And fiercest, midst this monster host, were by the spirits seen A swarming brood of creatures of a most rapacious mien, Who pushed and crushed and struggled to lead in the array, While, like vultures over carrion, they gloried in foul play. "Who are these greedy objects who swarm the city street?" The spirits asked of an old friend, whom they had chanced to meet. "Oh those, sirs, are the lawyers who in accidents delight, The chasers of the ambulance, — the modern trolleybite."
ANIMALS By M. E. IN E. Kerr. COURT.
SIR MATTHEW HALE declared that the finger into the hollow, or ring, of the the fountain head of the English law is key-handle. Then one of the triers would as undiscoverable as the source of the Nile. repeat a passage from the Psalms, commenc Certain it is that its early institutes have ing as follows : " When thou a thief dost been traced as far into the dim mists of the see," etc., to the words; "To use that life past as the "foundations of a titled family," most vile," etc.2 One of the triers would or the "genealogical tree" of some Anglo- then name over the persons whom it was suspected might be guilty of the theft. If maniacs. In the twilight of dawning intelligence, the Bible thus held turned when a person's during the reign of the era of religious name was called by the trier, he was judged superstitions, some strange conceptions of to be the thief. Curious as it may seem in this day and law and legal procedure were entertained, some queer practices indulged, and some generation of enlightenment, dumb animals novel trials recorded. At these times, ap have actually been regularly indicted, form pearances passed as facts, and circumstances, ally arraigned in court, systematically tried because of their probative force, were made and solemnly executed in the same manner to take 'on the form of positive truth.' as human felons! It is recorded that in the It was during this time that wager of vear of Christian civilization, A.D. 13 14, a battle, ordeals by fire and water, and trial by bull, having killed a man by playfully tossing combat prevailed, and thieves were caught I him on his horns, was brought before the in a novel manner, — by key and Bible. judges in the province of Valais, having been According to the old chronicles, to deter indicted as an ordinary homicide, and after mine whether a suspected person was the several witnesses had given evidence for the veritable thief, the triers would put a key prosecution (we are left in the dark as to into the midst of a Bible and clasp or tie the whether the brute-defendant put in the plea Bible tightly on it; they would then hang 2 The record refers to Ps. i, 19. 20. The writer does not know what version was used, but feels quite sure it the key on some man's finger, by putting was not the Protestant Bible in common use now-a-days 1 Thus, evidence of " flight " was made proof positive that is. the King lames translation, which has but six of the guilt of any one accused nf treason or charged verses in the f'rst chapter of Psalms. The writer con with a felony. This matter is fully discussed by the fesses that after some search the passage supposed to have been quoted by the triers has not been found. writer in an article in the Central Law Journal.
