UNWRITTEN LAWS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 5, 19 January 1912, Page 2

UNWRITTEN LAWS.

TRADITIONS WHICH HAVE ALMOST THE FORCE OF STATUTES, There is a class of unwritten law which does not and cannot become written law (says the N«w-York ‘‘Case and Comment”), because it approaches so near the danger line that man dare not recognise it to the extent of publishing it and declaring it as a part of the positive law. It is the unwritten law of the sea that a captain might go down with his shi'p. Men dare not write it into the contract, and nations dare not incorporate it - into their Navy or marine regulations, yet the tyrants of the sea know the law, and believe that to obey it betters their service, and there are few instances of its being disregarded. It is the unwritten law of the Army and Navy that an officer shall not seek cover, or at least shall not show, apprehension of danger to his person, in time of battle and in the presence of enlisted men or common sailors. In the Franco-Prussian War nearly four thousand officers of the German Army were killed, and the great majority of them gave up their lives because they believed in the law of conduct. In obedience to this law Parragut bound himself to the mast, Lee rode to the bead of his charging column at the bloody angle, and Lawton walked coolly in front M the line and was shot in the presence of his men. The law of the right of revolution has been much talked about and much written about. Every intelligent citizen believes that he has the right under certain conditions to oppose the established government of his own land and join in an effort to establish another in its place. Just prior to and during the Civil War there was much discussion by learned men on either side of the right of revolution and the “higher power” and the "greater law.” The law justifying one person in the killing of another has required the serious consideration of every country. Every criminal code provides certain punishments for homicide, and many of them regulate the punishment with minute particularity, according to the circumstances of the killing, so that any one of six crimes may be involved in a single tragedy. Such codes also attempt to define what killing is 'justifiable and what is excusable, and with thsir interpretation by the courts attempt to describe the only conditions under which one human being can kill another and not be guilty of crime. The Hebrew code almost stands alone in its recognition of man’s desire to kill, and has right to have that desire and that climax of all satisfactions which comes to him who under great pro vacation, slays another. It is not at all strange that in,this branch there should be no extended code of unwritten as written law, unwritten now and always to be unwritten for the reason th it the recognition given by its embodiment in the statutes would he taken as a license by dishonest men, and vwould result in barm rather than good. It is an unwritten law among officers of the Army that if a subordinate officer kills a superior officer because that officer has publicly degraded him by striking him, or by other’, action equally humiliating, then the court-martial will not convict. During the American Civil War General Nelson said to General Davis : “How many men have you?” General Davis replied, “About ” giving an approximate number. Nelson said, “You an Army officer and say ‘about !’ Why' don:t you ‘know’ bow many men you have ?” And with that he struck Davis in the face with his glove. Davis shot and killed him, and the court-martial acquitted Davis.