Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/486

 The Lawyer s Patron Saint. of the Cabinet and of our diplomatic and consular officers, to ceremonious communi cations from the President to foreign govern ments, to treaties, pardons, proclamations, exequaturs to foreign consular officers in this country, and to miscellaneous commis sions of certain civil officers. The commissions of postmasters are made out with the seal of the post-office depart ment; commissions of officers of the inte rior department are made out with the seal of that department; likewise Federal judi ciary officials, such as marshals and attor neys, are appointed under the seal of the department of justice. In various countries nowadays the authen ticity of a treaty with another power is at tested by a large pendant wax seal, the cords that run through the paper being carried through the wax. As the wax

443

would otherwise be quite certain to break and the cords become detached, a metal box, usually of gold or silver, is used to cover and protect the wax impression. Our own great seal was thus attached to treaties up to the year 1869, when the practice was abandoned. The impression on the paper itself, with a thin white wafer, is used upon treaties as well as other instruments to which the seal is affixed. In the new great seal, now cutting, there will be thirteen olives on the olive branch, and the eagle's claws will be turned forward and not backward, as in the preceding three. Otherwise the new design will fol low closely that of the present great seal, except that details will be treated more artistically, and the whole will be more beautifully executed, thanks to the progress of modern engraving. — Boston Herald.

THE LAWYER'S PATRON SAINT. By John De Morgan. IT is a custom in England for the judge and members of the bar to attend the parish church on the Sunday prior to the opening of the Assize Court, and after the long va cation all the judges, benchers, and barris ters attend church on a day set apart for a special service just before the opening of the Law Courts. Every guild and old foundation society is supposed to have a patron saint, and it has often been asked what saint in the calendar the lawyers claim as their own. An old legend, often retold by lawyers at public dinners of their fraternity, says that a famous Brittany lawyer once appealed to the Pope for the appointment of a saint. The Pope proposed that he should go round a certain church, blindfolded, and lay hold of the saint nearest to his hand. Following

the suggestion he stopped and grasped a cer tain figure, crying, " This be our patron saint! " When the bandage was removed from his eyes he found that though he had stopped before the shrine of St. Michael, to his horror he had laid hold, not of St. Michael, but of the figure under St. Michael's feet, which was a marble representation of the devil. " You have made your choice, my son," said the Pope, " and I do not see that I can interfere." From that day to the present the devil has been looked upon, in jesting, as the pa tron of the lawyers. About a century ago the " Legal Associa tion " of London, consisting of both barris ters and lawyers, established a volunteer corps for the defence of the country against invasion. When these legal volunteers were