226
Lawyers say that it is built up of the decisions of the ablest judges and lawyers since the year one; so I naturally conclude it is one of those things past finding out. But as a common every-day observer of human progress, it strikes me that what might have been the best thing for my Lord Bracton to decide may hardly fit into this age; yet unic ss a legisla ture constantly shapes its acts in view of what His Mustiness has announced, everything it does is de feated by the wisdom of the bench. One county judge and a bare minority of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that if a dealer shipped whiskey into a prohibition county without the C. O. D. provision, he sold in his own county; but that if he collected his bill C. O. D. he sold in the prohibition county, and must go to jail for six months for it. Mind you, it was not that he was evading the law, etc.; it was all on the construction of where he sold. The distinguished counsel for the defendant said before the Supreme Court that this was one of the decisions that brought the law into disrepute. I told him it was one of the decisions that con vinced the layman that Mr. Bumble was sound in his decision that the law was an ass, and further that we might as well have the Devil as ChiefJustice as have such fine, metaphysical distinctions as that imperil a man's liberty. Now, I am not going to suggest any remedies; any proposed or enacted by a layman would be burked by " strict construction," " not conforming to the common law," or some other such rubbish; but as the lay man cannot help himself, why should he be denied the satisfaction of consigning the law and lawyers to the aforesaid Chief-Justice?
LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. The following is a correct transcript of the most memorable judicial sentence which has ever been uttered by human lips in the annals of the world. This curious document was discov ered in a. d. 1280, in the city of Aquill in the kingdom of Naples, in the course of a search made for the discovery of Roman antiquities, and it remained there until it was found by the Commissaries of Art in the French army of Italy. Up to the time of the campaign in southern Italy, it was preserved in the sacristy of the Carthusians, near Naples, where it was kept in a box of ebony. Since then the relic has been kept in the Chapelo Caserta. The Carthusians obtained, by petition, leave that the plate might be kept by them as an acknowledgment of the
sacrifices which they had made for the French army. The French translation was made liter ally by members of the Commission of Art. Denon had a fac-simile of the plate engraved, which was bought by Lord Howard, on the sale of his cabinet, for twenty-eight hundred and ninety francs. There seems to be no historical doubt as to the authenticity of this document, and it is obvi ous to remark that the reasons of the sentence correspond exactly with those recorded in the Gospels. The sentence itself runs as follows : — "Sentence pronounced by Pontius Pilate, Intendant of Lower Galilee, that Jesus of Nazareth shall suffer death by the cross. In the seventeenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, and on the 25th of March, in the most holy city of Jerusalem, during the Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas Pontius Pilate, Intendant of the Province of Lower Galilee, sitting in judgment in the presidential chair of the praitor, sentences Jesus of Nazareth to death on a cross, between two robbers, as the numerous testi monies of the people prove that — 1. Jesus is a misleader. 2. He has excited the people to sedition. 3. He is an enemy to the laws. 4. He calls himself the Son of God. 5. He calls himself falsely the King of Israel. 6. He went to the Temple followed by a multitude carrying palms in their hands." It likewise orders the first Centurion, Quirilius Cornelius, to bring him to the place of execu tion, and forbids all persons, rich or poor, to prevent the execution of Jesus. The w'itnesses who have signed the execution against Jesus are, 1. Daniel Robani, a Pharisee; 2. John Zorobabel; 3. Raphael Robani; 4. Capet. Finally, it orders that the said Jesus be taken out of Jerusalem through the gate of Tournea. — Kolnische Zeitung.
FACETIÆ. A young thief who was charged the other day with picking pockets, demurred to the indict ment, "for that, whereas he had never picked pockets, but had always taken them just as they came." It is a doubtful point whether a blind man could be made liable for his note payable at sight.
