ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an examination of the colonial legal profession and the recruitment and career patterns of barristers and office-holders in the three principal divisions of the empire in order to assess the validity of applying generalisations about the professions and imperialism to the bar. The three principal divisions include crown colonies ruled directly from London by the Colonial Office; colonies possessing responsible governments; and India. The chapter demonstrates the relationship between the metropolitan bars of the British Isles and those of the three types of colonies differ considerably, but even within each division there were substantial geographical and temporal variations. Advocates who practised in India in the nineteenth century were divided into two classes, namely barristers and vakils. The barristers all qualified in the United Kingdom, predominantly at the inns of court, though some had been trained in Ireland or Scotland.
