812 SERJEANT BALLANTINE an Advocate May Have Little Black Letter

812 SERJEANT BALLANTINE An advocate may have little black letter learning, and yet he may scale the heights of his profession, if he can lay bare the human heart and read its secrets. Serjeant Ballantine-the genial cynic of the law-is a case in point. Ballantine made no bones of his lack o£ legal scholarship. He boasted that he knew a little of everything but law. Nor was his boast an idle one. He was innocent of many of the elementary principles of law, yet few advocates were better verdict-getters than he. His success lay in his ability to read a witness's mind, and determine the motives of his conduct, almost at a glance. His knowledge of human nature, of men and women, their mode of life and their way of thought, was phenomenal. If an advocate goes off on the wrong tack, the truth will out. No other professional man runs the same risk of having his ignorance exposed, his errors brought to light. The doctor can cover up his mistakes, the clergyman holds an ex parte brief, the teacher is an autocrat whose word there is none to dispute; but the barrister works in the open, subject to opposition at every turn. He does not have the floor to himself, but shares it with a brother barrister who gives the other side of the picture. If he does not know his case, that fact soon becomes obvious. If he is incompetent, the truth soon proclaims itself. Serjeant Ballantine often found himself in a tight corner in court, but no one was better than he at covering up his own deficiencies . He could always appear wiser than he was. Amazingly resourceful, he was seldom at a loss for a reply which turned the tables on his opponent . When a Judge would check him up in his law (and Judges often did), he would smile blandly, appear to be deep in thought, and then come out with, "Of course, my Lord, it is as your Lordship says. I had forgotten. There is that case in the Exchequer." Needless to say, he never named cases, but he made it appear that he had them on the tip of his tongue . Anna Pavola-whose art was her life and whose life was an unremitting struggle for perfection-says, "Those who wish to achieve great things in art have no time to cross the hands." Serjeant Ballantine fell just a shade short of perfection in the art of advocacy ; he crossed his hands too often, and sat back viewing the everchanging pageant of human life, when he should Dec. 1936] Serjeant Ballantine 313 have been at work, with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up. He was a dabbler in law as he was in life. As William James would say, he energized below his maximum and behaved below his optimum. Never the slave of his clients, he often went into court with little knowledge of his case. Once he appeared with Montagu Williams -at the Central Criminal Court in two cases which had been put over from a previous term. He did not arrive in court until the cases were about to be called. Finding Williams already in his place, he sauntered ,up to him and said, "For goodness' sake, my dear Montagu, while the jury is being got together and the pleas are taken, tell me something of these infernal cases. I haven't the remotest idea what they are about. I read my briefs last session ; but in the interval, what with one thing and another, I have entirely forgotten all about them." As a junior, Montagu Williams appeared. with Ballantine in many important cases. He was a keen observer, and his opportunities for observation were great, therefore his impressions of the Serjeant are valuable : "The Serjeant was a very extraordinary man," William observes in his Leaves of a Life. "He was the best cross-examiner of his kind that I have ever heard, and the quickest at swallowing facts. It was not necessary for him to read his brief; he had a marvellous faculty of picking up a case as it went along, or learning all the essentials in a hurried colloquy with his junior.. There is no point the Serjeant might not have attained in his profession, had he only possessed more ballast. He was, however, utterly reckless, generous to a fault, and heedless of the future. His opinion of men could never be relied upon; for he praised or blamed them from day to day, just as they happened to plesae or annoy him. He often said bitter things, but never, I think, ill-naturedly . His fault was probably that he did not give himself time to think before he spoke." - In a similiar vein is Sir Edward Clarke's brief sketch of the Serjeant in his Story of -My Life. "William Ballantine, `the Serjeant,' - was a man of remarkable power," says Sir Edward. "Rather over middle height, lean and hard, with the eye of a hawk. A voice capable of many tones, but with a curious drawl, half infirmity and half affectation. A man of slight legal knowledge, of idle and pleasure-loving habits, but an advocate of quite extraordinary skill. He could rise to great eloquence, but his great power was in cross-examination, which was the most subtle and deadly that I ever heard. There was a great 814 The Canadian Bar Review [No. 10 fascination about him ; whenever he was in Court he was the most conspicuous person there, and seemed by instinct to lead or coerce or dominate Judge and witness and jury. His temper was violent, his humour bitter and sarcastic, but he was the most generous of leaders. Once at Kingston, before Sir Alexander Cockburn, in a South-Eastern Railway case, which he had not read, I was rather importunate in my suggestions, and he turned on me in Court with `Damn you, sir, am I conducting this case or are you?' But before the trial was over he explained to the Jury that I had been right, and had only been reminding him of facts which he ought to have known. ." William Ballantine was born in London, in January, 1812, the son of a barrister. At an early age, he was sent to a private school, where the masters taught Latin to the tune of the hickory, and mathematics with the aid of a huge dictionary which they threw at the head of any pupil whose enthusiasm lagged. Happily, he did not remain long in this atmosphere, but was transferred to another school where the surroundings were more congenial to him, if not more conducive to study. Ballantine grew up in the shadow of the Inns of Court in London. Law was a part of the air he breathed. As a youngster, he often accompanied his father into Court. In his autobio graphy, Some Experiences in a Barrister's Life, he recalls his first appearance in the Old Bailey, where he witnessed. the trial of two men for the murder of a child, whose body, as disciples of that redoubtable pair, Burke and Hare, they had sold to a medical man in the interests of science. When he began to think about making his own livelihood, it was natural for him to turn to the law. Accordingly, he became articled to a friend of his father. He was by no means a diligent student of law, but he had a restless interest in life. He associated with all manner of men-actors and acrobats, clowns and critics, artists and editors, men of letters and men- about-town. He went everywhere-into clubs and cafés. theatres and drawing-rooms, gambling dens and art galleries. As a student, if he did not unravel the intricate meshes of the law, at least, he got close to the plot and plan of life. At the age of twenty-one, he was called to the Inner Temple Bar and joined the Home Circuit. He had passed no examina- tions-but, as he says himself, he had eaten the requisite number of dinners, which a good appetite and a good digestion rendered not difficult. Dec. 19361 Serjeant Eallantine 315 His first three years at the Bar were lean years. He lived largely on the promise of assistance from his father, and the credit of a good-natured tradesman named Gill. Gill was very patient and confiding, but finally even he went on strike and refused to advance Ballantine another cent's credit. That very day, while Ballantine was despairing as to his next meal, three half-guinea motions were brought to him by a solicitor. He immediately took himself to Haucock's, the favourite London restaurant of the day, and ordered two saddles of mutton and several helps of jam tart. His appetite satisfactorily appeased, he still had twenty-five shillings rubbing a hole in his pocket. How to spend them? That was the burning question. For a moment, he thought of the account he owed the patient Gill -but it was only for a moment. Putting all thoughts of his debts behind him, he went into a gambling den in Leicester Square, where under the benign smile of Lady Luck, his twenty- five shillings grew into thirty-five pounds. And thus he was able 'to restore himself to. Gill's favour. Ballantine's first appearance in Court was at the Middlesex Sessions. His first case was unpretentious enough. He was instructed by the manager of the Garrick Theatre to apply for a renewal of the theatre's license.

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