Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/352

 William Sampson. the point. It is by taking larger view of things that we master the little fidgeting spirit of circum stance. Such considerations are antidotes to those occasional spasmodic affections in the law, which it is important to cure in their incipiency, lest they turn, as in Great Britain, to a chronic malady." He then argues that only those parts of the ancient common law and statutes as are in trinsically appropriate to the condition of this country have been adopted here. "In vain, otherwise, would our constitution have repealed the statutes. In vain have con signed to oblivion so many remnants of anti quated folly, if ever and again some unsubstantial spectre of the common law were to rise from the grave in all its grotesque and uncouth deformity, to trouble our councils and perplex our judg ments. Then should we have, for endless ages, the strange phantoms of Picts and Scots, of Danes and Saxons, of Jutes and Angles, of Monks and Druids, hovering over us like 'ravens o'er the haunted house,' or ghosts ' That inglorious remain Unburied on the plain.' In vain would this country advance in commerce, arts and industry; in vain science and philosophy make their abode among us; in vain propitious heaven designate with a favouring hand our station on the globe, and distinguish us by freedom and prosperity, if we mar our own destiny by such senile adherences." (It is somewhat surprising that Mr. Samp son should have adopted the English use of the u in such words as favor, etc.) "The more I reflect upon the advantages this nation has gained by independence, the more I regret that one thing should still be wanting to crown the noble arch — a national code. I lament that the authors of the Revolution, wearied with toil and human waywardness, should on the very threshold of perfect redemption, have failed, like the fabled poet of antiquity, by look ing back, and suffered the object of their long and ardent cares to relapse again into the empire of Pluto, and themselves to sink at length, breathless and spent, under the burthen of the common law. They might well have thought it beneath their high achievements to stay and strip the dead."

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He then condescends to pleasantry at the expense of Mr. Levy, the recorder of Phila delphia, who in a recent similar case had charged the jury that boots "Are articles of first necessity. I cannot there agree with him. When I think how many patri archs have reached the blessed abode of their fathers, and never worn boots, how many serjeants have trod the thorny mazes of the common law and worn no boots, and how many poor poets have bestrode the fiery courser of the Muses and had no boots, I cannot think them things of such necessity. But equal justice is of first necessity, and when that is given for the sake of boots, boots are too dear." " It seems as if folly had this privilege, to be seen only at a distance, and to be invisible when it stares us in the face. We can see well enough the ridicule of the old priggish ordinances we have read from the statutes at large which fashioned men's gowns and women's fardingales by act of Parliament. We have laughed at the short mantle of Dean Gurthorpe. Others will laugh at our solemn arguments of this day. We might as well prevent parents from conspiring to marry their children, indict landlords for refus ing to let their houses at the usual rents, or mer chants from following the rates of the market." To the argument of the learned• Philadel phia recorder that a master cannot tell when to accept a large order because the work men may make a sudden "jump" in their demands, he answers : — "Well, if the master receives an advantageous order, much good may it do him. But if he makes a sudden jump into a coach and country seat, why shall not the poor journeyman jump after him into a clean shirt and whole breeches?" "As to the danger of the community going bare footed. I do not think it alarming. It will be a specious pretext for wearing out old shoes. The cobblers will rejoice, and some sly merchant will import a cargo from France or England. Muzzle but these prosecutions, and then before we have long gone slipshod, the masters and the men will have come to an agreement, founded, like all bar gains, on reciprocal need; the one giving as little as he can give, the other taking as much as he can get."