And yet, absurd as it seems to us to-day, the prisoner's right to counsel was not obtained without a severe struggle. At the back of the mind of those who opposed the reform was the idea that as prisoners were accused by the Crown it was an act of disloyalty to defend them. Ridiculous as that idea is it still exists in a form that is interesting only as showing that the tradition was once a reality. A King's counsel has to obtain leave from the authorities, and pay a small tribute therefore, before he can appear for a prisoner and against the Crown. Leave is never refused, but the existence of such a curious custom is only comprehensible by studying the folklore of the subject. A hundred years ago this folly sanctioned by antiquity was a reality. The defenders of the position said it was really all done in the interests of the prisoner. His witnesses were not put on oath, and this allowed them to tell any falsehood they wished; he was saved the expense of his counsel--as though he preferred economy to hanging--and the judge, he was told, was his counsel--an arrangement that the prisoner cannot have been very grateful for when he heard his counsel on the bench summing up to the jury for a conviction. The nonsense that was talked and written on this subject is encouraging to those who want things done to-day. Against all reforms, arguments of this kind have to be listened to and laughed out of Court, but to-day we are in a better position than Sydney Smith was, for we often find in the official world a human being ready to help on a reform when the time is ripe for it. In his day common-sense and common humanity had not permeated into Government offices, "the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General for the time being always protesting against each alteration and regularly and officially prophesying the utter destruction of the whole jurisprudence of Great Britain." It was not until ten years after the _Edinburgh Review_ article was written that Parliament in August, 1836, passed an Act to permit prisoners charged with felony the right to be defended by counsel. And yet there are many people who think we move too fast in necessary reforms.