FAR WESTERN JUDGES AND JURIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 452, 27 October 1869, Page 3

FAR WESTERN JUDGES AND JURIES.

«. (From all the Year Bound.) In the United States (and indeed also in Canada) there is no distinction between barrister and attorney, and, in the newer settlements, to become either requires little study. It used to be said that in some parts of Oregon all a man had to do to be admitted an attorney was to go round for some time with a law book under his arm, and talk " constitootion"in front of "grocery" doors. A gentleman of Oregon gave me a copy of a legal document preserved in the archives of Marion county, Oregon, and written by an attorney (I knew the man) regularly licensed to practise. It is a demurrer to a complaint in an action, in which Marion county is the plaintiff, and one G. B. Wagnon defendant, brought for the recovery of a fine for violating a statute in the disposition of eatray animals. Part of it runs precisely thus : " And now comes G B Wagnon the Def nat in the a Bove Sute or Cause And files a Demworer and says that the plaintiff Should not have Nor maintain his Action a Gainst Said Defenant for the following says there is not that plain and concise Statement of the facts constituting the cause of action as there is no De Scription of Cauller markes, nor Brands nor by boom apraysed. " nnd further Says that he was not Seerved with a certifyed coppy of said Complant therefore the Defenant prays this honorable Cort to Dis miss the a Bove Sute this Bth day of December 1859." Another attorney delivered a famous defence of a man who was caught in the act of stealing a hank of cotton yarn. It ran something like this. " Gentlemen of the Jury, do you think my client Thomas Flinn, off" Muddy Treek and the Big Willamette, would be guilty o' stealin' a hank o' cotton yarn ? Gentlemen of the Jury, I reckon not, I s'pose not. By no manner of means, gentlemen, not at all ! He are not guilty 1 Tom Fuss ? Good heavings 1 Gentlemen, you all know Tom Flinn, and, on honour, now, gentlemen, do you think he'd do it ? No, gentlemen ! I s'pose not — I reckon not. Thomas Flinn ? Why (warming up with virtuous indignation), why, great snakes and alligators ! Tom's a whole team on Muddy Creek, and a hoss to let 1 And (insinuatingly) do you think he'd sneak off with a miserable hank o' cotting yarn ? Well, gentlemen, I reckon not. I s'pose not I When the wolves was a howling, gentlemen, on the mountains of Oregon, and the milishy was a fighting of the Injins on Eogue river, do you think, gentlemen, my client, Thomas Flinn, Esq., could be guilty o' hookin' — yes, hookin,' gentlemen— that pitiful, low, mean, hank o' cotting yarn ? Onpossible ! Gentlemen, I reckon I know my client, Mr Thomas Flinn. He's got the fastest nag and the purtiest sister, gentlemen, in all Muddy Creek and the Big Willamette ! That, gentlemen, are a fact. Yes, gentlemen, that area fact. You kiu jist bet ou that, gentlemen. Yes, gentlemen, you kin jist bet your bones on that ! Now, 'pon honour, gentlemen, do you think he are guilty ? Gentlemen, I reckon — I s'pose not. Why, gentlemen (indignantly beginning to believe it himself), my client, Mr 1 homas Flinn, am no more guilty of stealin' that aer hank o' cotting yarn than a toad has got a tail ! Yes, a tail, gentlemen ! Than a toad has got a tail !" Verdict for defendant, case dismissed, and court adjourned to whiskey up at the late prisoner's expense. Little as such law may be worth, it is surprising with what alacrity a young community of miners or backwoodsmen will attempt to form some organisation for the preservation of order according to law, and how naturally they proceed to elect a magistrate or " judge " out of their number. This desire proceeds in part from a wish to pre-i serve order, and in part from the all-engross-ing passion for voting, holding "conventions," and "caucusses," and electing somebody to hold some office or other, with the usual amount of speechifying and drinking. An old gentlemen, with whom I passed many pleasant evenings on the walls of Panama in days gone by, described to me his recollections of a court-room in a western state. It was a rough log building with a bar of. unhewn timber stretched across it. This was the bar of justice. Behind it was a table with a jar of molasses, a bottle of vinegar, and a jug of water to make " switchel " for the court. Time, ten a.m. Enter sheriff. Judge (who is paring his corns after the manner of the Tenerable Judge M'Almond, of San Francisco, who was in the habit of paring his coma while the business of the court was going on, and generally sat -with his heels tilted up in front of him) " Wai, Mr Sheriff, do you think we'll get a jury to-day ? " " Neow, judge, jurymen are raither scarce

to-day; but I've got eleven men coralled under a black walnut tree outside, and my niggers are hunting deown a twelfth. I reckon we'll have a jury in about half an hour." And so the sheriff proceeds to liquor, and the judge continues paring his corns until the court opens. I was assured by a former chief justice of one of the states on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, that the first grand jury he ever charged were sitting on the prairie under a tree, and there was not a man of them that had on any foot gear but mocassins. And I know a judge who, in the earlier days of California, when everybody was " bound to make meney," sat on the bench in the morning, mined 'during the day, and played the fiddle in a whiskey shop at night. The county judge of Madison county, in Washington territory, does (or did) " run " the " gang-saw " in the Port Madison mills. In these judges we often find the notion of law not very defined, though (which is more important (that of equity is strong. A most notorious " rowdy," from New England, who had escaped the law several times, was at last captured in the act of smashing the interior of a Chinese house of ill-fame, in the little village of Eureka, in North California. Evidence against him was leather weak, and it was feared he would again escape. But when the prisoner was brought into court, his Honor burst upon him with a tirade of abuse: "E-e-h! Ye long, leathern, lanternjawed, Yankee cuss, we've ketehed you, e-e-h, at last ? I'll commit him at once ! " " But, judge," whispered the clerk, " you'll have to hear the evidence." " Evidence be bloiwed 1 " was the rejoinder. " Wasn't I thar and seed it all myself ? " Judge P. was holding a term of the district court in the village of Corvallis, in the then territory ofj Oregon. His court was held in a common log-house, with a large open fireplace, and a few rough heavy benches that had never known plane. An indictment was found against Charley Sandborn for selling whiskey at retail, although he had no license. He stood at one side of the fireplace with his hands deep in his pockets; the judge sat upon the end of a school bench on the other side of the fire. When required to plead guilty or not guilty, Charley threw himself on the mercy of the Court. The judge then sentenced him to pay the lowest fine and costs. At the close of the sentence, by way of personal palliation, his lordship remarked; " that while it was the duty of the Court to enforce the laws as it found them on the statute book, the person of the Court was not inimical to men who sold whiskey." There is in Idaho territory a judge who is well known as " Alec Smith." A woman brought suit in his court for divorce, and had the discernment to select a particular friend of her own, who stood well with the judge, as her attorney. One morning the judge called up the case, and addressing himself to the attorney for the complainant, said: " Mr H., I don't think people ought to be compelled to live together where they don't want to, and I will decree a divorce in this case." Mr H. bowed blandly. Thereupon the judge, turning to another attorney, whom he took to be the counsel for the defendant, said : " Mr M., I suppose you have no objection to the decree ? " Mr M. nodded assent. But the attorney for the defendant was another Mr M., not then in court. Presently he came in, and finding that his client had been divorced without a hearing, began to remonstrate. Alec listened a moment, then inter rupted, saying: "Mr M., it is too late. The Court has pronounced the decree of divorce, and the parties are no longer man and wife. But if you want to argue the case, right bad, the Court can marry them over again and give you a crack at it." [To be continued.]