Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/182

 Rational Department. Sire," replied the ambassador, if his Majesty, the King of Spain, had supposed that his ambassador to the court of Rome would be received for his beard alone, he would have taken reckoning of the cost, and sent a goat.'' This wrested a laugh from the grave and reverend court,—and won the case. IT happened once (says "E. M.," writing of Lord Russell of Killowen, in Tlif Law Times,) when he had first come to London and was laying the foundation of his great career that the future Lord Chief Justice went to the pit of a theatre. The piece was popular; the pit was crowded, and the young advocate had only standing room. All of a sudden a man at his side cried .out that his watch was stolen. Mr. Russell and two other men were hemmed in. "It is one of you three," cried the man minus his watch. "Well, we had better go out and be searched," said Mr. Rus sell, with the alertness of mind that did not fail him at a trying moment amidst an ex cited crowd. A detective was at hand, and the suggestion was accepted. As Mr. Rus sell walked out, the idea flashed through his mind that if the man behind him had the stolen property he would probably try to se crete it in the pocket of his front-rank man. Quick as thought, he drew his coat tails about him—only to feel, to his horror, some thing large and smooth and round already in his pocket. While he was 'still wondering what this might mean for him, the detective energetically seized the hindmost man. ex claiming, "What, you rascal—at it again!" To Mr. Russell and the other man he apolo gized, and hade them go free. But Mr. Rus sell, before he had taken many steps, re flected that he could not keep the watch. He went back to the box-office and explained with a courage on which he afterwards said he rarely experienced greater demands, that though he did not take the watch he had it. So saying, he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out—a forgotten snuff-box! THE form of oath taken by Chinamen in courts of law is not like the laws of the Medes

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and Persians. The Celestial who was a wit ness in a felony case before the Thames mag istrate on the 2gth ult., says the Westminster Gazette, blew out a lighted candle, at the same time repeating the following words spoken by the usher: "If I do not speak the truth, and as this candle has been blown out, may I be blown out likewise." Some years ago a Chinaman appeared to give evidence at Bow street, and was politely consulted as to the method in which he would prefer to be sworn. "Oh!" said he with a fine eclecticism, "kill 'im cock, break 'im plate, smell 'im book, all samey." The significance of the words "break 'im plate" may, perhaps, need explanation even to persons "learned in the law,'' and the explanation is thus supplied in the text-books and authorized law reports: "The following is given in one case as the form of swearing a Chinese: On entering the box, the witness immediately knelt down and a china saucer having been placed in his hand he struck it against the brass rail in front of the box and broke it. The crier of the court then, by the direction of the interpreter, administered the oath in these words, which were translated by the in terpreter into the Chinese language: 'You shall tell the truth and the whole truth. The saucer is cracked, and if you do not tell the truth your soul will be cracked like the sau cer.' " (R. v. Entiehman, i Car. & M. 248.) ACCORDING to the French penal code, there is no age at which a child is absolutely ex empt from punishment. If a child has acted sans discernement, he must be acquitted. If he has acted arec discernement, his punish ment is to be mitigated according to a fixed scale. By the criminal code of the German Empire, a person cannot be criminally prose cuted for any offence committed before he has completed his twelfth year. By English law. children under seven are absolutely ex empt from punishment, and from seven to fourteen there is a presumption that they are not possessed of the degree of knowledge essential to criminality, though this presump tion may be rebutted by proof to the con trary.—The Law Times.