A GOOD STORY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1168, 5 August 1885, Page 3

A GOOD STORY.

A writer in the Boston " Commercial Bulletin " on the English G-ame Laws, relates the following story : — I remember being present in Court when a fisherman was tried for having a salmon in his possession during the open season. He claimed that he had caught it outside the river's limit in the sea, and that he had a right to catch it even in the river. " But the law is against it," said the magistrate. "What law?" demanded the fisherman. " The law of the land." "Is that God's law ?" "It is supposed to be conformable to the laws of God, I believe," replied the magistrate somewhat hesitatingly. "I can give you better than that," said the fisherman, and he drew a Bible from his pocket, and ope Ding it, read : " And God said, ' Let us make man in our likeness ; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air.' And it says further on that He did it. Now that means me and you and everybody, and I don't care for the laws of the lords spiritual or temporal or the commons — that's my law — the law of God, and now put me in gaol, if you dare !" There were iwo or three magistrates on the bench, and

they were very much astonished at the nature of the fisherman's defence. They consulted together for a few moments, and the leader, addressing the fisherman, said with a smile : " A man who has so much respect for the law of God as you have cannot seriously .mean to break the laws of his Country. This offence will be looked over. You can go." " Eviidently a pious man," said the magistrates to each other as the fisherman departed surrounded by a crowd of admiring sou-westers, but they would perhaps have changed their opinion if they heard him, after reaching the court-house-door, chuckle and say to his mates, " It takes me to beat 'em, d — n 'em."