The Order of the Coif

From the PREFACE. The subject of this work has been foreshadowed in the article under the same title in the ' Edinburgh Review' for October, 1878. It has been long projected; the time has arrived when it is required. In this country we have neither a history of the Bench or the Bar, and the Order of the Coif was the first phase of both. Until a comparatively recent time it included the greater portion of the Judges and Lawyers of England. Dugdale, Fortescue, Coke, and Blackstone give us accounts of the Serjeants-at-law and of the Inns of Court. Serjeant Wynne's tract, published in 1765, entitled ' Observations touching the Antiquity and Dignity of the Degree of Serjeant-at-law, ' is the result of very useful researches on the subject before us. In the first Report of the Common Law Commissioners the subject of Serjeants' Inn and the Inns of Court is minutely entered on; and in the "Serjeants' Case," arising out of the so-called mandate from the Crown issued to the Judges of the Common Pleas in 1834, we find in the various arguments of Sir William Follett, Serjeant Wilde, Sir John Campbell (the then Attorney-General), Sir R. Rolfe (the Solicitor-General), and Mr. C. Austin, much learning bearing upon the subject. Serjeant Manning's able and interesting report of this case has very elaborate notes, containing extracts from ancient records more or less relevant. Since these proceedings took place there have appeared a number of biographical works which have entered on the subject of the old Order of Judges and Serjeants of the Coif. In Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices and Lord Chancellors, there are a great many references to Judges and Serjeants, with statements occasionally very inaccurate; in Mr. Foss's laborious work, containing an account of all the Judges and Serjeants of the Coif, there is information far more reliable; and in two vols, published by Serjeant Woolrych1 in 1869, entitled 'Lives of Eminent Serjeants, ' there are special accounts of eminent Serjeants-at-law who were not raised to the Bench, so that Serjeant Woolrych supplies information which Lord Campbell leaves out. The latter objected to include in his account of the English Bench any below Chief Justices; and it must be added that, as a rule, where in any of his books Lord Campbell had occasion to refer to the puisne Judges and Serjeants he generally took the opportunity of doing something more than speak disrespectfully of them. It has been long considered an easy and safe task to disparage the Serjeants-at-law. Their number indeed seems to have been always small, and in the conflict at the Bar as to precedence and privileges, the old order has long been obliged to yield to superior numbers. The Serjeants-at-law have been the victims of endless devices to their prejudice, and in the scramble for privilege, the Serjeants' place in Westminster Hall was made to give way without any public advantage being gained. The suggestions here made for reviving the ancient order would in days gone by have been welcomed by all Westminster Hall, and would now probably meet with the approbation of no insignificant part of the present Bench and Bar of England, and of all who respect time-honoured institutions. The venerable Order of the Coif came with the Common Law of England, and ought not to be entirely sacrificed without some effort being made to preserve it....