sentence to an imprisonment for life. Mr. Clinton calls the fate of his client a judi cial murder. And it seems to be justly added to the grim catalogue, already long, of innocent persons executed.
jealous woman, that was corroborated by extraneous testimony, was proven to be, as he had averred, entirely innocent; yet for whom judges had denied a stay and a Gov ernor had refused a commutation of the death
SOME ASPECTS OF THE GROWTH OF JEWISH LAW. By David Werner Amram. II. The Influence of Changing Custom on the Torah. HAVING observed that the origins of Jewish law are found in the ancient customs of the people, and that these ancient customs were for a longtime the only regula tive authority among them, we shall now consider the relation of common custom to the written law, the Torah. In their dis cussion of the Torah, the rabbis found theory and practice often opposed to each other. The Torah was fixed and unalterable, and, theoretically, no human power could change it. "Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish therefrom." (Deut. xiii, 1.) It would be difficult to conceive a more solemn attempt to fix the landmarks of the law beyond re moval than was attempted in the Torah. The mantle of divine authority was thrown about it, the sanction of the divine will was its enact ing power, and the dread of divine vengeance threatened its transgressor. Nevertheless, in actual practice, the strict letter of the Torah gradually yielded to the pressure of altered conditions in the national life. The changes thus arising were explained by the rabbis, as above indicated, by saying that the oral traditions as well as the Torah were of divine origin. How great the change of law had become in the later days of the Jewish Com monwealth, and thereafter, is indicated by citing a few important examples. The de struction of the Temple carried with it the
practical abolition of the entire volume of Mosaic and traditional law relating to the sacrificial system, the functions, dress and authority of the priests, and all matter con nected with the Temple and its service; and in place of all these arose the Synagogue, with its prayers instead of sacrifice, and its ritual entirely different from anything con templated in the Mosaic code. When the Jews were dispersed throughout the world, all the laws relating to Palestine, to the posses sion and ownership of the soil, became a dead letter, and the law of the people among whom the Jews lived became law for them also, in so far as all matters affecting their civil status were concerned. It is necessary to state that the rabbis did not consider these laws abolished, but merely as being held in abeyance until the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, when they would again ipso facto come into full force as of old. The death penalty for crime, which is en joined in the Torah, was gradually modified so as to be practically abolished by the tra ditional law. Polygamy, with all the laws relating to it, was practically abolished at a very early peri od, and in the eleventh century was formally interdicted by a decree of a Sanhedrin at the city of Mayence in Germany. The maxim of the Roman law, cessante ratione legis cessat lex ipsa, " the reason of the law ceasing, the law itself ceases, " controlled the evolution of the Jewish law also, and was the principle
