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FROM THE COURTS.
Bv “ OYEZ ”
■* x oeiteye at a penal • servitude tor me
to marry a ward of oburt without the
Lord’ < ■Ohaneellor's consent.” Til is woe
Phyllis’s rather doleful remark to Stre
phon when he pleaded .with ihor to marry
him-—and chance it, ' An actual Phyllis
recently chanced it, and very nearly got
into trouble. Her Strephon was hot
half a fairy, but ho'was a ward of court,
the iStrephon of the comic opera was
not. He was 17 and she Bontewhero about
the same tender age. His mother, chiefly
because dhe had not the control ovor him
she desired to have, made a settlement
upon him and got him made a ward of
eourfc. He looked at his HhySlb and
asked himself was it rational that he
dhould wait till he was of ago, and he
concluded that it was not% Bo he .went
to a minister, and, .postdating his age to
22 years, he got married to her. His
mother, instead-of taking the bridto to
her heart, reported his conduct to the
court, and iMr, Justice ‘Warrington had
him arre&ted and kept in custody in his
own house.' The fcllowing- day his mother,
as (his next friend, moved on hia behalf,
to have bis wife committed to prison
for contempt In having married a ward
of court without the leave of the coiirt.
The court gravely considered the position,
and even refrained from smiling at the
idea of a hoy madly in love with lira girl
wife moving to commit her to prison.
Finally they allowed the young lady to
apologise, and let her go, but they pun
'iahed the boy -by sending him to prison
for many in g without the leave of the
court. The dignity of fho tribunal hav
ing been vindicated, he was released, and
permitted to return to his wife, The
case was like a.little romance, but it bad
its serious aspect. Justice Warrington
laid it down that ignorance of the fact
that the boy waa a ward of court did
n<?t render the marriage with him any the
leas a contempt of court, "
A new and rather remarkable ground for
divorce has received judicial sanction in
Sileeia, About the ond of Inert year a
magistrate married a prepossessing young
lady, and at the expiration of the honey
moon the-couple settled in the district, of
the husband's magistracy. The lady set
herseK out to dozalo the Inhabitants. She
studied the fashion papers, and dressed
In* fho mo$fc approved Parisian style. All
the ladies of the town looked askance at
her behaviour, and predicted an ill end
to fto much ostentation and extravagance,
but the more they were scandalised the
greater became her desire to excite their
jealousy. Every day, arrayed in the most at
t.» ctivehabitB, she took homo exercise. Two
hours'of 'the day she devoted to tennis,
and several hours were spent in walking
<?n the promenades, and while dbe tied this
active Wo, she ate like a bird. In three
months she lost 0lib. in weight, and soon
indifferent health made her bad tempered.
Her husband remonstrated with. her> hut
she wan in no mood for admonition, and
she repaid his solicitude on her behalf
by defiance. . Finding that she would
not moderate her conduct, he brought an
action to obtain a divorce, anu tins wus
the main ground he sot out: That he had
married the lady in the belief that she
was a woman of natural and ample pro
portions, but ho found her so reduced that
he was a victim of fraud. He added that
If this thinness on the part of his wife
had been brought about by illness he
would have .borne the sorrow without
complaint,- but under the circumstances
her frivolity, her caprice, and coQuettith
ness had deprived him of the • happiness
d, hi* hearth' *0 whioh ho *Wfl4 entitled,
The Silesian Tribunal considered that he
had anode out a good case, and grunted
him n divorce.
Unenclosed railway crossings ade not
peculiar to Qu#en»l»nd, though this State
probably has moro of them .than she need
be proud of. The long stretch of unguarded
linea at Woolloongabba, and the greater
lengths of street linea at Rockhampton,
are a menace to public safety, though
happily tiro public have not suffered to
a very great extent from their existence.
In any case ithoy-oro less dangerous than
motor cars, taxicabs, and bicycles care
lessly used. Where unfenced railway lines
exiBt tho law expects those who cross
them to bo vigilant, and those who drive
trains to be watchful and careful, The
resoentive duties of the •commissioners,
and ’the public were the subject of ju
dicial decision not long ago-in \ ictom.
The case was one of an Accident at a
crossing from which an approaching train
could he seen half a mile off. While at
tempting to cross, a man driving a wag
gon was run into hy a train and
lulled. There was evidence that iihe
engine driver . omitted t to _whistle
when approaching the croiwns. The next
of kin of tho deceased claimed compensa
•tflon from the Railway Commissioners on
the ground that his death had been caused
by. the negligence of their servants. The
whole of the evidence called for the plain
equally consistent with the death
of. the deceased (haying been caused by
the omission of the engine driver to sound
whjgtfe, ,or wibh it haring been caused
the ncgitgei
by riie negligence ’ of the deoensed in not
looking out.for.tho train, or in haying
looked, chooeing to take the risk of trying
to get across m front of the twin. The
Judge who tried the case nonsuited tho
plaintiff, and on appeal his decision was
upheld bv tho Supreme Court. The latter
tribunal held that where a railway crossed
a road at a level crossing without gates,
and an approaching train was visible, say
a mile' off, to persons about to pass over
the croiring, it was the duty of the owners
of the railway to take all reasonable pre
cautions, by whistling &c,. to prevent
ouch persons being injured by tnc train,
but it wiw equal!)- the duty of Bucli per
sons to look out for tlie opproaduno
trains, and they wore not excused troift
looking out by the omission of tlio rea
sonable precautions on the -part ot tlio
ownein of tho railway.
Often when Bomo psrHoularly abstraso
luestion is beir.c investigated an tho
Supremo Court, tfie Bar table and flic nd
S’ ' ttbenches are piled high with law
s. There have been occasions when
the barrister arguing has looked like an
ieland—possibly a "desert island-in a tur
bulent ocean of law, which threatened at
my moment to overwhelm him. . There
bavo been times when the number of
volumes,< neatly placed cheek ' by # jowl,
boa1 been altogether out of proportion to
the importance of the case. Faced with
this massed - authority, the Judges have
possibly felt as Lord iMansrield did on
one occasion. Sergeant Hill, who was
held in great rcapoct (by tlio Judges,'had
:o arguo in the Court of Kings Bench,
ind he
mu av came armed to the teeth ,wibli
Lut'horities. “Your Lordship" lie said,
ia.v..w.»,.v-. _- ..ship/’ lie W—,
‘•I beg your pardon," " why Brother
dill, do you hak our jpardon ? asked Lord :
mi, oo you wm 1
dansfield. "My Lord," rophed the
«T have 78 oases to cite."
‘Seventy-right’'caees'lo cltoV* returned ;
.ord Mananeld. " *!
ru 11 You can never hav
uf pardon if you do cite 78 cases." There
re some advocates who would cite 700
nd never apologise. In. one of the Can
dian courts there used,to be a hamster
rho was distinguished, by Oil* fondness
or other peopled arguments, and who was
sinfully laboured and dull /with Ins own.'
riter ho had occupied the attention of the
outfc for several hours, like the orator
rho. prefaces his speech by a statement
hat he has <bufc two or three words to
dd, and talks for a couple of bourn, he
aid with an apologetic air s MI am afraid
am taking up a great deal of time,
le expected a deprecatory reply, but the
mg-suffering Rendh had reached the
ounds of endurance, and the Judge enr
agtically replied "Oh, never mind time,
ut for goodness' sake don't trench upon
♦ernity.
A quaint decision was given by the Su
preme Court of Minnesota, in die case of
Raumgarten v. Hodgden (116 Western Re
porter, 1030).. Tki case,arose out of a dis
pute about a horse, During: an appar
ently friendly discussion on tlio merits
of the animal/ Jlaumgarten aaid in u ban
tering way that the horve nvaa "a thing
of a horse," and after further, argument
concluded by saying that dt
d-eat looking Choree” he had ever seen.
Tins (provoked Hodgden, who flew into a
.passion and violently hssauUed- him. A
. followed, land it was held that
t)ie remarks of the plaintiff mig'lut have
been a pretext for the assault, but they
were not a proper subject for considera
tion in mitigation of damage#. Further,
they saids" Tho words werer most disre
spectful to rite horse, and ho wan not pre
sent ; tilrit they had tho right to
(that the animal wo# endowed with the
usual amount of Sborse sense, and had the
remarks been overheard by him, he would
have dismissed innm without reply, as tin
opinion of one who was not competent to
upeak on the , * *
subject,'
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