Littell's Living Age/Volume 134/Issue 1729/Miscellany

Disturbance of the London Shipping Trade. — The following may be of interest as showing how the trade of the port of London has already been disturbed during the past month by the unsettled state of affairs on the Continent. The number of ships cleared with cargoes during April was 477, representing 233,626 tons. Of these 235 were British steamers, of 122,206 tons; 117 British sailing vessels, of 70,392 tons; 52 foreign steamers, of 27,092 tons; and 73 foreign sailing vessels, of 13,936 tons. The number of ships cleared during April, 1876, was 558, representing 269,444 tons, which comprised 290 British steamers, of 137,797 tons; 139 British sailing, of 79,120 tons; 65 foreign steamers, of 36,142 tons; and 64 foreign sailing, of 16,385 tons. These figures show a decrease of 81 in the number of ships cleared, and a decrease in the tonnage of 35,818. The disturbance is the more evident, as the clearances for the four months of the present year show an increase of 90 ships and 8,765 tons as compared with the first four months of 1876. The figures were: number of ships, 1,953; tons, 964,300. In 1876, 1,863 ships; tons, 955,535. The excitement in the shipping trade on the Tyne occasioned by the proclamation of war last week has subsided. The coal freights from the Tyne to the Mediterranean, which rose suddenly, have returned to their former conditions. Freights to Genoa, which ran up last week from £17 per keel to £22, are down to £17, and Carthagena freights have fallen from £l7 to £12 10s. Rates are still, however, a little above the usual price, but are kept down by the difficulty of getting return cargoes. Echo.

Lawyers' Bags. — "Middle Templar" writes to Notes and Queries of May 5: "It may not be uninteresting to note, for the benefit of the future antiquary, the actual existing use in regard to the above, a use which is minutely regulated by that lex non scripta of etiquette which no causidicus may with impunity transgress. Barristers' bags are either red or dark blue. Red bags are, strictly speaking, reserved for queen's counsel and Serjeants; but a stuff-gownsman may carry one if presented therewith by a 'silk.' Such presentation is a solemn business; the fortunate 'junior' is expected to bestow a guinea on the Q. C.'s clerk who brings the coveted distinction to his chambers, and is afterwards, in addition, fined for the honor by his circuit mess. It is an imperative rule that only red bags may be taken into court; blue bags are not to be carried further than the robing-room. I speak only of the practice of the Common Law bar; of the Chancery regulations on the subject I know nothing; nor can I say anything of the custom of the lower branch of the profession. As far, however, as I have observed as an outsider, every solicitor pleases himself in the matter, carrying a blue, red, or purple bag, as seems good "in his own eyes."