treated unfairly in the courts and that would not change until there were black judges on the Bench. The Bench is now virtually all black and we still have the complaints about excessive incarceration of blacks, especially young blacks, and we still have accusations that whites get better treatment in the courts than blacks.

We see this as a major problem because justice must be fair and when you compare "like for like'' sentences it does seem that blacks receive more severe sentences and it also seems that blacks are more likely to go to prison for first or second offences than are whites. There are many factors involved here from sociological aspects to the quality of legal defence to the fact that there are simply more blacks than whites and blacks often live under conditions and in areas where they are more likely to be encouraged to offend against the law. The ins and outs of all of that are very complex, but there is one aspect which concerns us today. That is the lack of born Bermudians on the Bench and in the Crown's legal department as a whole.

In many countries with a British legal system there is a long history of successful members of the Bar moving to the Bench or to senior positions in the service of the Crown. That has not developed to any extent in Bermuda, largely because of the difference between salaries on the Bench and the fees which can be earned in private practice.

Very often, lawyers in private practice complain about the standards on the Bench yet if they and their colleagues refuse to serve then they have little to complain about. It seems to us that all lawyers have to learn that as "friends of the court'' they have a responsibility for what goes on in the entire system and not just what they take home as fat fees. It may be that some young people entering the Bar today can be encouraged to move into the public system because the private profession is becoming crowded. We think it is bad for Bermuda that we are constantly faced with bringing in Attorneys General and judges from outside Bermuda. That was often complained of in the days of the old colonial legal system but the situation is really little different today.

We think it is time for the legal profession to accept its responsibilities and to take its place in Bermuda in every way. How can we talk about such things as Independence and identity and how can we criticise the Crown and the Bench when Bermudians fail to serve?