MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 436, 4 March 1875, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

An Alsatian woman recently went to confession. ' Father/ slie said, ' I have c unmitted a great sin.' • Well,' cried the priest, perceiving that ehtf paused. ' I dare not lay it ; it 18 too grievous.' ' Come^ come, courage.' ' I hn*» married a Prus-inn.' 'Keep |gto, my daughter. Tiiat's your penante,' decided the hc3y mon. The Daily News ofHjfie 21st November, in respect of t breadth, length, and sqlid contend, was the largest newspaper without a Supplement ever published. Its printed matter u»j nearly equnl to that contained in thiee numbers of the ' CornhilKor the * Gentleman* Magazine,' was more than is eontained\in tke 'Edinburgh Beview ' or the •Quarterly, and exee«d>d tie pro portions of two volumes the average novel. Th\j>ipre« of metal lying within the jiixry-four columns were I,o^ CO ' :n j. umber. The paper an winch it was printed wosNol'ed on a single |ne of which holds four find a half miles in length ; each ropy was delirend from t lie machines printed on both fides and duly cut from the rjimdncal web ot paper j and the whole edition was printed on five of the "W«lter tmchtnee, tit tha rate of 50,000 copies an hou*. The judge who ought to prevent unfair advantages being assumed by one of the combatants, ha? himself passed many \ears of his existence at the Bar, and believes that they are the perfection of wisdom. Thus, in England, a Court of law is seldom a Court of justice; and an individual— be he plaintiff, defendant, or witness — has far mote chance of \ substantial justice being done to him when he appears before a City Alderman, who nets upon the dictates of Ihe shrewd common sen«e which he has learnt in his own private affairs, than^when a Gamaliel robed in ermine, pits in judgment. 'Jhe object of a cross-cntntoriation is to test the truth of a witness, but it has becW>e\ means for a clever lawyer to oMain replies which may, if the questions be put with fuffieient/ad/oitnrss, be taken in a double sense ; and thus, in (He final epe<ch<. ftie witness h made to appear lo have admitted pr denied \n«jh which he never intended either to admit or deny. The lawyer asks a question : the witness attempts to reply by a statement of facts, or he ventures to ask in wh»t sense is he to understand some word in the question which has a dozen meanings. ' Answer me at once, sir !' shouts the lawyer ; and he looks severely at the witness to imply that, of course, his natural disposition is to perjure himself, but that this must be prevented. The witness again commences his plain unvarnished tile. 'You are not rephing to the question,' says the Judge. • Surely,' cries the counsel, ' you can answer Y<»B or No." 'Let us have none of this,' echoes the Judge; 'answer Yes or No.' Now, if Jawjers would not take it for granted that every ppecits of folly wh«cb has grown up in their profession must be light because it has prown up, and because it forms part of the lore on the knowledge of which the}' pride themselves, they would be aware thato many questions cannot be answered by a simple 'Yes' or ' No,' without allowing the questioner to nffix a meaning to the answer which may be directly the reverse of what wps intended. We ourselves venture to say that we would ask either the Lord or the Lord Chief Justice half a dozen qufstioi4 utcn almost any net of their lives, which would alJow (be%riiw,er « Y«-s 'or 'No' to be phrn to them,' 4>ut the reply to which, if made i» either of these words, night be. perverted into a different xr patting fiom that vhich wns intruded. A man who goe» into a witness box is performing \vpublie.duty, as one of acorn* munity that prefers to be governed "by law rather than fight out its quarrels— that, in t^e/performanc^of-thi* duty, he should subject himself to be asked any question which it might enter the head of a lawyer t© put, is perhaps a necessary evil ; but that the lawyer should insist not only upon the right to ask questions, but to dictate the words of the answer, and that he should be supported in this outrageous pretension by the Judge, appears to us % monstrous r^rveipirn of justice — « The World. 1