By Irving Browne.
CURRENT TOPICS. "The Dogs of Celebrities." — Under this title the " Strand Magazine "for October gives many pictures of dogs, in some instances accompanied by their owners, as Patti with her " Araboe," Baroness Burdett-Coutts with her "Pet," and Mr. Justice Hawkins with his "Jack." His lordship is presented in profile, in wig, gown and bands, with one arm affectionately thrown around "Jack," who faces the audience. This is a pleasing portraiture. 'Arry 'Awkins his halso fond hof ha 'orse, we believe. "The Strand " says : — "But before we proceed further it would be idle to neglect the dog, whose legal wisdom is supposed to surpass that of many a junior barrister — ' Jack,' the inseparable associate, both at home and on the Bench, of Mr. Justice Hawkins. The anecdotes — many of them no doubt apocryphal — which are related in legal chambers and Temple common-rooms of ' Jack,' whose portrait conjointly with that of his learned master is here given — would till a whole issue of this magazine. ' Jack ' accompanies his master everywhere — except to church. Evidently his taste does not extend in that direction. Mr. Justice Haw kins in a letter to the writer says : ' I can say that a more intelligent, faithful, and affectionate creature never had ex istence, and to him I have been indebted for very many of the happiest hours of my life." Great lawyers before this have been fond of dogs. Eldon was portrayed with his dog " Pincher," and according to a remark which the chancellor pretended he had overheard, was at least by one person thought to look the wiser of the two. Erskine had a favorite dog, always present at consultations, dressed in wig and bands, to the scandal of the solicitors, who said that the dog seemed to pay more attention to the business than his master. Would that " The Strand" would give us some of those anecdotes of "Jack."
Technicalities. — The modern codes of practice were intended to abolish technicalities in pleading, and are supposed to have done so, and to have ef fectuated the result that the parties to a suit are fully apprised beforehand of the real character of the claim and the defence, and cannot suffer from surprise in
this regard. It is true that the codes have enacted that the pleadings shall contain respectively a plain and concise statement of the facts constituting the cause of action and the defense. But it seems that the courts have been astute to defeat this requirement and design, in their construction of what may be proved under a bare general denial. It would seem, for example, that under a general denial in an action on a promissory note, nothing by way of defense should be allowed except to show that the defendant did not execute the paper. By express statute, at least in New York, he cannot prove payment, nor usury, nor outlawry, nor any other affirmative de fense. But suppose the note has been fraudulently al tered since he signed it — can he show that under a general denial? The courts hold that he may, on the theory that his denial that he executed that contract as charged covers the case. But how does this apprise the plaintiff of the defense of alteration? Clearly it does not, and the real defense must frequently sur prise him. There is something wrong here, and it ought to be corrected by requiring such a defense to be pleaded.
Brougham's Nose. — Among the most delightful reading are the memoirs and letters of the " Bawston set," — Prescott, Sumner, Ticknor, Lowell and Motley — especially the pictures of foreign society which all of them except Lowell afford. Running over Motley's Correspondence recently (which is much more entertaining than Lowell's), we find some admirable portraits of Lord Brougham, which every lawyer ought to read. Motley says : "I.et me give you a photograph while his grotesque image still lingers in the camera-obscura of my brain. He is exactly like the pictures in ' Punch,' only ' Punch ' flat ters him. The common pictures of Palmerston and Lord John are not like at all, to my mind, but Brougham is al ways hit exactly. His face, like his tongue and his mind, is shrewd, sharp, humorous. His hair is thick and snowwhite and shiny; his head is large and knobby and bumpy, with all kinds of phrenological developments, which I did not have a chance fairly to study. The rugged outlines or headlands of his face are wild and bleak, but not forbid 93
