140
Thc Green Bag.
also Flynn v. Taylor, 127 N. Y. 596); much less for an unlawful and malicious purpose. We sympathize with the Chief-Justice in his views on the lolly and cruelty of killing game as practised by the duke and his retainers; but Mr. Harrison had no right to use the highway in his effort to obstruct the hunting-party. The Chief-Justice's humanity, democracy and laud able notion of equality ran away with his law.
LEGAL PORTRAITS. — The readers of the " Green Bag " will have observed that every month in the ad vertising pages is given a portrait of some ancient legal worthy, generally a law reporter. We can sug gest a very good use for these. Buy a copy of that most delightful book, Wallace on the Law Reporters, and lay these portraits in at the proper places. It greatly adds to the interest of the book, and preserves the portraits AMATEUR THEATRICALS. — We read with great glee that a sheriff out West had seized upon a troupe of amateur theatrical performers and immured them in a dungeon. We are not quite confident about the dungeon part, but we hope it was so. Good Jane Austen had the correct idea of this instrumentality of the foul fiend; for she makes her novel, •' Mansfield Park," turn upon the base attempt of some young people to get up some private theatricals at a great country-house in the absence of the proprietor. But an overruling Providence blew favoringly upon the ship that was bringing him home, and he walked into the hall just in time to prevent the desecration. Major André deserved his fate all the more because he was an amateur actor. It is no wonder that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania have just decided (Collins v. Dispatch Pub. Co., 25 Atl. Rep. 456) that a printed charge that an employee in the post-office department had been accused of " intimacy with a well-known young local elocutionist " is libellous in itself. We speak remorsefully, like a reformed sin ner, on this subject; lor we once uttered an alleged comedy for amateurs (copies of which we fear are still for sale by Samuel French & Son, of New York City; price, ten cents; title, "Our Best Society") The foregoing, however, is without prejudice or offence to a recent enactment, at Elmira, N. Y., by amateurs, for charitable purposes, of the trial scene in •' Pickwick Papers." This seems to have been a resource of the Hon. J. Sloat Fassett to soothe his spirit so recently perturbed by his defeat in the con test for the Governorship by Mr. Flower. Sundry other lawyers took part, and were aided and abetted by other citizens and by influential citizenesses. Mr. Fassett personated Mr. Justice Stareleigh; and when the jury disagreed, against the form of the novel in that case made and provided, he set aside the ver dict, and fined them $15 apjece for contempt of court.
To our surprise Mr. Pickwick was not personated by Senator Hill, who has a certain physical qualifica tion for the part; but perhaps he is not in a playful mood of late. BLASPHEMY. — It is reported in the newspapers that in 1881 the late Judge Comegys of Delaware charged a grand jury at Wilmington in respect to a lecture delivered there by Colonel Ingersoll, as follows : — "I say to you that the law of this State is against the insulting of God by reproachful or derogatory language or expressions, and exciting the passions of the people by treating their religion with contempt."
This is taking " Bob" too seriously. His infidel ity is part of his stock-in-trade. We should as soon think of advising the spanking of our three-year-old grandson for saying, '• Gosh! " or " Bully! " (as he frequently says), as of punishing Bob for blasphemy. We predict, in all seriousness, that if he has his senses when he dies he will die a Christian. The age has outgrown the policy of punishing people for blas phemy; and if it is still punishable in Delaware, as we infer it is, it ought in consistency to be punished by whipping, or by setting in the stocks or standing in the pillory, with a popular accompaniment of over ripe eggs. REFRESHERS. — This is a term little understood among American lawyers, but we believe that it means pecuniary jogs to the professional intellect and action. We are reminded of it by a full-page adver tisement in the London '•Law Times," consisting of a huge picture of a wigged, banded, and gowned bar rister, with a double eyeglass on his nose, and in his hands a smoking cup labelled " Cadbury's Pure Cocoa," from which he is in the act of drinking. The picture is inscribed, "A refresher." Whether this is a recommendation, or a representation of a professional habit, we are not informed. At all events, it is a clever appeal, and it will go far to dis abuse the American public of the notion that the Eng lish barrister's recess-refresher is a mug of ale. By the way, we note that the wig in the picture has six curls. Is this indicative of age or standing, or is it the customary number? We gather no hint whether the picture is a portrait from life or a fancy picture. Although we have received no refresher nor even a retainer from Mr. Qidbury, we do not mind saying that we regard cocoa as decidedly a more wholesome refresher than whiskey, which we fear is in many in stances too apt to be the American lawyer's refresher in strenuous trials. BEN BUTLER. Death has been busy among the busy B's of our country, — Blaine, the most brilliant
