NOTES.
Bolingbroke said: "It is a very easy thing to devise good laws; the difficulty is to make them effective. The great mistake is that of looking upon men as virtuous, or thinking that they can be made so by laws; and consequently the greatest art of a politician is to render vices serviceable in the cause of virtue."
The true objection to modern statutes (says Barrington) is rather their prolixity than their want of perspicuity; which redundancy hath in a great measure arisen from the use of printing. When manuscript copies are to be dispersed, the trouble of writing an unnecessary word is considered; but a page or two additional in print neither adds much to trouble nor expense.
From the reign of Robert I. words began to be multiplied; before the reign of James III. the evil had increased; it is now familiar. How the chimes are rung in our enlightened age upon any horse, mule, ass, cattle, coach, berlin, landau, chariot, chaise, calash, wagon, wain, cart, or other carriage whatsoever! as if "every quadruped and carriage" would not comprehend all particulars.—Hist. Memorials, by Sir David Dalrymple, Edinburgh, 1796.
How we still love to stick to the same old antiquated and ridiculous forms, even in these modern days! Three fourths of the words in all our legal instruments are mere surplusage and vain repetitions. Why should the legal profession alone be obliged to "beat all about Robin Hood's barn," to express that which might be stated clearly and distinctly in a few simple words? It is time that this absurdity was thoroughly and effectually disposed of.
The first edition (folio, 1698) of "Shower's Cases in Parliament" was published anonymously, the chief peculiarity of the titlepage being a quotation from Horace, running thus:—
Quicquid sum Ego, quamvis
Infra Lucili censum ingeniumq; tamen me
Cum Magnis vixisse, invita fatebitur usq;
Invidia Horat.
It is not perhaps unnatural, but is somewhat amusing, to find this edition catalogued in a Philadelphia list as "Horat's Reports"
Anacharsis, the intelligent foreigner of his day, on visiting Athens and hearing of the laws of Draco and Solon, said: "All the laws you can make are but spiders' webs, which the strong will break through, and only the poor fly will be caught."
The portraits of Justice Rutledge of South Carolina, who died before he took his seat on the bench, and Justices Ellsworth and Matthews, are required to complete the collection of portraits of members of the United States Supreme Court in the robing-room in the Capitol. The portrait of Chief-Justice Waite has just been added. An artist is now at work on the portrait of Justice Rutledge, preparing it from an old picture. The preparation of Judge Matthews's portrait awaits a congressional appropriation.
It has been well observed by a modern writer, that "we are very apt to mistake the foulness of a crime for certainty of evidence against the individual accused of it; or in proportion as we are impressed with its enormity, the less nice we become in distinguishing the offender." A striking illustration of this remark presented itself in a case tried some years since. An atrocious murder having been committed, an unfortunate individual was accused of being the murderer, and brought to trial. The judge charged the jury that no evidence had been produced against the prisoner, and that therefore they must of necessity acquit him. To the surprise of the court, however, the jury returned a verdict of "guilty." The verdict having been recorded, the judge requested to know upon what shadow of proof it had been found. "My lord," answered the foreman, "a great crime has been committed; somebody ought to suffer for it; and we do not see why it should not be this man."
The longest lawsuit ever known in England was the famous "Berkeley suit," which lasted upward of one hundred and ninety years, having commenced in 1416 and terminated in 1609.
An Irish statute-book opens characteristically with "An Act that the King's officers may travel by sea from one place to another within the land of Ireland."
