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

TEE BAR AND THE BEARD. The Government and the Corporation of
-0-- i London.

(From the London Review.)
We be:ieve we are committing no flagrant breach
of confidence when we mention than the present
season brings with it a cause of much anxiety, not
to say anguish, of mind to more than one member
of the Inns of Court. During the Long "Vacation,
'which has just closed, they have been wandering
too and fro about the earth, among fields and fiords,
peaks and passes, mcors and mountains, and have
come home again not only with faces tanned, and
constitutions invigorated, but with a " knightly
growth" about their manly lips. For a month or
two 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-
e Ayes with the reflection that now they need not
dread lest the eyes of any adored Angelica should
draw a disparaging comparison between their bare
f ;CE3 and the full, crisp moustache of you ng de Boots,
tae Guardsman, or the flowintsn' 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
Supposed 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
hose and "great bryches, after the Dutch, Spanish,
or Alman fashion." In Henry VIII.,
s day it was a
rule in Lincoln's-inn that "no fallow of the house
being in commons or at his repast should wear a
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 flue, 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 growth, under penalty of forfeiting
3s. 4d. 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 ill '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
met with a similar fate. At present there is, as far
as we know, no written law on this grave subject.
Custom, of eourse, prescribes the white wig and
shaven face; but if we trace the fashion back, we
shall 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
hands on a pillar 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
frooa baldness on account of it. In the House of
Commons you can generally pick out the lawyers by
their bare pates. An academie cap, which was
onco 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
bo doubted whether the old philosopher was right
who hoped great things of any young gentleman
who was " cnrious 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 Elizabeth'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
tent pis pour la perruque.
~,As it is, boards have found admission to vari;us
departments of the Bar—to the Parliamentary Cam-
Mittee-roorns, for instance, and one or two of the
regular courts. It is only a few legal martinets
`3ll the Bench who frown on them, and who throw
sarcastic hints that they cannot see who is ad-
dresaie
of hair° tar In when concealed behind a growth
selves, hy the attorneys, who have them-
beard Ineve_ee way, very generally adopted the
suser...ptibmilajean arc afraid of irritating the judicial
ploying a spokesman who does
not resix:ct the traditional
ber of men in good ni"al proprieties. If a num-
Zee ice would only unite toge-
ther on this point
rule that a barrister might soon establish the
a wzght to follow the usages
of the scciety among
the comfort of a beard if 44., he moves, and to enjoy
'Pleas
went, indeed, is not unfre.,a es. Such an agree-
season ; but when terra da; ::Irt,lY made about this
one of the conspirators who there is seldom
in his mouAtsce, which g„d "t show a little
h
.p 4411 Y widens briefs come in. Jost now we hear of ens as the
who have made a vow not to givnza
man n resolute
respect ;
Whether they -will !ay in this
eP It with an
; remains to be seen. The cqual m.nc. only 8
afe and
n such a matter should be
legitime:e lain o
the old
•leelfeci by the Middle Temple t
one prom ' -llat 18tv
ery
i'-teth so that his apparel
man may go as he ,
tonness in the wearer Pr-
etend no lightness or wan; for
him to be, eve,
so
even as his apparel da,n show
shall he be estf:emed."

The Suspected Arson at Aylsham,

Dr. Ager, the principal of the Aylsham Col-
louah-
lEgiste School, and the inventor of lo•er s p
ing m,citine, has been charged, at a meeting of
the county magistrates, at the Corn Eschange,
Ay!shorn, before Colonel Fitzroy, the Rev. H. F.
W.
T Jex
Marsham, W. Burroughs, Esq., and 11'•
Blake, Esq., with having feloniously set fire to
his own house, on Saturday week. The court
was crowded to excess during the hearing of the
case, and'n large number of persons waited out-
side to hear the result of the case. The accused
was defended by Mr. Simms R98'70, instructed by
Mr. Abel Tillett, and was accommodated with a
seat by the side of his solicitor. The case had
excited some considerable interest from the high
position 0 ,‘ •
c,up;ed by the accused, and by the
publicity that had been given to the case. The
theory of the prosecution was, that at 3 o'clock
on Saturday week, a fire occurred at Dr. Ager's
house, in the false
ceiling
there, that such fire
was the work of an incendiary, and that Dr. Ager
was the most probable person who set fire to the
house. Henry Liston, head of the faro brigade;
William Aftlis, police_ the
• Superintendent
Chamber;, William Bereford Baker, and Felix Wal-
pole,
two of Dr, Ager's pupils,and
Mr. Jacob Mid-
dleton, the agent of the Norwich
%anion Insurance
• mined for the prosecution. Were eXct n. After a short
the doors being open
consultation, on ed , the Bench
expressed how painful y had the inquir been to
them, but they were happy to say they had now a
more pleasurable duty to perform, informing Dr.
Ager that the case was dismissed. There was much
applause in court and among the crowd gathered
outside.

Within the Let few days the retiring Li? d Mayor
(Mr. Alderman Rose) is understood to h ive put him-
self in communication with the P e Minister
upon the events of great national in'e.i eat and re-
joicing which have happened in his year of office,and
in connexion with which the corporation of the city
of London conceive themselves to have been slighted
by the Crown in the persons of their chief magistrate
and the sheriffs. For some time past there has been a
certain feeling of disappointment in the corpora-
tion that no mark of royal favour such as is cus-
tomary on the occasion of a State visit totheLcoirtyd
by the Sovereign has been bestowed on the
Mayor for the time being, in consideration of cir-
cumstances fresh in the public recollection, and in
which the citizens played a conspicuous and hon-
ourable part at a period of universal joy. It is said
that this feeling of dissatisfaction is not confined to
the members of the corporation, and that the omis-
son, if such it be, is a theme of general remark.
Perhaps at no time, it is observed, have events oc-
curred in a single year in which the happiness of
the reigning family and the welfare of the nation
at large were more bound up, or with respect to
which the city of London, always foremost in loyalty
and public spirit, set a more conspicuous and muni-
ficent example of devotion to the Throne than in
that of the late Lord Mayor. There was the com-
ing of age of the heir apparent, then the entry into
the metropolis of the royal lady destined to be his
bride, followed immediately afterwards by the mar-
riage of their royal highnesses, and, lastly, the mag-
nificent entertainment of the illustrious pair by the
corporation in the Guildhall, and upon which, to-
gether with the royal reception on the 7th March,
the civic authorities expended a sum of about
£60,000. Here was an occasion, it is urged, if ever
there was or could be one, on which a chief magis-
trate of the city, as representing the only munici-
pality in the metropolis on which the duty devolves
of entertaining royal and distinguished personages,
might fairly have expected some mark of approba-
tion from his Sovereign. It was not till the eleventh
hour, after the members of the corporation had
looked in vain for the coveted distinction, that the
Lord Mayor felt it his duty to put himself in com-
munication with the Minister of the Crown on the
subject, and this he is understood to have done at
the expense of some violence to his own feelings, as
may well be imagined. A reply was received from
Lord Palmerston on Saturday stating reasons,
founded upon precedents, why he had not felt it his
duty to advise her Majesty to bestow any special
mark of favour on the Lord Mayor on this occasion,
memorable though it was. This communication is
said to have been to the effect that neither on the
coming of age nor the marriage of the Queen was
the Lord Mayor for the time raised to the dignity
of baronet ; that, as a rule, that honour was re-
served for occasions on which the reigning Sove-
reign paid a state visit to the city in person ; and
that were dignities expected to be conferred when
the younger members of the Royal family visited
the city or were entertained by the corporation, the
effect might be to restrict the freedom of their in-
tercourse with the citizens. It was true that to the
rule referred to there had been exceptions—for ex-
ample, on the opening of the Coal Exchange, and
on the visit to the city of the Emperor and Empress
of the French, on both which occasions honours
were bestowed on the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs,
though the Queen was not present ; but although
on the former occasion her Majesty was prevented
attending by sudden indisposition, she was repre-
sented at the ceremony by the Prince Consort; and
with respect to the visit of the Emperor and Em-
press of the French, dignities were conferred on the
three principal civic authorities, in consideration of
its being an event of great international interest.
At the same time Lord Palmerston is said to have
borne his testimony to the great gratification which
the reception of the Princess and the subsequent
entertainment of the Prince and her Royal High-
ness by the Corporation of London had afforded the
Queen and the rest of the Royal family, and to have
expressed his regret that he could not, consistently
with usage, advise her Majesty to bestow any spe-
cial mark of distinction on the municipality of Lon-
don in the person of its chief representative.

Letter from a Lady in Mississippi.--Fight

in a Church,

We have been favoured with the following ex-
tracts from a letter to a gentleman in Saltcoats,
from his sister in Mississippi:—
" A week has passed since the date of my letter,
but how great a change in so short a time Know-
ing how stories grow, I thought I would relieve
you of all uneasiness.

" I went, on Sunday morning, with Mr. and
Mrs. A., to church; and four ladies occupying the
pew, of course turned papa out, I taking his accus-
tomed seat. In the assembly were the captain of
the gunboat now stationed at Rodney, three or four
officers, and about 16 marines. The captain was in
citizen's dress, he and his marines sitting on the
left-hand side, but two marched in among the
ladies. Just before the sermon was to commence, I
saw several people turn very quickly and look out.
I followed their example, and saw some Confede-
rate cavalry outside. Before I could move a gun
was rointed through the doorway, and - Sur-
render Then commenced confusion. How the
ladies did scream ! Some jumped out of the win-
dows. The captain immediately surrendered ; but
one of the officers ran up in the corner by our pew,
and as soon as the Confederate opened the door
would fire, and then dodge. The Confederate being
on the outside, would open 'the door just enough
for his use when he wished to fire. There the
two kept up their duel right in my face, and Pro-
vidence alone saved me, for I stood up and looked
on. There was firing across the church toc. A ball
scratched our fathet's face. Through it all I could
not help laughing at some ridiculous scenes. Miss
-- (of Glasgow) was saying, What shell Ido P'
Her countryanm (Mr. A.) came to her rescue, told
her to get under the pew. She obeyed quickly, all
the time saying her prayers. We had only eight
men. They left immediately with their prisoners.
Shelling then began. We hurried out of town, but
thinking of something we wanted went back. A
great many shells fall during the afternoon. One
went through the cupola of the church. The week
after you left Dan took up his quarters in ' Yankee-
dom.' The last report we have of him he had been
shot by his Yankee friends for some bad behaviour.
" The rest of the home servants remain faithful,
!led I think they deserve great credit, for whereas
7
9 poor negroes are crazy about the Yankee
"ci 'freed° ' they seem to have the good sense
~o stay at m
Y'a Berl, home with a kind master. Two of Mrs.
r ants returned lately from the Yankees, and
re ort 28
care if all
two aegroeus
°f her servants dead. I know of only
'who have left Rodney, but I would not
importance." wer t° go' They are not of so much

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