Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/145

 124

"' No, sir,' was the reply; ' I am not reading law, I am reading the last volume of the " Massa chusetts Reports." ' "On one occasion, when trying a case in court, Mr. Paine was much annoyed by the constant and apparently uncalled for interruptions of the pre siding judge. Finally he stopped short, slowly gathered up his papers, and started to leave the court-room. "' Stop, sir! ' cried the judge, angrily. ' Are you doing this to show your contempt for the court? ' "' No, your Honor,' replied Mr. Paine; ' I was retiring to conceal my contempt.'" From a prominent Philadelphia lawyer comes the following : — "I am a subscriber for the ' Green Bag,' and am much pleased with the January and February numbers. It should, and I trust will, meet with good success. "The definition of mortgagee, in the February number, reminds me of an answer I heard in my student days. The professor at the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, in an examination on wills, asked why it was proper to attach a seal to a will, and received the answer : ' So as to bring an action of covenant upon the will.' "I enclose a legal curiosity, the product of a twelve-year-old boy of Philadelphia. "The twelve-year-old son of a member of our bar, at a visit to his father's office, borrowed the sum of twenty cents, and tendered the following document for it : — "It is to be known to all men and women of the United States that I have borrowed 20 cents of my sire on condition that my mother will pay him back. Witness: C. L. J. D." Such communications as the foregoing are just what the Editor desires, and he trusts that other readers will profit by the example thus set, and enable him to open a chatty "Correspondence" column. In our April number we expect to have an article on the Columuia Law School, written by Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, and containing illustra tions of the Law School building and library, and portraits of James Kent, Samuel B. Ruggles, Ham ilton Fish, Charles T. Daly, Francis Lieber, George Templeton Strong, and Theodore W. Dwight.

LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. Our English forefathers had to deal with " boy cotting " of an extraordinary kind, but the law seems to have been sufficient for the evil. In the seventh year of Henry III. the Archbishop of Can terbury and the Bishop of Lincoln enjoined the faithful not to sell victuals to the Jews nor have any communication with them, whereupon the king ordered the sheriffs and mayors to issue counter injunctions, and to imprison any one who refused to supply the necessaries of life. Thirteen years later the Bishop of London followed the course adopted by his Episcopal brethren, and the king thereupon issued a writ to the mayor and sheriffs of London to stop the evil. In the reign of Edward I. the Archbishop of Canterbury threat ened to excommunicate every one in the province of Canterbury who should have any intercourse with the Archbishop of York, or supply him or his servants with the necessaries of life. He was sub sequently obliged by the king and parliament to revoke his threats.

If we may believe the author of the " Mirror of Justices," who is said to have written in the reign of Edward I., there were almost as many judges as malefactors hanged in the time of Alfred. That active monarch ordained that all false judges, after forfeiting their possessions, " should be delivered over to false Lucifer, so low that they never return again; that their bodies should be banished, and punished at the king's pleasure; and that for a mortal false judgment they should be hanged as other murderers." That this denunciation was not merely brutum fitlmen appears from a list, given by the same author, of the judges executed by the king's order. In one year we are told that fortyfour justices were hanged. " He hanged Cole, because he judged Ive to death when he was a madman. He hanged Athulf, because he caused Copping to be hanged before the age of one-andtwenty years. He hanged Diling, because he caused Eldon to be hanged, who killed a man by misfortune. He hanged Home, because he hanged Simin at days forbidden." A judge at this time could hardly escape with life or limb; for, not content with hanging, Alfred maimed his judges for not maiming their prisoners. Thus, we are told, he cut off the hand of Haulf, because he