UNWRITTEN LAW.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1918, Page 6

UNWRITTEN LAW.

SOLDIER SHOOTS WIFE. £5 BOND TAKEN BY JUDGE AT OLD BAILEY. *' London, Feb. 1. The plea of manslaughter by Henry Canham has been accepted by Judge Atkins at the Old Bailey. Canham was a soldier of twenty-two years of age. Returning from France, his wife confessed her unfaithfulness. Canham shot her in bed. An officer testified that Canham was a good soldierHe was sentenced by Judge Atkins, "in consonance with reasoned public opinion," and hound over in a sum of £5 to come up for sentence when called upon. " RECENT INSTANCES. The Canham case makes the third occasion Bince the outbreak of the war, on which the unwritten law has engaged the attention of an English court of justice. Two of them, the case just decided, and that of Lieutenant Duglas Malcolm., concerned returned soldiers. Malcolm was a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, and was only twenty-four years of age. His wife was a tall, handsome woman, and fell under the fascination of a shady Russian count while Malcolm was in France. Returning from active sewice in France, Malcolm, dressed in civilian clothes, called at a boardinghouse, and asked to see "The Count." He was admitted to the "Count's" room, and shortly afterwards four or five revolver shots were heard. "Count Ant.hany do Boreh," as he styled himself, but whose real name was stated to be Anton Baumberg, was afterwards found dead, his body riddled with bullets. Malcolm was tried for the murder, the jury returning a verdict of not guiltyMr. Justice McCardie, in summing up. /rave a totally different view to the jury than the "reasoned public opinion" of Judge Atkins. He said: "A husband has no property in a wife's body if she decides to give herself up to another man, and he is not entitled to assault or to murder her." He appealed to the jury to regard the supremacy of the law as more important than sympathy. Unwritten law, he added, did not exist in England. GIRL SHOOTS ASSAILANT. And, as for the other case, which has been regarded as a case of unwritten law. "Woman's virtue is a pearl of great price. It belongs just as much to the humble servant as to a queen on her throne," said Mr. Justice Sankey at Glamorgan Assizes on Friday, July 20. lie was summing up the law and evidence'in the case of a servant, Alice Roberts, sixteen who was indicted for the murder of Arthur Stokes a farm hand, at Penywern Farm, near Pontypridd. Mr- Llewellyn Williams, K.C., M.P., for the prosecution ,said the girl and stokes were employed at the same farm, and one morning after breakfast Stokes was found shot dead in the kitchen, the girl having been seen just previously handling a gun. The girl ran to a neighboring farm and said she had shot Stokes in defence of her honor. She successfully resisted him, and threatened to fetch' a policeman. 'Stokes then asked her to give him a gun. He had a smoke in the chair in the kitchen, and when he got the gun asked her to fetch a cartridge. She thought he was going rabbit-shooting Tie gave her the gun and showed her how to use it, and then said: "If you love me, show pity; if not, Bhoot roe," and she shot him. Mr. Ivor Bowen. K.C., for the defence, said the case was so simple, there could only be one verdict—"Not guilty ' 1 The law said the eirl was entitled to defend her honor. She had dune what every woman would do, and what she was entitled to do. Mr. Justice Sankey told the jury that i .if the £irl acted in defence of her virtue «he was justified . I The jury, without leaving the box. returned a verdict of not guiltv. \plticli was received with loud applause in court. The girl left in charge of her mother.