now be considered most trivial and ridiculous causes of complaint. There is one case, in the reign of Henry IV., of a man who brought an action against a cook for selling him a fowl which gave him a sick stomach, in which action he recovered twenty shillings' damages.
In some of these cases it is difficult to say whether the reader is more amused with the trivial nature of the complaint or the nicety which the court required in the pleadings. There is a case in which the guardian of an infant brought action against a barber for cutting off the child's hair. The defence made was, that the child was more than sixteen years of age, and had agreed with him, the defendant, for sixpence, that he should have license to take two ounces of hair. This plea was adjudged bad in point of law, because an infant could not give a license, though she might agree with the barber to be trimmed.
The solemn simplicity with which trifles are recorded in the older reporters cannot fail often to amuse the reader. When all the judges in England were summoned to attend the trial of Lord Morley before his peers for murder, they met to consider the points of law likely to arise in that most important case; their resolutions are given by Kelyng, among which the following is recorded with the utmost gravity:—
"We were to attend at the tryal in our scarlet robes, and the Chief Judges with their collars of S. S. which I did accordingly; but my Lord Bridgeman was absent, being suddenly taken with gout; the Chief Baron had not his collar of S. S. having left it behind him in the country; but we were all in scarlet; but nobody had a collar of S. S. but myself for the reasons aforesaid."
But as an instance of simplicity, the following extract from an old continental work, not a law book, defies competition. Says the writer:—
"The English are not dragged to the place of execution, but run there themselves, and die laughing and singing, cracking jokes, and quizzing the bystanders. When the executioners are absent they frequently hang themselves!"
In a very old volume of the Reporters it appears that in the country, when women passed cattle, it was usual to say, "God bless them;" otherwise the women were taken for witches. If "A" have a right of entry into his house he ought to have a common entrance at the usual door, and shall not be put to enter at a hole or back door, or down a chimney. Littleton says that in an appeal of death the defendant waged battle with the plaintiff, and was slain on the field; yet judgment was given that he should be hanged, which the judges said was altogether necessary, for otherwise the lord of the manor would lose his escheat.
It was formerly held to be the law that a husband had a right to beat his wife, and call her any names he pleased. A man is justified in the battery of another in defence of his wife; for, says the law, she is his property, which is rather an ungallant reason. If a man lift up his stick at me, I am not bound to wait until he strikes; but I may lay on before in my own defence, peradventure, says the reporter, I may come too late afterwards. A man who has committed an offence may plead not guilty, and yet tell no lie; for by the law no man is bound to accuse himself—so that when I say I am not guilty, the meaning is as if I should say, "I am not so guilty as to tell you. If you will bring me to trial, and have me punished for what you lay to my charge, prove it against me."
Sir William Fish was bound by obligation to pay on such a day, in Gray's Inn, fifty pounds generally, without saying of money; and therefore upon the day, when the gentlemen of the Inn were at supper, Sir William came in and tendered fifty pound weight of stone. This was adjudged no tender. Libra signifies "weight;" yet, says Plowden, if one is bound in £50 and forfeits his bond, he must pay money, and not lead and the like. Lord Ellenborough refused to try an action upon a wager on a cock-fight, observing it
