EVADING THE LAW. QUEEN ELIZABETH, in one of her trenchant speeches, roundly rated the lawyers for standing more upon form than matter, more upon syllables than the sense of the law. Had the subjects of the royal censure dared to answer her outspoken Majesty, they might have retorted that all manner of men, if it suited their interest, were apt to do the like, and hold by the letter rather than the spirit. When Pope Innocent put England under an interdict, condemning its fertile fields to barrenness, the people might have starved but for some beneficent hair-splitters opportunely discov ering that the interdict could only affect land under tillage at the time of its imposition, and therefore that crops might be raised upon the waste lands, commons, and fields hitherto unploughed. Necessity begets cas uistry. The old knight whose sacrilegious deeds earned him many an unheeded anathe ma, as he lay waiting the coming of death, remembered that he was an excommuni cated man, sentenced to be damned, whether buried within the church or without the church. Although the contumacious rep robate had never found himself much the worse for ecclesiastic curses, he thought it advisable to be on the safe side; so, direct ing his body to be buried neither within the church nor without the church, but in a hole cut in the outer wall, he died in that happy conviction. Once upon a time the governor of a city issued an order of the night, commanding every person walking about after dark to carry a lantern. Sundry citizens were ar rested for non-obedience, whereupon they produced their lanterns, and being asked what had become of the candles, replied that they were not aware candles were required. An amended order now appeared; but nightstrollers wandered about as much in the dark as before, and it was not until he com manded the candles to be lighted ones, that
the governor got things done to his mind. In 14 18 a civil proclamation was issued in London, directing that every honest person dwelling within the city limits should hang out " a lantern. with a candle in it, to burn so long as it might endure; " from which it might be inferred that the Londoners had hitherto lit their candles only to blow them out again, so that they were quite capable of poking fun at the authorities. Indeed, the latter would seem to have been inclined to jocularity themselves, humorously insisting only upon honest folk lighting up, — a limi tation calculated, however, to insure a gen eral illumination. There was sense as well as humor in the defence made by the precise Parisian charged with allowing his dog to be at large without a muzzle : " The regulations do not say where the muzzle is to be put, and thinking my dog would like to be able to breathe a little fresh air, I put the muzzle on his tail!" A similar omission in an English Act re quiring owners of common stage-carts to have their names painted upon them, led to the object of the law being defeated in various odd ways. Some painted the name where no one could see it, others scattered it all over the cart, a letter on a panel, and one ingenious fellow's vehicle bore the in scription, "A most odd act on a stage-cart," — a clever anagrammatic arrangement of "Amos Todd, Acton, a stage-cart." Shrewd folks have sometimes- managed to get the weather-gauge of the law, by simply shifting the responsibility. When abducting an heiress was a criminal offence, gentlemen taking a trip over the Border with a welldowered damsel were careful to make it ap pear the lady was the abductor. Upon a happy pair reaching Carlisle, the post-horses for the last stage were ordered by the bride expectant, her companion becoming non est for the moment; and the goal attained, the lady paid the postilions, sent for the forger
