I2O
ably brought suit against them, and the case was eventually settled. To guard against further dispute, Sabaa was obliged to exe cute this bill of release, in which he mentions the marriage and the divorce, and states that he has no further claims at law, either in Jewish or Gentile courts, against his former parents-in-law. He acknowledges that they have no property in their possession belong ing to him, either as loan or pledge or other wise; that they have no articles of copper, or iron, etc. (articles enumerated in four lines of the manuscript), belonging to him, and that neither he nor his heirs have any claim upon them, and that any document produced by him or them or any other persons for the purpose of enforcing such claim shall be null and void. Thus, by means of this fragment of writ ing, we are led into the house of a Cairo Jew who has been mouldering in the dust these eight hundred years, and are made witnesses of his family troubles. It is one of those
OLD-TIME
PICTURESQUE
glimpses that we may enjoy when the veil is lifted for an instant, and the past flashes upon us out of the darkness of history. From such documents we may learn of the cus toms, the manners, the law, the procedure, the daily life, the language, the writing, in fact of every phase of the life of bygone ages. As links in the chain of evolution of legal forms at Jewish law, these documents are of great interest. They go back to the time when the Jewish law had not yet become set and fixed, but was still flexible; they antedate the period of the codes which had a natural tendency to fix the law within the hard and fast lines. In those days and in that community . the law was administered very much as the common law is administered in our time, by judges who based their deci sions upon precedent, but who were not ham pered by the restrictive effect of a huge code of law which summarizes the results of great periods of judicial activity.
ELOQUENCE
AT
THE
BAR.
BY JOHN DE MORGAN. A GENERATION ago Jack Best, no one ever called him. anything but Jack, held a high position at the English bar on account of his picturesque eloquence. When he was engaged on a case the court was sure to be crowded, for wearers of silk, as well as wearers of stuff liked to hear his forensic oratory, while the "pit" was sure to be filled with solicitors. On one occasion he was defending a ¡pris oner against Mr. Besley, Q. C, who was then a young junior. lack Best considered that the prosecution had been pressed unduly, and proceeded to call attention to the fact in the following characteristic manner: "May it please you, my lord, and gentle men of the jury. . I wish to heaven that I were the king of Dahomey. For if I were
I would appoint my friend, Mr. Besley, my attorney-general in recognition of the fair ness and impartiality with which he always conducts a prosecution. I would present him, for the . insignia of his office, with a yacht bearing the skull and cross-bones on its flag, and I would float it in a. sea of human blood." Once on circuit Baron Martin was asked by Jack Best to postpone a case till the next day. It was then about four olclock in the afternoon. The learned Baron said with a sweet smile on his face: "Apply again later on, Mr. Best, and I will let you know. I am anxious to get through as much work as possible to-day, as we are due at Exeter on Thursday. "I am obliged to your lord ship," Jack replied, and then in a stage
