LEGAL ANTIQUITIES.
In the sixth year of the reign of Edward III. (a. d. 1333), when the lawyers had just established themselves in the convent of the Temple, and had engrafted upon the old stock of Knights Templar their infant society for the study of the practice of the common law, the judges of the Court of Common Pleas were made knights, being the earliest instance on record of the grant of the honor of knighthood for services purely civil; and the professors of the common law, who had the exclusive privilege of practising in that court, assumed the title or degree of Frères Serjens, or Fratres Servientes; so the knight and serving brethren, similar to those of the ancient order of the Temple, were most curiously revived and introduced into the profession of the law.
The Frères Serjens of the Temple wore linen coifs, and red caps close over them. (The Serjeants at the present time wear a coif, but instead of a red cap, they wear a powdered wig.) At the ceremony of their admission into the fraternity, the Master of the Temple placed the coif upon their heads, and threw over their shoulders the white mantle of the Temple; he then caused them to sit down on the ground, and gave them a solemn admonition concerning the duties and responsibilities of their profession. They were warned that they must enter upon a new life; that they must keep themselves fair and free from stain, like the white garment that had been thrown around them, which was the emblem of purity and innocence; that they must render perfect obedience to their superiors; that they must protect the weak, succor the needy, reverence old men, and do good to the poor.
The Knights and Serjeants of the Common Law, on the other hand, have ever constituted a privileged fraternity, and always address one another by the endearing term brother.
The religious character of the ancient ceremony of admission into this legal brotherhood, which took place in church, and its striking similarity to the ancient mode of reception into the fraternity of the Temple, are curious and remarkable.
"Capitalis Juslitiarius," says an ancient MS. account of the creation of Serjeants-at-Law in the reign of Henry VII., "monstrabat eis plura bona exempla de coram prædeccssoribus, et tunc posuit les coyfes super eorum capitibus et induebat eos singulariter, de capitæ de skarletto, et sic creati fuerunt servientes ad legem."
In his admonitory exhortation, the Chief-Justice displays to them the moral and religious duties of their profession. "Ambulate in vocatione in quá vocati estis. Disce cultum Dei, reverentiam superioris, misercordiam pauperi." He tells them the coif is "sicut vestis candida et immaculata," the emblem of purity and virtue; and he commences a portion of his discourse in the Scriptural language used by the Popes in the famous bull conceding to the Templars their vast spiritual and temporal privileges: "Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum decursum est descendens a patre luminum," etc.
The Frères Serjens of the Temple were strictly enjoined to "eat their bread in silence," and "place a watch upon their mouths;" and the Frères Serjens of the law, we are told, after their admission did "dyne together with sober countenance and lytel communycacion."—Legal Observer.
There was in England, in ancient times, a Chief Justiciar, and likewise from very remote times a Grand Justiciar in Scotland, with very arbitrary power. In that country, when the judges going on circuit approach a royal burgh, the Lord Provost universally comes out to meet them, with the exception of Aberdeen, of which there is by tradition this explanation. Some centuries ago, the Lord Provost, at the head of the magistrates, going out to meet the Grand Justiciar at the Bridge of Dee, the Grand Justiciar, for some imaginary offence, hanged his lordship at the end of the bridge, since which the Lord Provost of Aberdeen has never trusted himself in the presence of a judge beyond the walls of the city.—Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors.
FACETIÆ.
Judge Kirwan was one of the wittiest and most amusing men who ever sat upon the Irish bench. He was known as "the poor man's magistrate," and his judgments were so full of fun that the prisoner often left the dock for the prison in screams of laughter. On one occasion a poor man was summoned for selling apples on a Sunday, and the majority of the bench were for punishing him
