possible that Lord Campbell and
Causidicus wrote under a misapprehension, when they gave testimony
concerning the usages of the bar with regard to bags, at the close of
the last and the beginning of the present century? The memory of the
distinguished Queen's Counsel, to whom allusion is made in the preceding
paragraph, is quite clear that in his student days Chancery jurors were
forbidden by etiquette to carry _red_ bags, but were permitted to carry
blue bags; and he is strongly of opinion that the restriction, to which
Lord Campbell and Causidicus draw attention, did not apply at any time
to blue bags, but only concerned red bags, which, so late as thirty
years since, unquestionably were the distinguishing marks of men in
leading Chancery practice. Perhaps legal readers of this chapter will
favor the writer with further information on this not highly important,
but still not altogether uninteresting subject.

The liberality which for the last five and-twenty years has marked the
distribution of 'silk' to rising members of the bar, and the ease with
which all fairly successful advocates may obtain the rank of Queen's
Counsel, enable lawyers of the present generation to smile at a rule
which defined a man's professional position by the color of his bag,
instead of the texture of his gown; but in times when 'silk' was given
to comparatively few members of the bar, and when that distinction was
most unfairly withheld from the brightest ornaments of their profession,
if their political opinions displeased the 'party in power,' it was
natural and reasonable in the bar to institute for themselves an 'order
of merit'--to which deserving candidates could obtain admission without
reference to the prejudices of a Chancellor or the whims of a clique.

At present the sovereign's counsel learned in the law constitute a
distinct order of the profession; but until the reign of William IV.
they were merely a handful of court favorites. In most cases they were
sound lawyers in full employment; but the immediate cause of their
elevation was almost always some political consideration--and sometimes
the lucky wearer of a silk gown had won the right to put K.C. or Q.C.
after his name by base compliance with ministerial power. That our
earlier King's Counsel were not created from the purest motives or for
the most honorable purposes will be readily admitted by the reader who
reflects that 'silk gowns' are a legal species, for which the nat