394
T/ie Green Bag.
cession, and emphatically indicating that the real ecclesiastical thanksgiving service would take place in the Cathedral on the Sunday morning. This intimation at once accom plished its object, and representatives of every form of English life and activity began to approach the Dean's Chapter of St. Paul's with a view to obtaining permission to wit ness the spectacle at this juncture. It occurred to a learned member at once of the chancery bar and of the House of Laymen, Mr. Digby Thurman, that there was a favorable opportunity for initiating a movement which would be a worthy expres sion of the loyalty not only of the bar to their sovereign but also the germ of an annual Anglican messe rouge. He suggested to the attorney general, Sir Richard E. Webster, that the Dean might be invited to provide ac commodation in the Cathedral for a certain number of barristers at the afternoon service which is attended on the 2Oth of June (Ac cession Day) every year by the judges in state. The attorney general cordially ac cepted the suggestion but premised that be fore he moved in the matter a memorial signed by an adequate number of Queen's Counsel and outer barristers should be pre sented to him, requesting his intervention. Fifty or sixty representative signatures were obtained without the least difficulty, and Sir Richard Webster preferred his petition to the Dean. Unwittingly that distinguished ecclesiastic, Dr. Robert Gregory himself, gave a great impetus to the messe rouge idea. He invited the bar to send representatives to the morning service, at which there would be not only special thanksgiving, but a high celebration of communion after it, instead of to the more prosaic state function in the afternoon. The offer was at once accepted, and the attorney general forthwith nominated two honorary secretaries (Mr. Wood Renton and Mr. Digby Thurman) to make the necessary arrangements on behalf of the bar. A circular was issued, inviting barristers to apply for admission before a certain day and
to state in their applications whether or not they desired to bring ladies with them. With in a few days no less than three hundred ap plications were received — Roman Catholics, Jews, Unitarians, and other leaders of Protes tant non-conformity being among the appli cants. Meanwhile matters had been develop ing at the Cathedral itself. It had become known that the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the royal family proposed to attend the service. Immediately there was a rush on the space at the Dean's disposal for which even the spacious premier Cathedral was unable to provide a comfortable distribution. The governor and company of the Bank of England, royal societies of endless descrip tion, peers and peeresses, the heads of the medical profession, one and all politely but firmly insisted on seats being allotted to them, with the result that in the long run the Dean was obliged to restrict the accommodation of the bar to two hundred tickets (one hunand fifty with, and fifty without, ladies). It remained for the secretaries to stem the tor rent of applications, allot the available tickets, and satisfy unsuccessful applicants as best they might. A notice was at once in serted in the papers stating that the list was closed. But forensic impetuosity was not to be restrained by paper barriers. Written and personal applications flowed in by fifties a day and soon the list had reached the goodly number of seven hundred. Then came the distribution. The principle adopted was simple and equitable. The gates were closed against the four hundred " after-time" applicants with rigor. Among the three hun dred that remained priority was assigned to Queen's Counsel and to the signatories of the original memorial to the attorney general, and then the applicants were taken in strict order of seniority, a process which included those who were called to the bar in 1876. For some days after the final allotment of tickets, however, the waves of forensic excite ment continued to surge with considerable
