Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-04-06
Wigs and Gowns.

loLSosDen Greek peda1t, is a creature
tnat uenghts in decorating itself, and
the essayist devotes a whole paper in the
| spectator to establish that in all ages she
mas taken more pains than man TO adorn
the outside OF the head. The ceremony
at the opening of the new law courts by
the Queen tends to modify this exclusive
beiief, The Lord Chief Justice in his
s. 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 not quite
careless even about the outside of their
/ heads. Arguments and case law-lay no
doubt IN tightpacked layers within but
outside 1t the goat hair and the horse
hair, IN well-trimmed rows, made the
old men look wise. and some of the
J young men look handsome. But in truth
It would be an injustice to the law to
! ascrlbe to vanity what is chiefly the lega-
| cy ofpast centuries. It was said that
no man ever looked so wise as Lord Thur
low when he had his wig on. But Lord
Ihurlow 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 IL and vet it is
still padded round with mysteries,
ictions and forms which the others have
long ago rejected. There is a legend
yet whispered about and fondly believed
in at Westminster that on the ed of
July, 1868, so great was the heat the
3 InHnn of tho Go,,rk 80
seat on the bench without his wig. The
following day several young barris-
ters followed this revolutionary pre-
'cedent, and unless the mercury had
fallen the profession would have been
kjeOpardized. l The noble independ-i
ence of the law and its proud supe-
| riority over convenience and common.
sense came out in strong contrast on that
occasion to the selishness of another
bench. 1t was Bishop Bloomfield, the
late Primate's predecessor, who asked
the Kings permission for a Bishop to
dispense with a wig, The leave was
easily given; indeed, according to one
version. it was volunteered iOeulafly.
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 pemind 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 a circular constructed Just over
their organ of benevolence. Law is the
| perfection Of common sense, and fer all
legal attire there is an adequate cause.
This black patch is the colt, audit shows
that the Judge who wears it holds the
degree Of Sergeantatlaw. Once it was
skull-cap worn by a knight under
helmet. That was, however, many GEN.
turtles ago. In more modern times-a
little before 1900 A. D.-renegade clergy
men used TO do harristers' work and take
barristers' fees. A canon, it is true,
forbade them TO act as advocates in secu-
lar courts, but even then clergymen were
contumaciOus. They pleaded for their
clients in the teeth of canonical prohibi-
ton, and they used the Golf TO hide, the
tOnsure. One picturesque old annalist.
writing about the year 400, describes
how a certain advocate, who was, Ser
geaht, 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 was hurried off from the
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 (afterwaro Lord
Verulam) assumed it some timc-in the
sixteenth century. The Sergeants dated
with the thirteenth. And for centuries
Judges, ,before they had the honor of
being made Judges, had e honor of
being de-Sergeants; and soitwasthev
called the Sergeantstheir brethren, nd SO
il was they. too, bad the little black patch
on the summit oftheir wigs. But legisla-
ton has latterly been very cruel to them.
The Judicattire act has cxtir guished the
order, and the forensic wio-maker has
sold off all his colts The Judges created
before the year 1873 preserve the old
custom but all subsequent Judges have
theywhite hair unspotted when they take
their seats upon the bench. 4 10 ~, g F|
Clowns are OF older date than wigs.
Indeed, atone 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 Judges robes con-
meets his position with its o,igin.TIt
was a clerky vestment,, and the color
Of 1t was described by the calendar.
he red gowns were to be worn on red
letter days. the Violet on such occasions
IS the church directed. but during a
criminal trial the Judge always wore
red. For the prisoner in the dock, Black
Monday was always a red-letter day.
Even the Sergeants once used to wear
scarlet in court. To the generation of
Young baiTisters it will have been 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
the bar who can recollect the Sergeants
in the old courts attired exactly as they
were alfred when the Queen opened the
new 'courts. The Sergeants, robed in red
was dignitied figure in old legal his
tory. And he had a singular privilege
He had the right to remain with his Golf
on in the presence of royalty and needed
not to take itof even when in CONVERSE