Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-08-09
TCOMNIUNICATED.l
JUDICIAL LITERATURE.


JUDICIAL LITERATURE.
A very interesting publication is the
AMERICAN LAW REVIEW, Little, Brown &
Co., publishers, Boston.
If you have been favored by the Publish
ers with copy, you have been very remiss
in not noticing it, and have done injustice
to really valuable and interesting work.
We have just read the July number. Among
the contents are:
The LIMITATIONS OF THE LIABILITY OF
SHIP OWNERS BY STATUTE.
THE RIGHTS OF ACTION OF A BANKRUPT.
MODERN RFFORM IN PLEADING.
GovERN1IENT CLAIMS.
SEALS.
Each one of these articles evinces great
labor, ability and research.
That on SEALS, (the SigiHum of my Lord
Coke, not the Phoco or Seolgh of Monk
Barns, lis full of quaint. curious and scholarly
learning, and some of the impressions are
highly worthy Of place in DIsraelis Curl
osities of Literature.
But we have q specimen of Curiositles of
Judicial Literature in the number before
us, entitled kansas
at has sometimes been supposed that the bench
offers but little opportunities for eloquent fancy
or polite erudtion How erroneous this s0plnlon
is our readers will from the following exortli
Crozier ia the case of Searle IS. Adams, 3 Banks,
SIS, SIS:
g In this the irrepressible Statute of Limita
tons is again presented for consideration. For
tha IF aap
ceeding case, involving q construction OF this
Statute, it was considered, by bench and bar that
fiction itself could scarcely conceive of ques
ton to arise Hereunder; but as term after term
rolls around, there are presented questions,
comparing favOraby III point OF numbers with
Falstaff's men in buckram; thus adding to the
legions that have gone before a new demonstra-
ton of the propriety and verify of the adage that
SO truth is stranger than fiction" With the heat
of ninety-eight degrees of Fahrenheit in the
shade, and the newspapers teeming with reports
of the ravages of our great common enemy, who,
the more cttectually to accomplish his double pur
pose of capturing the imprudent and frightening
the tmid, has assumed the power of the Asiatic
Mons er, it might be supposed by the unthinking,
that the consideration of such questions would be
entered upon rather reluctantly. But we beg to
disabuse the public mind OF any such heresy.
Cases might be imagined where sHnashes would
not stimulate, nor cObblers quicken, nor 6 ju-
leps" invigOrate; but new question under our
Statute Of Limitations, in GOODNESS and restoring
power, so far exceeds any and all Of these that,
when one is presented, the g fine ould Irish GIN
teman's' resurrection under the circumstances
detailed in the song, becomes palpable reality
the ''Topeka Constitution or the territorial
capital at s'Mneola.' The powers of a gal
vanic battery upon the vital energies are wholly
incompatible to it. So that the consideration
of this case upon this day of wilted collars and
oily butter, should not entitle the Court to many
eulogies for extraordinary energy i'll the ful6nent
of its duties. Counsel was understood to init
mate that some mischievOusly disposed persons
with diabolcal intent, not clearly revealed,
while organized the Legislature of the State,
had made violent and unwarrantable onslaught
upon the Constitution-shat Constitution which
this Court, tripedal pier, is exerting its ut
most endeavOrs to suppOrt-that Constitution
which, not only from patriotic and moral, but
from alimentary considerations well, are
bound to maintain and defend. Being i'll some
what 'melting mood to-day, we would be pleased
to crafty Counsel by adopting his ':fears.'
The learned Justice then goes on to de-
eide the case, and concludes that it is as
transparent as the soup of which Oliver
Twist implored an additional supply" that
the case does not come within the Statute
In another case, Graft VS.. State, 3 Banks,
$50, $50, the same learned Chief Justice.
in defending the somewhat obvious propo-
sition, that jury is not bound, as matter
of law, to disbeheve the evidence of pros
titute or, to use his own words, " that it
ought not to be said that a woman spours
out from her heart at Venus shrine with her
virtue, every other good quality with which,
in our thoughts we endow her SEX and
this, whether she habitually faunts her
frailty in the face of the world, or attempts
to hide it in retiracy, OF garnish it with gar
lands of good works"
When we had read this Kansas effusion,
we were mortified. Since the close of the
"last war;" we have been, one by one,
stripped of our rights, political and social,
until we are naked as truth. But we beg
it to be understood, that when we reflect
son the reason of the thing" we are no
more ashamed of ourselves than were Adam
and Eve before the serpent called to see
them. One pleasing satisfaction we had
Rugged to our naked selves, that one glory
was still left to the Old North State, which
made her shine among her Southern sis
ters " ut luna ia,te, minores ignes'' We had
supposed that our Chief Justice, in eloquent
fancy and polite erudition, in his judicial
opinions, stood like ''Saul, the son Of Kisb,