"Well, then, now tell us what is Butterworth?" The witness looked him full in the face; then, assuming an innocent and unconcerned expres sion, he replied, much to the delight of a crowded court: "Thirty cents a pound, although I have paid as high as —" "That will do, sir; you can stand down, we shall not want you again." Judge Bates, of Missouri, was a monomaniac on the subject of tax titles, and while on the bench of the Land Court resorted to every con ceivable plan to overthrow a title predicated upon a tax sale. In an action of ejectment pending in his court, the plaintiff relied upon a tax title; and when he introduced his deed in evidence, the judge scrutinized it very closely, and found the land described as " N. E. qr., of S. E. qr., of S. 4, T. 40;" and the following colloquy took place : — "Mr. Counsel, what do the letters N. E. in this deed stand for?" "North East, if your Honor please." "North East, North East? What evidence is there before the court to show that they mean any such thing?" "The letters N. E. are usually used by survey ors to designate the point of the compass." "How is this court to know that they were not intended to represent ' New England,' or ' New Edition,' or ' Nothing Extra,' or any other words to which the initials may be applicable? "The point raised by your Honor is new, and I am not prepared to give any additional explanation." "The objection to the introduction of the deed is sustained upon the ground. of uncertainty in the description of the premises. Plaintiff nonsuited." "I wish to ask this court," said a lawyer who had been called to the witness-box to testify as an expert, "if I am compelled to come into this case, in which I have no personal interest, and give a legal opinion for nothing?" "Yes, yes, certainly," replied the mild-man nered judge; "give it for what it is worth." Prisoner. I don't think there will be any need of your addressing the jury. Lawver. Why not?
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Prisoner. My insanity will be instantly plain to them when they see that I have retained you to conduct my case! — Puck. Police Magistrate. Did you see the begin ning of this trouble? Witness. Yes, sir; I saw the very commence ment. It was about two years ago. Magistrate. Two years ago? Witness. Yes, sir. The parson said, " Wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband?" and she said, " I will."
NOTES. An American lawyer, addressing a lay audi ence on the necessity of codification, makes the following startling statement : " You will find the common law in 6,000 volumes of law re ports, which average 700 pages to the volume, making 4,200,000 pages. If you read fifty pages every day in the year for 230 years, you will have read this judge-made law down to the time you began your course of reading. But during your long course of reading, the judges have been engaged in making this kind of law at the rate of 1 6,000 cases a year; so that after you have read 230 years, you will find the vol umes of reports that have accumulated since you began to read, exceed by many times the num ber you have read." — The jfurist. The " British Medical Journal " says : " The danger of kissing a greasy book, so often ten dered in police and law courts to a witness about to be sworn, is at last appreciated by some officials and in some quarters. We see it stated that when the Duke of Fife appeared lately at Stratford in a prosecution, the Testa ment on which the witness took the oath was enveloped in some clean white paper for his use, — a precaution which might with advantage be more generally adopted." Electricity has been used for the first, and, it is sincerely to be hoped, for the last time, as a means of capital punishment. The scenes attending the execution of Kemmler were pain ful in the extreme, and could have afforded little
