The Green Bag.
Published Monthly, at $3.00 per annum.Single numbers, 35 cents.
Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor,
Horace W. Fuller, 15½ Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.
THE GREEN BAG.
THE Law Journal (London) makes the following interesting statement in regard green bag of the lawyer. It is called out citation of authorities upon the subject April number:—
"Our transatlantic contemporary, the 'Green Bag,' is naturally anxious for the propriety of the name he has adopted; but there is consolation for him in the fact that although he has not proved the title of the green bag to be called the badge of a lawyer, he has hit on a receptacle for his literary wares sufficiently appropriate and suggestive. Mr. John Cordy Jeaffreson is no doubt an amusing writer on lawyers and doctors and other things, but, like every other writer, his historical statements must be tested by the authorities he gives. The passage from the 'Plain Dealer' clearly does not support the statement that 'on the stages of the Caroline theatres the lawyer is found with a green bag in his hand,' or that 'in Queen Anne's time green bags were as generally adopted by solicitors or attorneys as by members of the bar.' Neither do the statements that 'until a comparatively recent date green bags were generally carried in Westminster Hall and in provincial Courts by the great body of legal practitioners, and that some years have elapsed since green bags altogether disappeared from our courts of law,' help, as no one suggests that green bags did not appear in courts of law. Five-and-twenty years ago a discussion of the subject of green bags was begun in Notes and Queries, and it has not yet ended. On Feb. 23, 1861 (2d S. xi.), appeared the following query;—
"The 'Green Bag.'—What were the contents of the article known as the green bag? Did it contain the papers of the 'delicate investigation' on the conduct of the Princess of Wales in 1806, or the seditious papers presented by Lord Sidmouth to Parliament in 1817 (see Haydn's 'Dictionary of Dates'), or those on Queen Caroline's trial; or were these severally in green bags, and the term applied equally to each series of papers? (2) Is a green bag the usual cover of documents sent from the offices of Ministers of State to Parliament as distinguished from the blue bag of the law? (3) Or has the term 'green bag' a conventional meaning as applied to investigations of a delicate, or may I say indelicate, nature, such as the Spaniard calls Poco verde? {{gap|4em}Verdant Green.
"Twenty years afterwards Mr. Gibbes Rigaud, writing from Oxford, replied as follows (6th S. iv., July 23, 1881):—
"The green bag did not contain the accusations of 1806. These were published in the Book of 1813. The green bags (for there were two) contained all the evidence that had been obtained by the Milan Commission with regard to the Prince's conduct with one Bartholomeo Bergami. The king sent messages to both Houses. Lord Liverpool delivered the one to the Lords, the Lord Castlereagh that to the Commons, and each at the same time laid on the table a green bag containing papers for their consideration. It is not generally known that there were duplicate bags, and that the one in the Commons was never opened. For anything I know to the contrary, the green bag sent to the faithful Commons may still lie sealed and unexamined in the archives of Westminster.
"The statement made on March 9 last that 'attorneys in former times carried green bags, not as part of their professional fitting, but as holding deeds, records, and documents of a more or less official character,' was based on the result of this correspondence from a source to which we look on this side the Atlantic for original research on antiquarian matters."
While authorities thus seem to differ as to whether the green bag is really to be considered as having been a "badge of a lawyer" in times past, the discussion has been one of no little interest. If any of our readers can offer any statements which throw light upon the subject, the Editor would be very glad to receive them.
In response to numerous requests received from our readers we publish in this number an excellent likeness of that greatest of all American advocates, Rufus Choate. For the sketch of his life which accompanies it, we are largely indebted to the "Reminiscences of Rufus Choate," written by Edward G. Parker.
