Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/527

 480

churchman urged his searcher to take a pair of gloves from a bundle which had been opened and carefully inspected. Prymme refused to take them until his Holiness had repeatedly assured him that he could take them without fear of bribery. In connection with gift gloves and bribes a notable anecdote is related of the great and high-minded judge, Sir Thomas Moore. It appears that he had recently decided a case in Chancery in favor of a certain lady, who on the following New Year's Day presented his worship with a pair of gloves containing forty pounds in gold as a token of her grati tude. The virtuous judge returned the guineas with the following judicial and diplo matic acceptance of the gloves: "It would be against all good manners to forsake a lady's New Year's gift; but the lining you will be pleased to bestow elsewhere." A singularly beautiful custom once pre vailed in that of presenting the judge with a pair of gloves at a maiden assize. The cus tom in England is of high antiquity, and con sisted of the sheriff presenting a pair of gloves to the judge who had presided over a session of the court which concluded without any one receiving the sentence of death. The clerk of assize and the judge's officers, on the same occasion, were presented with glove silver—money with which to buy gloves. In Scotland a still more beautiful custom consisted of presenting the judge with a pair of white gloves on a maiden circuit: that is, when there was no case for trial. I have been unable to determine whether these cus toms have ever been followed in the United States or whether they still obtain in the old country. It is feared that the latter usage has disappeared, because of the increase of crimes by the legislative multiplication of of fences. It is not learned if any antiquarian had found such a rare pair of gloves. So many of these delightful customs are disappearing one after another until it is

reasonable to fear that the dignity of rhe court finally may be merged into the "gen tleman in the shirt-waist," and that the bar will appear in their shirt sleeves and duck trousers or golfing breeks. Among the instances of legal prohibition of the wearing of gloves, a unique and almost forgotten law is to be found in the old records of the city of Boston. It not only prohibits the wearing of gloves under certain circumstances, but also forbids the ancient custom of presenting funeral gloves. A ref erence to this law is found in the Massachusets Centinel of April, 1788. The purpose of this peculiar legislation was to prevent ex cessive expenditure and the lavish display ot mourning garb. It is the only instance of its kind that the writer has been able to find in the legal records of the United States. An article which has borne such a signifi cant part in the affairs of men and nations could hardly escape implication in many questionable affairs; indeed, the glove's rela tion to crime is historic. Perhaps the first historical record regard ing the glove's relation to criminology is that of the unfortunate Queen of Navarre, who was sent a pair of gloves as an embassy and guaranty that she could go among her ene mies in perfect security. So great was her confidence in the pledge that she unhesi tatingly went, and is said to have died from the effects of a pair of poisoned gloves which were presented to her. This infamous breach of faith was also the signal of the beginning of one of the greatest tragedies of fanat icism—St. Bartholomew's massacre. The ancients' who possessed little knowl edge of pathology but greatly exaggerated ideas of the mysterious powers of the poisoner, have recorded numerous instances of death supposed to have been produced by the wearing of an article which had been im pregnated with a deadly poison. The coun sellors of Queen Elizabeth in a long recom mendation to her Majesty, warned her