

SERJEANT. 



SKRM'iN. 



-. rjeanU* Inn Hll the judges and serjeant*. u members of the 

 Society of Serjeant.' Inn. dine together during term time. 



Formerly very tplendid uxl expensive entertainment* were given by 

 Uw new Serjeant* upon Uieir reception into the order. About a century 

 go thu custom wa discontinued, and instead of festivities at ill. ir 

 joint expenee, each Serjeant paid 10W. to the Treasurer of the - 

 of SerjeanU' Inn upon hit admission u a member of that Society, 

 into which the new Serjeants are elected almost as a matter of course. 

 The payment U now rawed to 35<V. The practice of giving gold ring* 

 to the queen and the great office of state and others still continues, 

 though the number has been lately reduced. These rings, with the 

 robes and other expenses, raise the SSdi to something less than 

 SOOt. The peculiar dress of the aerieants-at-law, besides their din- 

 tine live coif, consist* in four specie* of robes. In term time the gown 

 of black cloth is worn on ordinary occasions. On holidays the serjeanU 

 appear in court in purple (violet coloured) gowns. When they go in 

 Mate to St. Paula, they wear scarlet gowns, as also when they attend 

 the House of Lords, if the sovereign be present, and when they dine at 

 liuildhall on lord mayor's day. At nisi prius they appear in black 

 ilk gowns, which, as being at hand, they generally wear when called 

 upon to try causes or prisoners on the circuit, though for the latter 

 purpose the scarlet gown, always accompanied with a sentence cap, is 

 understood to be the appropriate costume. 



Tin- creation of Serjeants was anciently attended with numerous 

 ceremonies, a description of which may be seen in the last chapter of 

 Herbert's History of Inns of Court.' Some practices belonging to an 

 age of greater simplicity than the present, are still retained in those 

 cases where the writ to the Serjeant elect issues t'n term-time. But 

 by 6 Geo. IV., cap. 95, persons receiving writs, issued t'n racatiux, 

 commanding them to appear in the Court of Chancery and to take 

 upon themselves the estate and dignity of a serjeant-at-law, are, upon 

 appearing before the lord chancellor and taking the oaths usually 

 administered to persons called to that degree and office, declared to be 

 serjeants-at-law sworn, without any further ceremony. 



Another class of Serjeants is that of serjeants-at-arms, whose number 

 i- limit!-.!, by statute 13 Rich. II., cap. 6, to thirty. Their office is to 

 :itTi-nd the person of the king, to arrest offenders, and to attend the 

 lord high steward when sitting in judgment upon a peer. Two of 

 these serjeante-at-arms by the king's permission attend the two houses 

 of parliament. In the House of Commons, the office of the serjeant-at- 

 arms (as he is emphatically called) is to keep the doors of the house, 

 and to execute such commands, especially touching the apprehension of 

 sny offenders against the privileges of the Commons, as the house 

 through i's Speaker may enjoin. From these serjeants-at-arms the 

 present regimental Serjeants are probably derived. 



In some offices about the royal person the principal officer of the 

 department is distinguished by the appellation of Serjeant, as the 

 serjeant-surgeon, serjeant-painter, &c. 



Many of the documents referred to in the present article are printed 

 at length in the Appendix to Manning's ' Serviens ad Legem,' which is 

 a report of the argument before thu Privy Council in 1839. 



Serjeants and other counsel are engaged to assist a party in a cause 

 either by the delivery of a brief in that cause or by giving a retainer or 

 retaining fee. A retainer, if for a particular cause, or for a particular 

 stage of that cause, U called a common retainer, and it now consists 

 in the payment of the sum of one guinea and the delivering of a paper 

 endorsed with the name of the cause and of the court, and the words 

 " Mr. Serjeant A (or ' Mr. B '), retainer for the plaintiff" (or for the 

 defendant). A general retainer is where a retaining fee of five guineas is 

 given to counsel to engage the assistance of that counsel in all causes in 

 which the party retaining may be concerned in the courts which the 

 counsel retained attends. A special retainer is where a large fee is 

 (.ivL-n to counsel to plead in a particular cause on a circuit on which 

 he does not usually practise. This fee is given and received partly 

 with a view to remunerate the counsel for the inconvenience of 

 leaving other engagements to come to a strange circuit, and partly for 

 the purpose of preventing any unnecessary interference with the 

 business of the regular practitioners of the particular court into which 

 be i* brought, in cases which are not of great importance. Both the 

 common and the special retainer amount to an engagement on the part 

 of the counsel to accept the brief of the party retaining, and to refuse 

 any brief offered by the adverse party, and on the part of the client, to 

 deliver a brief to the counsel retained in case the cause is entered for 

 trial, whether a trial takes place or not. A general retainer merely 

 renders it imperative on the counsel retained to accept no brief or 

 retainer from the adversary of the party retaining, until he has first 

 ascertained that it is not the intention of the latter to require his 

 services in the particular cause. The general retainer continues in 

 force during the joint lives of the retaining client and the counsel 

 retained, unless the engagement be cancelled by the former, who is at 

 liberty at any time to renounce his title to the services of the counsel 

 retained. In tlie case of a common or a special retainer, the contract 

 can be put an end to only by the concurrent act of counsel and . 



In cases of importance, counsel are generally retained before the 

 action is actually commenced ; and it often happens that for want of 

 sufficient information as to the form of the intended proceedings, or 

 from carelessness, the cause is not described in the retainer with suffi- 

 cient, accuracy. When this is the case, the retainer is void, and the 



e.mn-el is bound to accept the retainer of the adverse ] 

 dered before the mistake has been corrected. The mitlieiem -y <>f tin- 

 Brat retainer becomes frequently the subject of din- 

 litigant parties, which dispute, if not arranged between themselves, is 

 generally settled not by the counsel to whom the retainer is given, but 

 by some other leading o .. 



' In limner times it was usual, particularly for great persons and 

 public Ixviios, especially fur religious corporations, to grant annuities 

 lin ini]H'iiB.i vel impendendo. 



SKK.IKANT, or SKHtlKA NT, is a non-commissioned officer in a 

 i cavalry or in a company of infantry. The duties of Serjeant* 

 are to drill or instruct in discipline the recruits of a regiment ; to look 

 after the interior economy and discipline of the troop or company 

 iimler tin. captain and subalterns; whilst on parade they act as 

 markers or guides in the performance of the evolutions. The Serjeants 

 of infantry are now armed with muskets like the rest of the troops. 

 In each company, when a battalion is in line, a covering serjeant is 

 always stationed behind the officer commanding the company ; w h.-n 

 the ranks take open order, and that officer advances before the front 

 rank, the serjeant steps into his place; but upon the ranks being 

 closed, he falls again to the rear. Four or six serjeants are charged 

 with the duty of guarding the colours of the regiment : they constantly 

 attend the officers who carry them, and are called colour-Ben 

 One serjeant in each troop or company is appointed to pay the 

 also to keep the accounts relating to their allowances, the state of their 

 necessaries, 4c. There are five serjeants, including the colour-serjcant, 

 to each company. 



The name of sergens or servientes was, in the armies of France 

 during the reign of Philip Augustus, applied to gentlemen who served 

 on horseback, but were below the rank of knights; and also, as a 

 general term, to the infantry soldiers who were furnished by tin- 

 towns. There was, besides, a body of troops consisting of I.IH or 'Jim 

 men of rank, who were called sergens d'armes, and were institut.-.l l.y 

 the prince just mentioned for his protection, when in the Kast, n 

 the subjects of the chief of the Assassins. (P.Daniel, 'Hi.~t.de la 

 Milice Kr.,' liv. iii. ch. 7, and liv. ix. ch. 12.) 



Corresponding to this corps was the body of serjeante-at-arms, which 

 was instituted in England by Kichard I., and appointed to guard the 

 royal tent in complete armour. At first it consisted of twen; 

 men, but the number was afterwards increased. Being accused of 

 extortion and oppression, the parliament mode several applicat 

 the king that their number might be diminished, .m.l in the reign of 

 Edward IV. the desired reduction took place. (Grose, 'Mil. Ant i.|.,' 

 vol. i. p. 199.) 



In the reign of Philip and Mary the serjeant-major of the army was 

 an officer whose post corresponded to that of the modern major- 

 general ; and the serjcant-major of a regiment was a field-officer, who 

 would now be designated the major. At present the serjeant-major is 

 an assistant to the adjutant, and keeps the roster for the duties ot' the 

 Serjeants, corporals, and privates. The quartermaster-Serjeant is one 

 who acts immediately under the quartermaster of a regiment in all the 

 details relating to the quarters of the officers and men, the supplies of 

 food, clothin 



SKIMKANT-AT-AUMS. [SKHJKANT. (Law.)] 



SKK.IEAXT-AT-MACIv . (Law.)] 



SERJEANTY. [SKHJKANT. (Law.)] 



SKItMON, n form of the. Latin * nfto, which denote* a discourse of 

 any kind, and even common talk 01 n. It. is now however 



applied only to a discourse of a particular kind, namely, one delivered 

 to an assembly of persons who are gathered together for pi 

 of devotion, or in the character of a Christian and religious congrega- 

 tion. Nor is any address delivered on such occasions properly a n 

 though the word is very loosely used, and addresses delivered on such 

 occasions, which can hardly be called sermons, are not inn, 

 denominated; but it seems to be essential to a sermon that it s! 

 a discourse grounded on some particular passage of holy Scripture 

 which more or less influences the preacher in the whole of his dis- 

 course. This passage is called the text, that is, it is the por 

 the ti.i ?, of wliirh the sermon is the long paraphrase and 



commentary, with suitable application and exhortation intermixed or 

 appended. 



The sermons delivered in the English church before the Reformation 

 were very short, probably seldom requiring more than ten minu 

 the delivery of them. Many specimens remain in manuscript, but few 

 are generally accessible by having been printed. Perhaps tin- 

 remarkable and the most easily consulted are the sermons at the 

 opening of each parliament, of which there are notices in the piit:i.d 

 rolls. 



But with the Reformation a great change in this respect took . 

 and in many coses the ministers of religion came to consider tlicm- 

 selves rather as per. mis whose peculiar duty it was to c\h< t 

 preach, than to conduct the devotions of a Christian assemMy mid to 

 minister the sacraments. The consequence of hat the ser- 



mons ran out to a great length, and assemblies were gathered together 

 rather for the purpose of listening to them than of entering into the 

 devotions of the church ; and the term " preaching minister " was 

 invented to designate tin..-.- mini.-ter* who changed the nature of their 

 office, from one which was instituted for the administration of the 



