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The Green Bag

dents knew either of these great exposi tions. It was certain that the great mass of law-books made no pretense to style, sometimes very little even to tolerable arrangement. It was also certain that the increasing press of modern business did not favor the writing of carefully finished judgments. But the propor tion of legal writers who tried to write good English was increasing both there

and in America. He could remember when it was very small. His lamented friend, F. W. Maitland, produced not only historical but strictly professional work of high literary merit, as all his readers acknowledged; and he ventured to say the same of two living learned friends, one on each side of the Atlantic, Justice Holmes, of the Supreme Court at Washington, and Professor Dicey of Oxford.

A Judge in Arms BY ARTHUR P. CHICKERING THAT great jurist, parliamentarian and man of affairs, Lord Coke, has claims to consideration as a man of action in the field of arms as well as in the halls of Westminster and Parliament. For a second wife he married the widow Lady Hatton, a woman much younger than himself; and the marital differ ences of the ill-assorted couple furnished the courts of Elizabeth and James I with piquant material for gossip. The lady never overcame the aversion with which, it is said, the first meeting with Sir Edward inspired her. She persisted always in spelling his name "Cook" as a reminder of his humble origin, and made use of the name and title of her former husband in all social relations. Matters between them came to a crisis when Coke contracted a marriage for their daughter, the Lady Frances, with Sir John Villiers, brother of the great Duke of Buckingham. The mother was not unnaturally incensed at being ignored in a transaction of this nature. Finding ordinary opposition to the match of no avail, she adopted the bold course of seizing the young lady and carrying her away under cover of night

to Oatlands, a country place occupied by a relative. It was when Coke learned of this tour de force that he forgot the peaceful procedure of law, if law there was for the emergency, and his dignity as Chief Jus tice of all England; and at the age of sixty-nine, donning armor and provid ing himself with a sword, he marched into the country at the head of his sons and a numerous body of servants and retain ers. Coming to Oatlands, he called upon the keepers to surrender his daughter. Receiving no satisfaction, he first de livered in a high voice an exposition of law for the enemy's benefit. If, said he, any were slain by him in the enterprise that would be justifiable homicide; but if the defenders took life it would con stitute murder, for their resistance was illegal. He then led an assault in force and form, broke down doors and forced windows, and after meeting less opposi tion than might have been expected, re covered his child and bore her away to his own place at Stoke Pogis. Lady Hatton, while in possession of her daughter, had been active in nego tiating a marriage with the Earl of