The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-12 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE,—(Feb. 11.)

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
(Sittings in Banco, before Mr. Justice Crompton,
Mr. Justice Blackburn, and Mr. Justice Mellor.)
The three learned judges sat in Banco ; Mr. Jus-
tice Shee sat at Nisi Prins until the middle of the
day, and then left in the midst of a case to go to
Judge's Chambers.
Mr. Sergeant Parry received to-day his patent of
precedence.
Mr. Pulling, Mr. John Simon, and Mr. Tindal
Atkinson received the coif as sergeants at law.

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH V. OSBORNE.
This was a case which raised a rather curious
philological discussion with some interesting prac-
tical illustrations. It was an action of ejectment
by the Duke against a farmer, one of his tenants, at
Hanborough, in Oxfordshire, to recover his farm,
on the ground of an alleged forfeiture on the fel-
lowing clause in his agreement of tenancy :—" The
tenant to perform each year for the Duke of Marl-
borough, at the rate of one day's team work with
two horses, and one proper person, for every £5O of
rent, when required (except at hay or corn harvest),
without being paid for the same." The Duke's
agent had desired the tenant to send a cart to carry
coals from the railway station to the Duke's man-
sion at Blenheim. This the tenant refused to do,
though he offered to send the horses and the man,
cor tending that the Duke was to find the cart. This
was the point in contention between the parties.
The case was tried at Oxford before Mr. Justice
Byles, who reserved the point, the verdict being
entered for the Duke subject thereto. Mr. Huddle-
ston, Q.C., had obtained a rule on the part of the
tenant to set aside the verdict and enter it for him.
Mr. Gray, Q.C., and Mr. Cripps argued on the
part of the Duke, in support of the verdict, and
against the rule to set it aside. They contended
that, according to the agreement, as the tenant was
to do " team work," and it could not be done with-
out a cart, he was bound to find the cart.
In the course of the argument of Mr. Cripps,
Mr. Justice Crompton said, in the course of his
reading he had met with the following lines, which
seemed to show that the team was separate from
the cart :
" Giles Jolt was sleeping—in his cart he lay,
"Some waggish pilferers stole his team away.
"Giles wakes and cries, Odd's bodikins, what'
s here?
. Why, how now, am I Giles or not ?
"' It he, I've lost six geldings to my smart;
"' If not, odd's bodikins, I've found a cart.
(Much laughter.)
Mr. Justice Blackburn cited some lines from one
of Wordsworth's poems—we believe from the TVag •
goner—the lines beginning thus
" My jolly team will work alone for me."
Mr. Cripps cited TValker's Dictionary;—" Team,
a number of horses drawing the same carriage;"
and so Johnson's Dictionary—" A number of horses
drawing the same carriage. '
Mr. Justice Cr mpton said these citations seemed
to imply that the team was distinct from the car-
riage.
Mr. Cripps urged that the team without the cart
would be of no use, and he cited a stanza from
' Gray's Elegy :
"Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe hath broke ' •
10;s2)=Ineddid
tlethlevyooddrsivbeentheaeitrh ttehaemi
rslur afield,iy
stroke."
He also cited the description given by Caesar of the
mode of fighting from the chariot adop ed by the
ancient Britons, who used
to come out of their
chariots and "percurrerc per tenzonem." The
learned counsel also alluded to what he called the
"graphic" account of the battle of Bull's Run' in
which it was stated that " the teamster cut the
t r aAciers.
utdhdei e hs
toorns s."
Q
and Mc. Griffits argued
on behalf of the farmer, in support of the rule to
enter the verdict in his favour. They cited Bos-
wctreh's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Team : issue,
offspring, progeny, a succession of children ; any.
thing following in a line."
Mr. Justice Crompton—Surely the word there
must be spelt " teem ?" (Laughter.)
The learned Counsel cited Richardson's Diction-