over his garden wall shouted something at me as I passed. I at once pulled up and backed up to him and asked: "What was it you said, Sir?" He was much confused but at last mumbled out that he said I was going too fast as I was coming to a corner. I replied: “Well, you see as I was easily able to stop long before I reached the corner I obviously was not going too fast." To which of course he had no Most of these things improved themselves by effluxion of time and the growing use of the motor. Even the Surrey magistrates themselves now drive to the Police Courts in cars in which they have exceeded the legal limit, and are not as unintelligent as they were. There are, however, motorists on the road, and I think now more than ever, who ought permanently to be deprived of the right to drive, who bring us into disrepute and almost justify police persecution. Ever since 1903 I have continually urged that an artificial speed limit leads to the wrong people being prosecuted and that there ought to be many more convictions for driving to the public danger. I am glad to see that the Ministry of Transport is converted to this view but I doubt whether Parliament is. If this view does prevail driving would be not more dangerous but safer than it is to-day because the right man will be convicted and severely dealt with.

I had other cars more nearly approaching the modern type later, including a 30 h.p. chain-driven Daimler. I also for many years drove White Steam cars. I now, of course, only drive Humber cars and no one could wish for anything better, but in these modern days nearly all the leading makes of cars are good and reliable and it is the rarest thing to see anyone held up on the road with any serious trouble. In the early days driving a car really had the element of sport and there was great uncertainty about arriving at your destination now I can guarantee myself to keep better time than a South Western Railway train.

:

I cannot of course in a mere chapter deal adequately with over twenty years of experience during which I have taken an active part in the development of motoring and driven over 150,000 miles with my own hand all over this country. I have seen Jarrott laid out for dead in the Gordon-Bennett race. I have seen him become Jarrott and Letts. I have seen Napier and Rolls-Royce start. I have seen the unquestioned supremacy of the French car overcome by the homemade article. I have seen innumerable Olympia Exhibitions, and I retain, as I think we all do, warm feelings for those early pioneers who all tried to pull together and fight down prejudice in the days when every man's hand was against us. Charles Rolls who

was responsible for the Rolls-Royce is gone with many another old friend, but those of us who survive are still ready to fight our old battles over again whenever we meet.

There was one body rather distinct from the ordinary motor organization with which I was connected from its earliest days, I mean the Motor Volunteers. It was started and brought into being by Mark Mayhew who was a member of the L.C.C., a flour miller at Battersea, and a Yeomanry Major. He was also a pioneer motorist and one of the first to possess a 16 h.p. Napier when they were the last word in cars. The idea was that we should demonstrate to the army, by lending ourselves and our cars, what an invaluable auxiliary the motor was to military operations. We gave our cars, our petrol, our tyres and our services and in return had our panels hacked to pieces by the spurs of staff officers or scratched by their swords. Our first performance of any importance was when we attended the great Marlborough manœuvres in 1903 under Lord Roberts. There were several camps of our volunteers, some attached to the Red Army, some to the Blue Army, and some to the Headquarters and the Umpire Staff. I was comfortably billeted at the " Ailesbury Arms,” Marlborough, where Colonel Mayhew was in charge.

We were, of course, in military uniform, although it was the first experience that some of us had had of actual military duty. As a result of this one or two curious incidents occurred. On the Sunday before the manœuvres actually began, I was dispatched with sixty gallons of petrol to a camp about thirty miles away with a note from Colonel Mayhew to the officer in command, Major Bennet Stanford, and I was also instructed to inquire viva voce whether they were comfortable and had everything they wanted. I carried out my mission, but found only a Captain in charge, and was instructed to await the arrival of the O.C. After about an hour, a burly figure rode into the camp on a sort of cart-horse with a switch cut from the hedge in his hand and dismounted. "Here is the Major," said my captain, and proceeded to make his report. Bennet Stanford started spelling through Mayhew's letter and stumbled over my name, saying: "Carl Russell ? " "Earl Russell, sir," said his captain. "Oh!" roared out Bennet Stanford turning to me, are you the damned silly fool that's always introducing Bills into the House of Lords?" With a full sense of military discipline I drew myself to attention, saluted and said: "Yes, sir." It then occurred to Bennet Stanford that perhaps that was not the way to address a subordinate, and to make up for it he offered to take me to have tea with the

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General. I respectfully pointed out that in a private's uniform and under conditions of active service this would be rather embarrassing, but I had great difficulty in dissuading him.

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On Wednesday morning after operations had been in progress for some time, when one of our motor despatch riders was cleaning his bicycle in the hotel yard, he found himself surrounded by members of the opposite army who said: "You are under arrest, you are our prisoner." To which he replied: What, before breakfast? Nonsense!" and calmly walked into the hotel. The operations concluded after a week with a magnificent march past at Hungerford, where Field Marshal Lord Roberts took the salute, and as we drove officers of high rank, we were privileged to witness it.

After this I did a great deal of duty generally attending staff rides or operations on a small scale, or sometimes instructing the young idea at Sandhurst. On these occasions I was very much struck by the careful training and the amount of hard work which nowadays goes to the making of an officer. After two or three years General French introduced motors into the army proper and we were turned into officers in order to distinguish us from army drivers and make it less embarrassing for us to attend officers' messes. A little later there was another change and we were transformed into a definite branch of the army under the name of the Army Motor Reserve. It thus happened that I twice had the honour of receiving His Majesty's commission as an officer whilst still technically a convicted felon, surely rather a rare experience.

Our next manœuvres of importance were the Essex manœuvres in 1904, where we were housed under canvas in a portion of Colchester Barracks. Day after day I had to be on duty at 5 a.m. with my car after getting up in a cold and dripping tent by the light of one candle. As practically the whole country except the roads was out of bounds on account of the crops, these manœuvres were of no importance except so far as the imaginary hostile landing at Frinton was concerned. By this time motors had become a regular part of the equipment of an army, and our services gradually ceased to be of importance, and we were finally disbanded a year or two before the Great War. Colonel Mayhew, however, deserves all credit for his energy in getting the force together and demonstrating the value of the motor to the army some years earlier than they would have found it out for themselves. Nor is anyone who was ever connected with the Corps likely to forget the invariable tact and kindness of our adjutant, Major Skeffington-Smyth.

I

CHAPTER XXXI

I PRACTISE THE LAW

HAD had a good deal of experience of litigation: I had seen a good deal of law and lawyers and I had attended a good many trials in Court and watched them with interest. I had always had a great liking for the law, and having been very much impoverished with the enormous expenses of my matrimonial litigation I thought I might consider the Bar as a means of earning a livelihood. So in 1899 I was admitted as a student of Gray's Inn and proceeded to eat my dinners and read for the Bar. The first examination is Roman Law, and I had been told that this was a mere farce and very little knowledge was required, so I confined myself to getting it up from Killick's Handbook, as the subject did not interest me in itself. I was ignominiously ploughed so I proceeded to take it more seriously but was ploughed again. By this time my back was up, so I studied Roman Law thoroughly and successfully and passed second class. Like any other subject, once you began really to study it it became interesting, but it was a curious sensation to sit for examination and write examination papers at the age of thirty-six. I was then advised to take Ernest Cockle as a tutor. He was a member of my Inn not long called who had passed his examinations with extraordinary brilliance and whose knowledge of the law was wonderful. He was also a very good tutor because he did not confine himself to merely rubbing in facts and cases, but he always enabled one to appreciate the ratio decidendi and see the foundations upon which the superstructure was reared. I therefore much enjoyed my coaching with him and I continue permanently indebted to him for my apprehension of the principles of English Law.

He himself was not fortunate: he had not got the forensic manner was no good with a jury and did not care about facts: and as a junior cannot expect to be exclusively employed in the Court of Appeal arguing points of law, his practice was exiguous. After many years his industry and his learning were rewarded, and he was doing

work for the Attorney-General, when with that ill-luck which always pursued him he died.

Mollie always had a grudge against the poor man because he inadvertently sat on a favourite and tame bird when he was teaching me and never observed it until the end of the lesson when on rising the corpse was disclosed. He also was not tactful and once when he was driving with Mollie he said: "There's dear old Bow Street." As my arrest and detention in Bow Street had caused her extreme anguish she hotly resented the remark. Our studies were interrupted by my visit to America and by my imprisonment, but resumed again afterwards. The Benchers of Gray's Inn, like most lawyers, regarded my conviction for bigamy with the contempt which it deserved and made no bones about retaining a convicted felon on the books of the Inn. Thanks to Cockle's assistance I contrived to pass the rest of my examinations without discredit and found the whole thing very interesting. I was finally called on the 17th May, 1905.

cases.

After being called, I read for some time in the Chambers of my old friend, Graham, who was a junior with a large practice in patent He was very kind to me although severe when I had not drawn the papers he gave me properly and he also allowed me to come into Court with him and watch the actual conduct of a case. He had in the same chambers Hedderwick who afterwards became a stipendiary. Graham also occasionally allowed me to attend consultations with his lay clients, from which an intelligent person may derive many useful hints. I profited by my experience in his chambers, but when afterwards he took silk I had of course to leave.

I then set up in chambers with Cockle at 2 New Court and waited for briefs. Here I had as tenant another member of my Inn, Graham Mould, whose industry and common sense have been rewarded by a growing practice. I was fortunate in obtaining a good many briefs owing to my motoring connexions and spent a good deal of my time running about to local Police Courts defending motorists. I remained in active practice for about five years and during that time I appeared in almost every possible court except the Palatine Court and the Stannaries. I was once offered a brief for a judgment in the House of Lords, but had to decline it as it was against the suffragettes. Stroud of the Judicial Dictionary was also my tenant for a year or two before his death.

We had great fun in our chambers and Cockle, Mould and I used generally to meet at least once a day and discuss real or hypothetical cases. Mould had a beautiful one which I believe he