A prisoner once convicted at the Central Criminal Court should have no very substantial grievance against law and order if later on he is watched during an appeal _entr’acte_. He is in a vastly better position than the prisoner convicted before the advent of the Criminal Appeal Act, when the conviction usually stood until the sentence had been worked out. The word, “usually,” is meant to add distinction to the occasional commutation of a death sentence, and to any other punitive abatement arising out of the prerogative of mercy, or from personal good conduct on the part of the convict. Under the new system of appeal, fresh opportunities are allowed the convict to obtain an acquittal. It seems clear, therefore, that until the final appeal has been settled, he should either be kept under close observation or detained in custody. It may be un-English to spy upon the every movement of any man, but it is practical and even necessary under the possibilities afforded by the Act of 1907. CHAPTER XI CLIENT, SOLICITOR AND COUNSEL A member of the Bar who ventures to touch such sensitive plants as professional usage and etiquette must almost of necessity do so with a sense of diffidence and modesty, that is, if he is not to outrage his _esprit de corps_ and attack his own training in the traditions of a great _métier_. The partial aim of this chapter is, in avoiding revolutionary language, to state as clearly as possible what strikes the travelled barrister as a radical disadvantage in his profession. Usage has made it necessary, except in certain criminal court cases, for a client to go to a solicitor--who in due course goes to counsel, if the matter comes within the province of counsel. This intermediate process of approach is doubly absurd in practice, when it is remembered that counsel does not always confer with the solicitor himself but with the clerk instead.