PROVOCATION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 212, 4 June 1929, Page 11

PROVOCATION

LONDON MAGISTRATE’S DECISION.

A London magistrate has decided that for a wife to go through her husband’s pockets is provocation not justifying assault, but liable to tend in that direction. In the age of gallantry and good manners provocation was a word that seemed to be much in vogue, and a breach of courtesy led easily to a man drawing his sword in defence of his honour (comments the “Daily Telegraph”). In our more enlightened epoch we do not quarrels about who should take the wall. We jostle and are in our turn jostled with impunity. Our manners are much worse, but our tempers seems to be much better than those of our ancestors. The provocation remains, but we are apt, either through timidity or disinclination to make ourselves unpleasant, to content ourselves with a mild remonstrance. It is rare in these days for men to fling glasses of wine or gloves in each other’s faces, and the “tweaking” of beards is wholly out of fashion; but there are occasions of offence when we desperately desire some lawful code by means of which we could make our provocation felt. Provocations which we endure far too good-humouredly and for which there ought to be immediate redress are infinite. The monstrous regiment of late-comers, chocolate-paper rustlers, and loud talkers in our theatres create provocation to assault so acute that lovers of the drama have taken to reading plays at home, rather than risk imprisonment. We would with equal willingness consign to the lowest circle of the inferno those who persist in reading the news aloud to us at breakfast, or. worse, lean over our shoulders in order to share a joy that ceases to be one if not indulged in solitude. The noses of those who, without leave, smoke in non-smoking compartments should be pulled, and those who tacitly assume ownership of both windows, either to exclude all air or to create a hurricane, should be laid with other light articles on the rack or with the more cumbersome under the seat.