The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-03-30
Wiz, and Gowns.

Woman, says Addison, quoting from
forgotten Greek peda2t, is creature
that delights in decorating itself, and
the essayist devotes whole paper in the
Spectator to establish that in all ages she
has taken more pains than man to ado.n
the outside of the head. The ceremony
at the opening of the new law courts by
the Queen tends to modify this exclusive
belief. The Lord Chief Justice in his
SIS collar, the Judges in their full-bot-
toned wigs. the Sergeants in their scarlet
gowns and the Queens counsel in their
silk attire. put in, all of them, such an
appearance rs showed that their valued
decoration generally, and were notquite
careless even about the outside of their
heads. Arguments and case law lay no
doubt in tight-packed layers within but
outside, it the goat hair and the horse
hair, in well-trimmed rows, made the
old men look wise. and some of the
young men look handsome. But in truth
il would be an injustice to the law to
ascribe to vanity what is chiefly the lega-,
cy of past centuries. 1t was said that
no man ever look ed so wise as Lord Thur
low when he had his wig on. But Lord
Thurlow put his wig on, not in order to
look wise, but because whole generations
of chancellors had worn wigs before
him. Law is the most conservative of
all the professions; innovation and re-
form have been busy with it and yet it is
still padded round with mysteries,
fictions and forms which the others have
long ago rejected. There is legend
yet whispered about and fondly believed
in at Westminster that on. the 22d of
July, 1868, so great was the heat the
Judge of the Divorce Court took his
seat on the bench without his wig. The
following day several young barris-
tiers followed this revolutionary pre-.
cedent, and unless the mercury had
jeopardized. The noble independ-
ence of the law and its proud supe-
riority over convenience and common
sense came out in strong contrast on that
occasion to the selfshness of another
bench. 1t was Bishop Bloomfield, the
late Primate's predecessor, who asked
the Kings permission for Bishop to
dispense with wig. The leave was
easily given; indeed, according to one
version, it was volunteered .jocularly.
The Bishops went over one by one, voted
uncovered, preached in their own hair,
and have left us nothing but the sketch
of DR.. Syntax and the portrait of Bishop
Burnett to remind us of the days when
law and divinity had goats hair in
common. But even at the bar there are
signs of surrender. When the Judges
were banked upon their platform in the
Central Hall on Monday morning their
wigs were not uniform. Some were all
white and in others the white was re-
lieved by circular constructedjhst over
their organ of benevolence. Law is the
perfection of common, sense, and for all
legal attire there is an adequate cause.
This black patch is the colt, and it shows
that the Judge who wears it holds the
degree of Sergeant-at-law. Once it was
a skullcap worn by knight under a
helmet. That was, however, many CEN
turtles ago. In more modern times-a
little before 1900 A. D.-renegade clergy
men used TODD barristers' work andtake
barristers' fees A canon, it is true,
forbade them to act as advocates in secu-
lar courts. buteven then clergymenwere
contumacious. They pleaded for their
clients in the teeth of canonical prohibi-
ton. and they used the coli to hide the
tonsure, ~ One picturesque old annalist.
writing about the year 400, describes
how certain advocate, who was aSer-
geant, having been proved guilty of the
grOssest malversation, was sentenced to
death. He pleaded his benefit of clergy,
and untying the threads of his Golf, dis
closed the tonsure. The plea, however,
was no bar to the action of the execu-
TONER, and he vas hurried of fromfthe
judgment seat to the gallows. For six
centuries the Sergeants remained-in I'M
disturbed possession of that little black
patch. They had their own rights and
their own inn. Queens counsel were of
mushroom growth compared to them;
their first silk gown was almost of modern
date. Francis Bacon (afterward Lord
Verulam) assumed it some time in the
sixteenth century. The Sergeants dated
with the thirteenth. And for centuries
Judges. before they had the honor of
being made Judges. had tie honor of
being made Sergeants; and so it was they
called the Sergeants their brethren, and so
it vas they. too, had the little black patch |
on the summit of their wigs. But Rgisla- |
ton has latterly been very cruel to them. |
The Judicature act has exit guished the |
order, and the forensic wig maker has |
sold off all his colts. The Judges created
before the year 1878 preserve the old
custom but all subsequent Judges have
the white hair unspotted when they take
their seats upon the bench. ~ Il
IF oil of a u-irr I
Indeed, at one time our bar is said to
have worn the tocque. not very different
from what the French advocates carry
to the present day. or what Miss Terry
had on when she appeared at Balthasar
before the Dodge. But lawyers always
wore robes, and there W: formerly more
variety, or at least more etiquette. in
their adoption. The customs exist,
but they are not adhered to. The
variety in a Jud ge's robes con-
meets his position with its origin. 1t
was a clerky vestment, and the color
Of it was described by the calendar.
The red gowns were to be worn on red
letter days, the violet on such occasions
IS the church directed, but during a
trial the Judge always wore
red. For the prisoner in the dock, Black
Monday was always q red-letter day.
Even the Sergeants once used to wear
scarlet in court. To the generation of
young barristers it will have been q sur
prise to have seen the few of the old
order who yet remain robed on Monday
IN red. But there are many men at
he bar who can recollect the Sergeants
IN the old courts attired exactly as they
we're attired when the Queen opened the
new courts. The Sergeants, robed in red
was a dignified figure in old legal his
.ory. And he had a singular privilege.
He had the right to remain with his Golf
On in the presence of royalty and needed