The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-06

prlt. winch II capital case was IOLOW6u
by public execution. with great formalitY,
the condemned animal being sometimes
dressed in the garb of men. The mode of
death was by burning, hanging by the
legs, multilatiOn of manning, according
to the gravity of the offence for which
punishment was to be inflicted.
1t seems so ridiculous now, that if the
facts We're not spread on the official
records of the courts that took cogni2ance
of the cases, it would not be believed by
any one to-day that in France in the
latter part of the sixteenth century
seventeen hogs were tried, con-
victed and sentenced TO be hanged,
drawn, and quartered. the crime alleged
against them being the mutila-
ton and devouring of infants in their
cradles. Still when one stops to ponder
over what must have been the economical
condition of the time that the association
of swine and sleeping babes was so close
that the latter became easy food
for the former. it may not need
the court records TO testify to the
peculiar relations of dumb beasts TO the
laws of that credulous age. In 1899. near
Dion, bull, enraEed by a lad who in
sisted on fishing through a field in which
the animal was pasturiug, charged upon
the boy, and placed him forever beyond
the pale of the angling brotherhood. The
bull was arrested, tried and convicted.
the accusation against him being that he
had ''furiouslY killed young lad of IA or
Is years" He was sentenced to be pub
licly hanged until dead, and he was
Even horses were visited with capital
punishment in France for the killing or
manning of human beings.
In Sardinia the law was also very
rigorous against animals, and judicial
punishment was visited against all offend
ers except the ass. This animal, for some
reason, seems to have escaped the death
penalty for his oftenses. For the first of
Tense one of his ears was cut of. For the
second his other ear was chopped from
his head, and if he was incorrigible and
taken third time charged with crime he
was declared forfeit TO the crown. This,
at this distant day doesn't seem TO re
feet much credit on the crown, for pre-
sumably the punishment for third Of
Tense is greater than that inflicted for
first or second. In what estimation must
the crown have been held in Sardinia 500
years ago, if it We're greater punishment
for mule to belong TO it than it was to
have both ears cut off
But, compared with other prosecu-
tions and procedures under the law of
that time, these and similar actions be
came rational and of good cause. Thus.
in cases where physical seizure of the
offender was impossible or impracticable,
and its appearance in court not to be had,
the law handed the malefactor over to
the ecclesiastical authorities to be dealt
with. Such offenders were lOCuStS, rats,
flies, caterpillars, and the like of such
things. which went about without the
fear of the law before them. devouring
the crops and Fostering the people Judg-
ment against these Offending outlaws was
tiercely hurled in the shape of anathema
and malediction. In the prosecution
of culprits such as these le-
gal forms We're observed, and
the accused We're assured the
right of assignment of counsel for their
defense. One of the latest cases of this
kind on record is a prosecution brought
against caterpillars in Nalence, in 1855.
This was argued with the greatest sol
emnity, and taxed the learning of both
lawyers and ecclesiastics, SO acute were
the many points of law that were urged
pro and con. The legal and ecclesiastical
battle over the caterpillars lasted so long
that when the case was closed and the
court ready to pronounce its judgment, it
was found that the accused, having got
through with their work Of devastation
had disappeared from the jurisdiction of
all courts.
In 1910 prosecution was entered against
horde of rats that were eating up the
barley in the south of France The rats
We're defended by the great lawyer of
that day, Chasseneux. He urged IN be-
half of his clients that there was no legal
mode of preventing them from returning
to the place whence they had come and
that there was no way open to them
where cats might not lie in wait Besides
his legal points he brought many script
ural arguments TO bear in favor of the
rats, and he won the case. The prosecu-
ton fell, and the rats were ordered to re-
turn to their native place at once. The
record does not say how the Judgment
was received by the devastating rodents
In 1860 pest of small flies which was
prosecuted at Mayence, escaped the dire
effects of anathema by the skillful hand
ding of their case by counsel, who de-
Tended them on the plea of their extreme
youth and small size. This struck the
learned and piOus court rs an irrefutable
argument, and he ordered that, if the flies
were driven away, those driving them
must provide them spot TO which they
could retire and live comfortably.
1t was not until 1887 that a sense of
the utter righteousness and folly of all
this kind of proCe dure broke upon the
authorities, and the awakening came dur
ing the trial OF case against certain in
sects that had attacked the vines in Sd
vOy. The counsel defending the insects
was so acute and full Of resource that the
prosecutor become exhausted in trying to
meet and refute his arguments. and
made the official tender of the right
to the accused insects of retiring to
a certain locality. Counsel for the
defense asked and received a delay in
the proceeding to consider this offer
Two days later they came into court and
declined the offer in the name OF their
clients, because the lana was sterile in
the locality proposed, and produced abso-
lutely nothing upon which their clients
could subsist.' On this the prosecutor
joined issue, and a jury of experts was
summoned to decide it. 1t was during
the session of this jury that a citizen of
common sense. far in advance of his time,
showed by argument and ridcule how
silly all such proceedings were. and the
jury so reported. That is the last case of
the kind on record. and the revolution
starting from the Jury of experts in the
vine pest case resulted in the repeal of all
animal prosecuting laws and the substitu-
ton of the present of procedure against
the owners of Offending animals"
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