THE UNWRITTEN LAW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 25 February 1907, Page 4

THE UNWRITTEN LAW.

VENGEANCE ALLOWED TO AMERICAN HUSBANDS.

lhe doctrine of the unwritten law which in America was first applied m Kentucky and subsequently spread to Virginia and the district of Columbia is now invading the criminal practice in New York. A scries of sensational eases of recent occurrence .-.how that it is becoming scarcely less potent in the North than in the Soutlr, Recently for instance, a grand jury at Watkins, New i'ork, refused u, indict Frederick Dickinson, his wife's admirer, alleging as the ground ot ther action the just.fication of the unwritten law. After the deatii of Dickinson, who was a niairiccl man with two children, Seubey was reconciled to his w.fc, and she nursed him through a dangerous illness- caused by a broken rib ami oJicr injuries received in the struggle with her alleged betrayer. Several months ago Seobey rtvan released by Abu Justice Lyon, of the Supreme Court, upon a surety ot" £2OOO, from the gaol where he "was lying on the charge of murder, prominent business men of the district becoming bondsmen for him. 'lhe decision of the grand jury places him definitely at liberty. The doctrine of the unwritten lawwas invoked recently by the defending counsel of Jim Philip Strothers (who riddled with bullets the body ot his brother-in-law, Air llywaters) and of Mrs Anna M. Bradley, who kiiled Senator Brown, of Utah, because he would not marry her and legitimise their two children. "My client," her lawyer says, "is entitled to its fuliest application."