LEGAL ANTIQUITIES.
The following notice to the profession is ex tracted from a New Jersey paper of 1821 : —
in Bracton's tone when he says that when an ap prover has done what he promised, faith ought to be kept with him. It is certain that at times the approver, although victorious, was hanged.
"To be sold on the 8th of July, one hundred and thirty-one suits at law, the property of an eminent attorney about to retire from business. (Note. The clients are rich and obstinate.)" FACETIÆ. A remarkable feature of the legal system of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was the use made of men who betrayed their accomplices and became King's evidence. When battle was a mode of defence which any criminal might claim, when most crimes required a private prosecutor, and when failure involved fine whether there was a duel or not, or imprisonment for false appeal, it was natural that men should shrink from the thankless and dangerous office of making the ap peal. Hence, it may be, arose a certain readi ness of the law to turn the approver, tainted though he was, into an officer of justice. He had to prove the truth of his charge, and pre sumably also the sincerity of his own repentance, by fighting his quondam companion in crime. So far little objection on any score is admis sible; but all the approver's functions were not so legitimate. Bracton says that the King might grant life and limb to a confessed criminal con tingently on his ridding the land of a given num ber of malefactors by his body. He then gives a form of pardon dependent on the condition that the recipient should conquer in five duels. Pos sibly Bracton's form was taken from an actual case in 1221, in which a horse-thief became approver to fight five battles. The approver's neck was in no small danger until he finished the last of his battles. If one of his five appeals broke down without battle at all, his life was the forfeit; and this was often the case where the appellee chose to be tried by assize, and not by battle. If in the battle itself the ap prover pronounced " that odious word recreant," — if he owned himself defeated, — death was equally the penalty. And if, with a catlike te nacity of life, he had the Luck to survive to claim his pardon and permission to go into exile, carry ing the scars of his five victories, it is doubtful if the hard-fought-for freedom was always his, after all. For there is a faint touch of expostulation
"I must and will have order in this court," sternly remarked a presiding magistrate; "I have disposed of three cases without hearing a word of the evidence."
A country laird, who had lately been elected to the office of justice of the peace, meeting a clerical gentleman on horseback, attempted jocu larity by remarking that he was more ambitious than his Master, who was content to ride upon an ass. "They canna be gotten noo," said the min ister, " for they 're a' made justices of the peace."
Upon one occasion, while arguing a case in the Supreme Court of Missouri, Mr. Hayden was in terrupted by the presiding judge, who asked, "Why is it, Mr. Hayden, that you spend so much time in arguing the weak points of your case, to the exclusion of the more important ones?" "Because," replied Mr. Hayden, "I have found, in my long practice in this court, that the weak points win fully as often as the strong ones." A negro being asked what he was in jail for, said it was for borrowing money. " But," said the questioner, " they don't put people in jail for borrowing money? " " Yes," said the dar key; " but I had to knock de man down free or fo' times before he would lend it to me."
A witness was testifying that he met the de fendant at breakfast, and the latter called the waiter and said — • " Stop! " exclaimed the counsel for the de fence, "I object to what he said." Then followed a legal argument of an hour and a half on the objection, which was overruled, and
