Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/95

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Case-Law Verses periods of his peroration, a fitting climax to the forensic eloquence of his speech. "Power may justly be compared to a

great river: while kept within its due bounds, it is both beautiful and useful; but when it overflows its bounds, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down all before it, and brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes. If, then, this is the nature of power, let us at least do our duty, and like wise men (who value freedom) use our utmost care to support liberty, the

and anxious, yet with a gleam of satis

faction in their glances about the court room. "Not guilty!" The words of the foreman were followed by a shout of triumph that was repeated endlessly with redoubled en thusiasm in the streets outside. Hamilton was carried away by his overjoyed friends to be banquetted and

acclaimed the champion of liberty.

He

was presented with the freedom of the

city and a lavishly decorated gold case

only bulwark against limitless power,

in which to preserve it; for he had won

which, in all ages, has sacrificed to its wild lust and boundless ambition, the blood of the best men that ever lived." There was a solemn and tense stillness in the little court room, with the sober, black-gowned justices sitting behind the great panelled oak desk; the lawyers,

for the people of New York the freedom of speech—the freedom of criticising what they believed wrong, of doing what they believed right. He had gained for them the first victory of independence. And Benjamin Franklin, writing in the Pennsylvania Gazette, August 6, 1741, when the old lawyer had passed away,

glancing furtively at each other and fingering their quill pens nervously; the eager, expectant, and yet serious, terribly serious crowd of spectators; and the jurymen, filing into their places, white

said: “He feared God, loved mercy and

did justice. What more could be said of any man!”

Case-Law Verses 1 BY FRED R. BARLEE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW

WITHDRAWAL OF OFFER BEFORE TIME GIVEN FOR ACCEPTANCE

(Cooke v. Oxley, 3 T. R. 653) OFFERED goods for sale to B, B said, "You're very kind;

Give me till four o'clock today, I can't make up my mind." Meanwhile a chance of selling came, Which A quite rightly took,

I M attach have been made from a little book by the author, which bears the sub-title. "A Malaria Tcahnim of Leading Cases for the Use of Students and Others." 0