Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/354

 William Sampson. had some rough and uncouth features; but he loved it because it was his own, and his fond prayer was, sweet babe, may you live forever, esto perpe tual From a tremendous onslaught on the com mon law we have space for only a few choice passages : — "Let us examine it," he says, " in its most es sential parts, and what is it? Whatever could have been the wisdom of that law which decided upon the life and death of man by blasphemous appeals to miracles, by fire and water ordeal; by the choak bread and the holy cross; and which decided upon property by venal champions; by thumps of sand bags and the cry of craven? How does this accord with our principles and institu tions, which do not admit of fighting cocks for money, much less men?" "When is it that we shall cease to invoke the spirits of departed fools? When is it, that in search of a rule for our conduct we shall no longer be bandied from Coke to Croke, from Plowden to the Year Books, from thence to the dome books, from ignotum to ignotius, in the inverse ratio of philoso phy and reason; still at the end of every weary excursion arriving at some barren source of gram matical pedantry and quibble? How long shall this superstitious idolatry endure? When shall we be ashamed to gild and varnish this arbitrary gathering of riddles, paradoxes, and conundrums with the titles of wisdom and divinity? When shall we strike from .the feet of our young and panting eagle these sordid couplets that chain him to the earth, and let him soar, like the true bird of Jove, to the lofty and ethereal regions, where destiny and nature beckon him?" "Shall all others, except only the industrious mechanic, be allowed to meet and plot; merchants to determine their prices current or settle the markets, politicians to electioneer, sportsmen for horse racing and games, ladies and gentlemen for balls, parties, and bouquets; and yet these poor men be indicted for combining against starvation? I ask again, is this repugnant to the rights of man? If it be, is it not repugnant to our constitution? If it be repugnant to our constitution, is it law? And if it is not law, shall we be put to answer to it?" Then he examines the passage from Haw kins relied on as the basis of the law of con

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spiracy, points out that it is not found in the original edition, but has been " interlarded in small type" by later " note-mongers," and "extracted from the worst book of English reports (8 Mod.) under which the shelf groans," called by Burrows " a miserable bad book," and said by him to have been "treated with the contempt it deserved." At this point the court, being " obliged to attend the sitting of the board of common council," adjourned till next morning, when Sampson went on with a wonderfully learned and acute examination of the authorities cited in the margins of Hawkins, and the more modern cases, and concluded in a strain of virility and nobility worthy of Erskine. Blazing wit, withering sarcasm, words that sting like a lash and cut like a sword, the deepest acuteness of logic, the broadest and most beneficial views of society, the most fervid philanthropy, mark this ex traordinary production. After this his as sociate Coldcn seems dull, and the wisest part of his adversary, Riker's, reply is that in which he acknowledges Sampson's " wit, vivacity and subtilty." Emmet followed to better purpose, but merely furnished Samp son for a second opportunity, in which he gave the common law another fearful scor ing, vindicating himself against the charge of having " blasphemed the temples of bare footed Druids in arguing here for working shoemakers." "I have not treated with becoming reverence," he said, " the trial by the corsned, wherein the life of man, his guilt, his innocence, were made to turn on his salival glands; and he was only inno cent who could best masticate and swallow a lump of dough, and not be choked with it. I have spoken disrespectfully of trials by the holy cross, a game not half so fair as blind man's buff, on the success of which death and eternal infamy awaited. I have not reverenced that trial by hired bruisers, who by thumps of sand bags were to try whose cause was holiest in the sight of God, where he alone was justified from violence and malice, whose champion thumped his enemy to death, or till he cried out craven, or he who could endure