The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-21

fact tha. as the driver sits on 1ha right. side of the vehicle he will be oetIerI able to meet and pass other convey ances, In railways this rule is almost universal.
 Another English custom in British Columbia affects the publica tiion of morning newspapers. Acting on theI theory that the real work for any, given issue is done on the previous day, in the Pacific province there is mol Monday morning paper. There is, however, one on Sunday, for which the work is done on Saturday These though their learned friend, the wig, has vanished from among them. The iconoclastic legislators who have laid sacrilegious hands on the judges beadgear need not flatter themselves that they are pioneers. A long time ago in England there were legal nihil- ists who aimed at a similar reform, as the following clipping from The Lon don Times of July 24, 1868, proves:
 During the last two days the learned judges and the bar have been sitting without their wigs, and in opening a case Sir Robert Collier called attention to the innovation. and apologized for. not appearing in full forensic costume. His lordship said he had set the ex- ample of leaving off the wig in con- sequence Of the unprecedented heat of the weather. as he thought there were. limits to human endurance. Sir Robert Collier expressed the wish that his precedent might be generally followed, and hoped that the obsolete institution of the wig was coming to an end-a hope in which many of the profession concur"
 But though Sir Robert and Sir J. P. Wilde made themselves thus con- spicuous they died without seeing any further signs of the death of the practice.
 Paradoxical as it is the wig dies hard because it is so old. Strictly speaking, i. came in after the restoration, and has ever since been worn on the English bench, but the wearing of a judicial cap is of earlier origin and dates back as far as English courts of justice. It is not the wig itself which is the judges proper insignia, but the coif, which is probably a survival of the time when priests were lawyers. The coif is a small piece of lace which was worn by judges before the advent of the wig. Members of the judiciary desiring to be fashionable and yet not daring to conceal the sacred coif, were driven to the expedient of having a hole cut through the top of the wig so that the coif might show.
 In the Lord Chief Justices wig to- day may be seen round space covered by black silk. This is the mark of the colf which has since disappeared. It is worth noting that the only time a coif could be concealed was when the judge, pronouncing sentence. donn2d the black cap, and that the original intention of this solemn ceremony was to hide the coif, not the face of the judge. In connection with this custom it is interesting0to observe that when an English judge attends state func- tions in his official capacity he is re- quired to carry with him the black cap.
 counsel we have memorial of the death of a daughter of James II. The court went into mourning, and the juniors, not having a distinctive garb at the time, were quick 10 fasten on the black gown, to which they have chung ever since. though the acute stage of their loyal grief must have passed ere this.
 In the triangular lapel which hangs from the back of the juniors gown we have a vestige of the golden age when lawyers gave their services freely. The piece of cloth was originally pocket in which clients were wont to surrep- titiously insert their fees-much against the lawyers win, we may be sure.
 Every frill and furbelow, every form and ceremony in a court, has It's ev- planation, and however useless any of them may seem to-day, let us, not forget that there was a time when 1t served a useful important purpose,- Toronto Mail and Empire.