BARRISTERS--THE COMMON LAW AND THE CHANCERY BARS
BAR DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS--NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN
CRIMINAL AND CIVIL PRACTICE--LEADERS--"TAKING
HIS SEAT" IN A PARTICULAR COURT--"GOING SPECIAL"
--LIST OF SPECIALS AND LEADERS--SIGNIFICANCE OF
GOWNS AND "WEEPERS"--"BANDS"--"COURT COATS"--
WIGS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS--BARRISTERS' BAGS,
BLUE AND RED.
The Bar is divided into two separate parts--the Common Law Bar
and the Chancery Bar; for a barrister does not try cases of both
kinds as in America. The solicitor knows whether he has a law or
equity case in hand, and takes it to the appropriate barrister.
Common law barristers have their chambers chiefly in the Middle
Temple and Inner Temple; chancery men, largely in Lincoln's Inn,
and the two kinds of barristers know little of, and seem even
to have a kind of contempt for, each other. Thus a common law
barrister passes his life in jury trials and appeals; whereas a
chancery man knows nothing but courts of equity, unless he follows a
will case into a jury trial as a colleague of a common law man to
determine an issue of _devisavit vel non_. And there are further
specializations--although the divisions are not so marked--into
probate, divorce or admiralty men. Besides, there is what is known
as the Parliamentary Bar, practicing entirely before Parliamentary
committees, boards and commissions. It is, however, curious that in
England no apparent distinction exists between civil and criminal
practice and common law barristers accept both kinds of briefs
indiscriminately.
At the Chancery Bar there is a peculiar subdivision which has
already been mentioned. Having reached a certain degree of success
and become a K. C., a barrister may "take his seat" in a particular
court as a "leader" by notifying the Judge and informing the other
K. C.'s who are already practising there. Thereafter he can never go
into another, except as a "special," a term which will be explained
presently. For three pence, at any law stationer's, one can buy a
list of the leaders in the six chancery courts, varying in number
from three to five and aggregating twenty-five, and if a solicitor
wishes a leader for his junior in any of these courts he must
retain one out of the limited list available or pay the "special"
fee. Hence, these gentlemen sit like boys in school at their desks
and try the cases in which they have been retained as they are
reached in rotation.
But even for a leader at the Chancery Bar, one more step is
possible, a step which a barrister may take, or not, as he pleases,
and that is: he may go "special." This means that he surrenders his
position as a leader in a particular court and is open to accept
retainers in any chancery court; but his retainer, in addition to
the regular brief fee, must be at least fifty guineas or multiples
of that sum, and his subsequent fees in like proportion. The printed
list also shows the names of these "specials," at present only five
in number. The list of leaders and specials in 1910 reads as
follows:
A LIST OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNSEL
USUALLY PRACTICING IN THE CHANCERY DIVISION
OF THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.
---------------
THE FOLLOWING COUNSEL ARE NOT ATTACHED
TO ANY COURT, AND REQUIRE A SPECIAL FEE:--
Mr. Levett: Mr. Astbury: Mr. Upjohn: Mr. Buckmaster.
---------------
COUNSEL WHO HAVE ATTACHED THEMSELVES TO PARTICULAR COURTS,
ARRANGED IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY ARE ENTITLED TO MOVE:--
--------------------+-------------+------------------------+-----------
Mr. Justice Joyce | Date of | Mr. Justice Warrington | Date of
Lord Chancellor's | Ap'ointment | Chancery Court 2 | Ap'ointment
Court | | |
--------------------+-------------+------------------------+-----------
Mr. T. R. Hughes | 1898 | Mr. Henry Terrell | 1897
Mr. R. F. Norton | 1900 | Mr. T. H. Carson | 1901
Mr. R. Younger | 1900 | Mr. George Cave | 1904
| | Mr. A. C. Clauson | 1910
--------------------+-------------+------------------------+------------
Mr. Justice Eve | Date of |Mr. Justice Swinfen Eady| Date of
| Ap'ointment | Chancery Court 1 | Ap'ointment
--------------------+-------------+------------------------+------------
Mr. P. O. Lawrence | 1896 | Mr. W. D. Rawlins | 1896
Mr. Ingpen | 1900 | Mr. E. C. Macnaghten | 1897
Mr. Dudley Stewart- | | Mr. N. Micklem | 1900
Smith | 1902 | |
Mr. A. H. Jessel | 1906 | Mr. Frank Russell | 1908
Mr. E. Clayton | 1909 | |
====================+=============+========================+============
Mr. Justice Melville| Date of | Mr. Justice Parker | Date of
| Ap'ointment | Chancery Court 4 | Ap'ointment
--------------------+-------------+------------------------+------------
Mr. Bramwell Davis | 1895 | Mr. W. F. Hamilton | 1900
Mr. J. G. Butcher | 1897 | Mr. M. L. Romer | 1906
Mr. C. E. E. Jenkins| 1897 | Mr. E. W. Martelli | 1908
Mr. A. F. Peterson | 1906 | Mr. A. Grant | 1908
Mr. F. Cassel | 1906 | Mr. J. Gatey | 1910
====================+=============+========================+============
NOTE--Counsel attached to the above Courts usually also practice before
the Judge to whom the Companies winding-up matters are attached.
Printed and Published by
THE SOLICITORS' LAW STATIONERY SOCIETY, LIMITED, 22.
CHANCERY LANE, W. C., 29, WALBROOK, E. G., 6, VICTORIA STREET, S. W.
---------------
Chancery forms of all kinds kept in stock.
---------------
Price Threepence.
[Transcriber's Note: In the original text, the section for M.
Justices Melville and Parker appears on the following page, across
from the section for M. Justices Joyce and Washington.]
The dress of barristers is the same for the Common Law Bar as for
the Chancery Bar, but the details of both gown and wig signify to
the initiated much as to the professional position of the wearer.
The difference between the junior's stuff gown and the leader's silk
one has already been referred to, but it is not true that a
barrister having "taken silk," that is, having become a K. C. or a
leader, always wears a silk gown, for, if he be in mourning, he
again wears a cotton gown, as he did in his junior days, but, to
preserve his distinction, he wears "weepers"--a six-inch deep, white
lawn cuff, the name and utility of which originated before
handkerchiefs were invented. Moreover, when in mourning his
"bands"--the untied white lawn cravat, hanging straight down, which
all barristers wear--have three lines of stitching instead of two.
Under his gown, a K. C. wears a "court coat," cut not unlike an
ordinary morning coat, though with hooks and eyes instead of
buttons, while the junior wears the conventional frock coat. On a
hot day, a junior wearing a seersucker jacket and carelessly
allowing his gown to disclose it, may receive an admonition from the
court, whispered in his ear by an officer.
Wigs, which were introduced in the courts in 1670, and have long
survived their disappearance in private life, were formerly made of
human hair which became heavy and unsanitary with repeated greasing.
They required frequent curling and dusting with powder which had a
tendency to settle on the gown and clothing. About 1822, a
wig-maker, who may be regarded as a benefactor of the profession,
invented the modern article, composed of horse hair, in the
proportion of five white strands to one black; this is so made as to
retain its curl without grease, and with but infrequent recurling,
and it requires no powder.
The wig worn by the barrister in his daily practice has already been
described, but, when arguing a case in the House of Lords he has
recourse to an extraordinary head-dress, which is precisely the
shape of a half-bushel basket with the front cut away to afford him
light and air. This, hanging below the shoulders, has an advantage
over the Lord Chancellor's wig in being more roomy, so that the
barrister's hand can steal inside of it if he have occasion to
scratch his head at a knotty problem, whereas his Lordship, in
executing the same manoeuvre, inevitably sets his awry and thereby
adds to its ludicrous effect.
To the unaccustomed eye, the wig, at first, is a complete disguise.
Individuality is lost in the overpowering absurdity and similarity
of the heads. Then, too, there is an involuntary association of gray
hair with years, making the Bar seem composed exclusively of old
gentlemen of identical pattern. The observer is somewhat in the
position of the Indian chiefs, who, having been taken to a number of
eastern cities in order to be impressed with the white man's power,
recognized no difference between them--although they could have
detected, in the deepest forest, traces of the passage of a single
human being--and reported upon returning to their tribes that there
was only one town, Washington, and that they were merely trundled
around in sleeping cars and repeatedly brought back to the same
place.
By degrees, however, differences between individuals emerge
from this first impression. Blond hair above a sunburned neck,
peeping between the tails of a queue, suggests the trout stream
and cricket field; or an ample cheek, not quite masked by the
bushel-basket-shaped wig, together with a rotundity hardly concealed
by the folds of a gown, remind one that port still passes repeatedly
around English tables after dinner. But it must be said that,
while the wig may add to the uniformity and perhaps to the
dignity--despite a certain grotesqueness--of a court room, yet it
largely extinguishes individuality and obliterates to some extent
personal appearance as a factor in estimating a man; and this is a
factor of no small importance, for every one, in describing another,
begins with his appearance--a man's presence, pose, features and
dress all go to produce prepossessions which are subject to revision
upon further acquaintance. One thing is certain, the wig is an
anachronism which will never be imported into America. For the Bar
to adopt the gown (as has been largely done by the Bench throughout
the country) would be quite another matter and it seems to work well
in Canada. This would have the advantage of distinguishing counsel
from the crowd in a court room, of covering over inappropriateness
of dress and it might promote the impressiveness of the tribunal.
The bag of an English barrister is also an important part of his
outfit. It is very large, capable of holding his wig and gown, as
well as his briefs, and suggests a clothes bag. It is not carried by
the barrister himself, but it is borne by his clerk. Its color has a
deep significance. Every young barrister starts with a _blue_ bag
and can only acquire a _red_ one under certain conditions. As
devil, and as junior, it is not considered _infra dig._ to carry his
own bag and he has ever before him the possibility of possessing a
red bag. At last he succeeds in impressing a venerable K. C. by his
industry and skill in some case, whereupon one morning the clerk of
the K. C. appears at the junior's chambers bearing a _red_ bag with
his initials embroidered upon it--a gift from the great K. C.
Thereafter he can use that coveted color and he may be pardoned for
having his clerk follow him closely for awhile so there may be no
mistake as to the ownership. Custom requires him to tip the K. C.'s
clerk with a guinea and further exacts that the clerk shall pay for
the bag, which costs nine shillings and sixpence, thus, by this
curious piece of economy, the clerk nets the sum of eleven shillings
and sixpence and the K. C. is at no expense.