LECTURE BY HIS HONOR JUDGE CHAPMAN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 283, 3 July 1873, Page 5

LECTURE BY HIS HONOR JUDGE CHAPMAN.

His Honor Mr. Justice Chapman delivered a lecture for the benefit of the funds of the Tuapeka Athenaeum, in the Athenaeum Hall, on Tuesday evening last, on " Popular Fii-rors of the Law." There was an attendance of about seventy ladies and gentlemen.

Dr. Halley occupied the chair, and introduced his Honor Judge Chapman, who said the subject of the lecture he proposed delivering hud been sent by telegram, and was so brief that it did not give an adequate ideaofthesubjoct. What he intended speaking upon was certain errors floating in the public mind regarding what was law. These errors had to a great extent been dispelled owing to die habit so common amongst people now-a-days of reading the newspapers. Still, even yet these errors occasionally crop up, and are not altogether obliterated. Some of his hearers might imagine as law was the subject, it must necessarily be dull ; but he could assure them even law was not void of amusement. The readers of the reports of court cases in newspapers must be struck with the dramatic features which there often present themselves, showing truth to be stranger than fiction. The lecturer, by numerous anecdotes, illustrated how errors crop up. Stories, he said, had been sometimes concocted to account for the origin of names. These, with the light of critical history thrown upon them, have been designated myths. These errors regarding names pervaded the early history of every country, and, as an illustration of this point, the learned lecturer described how a certain promontory in the Mississippi river came to have the name of Cape Demon. Tradition has it that a certain French pilot, residing near this place, had for a considerable time been paying his addresses to a young maiden, and, without either rhyme or reason, had given her up. After this, she sickened and died. He, hearing this, put to sea, and a gale came on, and he made for a little bay at the other side of Cape Demon. He then lighted a fire, whereupon the Devil ran away with him, as a punishment for his guilt. That is the story ; but the facts, as shown by critical history, are these. The boat was found broken to pieces, and in all probability the young man was lost. He (the lecturer) resided in Cauada fifty years ago. and he accounted for the origin of the name in this way. The banks of the river near this Cape, at the time he spoke of, were all thickly wooded, but, rising obove the tree 3, were two mounds, or hills, quite bare, and the name on the old French charts in the survey office described the promontory as Gape des Mont Pde, or Bald Mountain Point. The English, in pronouncing the name, soon left out the last word, and the corruption — Cape Demon — is easily accounted for. This same proceeding of the human mind, the lecturer said, had been in operation as regards many legal stories, which, though erroneous, had some foundation iv truth. Many other instances were enumerated illustrative of the origin of these mythical stories. For instance, the Channel of the Milk Roche, or Channel of the Thousand Islands, in Canada, has been corrupted into Mill Rush, because there are some mills now ..erected by the side of it. So we have what is called the Percy Rock, which in fact is simply a corruption of the Pierced Rock ; and. in New Zealand we have the meaning of Manawa Bay accounted for by the correspondent of a Melbourne paper in the time of the Taranaki war as Man-of-War Bay, whereas the undoubted origin of it is from the mangrove plant or tree which grows so plentifully along the bay. ]t was a common idea in olden times, and has an existance still in some minds, that a dead body can be arrested for debt, but there never was any such law. In the time of one of the Charleses, the body of a widow's son was said to be arrested for debt, but the report is of very doubtful authenticity. His (the lecturer's) own opinion was that it was not true. Lord Ellenborough had said that it would be an outrage on humanity to say such a thing could be enforced. It could no more be sustained by law than a promise obtained under an illegal threat. jStrange to say it was not till he (the lecturer) was called to the bar that any case of this description was brought before an English court. A prisoner for debt died in gaol, and the gaoler refused

to deliver the body te have it buried, he being under the impression that if he gave up the body he would be sued for the debt, and being aJso under the impression that he had the power to detain it. Application was then made by the friends for a peremptory mandamus to deliver the body, which was then given up at once. The parties were not satisfied with the action of the gaoler, and sued him for the debt. The misconception arose out of the interpretation of the word body. The next error the learned lecturer referred to was the common one that if a funeral passed along a private road, that road henceforth became a public one. He remembered once seeing a funeral attempting to go through by the Temple in Fleetstreet to Whitefriars, but it had to come back, not because the learned men of the Temple were afraid the path wonH be declared a pnblic way, but by stopping it they knew they would save litigation. That, however, showed the misconception which was in the public mind regarding the matter. The lecturer gave several other amusing instances of misconception with regard to highways and private roads. Another popular error, but a very absurd one, was that if a man consented to marry a woman at the foot of the gallows, he or she, as the case might be, would be set at liberty ; and here the lecturer read an instance of the kind from an old chronicle, where a man offered to marry a woman at the foot of the gallows, but she, thinking she would get a reprieve, did not accept the offer until the rope was round her neck, by which time the young man had changed his mind. The chronicle, however, went on to say that such a thing was not in the law of England. The learned judge next adverted to the twofold character of the offence of libel, as it could be sued against both civilly and criminally ; the same with cases of assault, and in cases of murder there was at one time an appeal of murder — a private remedy. In 1818 a certain Mary Ashford was found in a pond with a rope round her neck, and the man who was last seen with her was arrested and tried. There was a deal of evidence against him, but there were circumstances as to time and distance which did not tally, and Justice Holroyd, an able and conscientious judge, before whom the case was heard, pointed out the discrepancies, and showed how it would have been very difficult for the man to have committed the murder, and so the jury gave a verdict in his favor, Mary Ashcroft's friends were dissati&fiud with the verdict, and entered an appeal of murder. Such a thing had not been heard of for a couple of ceuturies. The case came before the court, and all the judges and lawyers wore very ignorant of the matter, and had to pick their way through, to prevent making any mistakes. There happened, however, to be some flaw in the proceedings, and the Attorney-General meaiwhile got a bill hurriedly passed, putting an end to appeal of murder. This appeal of murder was considered to be an appeal to the judgment of Heaven. The lecturer next referred to the practice of allowing the poor to glean in the fields. It has no place in the English law, but may have had its origin in the Mosaic law. It has been established in some places by prescription, but not by right or law, and never came before a court till 100 years ago, when an action was brought against a nominal defendant, charging him with trespass. He pleaded poor and destitute, but the court decided against him. It was tried again in the Court (if King's Bench, and decided similarly. A similar case, for gathering pieces of wood from a copse, was decided in the same manner. Those of his audience who had seen the poor people gleaning in the south of England, will almost regret that it is not legal. There was something poetical in the sight. The foregoing will give but a very faint idea of the learned judge's excellent lecture. He concluded by merely touching upon other popular errors which he would gladly have expatiated upon had time permitted. Mr. Jamison moved a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Chapman for his able, amusing, and instructive lecture. Mr. John Copland seconded the vote, which was carried by acclamation. During the delivery of the lecture, the audience showed their just appreciation of it by frequent demonstrations of applause.