Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/93

 SLANG 85 interest. Such communications as these are said to be privileged, and the burden of show- ing express malice is thrown upon the plain- tiff. In a leading case upon this subject in the supreme court of the United States, privileged communications were divided into four classes, viz. : 1, publications duly made in the ordinary mode of parliamentary proceedings ; 2, words used in the course of legal or judicial proceed- ings ; 3, anything said or written by a master in giving the character of a servant who has been in his employment ; 4, words used by any one in good faith in the discharge of any pub- lic or private duty, legal or moral, or in the prosecution of his own rights or interests. With reference to the first of these classes, the exemption from liability for any words spoken in debate is expressly provided by the consti- tution of the United States, and is probably repeated in the declaration of rights in the constitution of every state in the Union. The exemption extends to everything said or done by a representative in the discharge of his office, whether in debate in open session of the house, or more privately out of the house in committee, or even during the ordinary ad- journment of the sessions. On the same prin- ciple, namely, the public interest in the prompt, unembarrassed, and efficient administration of the laws, all language spoken in good faith in the course of legal proceedings before a compe- tent jurisdiction, pertinent in any wise to the matter in question, enjoys perfect immunity. The benefit of the privilege is secured alike to the parties, the counsel, the witnesses, the judges, and the jury. As to statements made by masters in reference to the character of their servants, good faith will be presumed, and it is for the servant to negative the pre- sumption. Malice will be implied if he shows the falsehood of the charge ; and there may be a prima facie presumption of malice if a mas- ter volunteered the unfavorable statement re- specting his discarded servant. In a civil ac- tion for slander, the truth of the facts imputed may be pleaded by the defendant in justifica- tion. If the plea is maintained by proof, the action is defeated; for the principle is, that if the plaintiff is guilty of the whole matter charged to him, he has sustained no injury and has therefore no valid claim for damages. The amount of the damages lies almost entire- ly within the discretion of the jury. They may give punitory or vindictive damages in cases of wanton and unqualified malice; and even though the amount may seem excessive, yet the court will not generally set the verdict aside, unless it shall be plain that the jury was influenced by improper motives or was misled by some gross error. SLANG, a burlesque or colloquial form of ex- pression, the language of low humor, or the jargon of thieves and vagrants. Slang is prob- ably as old as human speech. We find traces of it in many of the early writers, particularly the Greek and Roman dramatists; and the works of Aristophanes, Plautus, Terence, and Martial abound with words which the pu- rists of their day would not have recognized. All modern European languages have their vulgar or slang dialects, and some of them more than one ; and in several countries the thieves' jargon has been reduced to grammati- cal rules and has a literature of its own. The language used by the English criminal classes is called more properly cant, but slang and cant have borrowed so many terms from each other that it is almost impossible to distin- guish them. It is equally difficult to draw the line between slang and pure language, for very many words, illegitimate in origin, have become classical by prescription. The word slang is supposed to be of gypsy origin, and to have been used as a synonyme of Ro- many or Bohemian, the Zingari or gypsy tongue. Gibberish was used in nearly the same sense. The gypsies probably entered England in the beginning of the 16th century. They came as conjurers and jugglers, profess- ing the gifts of palmistry and second sight, and speaking a secret language. They met with favor among the lower classes, and speedily found many imitators, who adopted their habits and many words of their language, while the gypsies added to their own vocabulary numer- ous terms and phrases of English vagabondage. Thus between them was formed a kind of slang compromise, out of which eventually grew the conglomerate jargon called variously the cant- ing language, peddlers' French, thieves' Latin, and St. Giles's Greek. The earliest collection of English cant words is contained in "A Caueat for commen Cvrsetors vulgarely called Vagabones," by Thomas Barman (4to, London, 1567). Harman fell into such disrepute with thieves and vagrants for his exposure of their secret tricks, words, and signs, that his name became the cant synonyme for a constable and the stocks. "The Belman of London, bring- ing to Light the most notorious Villanies now practised in the Kingdome," by Thomas Deck- er (4to, London, 1608), professes to give an account of the cant of thieves and vagabonds, and contains much curious information. The civil wars brought into common use many slang and cant terms, but it was reserved for the court of Charles II., in which coarse wit was the fashion, to bring slang to a perfection before unknown. Lords and ladies talked slang, and much of the literature of the time is filled with it. Butler's " Hudibras," according to a contemporary writer, was the chief enter- tainment of Charles II., who often quoted it. In the time of George III. and the regency, the current slang was known as "flash," and sometimes as the language of "gig." The most important -of the early collections of slang and cant words, and that on which almost all later works have been founded, is Francis Grose's "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" (8vo, London, 1785), containing all the cant and slang of the earlier glossaries, and