Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-07-06
THE LAW OF HOMICIDE.

No part of the law of England is more elab
crate or more difficult to reduce to any thing
like order and system than the law relating tt
homicide in its different degrees. The act re
lating to offenses against the person throws ne
light upon it whatever. 1t provides in few
words for the punishment of murder and man
slaughter, but it assumes the legal definitions
of these OffenseS are known. OF these definl'
tions have not space to write with anything
like the fullness which they deserve will only
say in general that upon full examination
of the different legal decisions which have beer
given by the courts, and the different expoSl
tions of the matter which have been made by
writers regarded as authoritative, it will bt
found that that the apparently simple definl
tions already given and quoted below, require
in order that they may be fully understood
that answers should be given to the following
questions First, What is homicide ? Must
a child be fully born before it can be killed, OF
is it homicide to kill living unborn infant
Is it homicide to frighten man to death, OF
to break a wOnan's heart by systematic un'
kindness, which operating on weak nerves,
causes paralysis and death Is it homicide to
allow man to die when you can save him
without danger or serious trouble, e. g., by
throwing rope to a drowning man 1t a
person having the charge of child or inflrm
person omits to render proper services whereby
death is caused, is that homicide? 1t ply
sician causes his patients death by mistaken
treatment, is it homicide? If A I'M lures B and
b refuses to submit to surgical operation and
dies, has A killed B /? Or suppose the opera
tion is performed and B dies Of the operation,
has a killed B? Does it make any difference
if the operation was unnecessary or was un-
skillfully performed Next, in what cases is
homicide unlawful The full answer to this
question involes a statement of the law as to
cases which justify the use OF personal Vso-
lence, and in particular its use for selt-detense,
for the prevention of crimes, for the arrest OF
criminals, for the execution of legal process,
and for the assertion of particular legal rights.
A, far stronger than B, comes by force into
BIS house and stays there, making distur-
bance. Btries to remove him. A successful
ly resists. At what point, if at any point,
may B shoot A or stab him with knife
When we have assigned, by answering these
questions, definite meaning to the expression
''unlawful homicide" it becomes necessary
to distinguish between the two classes into
which it is divided by defining each of the
words ''malice and afOrethought." Does the
word ''aforethought" imply premeditation ex-
tending over day, an hour, a minute, or is 1t
a practically unmeaning word A variety OF
authorities show thai it is practically unmean-
ing. If man with a loaded gun in his hand
suddenly conceives and executes the intention
to shoot dead an unoffending passer-by, his
crime is regarded by the law Of England as be-
ing, to say the very least, quite as bad as if he
committed it after long delberation.- The
Hon. Mr.. Justice Stephens, IN the Nineteeth
Century,
----.----- - . - -
BUSINESS HABITS.
stThere is probably not one farmer in ten
thousand" says an exchange, "whO keeps set
of accounts from which he can at any moment
learn the cost of anything he may have pro-
duced, or even the cost of his real property.
A very few farmers who have been brought up
to business habits keep such accounts and are
able to tell how their affairs progress, what
each crop, each kind of stock, or each animal
has cost aid what each produces. Knowing
these points a farmer can, to very great ex-
tent, properly decide what crops he will grow
and what kind Of stock he will keep. He will
thus be able to apply his labor and money
where it will do the most good. lie can weed
out his stock and retain only such animals as
may be kept with profit. Forthe want of such
knowledge farmers continue, year after year,
to feed COWS that are Improbable, and fire.
quently sell for less than her value one that is
the best Of the herd, because she is not known
to be any better than the rest. Feed is also
wasted upon ill-bred stock, the keep OF which
costs three or four times that of well-bred ami
mails, which, as have been proved by figures
that cannot be mistaken, pay large profit on
their keeping. For want of knowing what
they cost, poor crops are raised year by year
at an actual loss, provided the farmers labor,
at the rates current for common labor, were
charged against them. TO learn that he has
been working for fifty cents day during a
number of years, while he has been paying his
help twice as much, would open the eyes of
many farmer who has actually been doing
this, and it would convince him that there is
some value in figures and book accounts 1t
is not generally understood that man who
raises twenty bushels of corn per acre pays
twice as much for his ploughing and harrow
ing, twice as much for labor, and twice as
great interest upon the cost of his farm as 4
neghbor who raises forty bushels per acre.
Nor is it understood than when he raises a pig
that makes one hundred and tiftypounds ofpork
in year that his pork costs him twice as much,
or the corn he feeds brings him but half as
much as that of his neighbor, whose pig
weighs three hundred pounds at year old.
'If all these things were clearly set down in
figures upon page in an account book, and
were studied, there would be not only sudden
awakening to the unprOfitableness Of such
farming, but an immediate remedy would be
sought. For no person could resist evidence
of this kind if it were once brought plainly
home to HIM. If storekeepers, merchants, or
manufacturers kept no accounts they could
not possibly carry on their business, and 1t IS
only because the farmers business is one OF
the most safe that he can still so OIL working
in the dark and throwing away opportunities
of bettering his condition and increasing his
profits"
THE MORALITY OF FAILING.-It is better
to be robbed than to be a robber. And some
times it is better to fail than to succeed.
This thing called failure is not such fearful
thing as the prosperous world would suggest
it to be. Failure is onlya lesser success. All
men cannot organize a triumph. Defeat is
the fate of many. The only successful fail
ures are the ones that are honestly made.
When a mans judgment has miscarried and
brought him wrong issue, he is not to be out
lawed for it. When the msfortunes or "cus-
sedness" of others drive him into defeat, there
is no reason why he should be hated. The
world will have charity for the failure where
it has been inevitable and honest. 1t hates
sham failure even worse than it does sham
success. There is one feature connected with
failures practiced by nearly all failing con-
Germs, but that does not make it any less OBJ
jectionable. We refer to the custom, so uni
versal with all failing firms and institutions,
of preferring wealthy creditors. The queS-
ton naturally comes up: Why should they
be preferred ? When mercantile house fails,
it usually prefers it's banker, and fixes every
thing up with him so that he is no loser.
When bank fails, it has been observed, that
it always prefers it's large, rich creditors.
This system is corrupt in morals, and mani
tests a contemptuous Difference to wealth
that is humilating. Why should any failing
concern prefer the wealthy over the poor !?
Every settlement should be promoted us a