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 Arabiniana.

37*

ARABINIANA. QERJEANT ARABIN, who was at one О time Judgî of the Sheriff's Court and also Commissioner of the Central Criminal Court in London, was certainly a most re markable administer of justice. He was thin, old, wizen-faced and very eccentric in his ideas and expressions, and even more so in his logic. A collection of his sayings was made by one of the members of the Bar, under the title of Arabiniana. Only a few copies were printed for private circulation, one of which has recently come into the writer's possession, and he offers a few ex tracts for the entertainment of the readers of the Green Bag. In sentencing a prisoner who had been convicted of stealing property from his em ployer, Arabin thus addressed him : " Pris oner at the Bar, if ever there was a clearer case than this of a man robbing his master, this case is that case." A small boy was called up for sentence : ARABIN : " Prisoner at the bar, when I when saw youyou firstbegan I knew to you cryasI well knew as possible you still; better." ARABIN (to witness) : " Now mind. We sit here day after day, year after year, hour after hour, and can see through a case in a moment." Indictment for stealing a fowl : ARABIN : " I know of my own knowledge that there is not a little hen-roost near town that is not robbed continually." A policeman to *state a *conver sation between himself and his comrade, while in pursuit of the prisoner. Counsel objected that the prisoners were out of hear ing. ARABIN : " It does not signify a button.
 * was _about
 * was _about

Counsel repeatedly make this mistake. What he said to his comrade was not hear say; it was about the robbery and part of the res gestœ," On another occasion, when the subject of hearsay evidence came up, Arabin thus de livered himself to a witness : "You must remember, and if you don't remember, you ought to know, that nothing whatever that is said in a prisoner's absence against him can be used in evidence under any circumstances whatever, if he was not present when it was said; and if he was, any man might be convicted and hanged in five minutes." COUNSEL FOK PRISONER (to witness) : "Did the prosecutor state that the prisoner had been in the room where the spectacles were?" ARABIN : " That's matter of law, and for the jury." "Can you believe that the prisoner's story is grounded without foundation, and fabri cated in falsehood?" • * "I cannot suggest a doubt. She goes into a shop, and looks at several things, and pur chases nothing; that always indicates some guilt." "Now what honest man could have any object in turning a horse's head round the corner of a street? I have no opinion on the subject. The case is with you and I shall only say that the law will not allow that to be done fraudulently which it does not sanction with violence." "Law is founded on common sense, and those who take it for their guide in matters of fact and plain sense, will generally come