The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-09 00:00:00

T 1 LE BB

-

AND THE BEARD.

(From the London Review.)
We belic IV' a we are committing no flagrant breach
of confide ne when we mention than the present
season hr. gigs with it a cause of much anxiety, not
to say ar Guish, of mind to more than one member
of the I. ans of Court. During the Long Vacation,
which has just closed, they have been wandering
too an d fro about the earth, among fields and fiords,
peaks, and passes, moors and mountains, and have
come 'home again not only with faces tanned, and
coast itutions invigorated, but with a " knightly
gro•sth" about their manly lips. For a month or
tvro they have enjoyed the sweet experience of total
abstinence from the rasping of the razor. Perhaps
they have learned to think that the result is rather
becoming than otherwise, and have flattered them-
selves with the reflection that now they need not
dread test the eyes of any adored Angelica should
draw a disparaging comparison between their bare
faces and the full, crisp moustache of young de Boots,
the Guardsman, or the flowing beard of Harde Cashe,
the banker, which a Sheik might envy, and which,
as he walks along, " streams like a meteor to the
troubled air." Alas, this satisfaction was destined
to be of but short duration. Before the fatal 2d of
November, the cherished crop had to fall a sacrifice
to an old fashioned professional prejudice. It is
tvapposed that the etiquette of the Bar proscribes the
conjunction of a moustache and a horse-hair wig.
There is, however, no absolute law to that effect.
In olden times, indeed, when the benchers pre-
sumed to dictate to the students what they should
wear, as well as what books they should read, there
were edicts against beards as well as against slashed
lose and 41 great bryches, after the Dutch, Spanish,
or Alman fashion." Henryln VIII.'s day it was a
rule in Lincoln's-inn that
no fellow of the house
his repast should wear a
being in commons or at
beard ;" which reminds one of the famous prohi-
bition at the Bank of England of moustaches "dur-
ing business hours:Any transgressor was sub-
jected to a fine, and '
if obdurate, to expulsion from
the hall. Under Qaeen Elizabeth it was ordered
that no fellow should wear any beard above a
fortnight's under penalty of forfeiting
growth,
s4al
for the first offence, and 6s. Bd. for the
second, while the third entailed banishment from
the House. This punishment was certainly severe
enough, and one would have expected to find it an
effectual deterrent ; yet it proved of no more avail
than Canute's memorable interdict to the rising sea.
Fashion triumphed over all the terrors of the Bench.
'The students vied with each other in the enormity
of their beards ; and at last the authorities, finding
it impossible to check the growth of the impropriety,
wisely made a virtue of necessity, and cancelled the
idle and obnoxious law. Similar injunctions seem
to have been issued at the other Inns, and to have
MO; with a similar fate. At present there is, as far
as we know, no written law on this grave subject.
Custom, of course, prescribes the white wig and
shaven face; bat if we trace the fashion back, we
Phan find that it was adopted merely because it
happened to prevail in general society. When
beards were general, lawyers wore them too. Bacon
had one, as well as Shakespeare; and we all know
how Lord Chancellor Hatton's

Bushy beard and shoe-strings green,
His high-crowned hat and satin doublet,
Moved stout heart of Britain's queen,
Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it.
When beards went out and wigs came in, the
Bar followEd the general usage. In the revolu-
tionary days, when people took to displaying their
hair au naturel, the three learned professions, the
Church, Law, and Physic adhered to the cauliflower
wig. It is not so long since the archbishops used to
wear wigs as long and imposing as the Lord Chan-
cellor's; and the late Dr. Sumner always wore a
small one, much like that of a Belgrave•square
coachman on a levee day. Both the clergy and the
doctors have, however, now entirely given up this
article of apparel. The lawyers and aristocratic
Jehus are alone conservative in this respect.
-It would perhaps be deemed like laying profane
han,ds on a pillai of the constitution, or one of the
bulwarks of the empire, if we hinted that the wig is
a foolish superfluity. There is scarcely a man at the
Bar over middle age, who does not suffer more or less
frora baldness on account of it. In the House of
Commons you can generally pick out the lawyers by
their bare pates. An academic cap, which was
once a regular part of the forensic uniform, would
be much more becoming and convenient than the
ridiculous horse-hair wig. However that may be,
'we put in a plea for beards for barristers. It may
be doubted whether the old philosopher was right
who hoped great things of any young gentleman
'who was " curious in fine moustachios," because
the contemplation of them would give rise to " mas-
culine and courageous notions." There was some
meaning, however, in the reason which a worthy
divine of E:izabeth's time gave for cultivating one
of the longest and largest beards in the kingdom,
" that no act of his life might be unworthy of the
gravity of his appearance." Only think of the dig-
nified 'solemnity of a bench of Aarons, and a bar
which followed the example at 'a respectful distance.
If the wig and the beard won't do together, then
taut pis pour la perruque.
As it is, beards have found admission to various
departments of the Bar—to the Parliamentary Com

anittee-rooms, for instance, and one or two of the
regular courts. It is only a few legal martinets
upon the Bench who frown on them, and who throw
qznt sarcastic hints that they cannot see who is ad-
4/easing them when concealed behind a growth
°f hair, Hence the attorneys, who have them-
riles, by the way, very generally adopted the
...laud
eaa___._.li.movement, are afraid of irritating the judicial
no;;Pestipbect lee by employing a spokesman who does
of
ram the traditional proprieties. If a num-
ber
ther on thieul B.°°d prae:ice would only unite toge-
rule that at3trlint they might soon establish the
of the society alter has a right to follow the usages
the comfort of og which ho moves, and to enjoy
he pleases. Such an agree-
ment, indeed, is buee/td if
totr !eanently made about this
season ; but when
one of the conspirg"4 w 'lay arrives there is seldom
h
gap in his moustache, whico does not show a little
now
weFradnally widens as the
briefs come in. Just
men who have made a •vew 4near of a dozen resolute
respect ; but whether they vtpt,°,give way in this
:Le only safe and
equal mind remains to be Been " keep it with an
• rr
Ter:puiled.
thatbe the old
legitimate law on such ammidadttleer
hill
a,
p "every
one promulgated by the
man
may go as he listeth, so that
_ Pealtel pre-
tend no lightness or wantonness in the
for
to be, 3
even as his apparel doth show him
even so
shall he be esteemed."