one had been presented to him by a King's
Counsel; who, when a junior was advancing in practice, took an
opportunity of complimenting him on his increase of business, and giving
him his own bag to carry home his papers. It was then a distinction to
carry a bag, and a proof that a junior was rising in his profession. I
do not know whether the custom prevailed in other courts." From this it
appears that fifty years since the bag was an honorable distinction at
the Chancery bar, giving its bearer some such professional status as
that which is conferred by 'silk' in these days when Queen's Counsel are
numerous.

The same professional usage seems to have prevailed at the Common Law
bar more than eighty years ago; for in 1780, when Edward Law joined the
Northern Circuit, and forthwith received a large number of briefs, he
was complimented by Wallace on his success, and presented with a bag.
Lord Campbell asserts that no case had ever before occurred where a
junior won the distinction of a bag during the course of his first
circuit. There is no record of the date when members of the junior bar
received permission to carry bags according to their own pleasure; it is
even matter of doubt whether the permission was ever expressly accorded
by the leaders of the profession--or whether the old restrictive usage
died a gradual and unnoticed death. The present writer, however, is
assured that at the Chancery bar, long after _all_ juniors were allowed
to carry bags, etiquette forbade them to adopt bags of the same color as
those carried by their leaders. An eminent Queen's Counsel, who is a
member of that bar, remembers that when he first donned a stuff gown,
he, like all Chancery jurors, had a purple bag--whereas the wearers of
silk at the same period, without exception, carried red bags.

Before a complete and satisfactory account can be given of the use of
bags by lawyers, as badges of honor and marks of distinction, answers
must be found for several questions which at present remain open to
discussion. So late as Queen Anne's reign, lawyers of the lowest
standing, whether advocates or attorneys, were permitted to carry
bags;--a right which the junior bar appears to have lost when Edward Law
joined the Northern Circuit. At what date between Queen Anne's day and
1780 (the year in which Lord Ellenborough made his _debut_ in the
North), was this change effected? Was the change gradual or sudden? To
what cause was it due? Again, is it