_Lynch Law_ (Vol. iii., p. 24.).--Webster's {77} _American Dictionary_
(1848) explains this phrase thus--
"The practice of punishing men for crimes and offences by private
unauthorized persons, without a legal trial. The term is said to be
derived from a Virginian farmer, named Lynch, who thus took the law
into his own hands." (U.S.)
Webster is considered the highest authority in America, or I should not
offer the above.