Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-21
SUPERSTITION AND FORCE.

ical on the Wager OF Law, wage ~
,,e and Torture. These have been COL
lec,ed into one volume by their author,
Henry e. Lea, and published by him, in
a volume, together with 4 fourth essay on
Torture. Superstition and Force Is the
name Of the volume in which are thus en-
bodied, and a book full OF more recondite
and curious law learning does not exist.
Blackstone mentions the wager OF battle
as a method of trying cases before the
wager of law. The latter would seem to
have grown out of the former, which sue
cession i, must first have assumed in GER
tain cases from the felt insuthciency
and injustice of personal combat to
decide a matter Of fact. The whole
shows most ~singularly how slowly our
ideas of justice between man and man
have assumed their present form. The
history of the laws Of any country or age
will furnish the best proof Of the growth
of its civilization, and in this book we
have brought together the results Of an
extended research through the history OF
all European nations as to the rise, pro-
gress, abuses and extinction Of legal Gus
toms, which will well illustrate some OF
the rude attempts at justice, whose places
have been supplied by the more fair and
civilized laws of modern times. 1t is a
work of the same class as Leekey's His
tory Of Rationalism in Europe, or some Of
Mr.. Buckles Essays on the History OF
Civilization.
To wage is to dare or venture. A
wager Of battle, therefore, is, when a mar
is accused of wrong, he offers to adven-
,ure himself in combat against his adver-
sary, and prove that he is right by the su-
perior might which a righteous cause and
the favor Of God to the good were sup
posed to confer. Not to speak OF the old
Roman customs of private wars Of this
sort, in Germany, where personal indie
pendence was carried to an extreme. the
freeman who sustained an injury might
call together his family and hisfriends and
exact satisfaction with the sword and Ak.
By degrees, however, the interminable
warfare Of hostile families was averted by
the payment of compensation for injuries,
and every crime was rated at its appro-
pirate price /; and as relatives were bound
to aid in the quarrel, SO they also shared
in the compensation, from the theft OF q
sucking pig to the seizure Of an estate, or
from the wound of a little finger to the
most strocious psrricides. Nor could the
offender refuse to appear If duly sum-
moned. There were cases, however, in
which the Judges, on demand Of n Of
the parties, would order the cause to be
settled by a public contest, which, with
knights and gentlemen fully armed, often
terminated fatally, but with lesser folks
were mere contests at single stick, in which
the head aud body were protected but the
arms and legs left bare. II the defendant
was not beaten so as to give up before the
stars appeared, he won.
The wager OF law, or co~mpurgation, was
this, as Blackstone tells it, that as in wager
Of battle, the defendant gave pledge that
he would make good his cause By fighting,
so in the latter he gave sureties that he
would, on a certain day, appear to make
"his law" that is, take the benefit which
the law allowed him. To prevent being
OVERCOME by false witnesses, q defendant
could then appear in Court, surrounded
by ten or a dozen Of his relatives and
friends, and make oath that he was not
chargeable, his friends also swearing that
they believed his oath, upon which he was
declared free. Those who swore with him
were called compurgators. During the
dark ages this was the method most COM
monty used by the clergy, who, by the
oaths Of their brethren Of similar ranks,
were generally thus freed from this dis
grace of a jury trial when innocent, and
often when even guilty. Mr.. Lea has
shown that at first all the compurgators
swore thus THAT which the accused has
sworn is true, so help me God" aud these
compurgasors were held liable as perjured
persons If the oath of the accused was
proved false. At last, Pope Innocent, to
do away with much perjury, go. the oath,
altered, so that the compugators only
swore to their belief in the truth Of the
principals story, and that the conjurators
should be men Of good character, and
whose intimacy with the accused would
give weight to their oaths. But the per-
juries must have been something awful in
those days, so that the oath Of one direct
was esteemed Of more importance
and capable of outweighing those Of six
compurgators.
Ordeals and tortures form an equally
dark exhibition of the administration OF
and show by what slow processes
only we have arrived at our present de-
gree of common sense in law. A more
interesting and instructive volume. or one
Of more labor and research is seldom met
with. 1, can be ordered through Burial,
Of Virginia City.
The american Infants Magazine is to
be issued in Boston, monthly, on and af-
the LIST of January next, by Miss
Fanny P. Seaverns. Price, 81 20 per
lnnum. 1t is to be a quarto Of l6 pages,