"A woman having a settlement,
Married a man with none,
The question was, he being dead,
If that she had was gone.
Quoth _Sir John Pratt_, her settlement
Suspended did remain,
Living the husband--but him dead,
It doth revive again.
"CHORUS OF PUISNE JUDGES.
"Living the husband--but him dead,
It doth revive again."
[9] ERRATA in one of our correspondent's "Legal
for "six beaches," read "six braches."
for "book ycleped," read "_bock ylered_."
for "token" read "_teken_."
for "Hamelyn" read "_Howelin_."
Corrected from Blount's _Tenures_, p. 665, ed. 1815.
A print of Westminster Hall, by Mosely, from a drawing made by Gravelot,
who died in 1773, bears the following versified inscription:--
"When fools fall out, for ev'ry flaw,
They run horn mad to go to law,
A hedge awry, a wrong plac'd gate,
Will serve to spend a whole estate.
Your case the lawyer says is good,
And justice cannot he withstood;
By tedious process from above,
From office they to office move,
Thro' pleas, demurrers, the dev'l and all,
At length they bring it to the _Hall_;
The dreadful hall by Rufus rais'd,
For lofty Gothick arches prais'd.
"The _first of Term_, the fatal day,
Doth various images convey;
First, from the courts with clam'rous bawl,
The _criers_ their _attornies_ call;
One of the gown discreet and wise,
By _proper_ means his witness tries;
From _Wreathock's_ gang, not right or laws,
H' assures his trembling client's cause.
_This_ gnaws his haudkerchies, whilst _that_
Gives the kind ogling nymph his hat;
Here one in love with choristers,
Minds singing more than law affairs.
A _Serjeant_ limping on behind,
Shews justice lame as well as blind.
To gain new clients some dispute,
Others protract an ancient suit,
Jargon and noise alone prevail,
Whilst sense and reason's sure to fail:
At _Babel_ thus _law terms_ begun,
And now at West----er go on."
At page 24, of the Poem, there is a happy allusion to the permanence or
lasting of a limitation:
"But if the limitation's made
So long as cheating's us'd in trade,
Or vice prevails: 'tis then a fee,
As good as ever need to be:
For tho' 'tis base instead of pure,
Alas it ever will endure."
Upon this passage is the following confirmative note: "Cheating will
always prevail, in defiance of all human laws, for it cannot be avoided,
but so long as contracts be suffered, many offences shall follow
thereby."--(_Doctor and Student_, c. 3.) In buying and selling, the law
of nations connives at some cunning and overreaching in respect of the
price. By the civil law, a just price is said to be that, whereby
neither the buyer nor seller is injured above one moiety of the true and
common value; and in this case the person injured shall not be relieved
by rescinding the sale, for he must impute it to his own imprudence and
indiscretion.
The origin of _Fee-tail estates_:
"The expression, fee-tail, was borrowed from the feudists, among
whom it signified any mutilated or truncated inheritance from which
the heirs general were cut off, being derived from the barbarous
word _taliare_ to cut.--(2 _Blac. Comm_. 112.)
_Fines and Recoveries (as fund and refund_,) are like the poles, arctic
and attractive. Of the latter is the following _quid-pro-quo_ anecdote:
"A physician of an acrimonious disposition, and having a thorough
hatred of lawyers, was in company with a barrister, and in the
course of conversation, reproached the profession of the latter with
the use of phrases utterly unintelligible. 'For example,' said he,
'I never could understand what you lawyers mean by docking an
entail.' 'That is very likely,' answered the lawyer, 'but I will
explain it to you; it is doing what you doctors never consent
to--_suffering a recovery_.'
Among the notes to _Rights and Titles_ is the following:
"Master _Mason_, of _Trinity College_, sent his pupil to another of
the fellows to borrow a book of him, who told him, 'I am loth to
lend books out of my chamber, but if it please thy tutor to come and
read upon it in my chamber, he shall as long as he will.' It was
winter, and some days after the same fellow sent to Mr. _Mason_ to
borrow his bellows, but Mr. _Mason_ said to his pupil, 'I am loth to
lend my bellows out of my chamber, but if thy tutor would come and
blow the fire in my chamber, he shall as long as he will.'
In the next page is a note on the _Nature of Property_, in the
perspicuous style of a master-mind:
"There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, and
engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property; or that
sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over
the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of
any other individual in the universe. And yet there are very few
that will give themselves the trouble to consider the original and
foundation of this right. Pleased as we are with the possession, we
seem afraid to look back to the means by which it was acquired, as
if fearful of some defect in our title; or at best we rest satisfied
with the decision of the laws in our favour, without examining the
reason and authority upon which those laws have been built. We think
it enough that our title is derived by the grant of the former
proprietor, by descent from our ancestors, or by the last will and
testament of the dying owner; not caring to reflect that (accurately
and strictly speaking) there is no foundation in nature, or in
natural law, why a set of words upon parchment should convey the
dominion of land; why the son should have a right to exclude his
fellow creature from a determinate spot of ground, because his
father had so done before him; or why the occupier of a particular
field, or of a jewel, when lying on his death bed, and no longer
able to maintain possession, should be entitled to tell the rest
of the world which of them should enjoy it after him.--(2 _Blac.
Comm._ 2)
"The _two sheriff's of London_ are the _one sheriff of Middlesex_;
thus constituting in the latter case, what may be denominated, in
the words of _George Colman the Younger_, (see his address to the
Reviewers, in his _vagaries_,) 'a plural unit.' Henry the First,
in the same charter by which he declared and confirmed the
privileges of the City of _London_, (and among others, that of
choosing their own sheriffs,) conferred on them, in consideration of
an annual rent of 300_l._, to be paid to his majesty and his
successors for ever, the perpetual sheriffalty of _Middlesex_. This
was an enormous price; 300_l._. in those days were equal to more
than three times as many thousands at the present time.
Here is a lively commentary upon the _Inclosure Acts_:
"To a pamphlet which was published some years ago, against the
propriety of enclosing _Waltham Forest_, the following quaint motto
was prefixed:
"The fault is great in man or woman,
Who steals a goose from off a common,
But who can plead that man's excuse,
Who steals the common from the goose?"
How to decide a Chancery Suit:
"The _Shellys_ were a family of distinction in _Sussex_. _Richard_ and
_Thomas Shelly_ were a long time engaged in litigation; and Queen
Elizabeth hearing of it, ordered her Lord Chancellor to summon the
Judges to put an end to it, to prevent the ruin of so ancient a
family."--(_Engl. Baronets_, ed. 1737.)
With these pleasantries we leave the _Conveyancer's Guide_, hoping it
may be long ere the witty author sings his "Farewell to his Muse."
* * * * *
Manners & Customs of all Nations.
* * * * *