palaver that was going on in the various tongues of Babel would end as it began--in words. "Vox et praeterea nihil." To practical Englishmen most of these international congresses seem to arrive at nothing else. Men will not be talked out of the convictions of their lives. No living orator would convince a grocer that coffee should be sold without chicory; and no amount of eloquence will make an English lawyer think that loyalty to truth should come before loyalty to his client. And therefore our own pundits, though on this occasion they went to Birmingham, summoned by the greatness of the occasion, by the dignity of foreign names, by interest in the question, and by the influence of such men as Lord Boanerges, went there without any doubt on their minds as to the rect.i.tude of their own practice, and fortified with strong resolves to resist all idea of change.
And indeed one cannot understand how the bent of any man"s mind should be altered by the sayings and doings of such a congress.
"Well, Johnson, what have you all been doing to-day?" asked Mr.
Furnival of a special friend whom he chanced to meet at the club which had been extemporized at Birmingham.
"We have had a paper read by Von Bauhr. It lasted three hours."
"Three hours! heavens! Von Bauhr is, I think, from Berlin."
"Yes; he and Dr. Slotacher. Slotacher is to read his paper the day after to-morrow."
"Then I think I shall go to London again. But what did Von Bauhr say to you during those three hours?"
"Of course it was all in German, and I don"t suppose that any one understood him,--unless it was Boanerges. But I believe it was the old story, going to show that the same man might be judge, advocate, and jury."
"No doubt;--if men were machines, and if you could find such machines perfect at all points in their machinery."
"And if the machines had no hearts?"
"Machines don"t have hearts," said Mr. Furnival; "especially those in Germany. And what did Boanerges say? His answer did not take three hours more, I hope."
"About twenty minutes; but what he did say was lost on Von Bauhr, who understands as much English as I do German. He said that the practice of the Prussian courts had always been to him a subject of intense interest, and that the general justice of their verdicts could not be impugned."
"Nor ought it, seeing that a single trial for murder will occupy a court for three weeks. He should have asked Von Bauhr how much work he usually got through in the course of a sessions. I don"t seem to have lost much by being away. By-the-by, do you happen to know whether Round is here?"
"What, old Round? I saw him in the hall to-day yawning as though he would burst." And then Mr. Furnival strolled off to look for the attorney among the various purlieus frequented by the learned strangers.
"Furnival," said another barrister, accosting him,--an elderly man, small, with sharp eyes and bushy eyebrows, dirty in his attire and poor in his general appearance, "have you seen Judge Staveley?" This was Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s, great at the Old Bailey, a man well able to hold his own in spite of the meanness of his appearance. At such a meeting as this the English bar generally could have had no better representative than Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s.
"No; is he here?"
"He must be here. He is the only man they could find who knows enough Italian to understand what that fat fellow from Florence will say to-morrow."
"We"re to have the Italian to-morrow, are we?"
"Yes; and Staveley afterwards. It"s as good as a play; only, like all plays, it"s three times too long. I wonder whether anybody here believes in it?"
"Yes, Felix Graham does."
"He believes everything--unless it is the Bible. He is one of those young men who look for an instant millennium, and who regard themselves not only as the prophets who foretell it, but as the preachers who will produce it. For myself, I am too old for a new gospel, with Felix Graham as an apostle."
"They say that Boanerges thinks a great deal of him."
"That can"t be true, for Boanerges never thought much of any one but himself. Well, I"m off to bed, for I find a day here ten times more fatiguing than the Old Bailey in July."
On the whole the meeting was rather dull, as such meetings usually are. It must not be supposed that any lawyer could get up at will, as the spirit moved him, and utter his own ideas; or that all members of the congress could speak if only they could catch the speaker"s eye.
Had this been so, a man might have been supported by the hope of having some finger in the pie, sooner or later. But in such case the congress would have lasted for ever. As it was, the names of those who were invited to address the meeting were arranged, and of course men from each country were selected who were best known in their own special walks of their profession. But then these best-known men took an unfair advantage of their position, and were ruthless in the lengthy cruelty of their addresses. Von Bauhr at Berlin was no doubt a great lawyer, but he should not have felt so confident that the legal proceedings of England and of the civilised world in general could be reformed by his reading that book of his from the rostrum in the hall at Birmingham! The civilised world in general, as there represented, had been disgusted, and it was surmised that poor Dr.
Slotacher would find but a meagre audience when his turn came.
At last Mr. Furnival succeeded in hunting up Mr. Round, and found him recruiting outraged nature with a gla.s.s of brandy and water and a cigar. "Looking for me, have you? Well, here I am; that is to say, what is left of me. Were you in the hall to-day?"
"No; I was up in town."
"Ah! that accounts for your being so fresh. I wish I had been there.
Do you ever do anything in this way?" and Mr. Round touched the outside of his gla.s.s of toddy with his spoon. Mr. Furnival said that he never did do anything in that way, which was true. Port wine was his way, and it may be doubted whether on the whole it is not the more dangerous way of the two. But Mr. Furnival, though he would not drink brandy and water or smoke cigars, sat down opposite to Mr.
Round, and had soon broached the subject which was on his mind.
"Yes," said the attorney, "it is quite true that I had a letter on the subject from Mr. Mason. The lady is not wrong in supposing that some one is moving in the matter."
"And your client wishes you to take up the case again?"
"No doubt he does. He was not a man that I ever greatly liked, Mr.
Furnival, though I believe he means well. He thinks that he has been ill used; and perhaps he was ill used--by his father."
"But that can be no possible reason for badgering the life out of his father"s widow twenty years after his father"s death!"
"Of course he thinks that he has some new evidence. I can"t say I looked into the matter much myself. I did read the letter; but that was all, and then I handed it to my son. As far as I remember, Mr.
Mason said that some attorney at Hamworth had been to him."
"Exactly; a low fellow whom you would be ashamed to see in your office! He fancies that young Mason has injured him; and though he has received numberless benefits from Lady Mason, this is the way in which he chooses to be revenged on her son."
"We should have nothing to do with such a matter as that, you know.
It"s not our line."
"No, of course it is not; I am well aware of that. And I am equally well aware that nothing Mr. Mason can do can shake Lady Mason"s t.i.tle, or rather her son"s t.i.tle, to the property. But, Mr. Round, if he be encouraged to gratify his malice--"
"If who be encouraged?"
"Your client, Mr. Mason of Groby;--there can be no doubt that he might hara.s.s this unfortunate lady till he brought her nearly to the grave."
"That would be a pity, for I believe she"s still an uncommon pretty woman." And the attorney indulged in a little fat inward chuckle; for in these days Mr. Furnival"s taste with reference to strange G.o.ddesses was beginning to be understood by the profession.
"She is a very old friend of mine," said Mr. Furnival, gravely, "a very old friend indeed; and if I were to desert her now, she would have no one to whom she could look."
"Oh, ah, yes; I"m sure you"re very kind;" and Mr. Round altered his face and tone, so that they might be in conformity with those of his companion. "Anything I can do, of course I shall be very happy. I should be slow, myself, to advise my client to try the matter again, but to tell the truth anything of this kind would go to my son now. I did read Mr. Mason"s letter, but I immediately handed it to Matthew."
"I will tell you how you can oblige me, Mr. Round."
"Do tell me; I am sure I shall be very happy."
"Look into this matter yourself, and talk it over with Mr. Mason before you allow anything to be done. It is not that I doubt your son"s discretion. Indeed we all know what an exceedingly good man of business he is."
"Matthew is sharp enough," said the prosperous father.
"But then young men are apt to be too sharp. I don"t know whether you remember the case about that Orley Farm, Mr. Round."
"As well as if it were yesterday," said the attorney.