LIBEL DEFINED.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2459, 4 February 1881, Page 2

LIBEL DEFINED.

Referring to the oft-discussed question of “What is libel?” an English contemporary says : —“ Perhaps some journalists who have the fear of the libel law constantly in mind may find a useful hint in the following anecdote : In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, one Peter Palmer, of Lincolns Inn, brought an action against a barrister of the name of Boyce, for Laving, with the intention to injure him in his name and practice, said, * Peter Palmer is a paltry lawer, and hath as much law as a jakanapes.’ It was moved in arrest that the words would not maintain an action, because'they were not slanderous Had Mr Boyce said, ‘ Mr Palmer had more law than a jackanapes,’ it had been actionable, for then he had lessened the opinion of his learning. But the words were ‘he hath as much law as a jackanapes.’ This was no impeachment of his learning, for every man that hath more law than a jackanapes hath as much. Judge Berkley says it has been adjudged, where a person said of a lawyer that he had as much law as a monkey, that the words were not actionable, because he hath as much law, and more law also than a monkey. But if he had said he hath no more law than a monkey, these words would have been actionable.”