Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1869-03-16
THE COMIC BLACKSTONE.

HE CUMlC BLRCkS uNt.
A series of papers published some years
since in Punch by Gilbert Abbott o-Beck-
ct, has been thrown into book form. The
papers travesty the style Of that lucid,
concise and altogether admirable writer
on the elements of law, Blackstone, in a
manner that will amuse all readers, wheth-
er lawyers or not. We quote:
A wife cannot be sued without the hus-
band, unless he is dead in law, and law
is really enough TO be the death of any
one. A husband or wife cannot be a
witness for or against one another, though
a wife sometimes gives evidence of the
bad taste Of the husband in selecting her
BY the old law husband might give his
wife moderate correction; but it is declar.
ed in black and white that he may moi
beat her black and blue, though the civil
law allowed any man on whom q woman
bestowed her hand, to bestow his fists Oh
her at his own discretion. The common
people, who are much attached to the
common law, still exert the privilege o.
beating their wives; and woman in the
lower ranks Of life, if she falls in love witt
a man, is liable after marriage to be 9
good deal struck by him.
Macduf calls his children "chickens,
probably because he "broods" over the
loss of them and Werner, in Lord By
ron's beautiful play ofthat name, exclaim'
to Gabor, ''Are you father ?" a question
which as the Hungarian was asingle man
he could not answer in the affirmative
without rendering himself amenable tc
the Forty-ffty of Elizabeth.
Heirs are especial favorites of oul
courts ofiustice, much as the lamb is the
especial favorite of the wolf-for an heil
with mint sauce, that is to say, with lots
of money, is dainty dish indeed to tempt
the legal appetite.
BY the law of England girl may be
given in marriage at seven, but surely
this must mean the hour Of the day al
which she may be married, and not the
age at which the ceremony may be per
| formed.
Land means anything substantial, bu
it don't mean substantial dinner-tene
ment means anything that can be holden
though it don't mean a woman's tongue
which the owner can hold sometimes.
Some conditions are void f: First, ifthey
are impossible ; as, if an estate be giver
to Lord Brougham, on condition that he
keeps himself out Of mischief. This
would be clearly an impossible condition
and Brougham would have the estate.
Every man may appear by his attorn
ey, except an idiot who must appear il
person, for the law regards an idiot as ont
who is naturally qualified to enter person
ally into lawsuit. M
Counsel guilty Of practicing deceit arr
punishable by a sentence of perpetual 81
ence in the courts; but there are somt
counsel who are doomed to perpetual 81
lence by their utter brieGessness. These
unfortunate individuals, so far from prac
ticing deceit, are utterly precluded from
practice of any kind.
| Nusances arc Of various kinds; for in
stance, it is dreadful nuisance to meet ;
mad bull in cM de sac and, indeed
this is nuisance which might affect ones
corporeal hereditaments.
The policy Of Alfred was to bring the
law home to every mans door, but the
policy Of every man ought to be to keel
his door shut, and on no account let the
law in if he can help it.
What an attorney is, everybody who
has got an attorney will mo doubt bC
aware, but those who are ignorant on the
point may feel assured that Ignorance il
unqucstionably bliss, at least in this in
stance. We however, are far from in
tending to stigmatize all attorneys as bad
and the race of roguish lawyers would
soon be extinct if roguish clients did not
raise demand for them. No man need
have a knave for his attorney unless he
chooses and when he goes by preference
to roguish lawyer, it must be presumed
that he has his own reasons for not trust
ing his affairs to an honest one. ,1
A PEvENTIvE.-The editor off Yves
tern paper has invented method where
by he keeps his neighbors' cows from
stealing his hay. lie decribcs it thusly :
Z "a certain quadruped had sweet