easy on him.

leading men of his day, principle sat Treasury Bench beyond that again, Much addicted to re- he would have crossed to it.

No one gard all public men as scoundrels, his would have wondered at it. The species chief resolution was to make his way by is still professional, there are men among clinging to either party as it seemed us at whose change no man wonders most suited to his advance; alternately more than a naturalist wonders at the trampling and caressing all parties : change of a worm into a dragon-flyhe had begun, like all poor aspirants, the little creeping, writhing, slipby being a patriot, allied himself to pery, subtle thing, into the bold, Lucas, lauded the Opposition, abused busy, swift marauder, ever on the the Minister, and exhibited all the wing, glittering in the sunshine, thews and sinews of a vigorous demo- and devouring everything. But crat. But the new reign of George Scott had another important quali. III. opened new prospects. Town. ty. If no great orator, he could shend the viceroy intimated that his bring an orator down by other means eloquence might be turned to better than arguments. He was a fearless account, and the lawyer became sud. swordsman and an exact shot. He denly enlightened. He cast off the changed his mode, finding his eloragged uniform of the populace, and quence not irresistible, and « attemptequipped himself in the livery of the ed to terrify. He attacked Flood; he Castle. He was a rough, bold-speak- supported Lord Townshend; he vindiing, unblushing retainer from that cated Lord Harcourt; he struck his moment, and no man more unhesitat. breast-slapped his hat, appealed to ingly laughed at the affectations of his honour-and laid his hand upon political creeds. “ My lord," he his sword!” used to say to the Viceroy, a man sin- Next, after the actor, we have the gularly like himself in his contempt democrat reformed. “ His principles for the Phocions of the day-" My were arbitrary, his love of liberty lord, you have spoiled a good pa- cooled after he left the people. And triot.

if a question had arisen, he would proBut, notorious as his new concep- bably have ordered the soldiers to fire tions were, no one thought of calling upon the volunteers.” In fine, this him to account for the change. There bold, forward, rude, and vigorous pur. is, it is true, a general impunity al- suer of power, rose to the Bench, lowed to lawyers on this subject ; where he was Chief Justice, obtaincd they claim largely the privilege of an earldom, and died, if report be seeing both sides of a public question; true, worth L.30,000 a-year! and therefore, in England, they run the Mr Grattan's work is, on the whole, hazard of swamping the Constitution, clever, amusing, and full of anecdote. as in Ireland they sold the country. But it is the work of a Republican But no one ever thought of question- degraded into a Radical, and even ing Jack Scott. His transition to the that Radical degraded into a joint of Treasury Bench was regarded as per the tail. fectly natural. If there had been a

STATE TRIALS.

SPECIMEN OF A NEW EDITION.*

6

Nearly a year, we believe, has learning, and internally prophesied elapsed since we received from a friend that he was born forthe Bench. Thusbelonging to the profession of the law, "And gashed his throat, while begging a bulky volume, in green boards, re

space for prayer. P. 220, line 6. joicing in the above title, along with a

“ Though this averment may be suffiletter expressive of his anxious desire

ciently direct when only certainty to a to have our opinion of it, it having, he

common intent is required, it clearly would said, “ proved to him a puzzler.” As be insufficient for either certainty to a cerit felt heavy in hand, and appeared to tain intent in general, or certainty to a contain, verse-text and prose-notes, certain intent in particular. Both the pro. about four hundred by no means sparse per and the defective forms may be well pages, we placed it in the division of exemplified in the deaths of Sir Thomas our library marked “ JURISPRUDENCE” Holt's cook and of Pandarus the son of -purposing immediately after Box. Alcanor. day to lay it before the Lord Advocate "" Action on the case for words. “ Sir and the Solicitor-General, whose opin- Thomas Holt struck his cook on the head ions we thought would be more use

with a cleaver, and cleaved his head; the ful than ours to the Templar. Months one part lay on the one shoulder, and anon months, however, passed on in their

other part on the other. The defendant usual hum-drum way, and the volume pleaded not guilty, and it was found against got its share of cobweb from the inde. him. It was now moved, in arrest of fatigable spider that has grown to such judgment, that these words were not ac

tionable ; for it is not averred that the cook a bulk among our books. More than once our forefinger was on the volume,

was killed, but argumentative. The court

was of that opinion, Fleming, C. J. and but retracted on our perceiving the Ter

Williams absentibus; for slander ought to ror of flies coiled

up
like a sleeping dra-

be direct, against which there may not be gon, whom we felt it best not to waken.

any intendment: but here, notwithstanding Yesterday we happened to observe

such wounding, the party may yet be living; that he was off his post, galivanting and it is then but trespass. Wherefore it in a corner of the cieling with a spinster was adjudged for the defendant."- Sir of a very matronly appearance, who, Thomas Holt v. Astgrigg, Cro. Jac. 184. nothing loth, had laid aside her distaff

"6Et medium ferro gemina inter tempora on his approach. Our forefinger did frontem its duty in that neat style characteris. Dividit, impubesque immani vulnere malas. tic of the assiduous and successful

Fit sonus; ingenti concussa est pondere student, and we laid ourselves at length tellus: on our settee, with the “ State Trials” Collapsos artus atque arma cruenta cereon our breast. As“ it had proved a bro puzzler” to a person of much perspi- Šternit humi moriens; atque ille partibus cacity, we eyed it for a while with a æquis somewhat stern and suspicious aspect Huc caput atque illuc humero ex utroque - resolved, in spite of all his artifices,

pependit.

Æneid, 9, 783. to know what the writer was about We corroborate the opinion of the and then to transmit to London our Court; and should any one in Decemprivate opinion of his work, that our ber choose to say that we, in Novemcorrespondent—for we saw through ber, acted towards any Cockney as Sir him-might from our letter get up his Thomas Holt is said to have acted article thereon for the Law Magazine. towards his cook, we promise not to

We began, of course, at the end, prosecute him for a groundless slander. and took a glance at the notes. We A little further on, we stumbled on soon saw, with half an eye, that the an excellent note concerning the law author was a man of ingenuity and about dogs. Mr Moile had written

* By Nicholas Thirning Moile, Esq., of the Inner Temple, Special Pleader. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 1833.

London:

on,

verter

ceral

. orters

“ An oath for which 'twere hard a dog murder, it would seem asif some thought should die;"

the law unsettled even at this day; and he takes occasion to remark there- at least so late as the autumn of 1837.

" that a treatise upon the law as it Mr Moile adds well_" More modern relates to the canine species, is yet to decisions have borne variously with be desiderated in professional litera- greater or less severity, upon this ture.”

species, between which and our own, as “ It is said, in Ireland v. Higgins, may be said with no less truth than Ci2-ROMA

Cro. Eliz. 126, that the law takes no- cero said of between man and the ele. tice of four kinds of dogs—mastiffs, phant, or than jurists say of mankind hounds, spaniels, and tumblers; and with each other, THERE EXISTS SOME

that a man may justify a battery in THING LIKE A SOCIAL COMPACT.” In 2107ed , defence of his dog. Yet the existence shooting a dog-unless he be a sad

of property over dogs seems to have dog indeed-a man cruelly violates a been admitted with great doubt and social compact. Yet you may not

deliberation, see 12 Hen. 8, 3, 4, and illegally tread on a dog's toes. For Eire fun now stands upon a very peculiar foot- “ in Smith v. Pelah, the Chief Jus

ing; for, by one of the nicest and subtlest tice ruled that if a dog has once of distinctions, dogs are a species of bit a man, and the owner, having

property, for which trespass or trover notice thereof, keeps the dog, and lets Ee case for me

will lie, but in which felony cannot be him go about, or lie at his door, an _k bis grote committed. In this respect, however, action will lie against him at the suit Ed cleared box

they are in no different situation from of a person who is bit, though it hapthat of the ancient villeins, which could pened by such person's treading on not be stolen, Sir Edward Coke in- the dog's toes, for it was owing to his structs us, because they were in reali- not hanging the dog in the first inty' like a box of chartres.”

stance, and the safety of the King's In the reign of Henry VIII., it is subjects ought not afterwards to be stated that a vigorous attempt was endangered. The scienter is the gist made to put all dogs entirely out of of the action.' 2 Etrange, 1263." the pale and protection of the law, A housekeeper is justified in shooting Upon demurrer to a count in trespass,

a housebreaker ; but hardly so, we for taking a bloodhound, it was argued should suppose, if at the time the for the defender, (we translate the housebreaker be breaking out of the Norman French,) “ that no action lay house—say, escaping by the window, for a dog, for that no man could bring But what is to be said of the following an action about a thing of no value or judgment ? 66 In Morris v. Nugent, profit, and that a dog was of no value, it was ruled that to justify shooting but for pleasure.” On the other another person's dog, he must be hand, it was argued for the plaintiff, actually attacking the party at the " that though a dog may be a thing time; therefore, when the defendant for pleasure, yet it is profitable for was passing the plaintiff's house, and my hunting or for my recreation. For, the plaintiff's dog ran out, and bit if I have a popinjay or thrush that the defendant's gaiter, and on the desings and refreshes my spirits, that is fendant turning round and raising a great comfort to me; and if any one his gun, the dog ran away, and he

takes it from me, he ought to be shot the dog as he was running Emil punished.” The judges were divided away, it was held that the defend

in opinion_Brook, Pollard, and Brud- ant was not justified in so doing.” nel holding the point good; while The decision was right; for the Eliot, who must have been a fool and defendant having been frightened first something more, laid it down “that out of his wits, and then out of his there could be no action for a dog, for temper, was incapacitated by his own a dog is vermin, and savage by nature, mean passions,to mark the distinctionbeing called in Latin feru, and never not surely a very niceone-between his jumentum nec armentum.” Et adjudge gaiter and the calfof his leg; and, morefuist que il a vera action par ceo, et over, was blind and deaf- which no 6s. 4d. par damages et costes.” Too Christian can be to the strong symplittle ; but the pursuer did not prose. toms, if not of remorse and penitence, cute vindictively. The dog had not been certainly of fear and a converted mind shot, merely kidnapped. The judg- in the dog, which ought to have saved ment settled the law as to theft; as to him, not from stone or cudgel, but

party

the defender

CONCEN

ms; atone

uc humen er

the origi any ones

that we, il any locks

said to be

те

e prona a grourdes on, mesto

Concert Voile hade

ál Peader

,

W

our own.

from ball or even slugs. Neverthe- elementary learning, though it was thus that less, as men are but men, just as dogs the youth of Rome acquired the laws of the are but dogs, we should, in such a twelve tables—relics of which may prove, case, have advised the jury to give mo- noi only the antiquity of verse, and even derate damages-say twenty pounds.

rhyme, but also their peculiar adaptation to Let us now turn from the notes to jurisprudence. the preface :

“ Neither in this, nor in any other re

spect, can the civil law claim superiority to " To me, sitting in my chambers, and

Many of our ancient, and not a revolving in my mind the advantages and

few modern, and even some living, writers inconveniences of the legal profession, doubts

in the profession have sufficiently shown, are wont to occur, whether there be more

that their own genius, as well as their subquaintness or error in the well-known complaint of Sir Edward Coke-that while ject, possessed all other qualities of poetry in

so eminent a degree, that the absence of the husbandman and mechanic could con.

verse has not concealed them from the closer sole their labours with the accompaniment observation of a kindred mini. What, for of song, and their work be even prospered instance, can be more reverend or majestiby some sell.pleasing tune, the law admits

cal than Sir Edward Coke's impersonation of no such assistance or diversion, but re

of the two grand pronouns,

Meum and quires application of the whole faculties both of body and mind, excluding every expres

Tuum ; antagonists, never effete, as the

Pope and Pagan, giants of Bunyan, but like sion of cheerfulness or refreshment. To

the good and evil Principles, still mingling question this remark 1 was first moved, by with and perplexing all the actions and pastha frequent perusal of that great laywer's sions of man? What can be more beautiful Commentary upon Littleton's Tenures, done

than his tracing the secret afhnities of our into English metre; the charms of which

law with the divine inspirations of the great have been ever grateful to an ear, not adverse in leisure moments to the lighter recreations

Latin poet? The many classical citations of the muse, nor insensible to the pecu'iar splendid illustrations, his comparisons, his

and allusions of that eminent lawyer, bis m-lody of our earlier versification. And what student, indeed, has no: felt the gra- definitions, and that fervour and vigour of

ly, put in the modern addresses of advocates tears from thousands at our national theatres; to the jury. This too will explain-(ac- and the pencil of a Wilkie has proved a cording to the difference of style and charac- common-law or statutable distress may beter, which may well be supposed to bave come of all others the most pathetic. But existed in the serjeant or apprentice by though, in both those works, the declaration whom such an action was first conceived or and avowry are admirably delineated, there perfected to its present form)-the peculiar- can be no doubt that the whole of the pleas ly business-like view which our pleadings in bar would be bad on a general demurrer. take of the actions for crim. con. and se- Succeeding artists may avoid this fault :duction. The conversion of these injuries and the design give rise to an emulation no into a species of property, the value of which less poble than that of Timanthes and Paris to be ascertained and compensated in the rhasius to delineate the trial of the controcommon measure of all prices, is, perhaps, versy for the arms of Achilles.” a distinctive characteristic of the most com

You see that we are introducing to mercial of nations: but the exquisite and refined dissimulation with which the pro

you no common man—a quaint and

acute prose writer-and you already perty alleged to have been injured is described-in order to give its appreciation the

anticipate good, perhaps great things

in his verse. requisite certainty and uniformity-exhibits

He goes on to ask, that the most splendid instance of a continuous if the art of painting succeeds so well figure in obliquity and indirection, which, in judicial subjects, can they prove less perhaps, no poetry has ever equalled. Were congenial to poetry? And where else ever fictions more beautiful or more amiable is the real character, both of indivi. than those on which are founded the actions duals and of their age, either better of ejectment and of trover? In the former observed than in the proceedings, or of which the injury done and suffered is better preserved than in the records entirely transferred to ideal personages; and of a court of justice ? in the latter, as also is so justly said of the institution of marriage, the law has impro- “ And, at the same time, what scene is ved and interpreted for the better the com- more august, or-except only man's public monest instinct of human nature. What endeavours to propitiate and commune with could better exemplify the strong affinity of

his Maker - what action is more exalted-our laws for poetry, than the fond discre. what more worthy of poetic description, tion with which all this and the like imagery than human labours to supply, what Heaven has been preserved in the unsparing cutting seems to have omitted, a form of civil goaway of other matters less useful and bril- vernment-or than human efforts to execute liant ? Indeed, the very name given in what the Deity undoubtedly wills, the dis.. common to the whole of these proceedings

tinction and retribution of right and wrong Forms-(in the civil law, carmina)-suf- - or than human daring to usurp, perhaps, ficiently indicates the faculty of the mind to a prerogative which God himself forbea! s, whose exercise their origin is due, and with the solemn adjudication and infliction of the whose literary productions their use is to punishment of death? be classed.

“ But, in order to embellish the com• In further illustration of these resources mentai y, and extend also the sphere of its of the law, it may be expected that I should application, it was difficult to forbear occarefer to a sometime popular treatise, called sional citations from those kindred volumes, the Pleader's Guide : but that work, in niy which, ever forming part of a lawyer's opinion, has not always treated its subjects library, serve to attest and perpetuate the with the gravity they deserve; and tends intimate association of classical and profesrather to estrange pupils from the science; sional literature, feeling, and character. upon which, however, the book otherwise This is an association, however, which the must be allowed to contain much profitable severe taste and rigid style of judicial elo. instruction. But some of the richest mines quence among us tends unfortunately to of legal poetry remain still to be explored. obscure. In this respect the House of The strong analogy of criminal trials to tra- Commons is more favourably disposed. How gedy bas been ingeniously remarked by my is it, that quotations, which are thought so learned friend and competitor, Mr Jardine : reverend and graceful in the senate, must and the resemblance of many nisi prius cases appear so puerile and pedantic at the bar ? to comedy can have hardly escaped the most Or by what singularity of factitious taste superficial observer; and something of it is does it happen that, even in Parliament, curiously preserved by the Reports, for the citations, though little restricted in length, benefit of posterity. The action of replevin, are in selection to be confined to a single indeed, has already engaged the labours of dead language, and commonly to a few of its both painters and dramatists; under the principal authors ? The overwbelming effect name of The Rent Day,' it has drawn of Sheridan's addition to a Greek quotation