A DISSERTATION ON LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 202, 26 August 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

A DISSERTATION ON LAW.

COLLAPSE OF THE CAUSE

CELEBRE

The boom in crime that seized society has apparently ended (says a Avriter in the "Phoenix") in' the inevitable slump. And yet it seems but a little Avhile since sprig-s of nobility Avent to Dartmoor for five j years as readily as to Dinon for the I summer months. But autres terns, 1 autres moeua-s. '< Why is it? Has society groAvn more moral? Is the hard and fast line Avhich. separates the modest meum from the too attractive tuum instilled more effectually into the mind of the undergraduate? Of course not. No one is ever taught anything at the 'Varsity Avhich is of the slightest use in after life. One is provided Avith a- certain amount of material on Avhich to train a faculty for forgetfulness, Avhich may be of value Avhen one becomes a Avitness of truth before Sir Francis Jeune. That is all. I Golf is the ansAver to most questions. ; But it does not explain Avhy litiga- ; tion, like bicycling-, has gone out of fashion. Presumably, men will covet ; their neighbours wives in these days of Maeterlinck as they did in the time of Moses. It is qtiite on the cards that people cheat at cards. It may be assumed that peers of the realm occasionally take the name of some other lord in vain—on the back of a bill. Yet nobody retains eminent counsel, nobody (that is, anybody in particular) is dragged into the court of divorce. Those avlio jdo have their cases cut and dried i and paragraphed beforehand. They never stand the public a surprise noAvadays. Hence this policy of hushing up. ' The fetish of the open door can learn a lesson from the discretion of the [closed mouth. Though your Avife's 'sins be as scarlet, if you drag- her to the Royal Courts of Justice you have little hopes of coming out even as white us London snoAV —unless you can make hushing-up arrangements Avith the co-respondent. If you have ! a coronet on your dirty linen, it Avill never be thoroughly washed at that legal laundry in the Strand. Society feels that it is under no obligation to publish the scandal of its "tea tables,' the slanders of its billiard-rooms' for the edification of the hydra-headed one. And society lis Wonderfully right. There is one I law for the rich anl anothei. for the poor. This platitude has been shouted on the tenement house-tops, it has been hissed in Hyde Park by agitators Avho drop their IPs as Doctor Parker drops his D's. But, neverthetheless, it is true, absolutely, aggressively true. There is one Liav for the rich, the IaAV of publicity, the legend |of "No smoke without tire." And it ;is obvious that there ought to be one IaAV for the rich, and another for the poor. What does it matter to the vagrant if he happens to be locked up for picking pockets, or smashing in his wife's face? He suffers his three months' hard labour, and emerges with no social stain—that is according to the ethics of his society. A person of condition Avho is even accused of not paying a paltry debt is gibbeted by his friends. He Avon in the IaAV courts, but lost in being chaffed, and the Avorld does not really knoAV Avhen he Avon or lost. So, the man Avith a reputation to lose, doesn't instruct his solicitor to lose it for him in a. court of laAy. Let his enemy slander him in his club; let his wife make his name a byAvord on the Mountain of Charles. He possesses his soul and her sins in silence. He may eat out his heart in his suffering, but he won't ask the vulture of the press to feed fat on his soitoaa', he Avon't sue to a- jury for damages for his damnation. The game of life must be played by the IaAVS of life. The common IaAV is for the commonalty. Society has taken' the view that it is no part of its duty to supply garbage for the million. It is bad .for the million; it is not good for society. Besides, the sane man realises the hopeless futility of litigation, the impossibility of any human being clearing his character in a law court, from which no one makes his exit Avithout a stain on his character or with all his friends. If a man sets himself up as a litigating Aunt Sally he Avill be pelted with particularly adhesive legal mud, and a great deal of it will stick. ''-,-,. People remember the Gordon-Gum-ming case—vaguely. In ten years' time they Avon't be quite sure whether 'Sir William was accused of cheating at cards or whether he was an unsuccessful claimant to a peerage Who iioav remembers the rights—if there were any—in the Colin-Camp-bell case? One man in a hundred? Nothing like it. • ,_.,_. Take A, B, C—or Dr. Parker, lo take an extreme case. Let him go ; into a Ltw court. He never comes out. Of all cruel proverbs the cruellest is this, "There is no smoke Avithout fire." It is throAvn in the teeth of any man Avho, however honourably, however disinterestedly, is dragged into a court of law. For one thing is always remembered —that he figured there. Whether as petitioner or as co-respondent, whether as prosecutor or as prisoner, the view of the man in the street is always that he Avas "mixed up" in such and such a case. Besides, who Avants to be "mixed up" in a IaAV case if he ' can help it? There is always trouble and bother, even if success croAvns the work. If a servant robs you, or an office boy steals your stamps,- you o-et no advantage by prosecuting him. You, waste time, and are usually sorry for the culprit, and would like to let him off. Law is all very well for lawyers, but not for sane people.