Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-07-21
SLIPS OF NOVELISTS
LEGAL MISTAKES THAT HAVE BEEN
MADE BY GREAT AUTHORS.
Dickens and the Famous Case of
BardelI Versus Pickwick-The Trial
Scene In Reade's "Hard Cash"
Trolfope's Dip Into the Law

Harueh versus f-fckWtck-The Trial
Scene In Reade's "Hard Cash.
Trolfope's Dip Into the Law.
Legal fictions," says one of Gilbert's
gondoliers, ''are solemn things" Yet
ventures into law court without driv-
Ing his quill through acts Of parliament
and rules of law alike.
That Dickens knowledge of law, like
Mr.. Weller's of London, was "exten-
sive and peculiar" Is amply demon
strated by the famous case of Bardell
versus Pickwick. Students of that re-
port may have been struck by the fact
that neither plaintiff nor defendant APP
peared in the witness box. The ex-
PLANTATION is that at that time parties
upon the record were not competent
witnesses, theiS kBterest in the case be-
ing regardcC too strong tempta-
ton to, shall we say, inaccuracy. But
had Dickens been lawyer Mr.. Wrinkle
and his friends might also have been
spared the ordeal of cross examination
and their friends and admirers de-
prived of many merry moments.
of cross examination Dickens over
looked the legal rule that the counsel
who calls a witness is not permitted to
cross examine him at all, but, on the
contrary, Is bound by his answers;
therefore had SERGEANT BuZfuz permit
ted the Pickwickians to be called as
witnesses for the plaintiff (Which he
would have known better than to do)
their version of the words heard
through the door ION the jar" must
have been accepted, and at the first at
tempt to badger either of them it would
have been the learned counsel for the
plaintiff who received his lordship's in
junction ito be careful
But all lovers OF Dickens will rejoice
at his ignorance Of the rule which
forces counsel never to call Il hostile
witness. Who could bear to be depriv-
ed of the evidence of Mr.. Samuel Wei
Ter?
Exactly the same mistake is made by
Anthony Trollope In his we'll known
novel, 1.-The Three Clerks" There the
hero, Alaric Tudor, is placed upon his
trial for misappropriating trust money
and defended by that fshnous leader,
Mr.. Chaffanbrass Of the Old Bailey.
Tudor's Mephistopheles, the Hon. I'm
decimus Scott, is called. much against
his will, as witness for the defense.
cross examined by the celebrated Chat
fanbrass, forced to confess his mis-
deeds and dismissed covered with
ignominy, to be subsequently expelled
from his club-poetic justice which
would have been defeated even by
chairman of quarter sessions.
The great theoretical and practical
knowledge of law possessed by Charles
Reade saved him from this error, as
from many others. Yet the famous
trial scene in Hard Cash. would have
been ruthlessiy deprived of it's most
dramatic moment by any judge of the
high court. When the hapless Alfred
Hardy, who has been wrongfully i'm
prisoned in an asylum by his wicked
father, comes at last to establish his
sanity before a jury, his case is closed
by the reading of letter from his
dead sister Writing at the point of
death, she solemnly denies his insanity
and begs him to show her words to his
accusers when she is no more. Read
aloud by the judge himself, her letter
reduces a crowded court to tears and
goes far to secure her brother a trium-
plant verdict, with heavy damages.
Hard Cash" is termed "a matter of
fact romance" but, as matter Of fact
and law, no such letter could have been
received in evidence. Knowing that,
under ordinary circumstances, such
testimony would be inadmissible, |
Reade Is careful to establish that the |
writer knew herself to be dying; but |
he was unaware that ''dying declara- |
ton" is only admissible in evidence |
upon a charge of murder or man. |
slaughter of the person who has made |
it, and cannot be laid before the jury
In any other case whatever
Numerous and entertaining are the |
trial scenes which adorn the works of |
Mrs. Henry Wood, but they hardly pro-
Tess to be strictly accurate. Let me
point. rather, to an interesting slip on
the part of that most careful of nov
slists, David Christie Murray, who |
shares to some extent the popular con-
fusion on the subject of the law of |
libel and SANDER. His powerful story,
"A Capful O. Nails has for It's hero
I working mailer, who becomes an
igitator on behalf of his much op-
pressed class. In consequence of a
speech denouncing an INSCRIPTIONS
employer he is prosecuted on a charge
Of criminal libel; but, thanks to a faith
ful friend and smart lawyer, he
energies triumphantly.
No fault can be found in this case
with the way in which the villain is
cross examined to pieces. The diff
:ulty Is that no such prosecution could
nave been instituted at all. You may
SANDER man by defamatory speech.
put to libel him you must write. print
,r otherwise permanently record your
of him, and, though SIAN
Ter and libel alike may expose you to
In action for damages, It is libel alone
hat can hiring rnl within the craSn Of