3. Was it established to confirm or reverse the judgments and decisions
of men who were _not_ lawyers?
But it is not necessary to cite the Court of Appeal to prove that even
learned lawyers make mistakes in law. It is sufficient to mention Lord
Campbell, who in his ‘Shakespeare’s Legal Acquirements Considered,’ has
made several mistakes in law, a few of which I have noticed in Archiv. f.
n. Sprachen and in ‘Shakespeare’s Testamentary Language,’ published in
the year 1869. The Appendix B. of that book concludes with these words:
‘We all know that Lord Campbell was a lawyer of great experience, yet in
his “Shakespeare’s Legal Acquirements Considered” he has made several
mistakes in law. How, then, could any errors in law which I might find in
Shakespeare’s works afford conclusive evidence that Shakespeare was not a
lawyer?’
4 ULLET ROAD, DINGLE, LIVERPOOL,
_Long Vacation, 1907_.