Some Peculiar Judgments.
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SOME PECULIAR JUDGMENTS. By George H. Westley. IT is a blessing to us writers that there are two great repositories of wisdom and human experience, viz., the Bible and Shake speare, from which we may draw helpful ideas and illustrations for almost any article we may set our pens to. I am led to say this here because, in puzzling over an intro duction to my budget of notes on peculiar judgments, there has come most welcomely to my mind the familiar story of Solomon and the two mothers, and also that of Portia and the very clever manner in which she saved Antonio his pound of flesh. Shades of Solomon and Shakespeare, I thank ye! A very interesting judicial feat was that of the Emperor Claud. There had come before him a young man who complained that his mother had disowned him, saying that he was no son of hers, and in no way entitled to any share of the family property. The emperor became greatly interested in the case and made careful investigations, with the result that while he could find no con clusive proof that the young man was the defendant's son, yet many things indicated that relationship. Having arrived at a deci sion, the emperor ordered the woman to be brought before him, and said to her: "Do you still deny that this man is your son?" "I do," she replied. "Well then," said the emperor, " if he is not your son, he shall be your husband. I order that you be immedi ately married to him." This unexpected judgment proved effective, and confessing her perjury the woman acknowledged that the young man was what he claimed to be. The Duke of Ossone, while viceroy of Naples, delivered many quaint and clever judgments. The case is related where a young Spanish exquisite named Bertrand Solus, while lounging around in the busy part of the city, was run against by a porter
carrying a bundle of wood on his shoulder. The porter had called out, " Make way, please! " several times, but without effect. He had then tried to get by without col lision, but his bundle caught in the young man's velvet dress and tore it. Solus was highly indignant and had the porter arrested. The viceroy, who had privately investigated the matter, told the porter to pretend he was dumb, and at the trial to reply by signs to any question that might be put to him. When the case came on and Solus had made his complaint, the viceroy turned to the porter and asked him what he had to say in reply. The porter only shook his head and made signs with his hands. " What judgment do you want me to give against a dumb man?" asked the viceroy. "Oh, your Excellency," replied Solus, falling into the trap, " the man is an imposter. I assure you he is not dumb. Before he ran into me I distinctly heard him cry out ' Make way.'" "Then," replied the viceroy, "if you heard him ask you to make way for him, why did you not? The fault of the accident was en tirely with yourself, and you must pay this poor man compensation for the trouble you have given him in bringing him here." Leader Scott, in his " Echoes of Old Flor ence," tells some amusing stories of one of the old podestas or supreme judges of that city, Messer Rubaconte. On one occasion a poor man named Bagnai was brought before him by a party of angry persons who declared that he had killed one of their family, and demanded justice. When the prisoner's time came to speak, he gave his version of the matter thus : " Noble Messer Podesta, the fault is not mine. I might very easily have been the dead man instead of him. This was the case: I was crossing the Arno on the little wooden bridge when there
