King's or Queen's Counsel are certain barristers at law, in England and Ireland, who have been appointed by letters-patent. The office is entirely honorary, but it gives a right of pre-attendance in all the courts, according to the date of appointment. The appointment practically belongs to the Lord Chancellor. In spite of their title, they are not prevented from being retained and acting for ordinary clients, except that in defending prisoners and acting in suits against the crown they require a special license from the crown, which is, however, never refused. In Scotland there is no such distinction, but the offices of Lord Advocate and Solicitor-general are practically equivalent. The appointment is for life, but in case of disgraceful conduct the letters-patent are revoked, as was done in 1862 to Edwin James, who, in 1873, applied in vain for restitution.
The Queen's Counsels' robes are of silk instead of the ordinary (alpaca) 'stuff' of which the junior's gown is made; and 'taking silk' is thus the common phrase signifying that an 'outer' barrister has become a Queen's Counsel or Q.C. 'Taking silk' is frequently injurious rather than advantageous to a professional career. A Queen's Counsel is prohibited by legal etiquette from taking a good deal of minor business which fell to his share as a junior, and 'silk,' a stepping-stone to the great men, is a stumbling-block to the small. When a junior has reached the position in which he feels justified, or is forced by the public opinion of his circuit, to 'apply for silk,' his demand is very rarely refused, or at most postponed, and the honour is little more than a necessary incident in every successful legal career. Henry Brougham, indeed, was debarred for some years from what was in his case a professional right by the personal antipathy of George IV. and Lord Eldon, and it was not until 1827, on the accession to power of George Canning, that Brougham received a patent of precedence which clothed him in silk and gave him all the professional advantages without the actual title. But this is a striking and almost a solitary exception. Of late years colonial barristers have been gratified with the title of Queen's Counsel conferred by the Lord Chancellor, on representation made by the governor of the colony through the Secretary of State.