A TEAM OF LAWYERS AND A TEAM OF HORSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 654, 11 June 1864, Page 2

A TEAM OF LAWYERS AND A TEAM OF HORSES.

A case heard in the Court of Queen's Bench raised a rather curious philological discussion with some interesting poetical illustrations. It was an action of ejectment by the Dake of Mariborough, against a farmer, one of his tenants at Hanborough, in Oxfordshire, to recover his farm, on the ground of an alleged forfeiture, on the following I clause in his agreement of tenancy : " The tenant to perform each year for .the Duke of Mariborough, at the rate of one day's team-work with two norses, and one proper person, for every £6# of rent, when required (except at hay or corn harvest!, without beins: paid for the same. 1 * The Duke's agent had desired the tenant to send.* cart to carry coals from the Railway station to the Duke s mansion at Blenheim. This the tenant refused to do, though he offered to send tb» horses and the man, contending that thaDiik* was to find the cart. This was the point in contention between the parties. The case was tried at Oxfordshire before Mr Justice Bytes, who reserved the point, the verdict being entered for .the Duke, subject thereto. Mr Huddlestone, Q.G.. had obtained the rule on the part of the tenant to set aside the verdict and enter jt for him. Mr Gray, Q.C. and Mr Cripps argued on the part of the Duke in support ot the verdict, and against the rule|to set it aside. They contended that according to the agreement, as the tenant was to do " team-work," and it could not be don* without a cart, he was bound to find a cart. . ( In the course of the arguments of Mr Cripps. Mr Justice Crampton said, in the course ofhii reading, he had met with the following line*, which seemed to show that the team was separate from the cart:— , ', " Giles Jolt was sleeping— in his cart he lay;' Some waggon pilferers stole his team away. Giles wakes, and cries. ' Odds' bodkins, whafe here? ' ' Why, how now, am I Giles or nott I If he, I've lost six geldings to my smart; „ If not, odds bodkins, I've found a cart.' " (Much laughter.) Mr Justice Blackburn cited some lines from one of Wordsworth's poems— we believe from tile Waggoner— the lines beginning; thus : " My jolly team will work alone for me." Mr Cripps cited Walker's Dictionary— "Teani, a number of horses drawing the same carriages;" and so Johnson's Dictionary— "A number of horses drawing the same carriage." Mr Justice Crompton said these citations seemed to, imply that the team wasrdistinct from the carriage.. Mr Cripps urued that the team without the cart would be of no use, and he cited a stanza from M Gray's Elegy":— " Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe fiafr broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield, How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke." He also cited the description given by Cssear of the mode of Jighting from the chariot adopted by the ancient who used to come out of their chariots and "percurrere per temonem/* The leurnedcouns*! also alluded to what he called a " graphic account of the Battle of Bull's Kun, in which it was stated that "the teamsters cut the traces of the horses.' ' Mr Huddleston^ Q.C., and Mr Griffiths, argued on behalf of the former,!in support of the rule to enter tha verdict <n hk favour. They cited Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary :— " Team : issue, offspring, progeny, a succession of children; anything following ii» line." Mr Justice Crompton : Surely the woid there must be spelt ".teem !" (Laughter.) 'After some further controversy, the Court made absolute the rule to enter a nonsuit.

When WMtefield preached before the seamen of New York, he used the following bold apostrophe:—" Well, my boys, we have aclearßky, and are making fine headway over a smooth sea, before a light breeze, and we shall > soon- lose sight of land. , But what means this sudden louring of the heavens, and that dark cloud arising from beneath the western horizon? Hark! don't you hear distant thunder? Don't you. see those flashes of lightning? A storm is gathering! Everyman to, his duty! How the waves: rise and dash against the ship i The air is dark ! The air-is dark ! The tempest rages ! Our masts are gone ! The ship is on het beam-ends ! What- next!" Tha unsuspecting tars suddenly rose and exclaimed, " Take to the long-boat !" An Author's Oven.— A gentleman having occasion so call on a certain .writer, found him at' home in his writing-chamber. He remarked, the great heattof the apartment, and said it was "as hot as an oven." , "So it ought to be " replied the author, "for it is here that I make my bread." •

Progress of Refinement.— -A young woman meetiug a former fellow-servant, was asked how she liked her new place. — " Very ■well." , " Th^u you have nothing to complain of?" ' " Nothing; only master and mistress talksuch very bad gram -