Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/640

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Editorial Department.

A loan of field produce in the third year of Xerxes. A list of tenants who had paid their rent. A loan of a copper kettle. A written cancellation and withdrawal of a right of way theretofore granted. An income mortgage of revenues of a temple. . Instructions from Bullut to an agent to loan some pro duce to another. A quitclaim deed by a woman and her husband of certain portions of their revenue. A receipt by a joint owner for his part of the pro duce. The defeat of a lady in a litigation in which she sought to acquire her brother's property. A renting of slaves for work. An agreement to deliver a certain quantity of silver, "stamped for giving and receiving " [coined]. Perhaps it would not be amiss to add a few others of the very many : — An inscription showing that Entenna was King of Babylon 4200 years B. C. A letter to a King of Babylon asking for a doctor to see a lady. A table of synonyms of Assyrian words. Treatment of diseases of the eye. Assyrian-Elam dictionary. A list of clothing on hand. Observations of the planet Venus. A record of the recovery of an image of the goddess Nana that had been captured and carried off from Baby lonia 1635 years before. A label to be worn by Khipa, a female slave of Sinishish The history of the recovery by Sennacherib of a signet seal that had been captured and carried away six hundred years before. A record of the conquests of Tilgath Pilesar, 1120 11. c. A list of furniture in the royal household. A report on the building of a palace. A list of kings who had paid tribute. A tablet containing a list of the standard works of the royal library of Nineveh. Record of the eclipses of the moon. The exact date of the vernal equinox. Records of the Creation and of the Deluge. Concerning the building of the Tower of Babel. An address "to primitive man." Lists of Babylonian kings from the Flood down. A letter from Sennacherib to his father, reporting the condition of the empire. A report of progress being made in copying out works for the royal library. The above lejal documents are all dated with the regnal years of the then reigning monarchs, are signed by witnesses, and seem to be gotten up with an accurate formality.

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LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. Nestor tells us how the weregeld and private redress was abolished in the Russian law, in the following words : — "And Vladimir lived in the fear of the Lord, and deeds of murder were on the increase; and the bishops said to Vladimir: ' Murderers are increasing in numbers; why do you not punish them?' Vladi mir answered : ' I fear to do injustice.' But they said : ' You are appointed by God to punish evildoers and reward the good. Therefore punish the murders, but only after trial.' Thereupon Vladimir abolished the weregeld, and punished murder."

At a Quarter Sessions held at Guildford in 1769, a motion was made for an application to one of the Secretaries of State, recommending a certain prisoner as a fit object for his Majesty's pardon. Twelve months previously the man in question had been sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and to find sureties for his good behavior for seven years afterwards, for " chalking 45 " on the back of a justice of the peace. In the same year a Methodist preacher, who had " disturbed the peace of the city of Gloucester with his enthusiastic cant," was flogged through the streets by order of the mayor. A few years later, a suit instituted by a York shire rector against two of his parishioners, for a tithe of milk and calf, was decided in favor of the rector. A payment of a certain sum had been made for many years for these tithes; but the rector thought this insufficient, and therefore in sisted upon taking them in kind, — a proceeding upheld by the decision of the court. Several comedians were committed to prison at Bordeaux in 1770, for advertising the rep resentation of a piece entitled " The Honest Criminal."

FACETIÆ. Judge (to female witness). What is your age, madam? Witness (hesitatingly). I have seen sixteen summers. Judge. How many years were you blind?