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Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 49, 9 December 1867, Page 303

Defamation of the Dead. —A Paris correspondent of a London journal states that an interesting suit, in which two sons-in-law are prosecuting a party for defaming the memory of their defunct father-in-law, is shortly to be defintiely decided before the French high court of appeals in this city. The question of defamation of the dead, up to this time neglected by the code, will be adjudged as an amenable offence over which the civil courts have I jurisdiction, or pronounced inadmissible inasmuch as no special provision has been made for it by the laws of the land. Every one admits the importance of enforcing a certain respect for the memory of the dead, but if the supreme tribunals sustain an action for slander in such a case, it is feared that a precedent would be' established which would encourage serious abuse hereafter. Indeed, the moment it became impossible to appreciate the conduct of a deceased person without exposing oneself to prosecution, fines, and imprisonment, the historian will find himself embarrassed, and criticism will degenerate into contemptible and worthless, panegyric.. Perhaps no court would be able to determine clearly 'the line of demarcation between history and defamation,, and. any attempt to so would resolve itself, into syllogisms so abstruse as to admit of endless arguments pro and eon without ever resulting in a satisfactory or reliable conclusion. The lives of public men are presumed.to be open to criticism, and the historian assumes ‘the the responsibility of impartially judging them after death. Whether that judgment be construed into a defamation or hot, it must be apparent to all that the law cannot intervene without rendering ere long all modern histories unsound and unreliable. The Abyssinian Expedition. —The General Napier, who has been named for the Abyssinian command by a sort of popular vote, is not a member, of the wellknown fighting and writing family of that j he was ,unknown to the world, and unfamiliar, with jarms, being employed exclusively in the ( Public Works department of India, in common with the greater part of his corps, the Bengal Engineers. Called suddenly into service in the Sikh wars, Robert Napier at once established a military reputation for energy, activity, and soldierly instinct, which he haß abundantly added to in his! larger charges during the mutiny, and in the Chinese expedition. In the latter he commanded one of the two divisions of our army, under Sir Hope Grant. After the treaty of Pekin released him from. Chinese service, he was appointed Military Member of the Supreme Council of India, but has lately resigned his appointment to accept the lucrative, but more congenial j one of Commander-in-chief at Bombay.— Imperial Review. S*t» effect of Penny Readings. —The following story from a contemporary shows, what may come of an over-devotion to penny readings:—“As » gentleman was returning homeward about the witching time of night on Saturday last, he was somewhat startled on beholding on the road before him a human figure, frantically making desperate passes with what appeared to be a sword, accompanied with violent imprecations of * Die, villain! * &c. Thinking that the individual making such a singular exhibition must either be suffer|ing from delirium tremens or was an escaped lunatic, he prudently ensconced himself out of the way, and anxiously abided the result. After a desperate combat with no end of imaginary foes, whom he seemed to have despatched to his entire satisfaction, the strange specimen of humanity advanced to the middle of the road and spake: ‘ Beneath the canopy of heaven, the silent stars my only witnesses, have I achieved, a .mighty triumph;’ and then taking off .his hat, with a bow which was the acmb of grace and - and elegance, he commenced‘Ladies and gentlemen,—. The very enthusiastic reception I have received quite';dvercomes me—.’ A horse laugh from’tiie* gentleman in waiting,* on whose perception the ‘ truth had dawned at last, stayed : his eloquence, and the am: bitious amateur (in his'owh estimation; ah embryo Eeah .at least) made a burned exit, anything; hut flattered thatV lie? had not ‘ wasted his sweetness on the desert --v ■ / • air, .. : k ;*•

A gamblers’ den was broken up in Boston, lately,;’and a closetwas discovered in it with a small dpor -having' a coloured pane of glass. Inside the Alosefc'.was; a telegraph operator, andwheneveractountrymanenteredtoplayahdtry lusluckafc the bards, he was: seated at the' table with his back to the closet door, thereby giving thb, bards he helclan has' : ■ - The? tele-. g^aph^^chineMwa^Buppli^\.^th~tf , ynj» running from the machine under the car: pet to theJbdsiheWinan at : the'table, who was thus acquainted with all -the oards he wabplacing hjsyiotxhh *" '*'•* *’’ .