Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/382

 €l)e <&mn Bag. Published Monthly, at $4.00 per Annum.

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Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, Horace W. Fuller, 15^ Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of inter est to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosities, facetice, anec dotes, etc. LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. In the year 1598, Sir Edward Coke, then Attorney-General, married the lady Hatton, ac cording to the book of Common Prayer, but without banns or license; and in a private house. Several great men were there present, — as Lord Burleigh, Lord Chancellor Egerton, etc. They all, by their proctor, submitted to the censure of the Archbishop, who granted them an absolution from the excommunication which! they had in curred. The act of absolution set forth, that it was granted by reason of penitence, and the act seeming to have been done through ignorance of the law.

FACETIÆ. An honest old blacksmith down in Texas, despairing of ever getting cash out of a delin quent debtor, agreed to take his note for the amount due. The debtor wished to go to a law yer and have the document drawn up, but the knight of the anvil, who had been a sheriff in days gone by, felt fully competent to draw it up himself. This he proceeded to do with the fol lowing result : — "On the first day of June I promise to pay Jeems Nite the sum of eleving dollars, and if said note be not paid on the date aforesaid, then this instrument is to be null and void and of no effect. Witness my hand, etc."

Lord Norbury had frequently observed a low prisoners' attorney touting in the dock for busi ness amongst the prisoners, and was determined to punish him. So, on one occasion, as the

attorney was climbing over the rails of the dock, after conferring with the prisoners, his lordship, pretending to mistake him for a prisoner, called out to the gaoler : — "Gaoler, put that man back — one of your prisoners is escaping." Whereupon the gaoler thrust the lawyer back into the dock; but having worked his way to the front of the dock, he addressed the judge, when the following conversation took place between them : Attorney. — " My lord, there is a mistake. I am an attorney." Lord Norbury. — "I am very sorry, sir, in deed, to see a gentleman of your respectable posi tion in the dock as a prisoner." Attorney. — "But, my lord, I have not com mitted any crime." Lord Norbury. —- " Oh, sir, I have nothing to say to that; that must be decided by a jury of your countrymen." Attorney. — " But, my lord, there is no charge, no indictment against me." Lord Norbury. — " Then, sir, you will be dis charged by public proclamation at the end of the assizes. (To the gaoler.) Gaoler, put back that prisoner." Whereupon the officer thrust back the limb of the law, and kept him until the rising of the Court, when his lordship sent to the gaoler a message instructing him to let him out.

In an examination of a talesman as to his qualifications to serve as a juror, the following question was put : — "If, after you had heard all the evidence in the case, you had a reasonable doubt as to whether or not the defendant was guilty, that is, you could not make up your mind conclusively that he was guilty, what would you do?" The would-be Juror (after reflection) : " Veil, under them circumstances, I would disagree." 349