Bar

(1) A particular part of the court room. As thus applied, and secondarily in various ways, it takes its name from the actual bar, or inclosing rail, which originally divided the bench from the rest of the room, as well as from that bar, or' rail, which then divided, and now divides, the space Including the bench, and the place which lawyers occupy in attending on and conducting trials, from the body of the court room. Those who, as advocates or counsellors, appeared as speakers in court, were said to be "called to the bar,"' that is, called to appear in presence of the court, as barristers, or persons who stay or attend at the bar of court. Rich. Diet. "Barrister." By a natural transition, a secondary use of the word was applied to the persons who were so called, and the advocates were, as a class, called "the bar." And in this country, since attorneys, as well as counsellors, appear in court to conduct causes, the members of the legal profession, generally, are, called the "bar." (2) The court, in its strictest sense, sitting in full term, i TJius, a civil case of great consequence was not left to be tried at nisi prius, but was tried at the "bar of the court itself," at Westminster.

3 BL Comm. 352.

So a criminal trial for a capital offense was had "at bar" (4 Bl. Comm. 351), and in this sense the term "at bar" is still used. It is also used in this sense, with a shade of difference (as not distinguishing nisi prius from full term, but as applied to any term of the court), when a person indicted for crime is called "the prisoner at the bar," or is said to stand at the bar to plead to the indictment.

See Merlin, Repert. "Barreau;" 1 Dupin, Prof. d'Av. 451. (3) An obstacle or opposition.

Thus, relationship within the prohibited degrees, or the fact that a person is already married, is a bar to marriage. (5) Bar in the old books is sometimes used for "plea in bar."

Co. Litt. 303b.