VI. we see the parti-colored gowns and clothing of the sergeants, officers of the Court of Chancery, and others represented with great exactness. There are two judges in scarlet robes trimmed with white badger or lambskin, one of whom is uncovered and tonsured, as becomes a priest, the other, the Lord Chancellor and a layman—perhaps the first layman who held that office—wearing on his head a kind of brown cap- This suggests the very natural query, when did judges and lawyers first think it necessary to cover up their heads during professional hours? It probably coincided with the evolution of the lawyer from priest or deacon to layman, and was originally designed to conceal his char acter, which would have been revealed by the tonsured scalp, from the litigants and specta tors. The general head-covering before the clays of wigs was the coif, which, like tin: periwig of later times, enjoyed a vogue amongst laymen in the thirteenth century. When they abandoned it, it was continued by the priests and lawyers. It was originally of white linen, and tied under the chin like a child's night-cap. In the fifteenth century ... its resemblance to a modern Wig on the heads of the three sergeants at the bar is very striking. . . . The coif appears to have undergone little alteration until the adj vent of wigs at the Restoration. Then, as we shall see, it suddenly dwindled in size until today it is represented by an absurd blackpatch on the crown ot the wig. . . . There is still another indispensable and at tractive adjunct to the costume of our higher judicial personages, which we have not yet adverted to. It is fully as ancient as the tex tile portion of the "C.j.'s" official attire. No one has yet correctly ascertained the origin of the collar of the SS. or Esses, but it prob ably appeared first in the reign of Henry IV. The earliest description we have is in a war lrobe account of 1391, in which there is an entry of one collar of gold with seventeen letters "S" made in the shape of feathers with inscriptions on them. . . . The collar, which is now bestowed by the sovereign, was ancientlv described as "the collar of SS- in
433
England, wherewith esquires may be made." The letters S are, as will be seen by the por trait of Sir Edward Coke, linked together by knots and terminate with two portcullises and a pendent rose. It may be added that this identical order of Coke's was in the pos session of and worn by the late Lord Cole ridge on the bench. OF "Malicious Cartoons" Case and Com ment for May says : Great latitude may well be allowed in the use of cartoons, as well as in the discussion of all public questions. On all public mat ters every point of view may properly be presented- Something may be allowed for overstatement and unfairness of presentation during the heat of a contest. But absolute misrepresentation, deliberate, dishonest, and malignant, ought to be regarded, not as a wrong to the individual victim simply, but as a greater wrong to the public. If a public man subjected to such misrepresentation cannot v.istlv take notice of it, or has no adequate remedy, the wrong to the public is of sufficient importance to require the public officials, without any private complaint or suggestion, to prosecute and punish the of fender. A public prosecutor might render great service if, without any political motive or bias, he would impartially prosecute every conspicuous and aggravated case of criminal libel. A VIGOROUS plea for "Reform in Criminal Procedure" is made by Everett P. Wheeler in the Columbia Lais Rivicw for May. He says: In this country, as well as in England, the old severity of penal legislation has been altogether reformed. Hut the old traditions of criminal procedure ' remain. They are totally inapplicable to .existing conditions and require revision as much as the sanguin ary penal code of a century ago. . . . I. The first rule which should be changed is that which requires the jury to be satis fied of the guilt of a prisoner beyond a reasonable doubt. This has enabled mvriads
