ing member of society, who sees the exceptional cases and makes of them the general rule. No lawyer would apply such ridicule to the proceedings of the courts whereby the rights of litigants are enforced, for being partly responsible for the proceedings in vogue and the end and object being the equal and free enjoyment and enforcement of the rights of all suitors, a lawyer is the last person to proclaim against the practices of the courts or to bring his profession into disrepute. But not so a poet, with Shakespeare's grasp upon all subjects. He would remedy all defects in every system and his natural sympathy would go out to the poor and the oppress'd. He considered it difficult, no doubt, for a poor man, to obtain justice and viewed the "law's delay" in his case, as a particular hardship, when as matter of fact, his observation may have obtained to the exceptional cases wherein the dispensation of justice did not accord with his ideas of mercy or charity. Sec. 439. A litigious peace. "Per. Most honour'd Cleon, I must needs be gone; The Prince of Tyre here places his kingdom in the attitude of a litigant who enjoys peace because of his defence of his right, in law. The comparison is not without merit, for as an individual by the defense of his rights, in law, gains a reputation which will bring him peace, by the respect which his fellows will entertain for his course, so a nation, by preparations for war, or by actual warfare, will gain a reputation which will ultimately bring peace. Sec. 440. Serving clients. "Bawd. When she should do for clients her fitment, and do me the kindness of her profession, she 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act III, Scene III. has me her quirks, her reasons, her master-reasons, her prayers, her knees, that she would make a puritan of the devil, if he should cheapen a kiss of her." This satirical reference of the Bawd, wherein she compares one of her trade to a lawyer, practicing his profession, is not unlike the practices of many of the profession of the law, if the facts were known. While the per cent that can, legitimately, be compared to such a foul profession, or trade, are few, still there are by far too many who, like the bawd, serve any who come, with a fee, which may tempt the commission of offenses not less. odious than the crime of adultery. Sec. 441. Applying judgment to the judge.- If this reflection, by the incumbent of the judgmentseat, were indulged in generally, it would make the judgments pronounced more equitable, no doubt. It is but the application of the golden rule, nothing less, i. e., “do unto others as you would have others do unto you," and this is a very good rule of law, as it is of one's private conduct. Sec. 442. Modesty of justice.— "Per. look'st Falseness cannot come from thee, for thou Modest as justice, and thou seem'st a palace These words of Pericles, to his daughter, in the simile used, show the exalted ideal of the Poet, in regard to justice, a virtue that he almost deified, so broad was his 1 Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act IV, Scene V. sympathy for his fellowman and his poetic justness. Justice does not go hand in hand with ostentation or loudness; but this virtue is usually found with modesty and purity. Marina, to her father, seemed "a palace for the crown'd truth to dwell in" and as the Poet's fertile mind observed, this would likewise be a fitting habitation for the twin virtue, justice. "Lear. Tell me, my daughters, (Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state,) Which of you, shall we say, doth love us most?" 3 To divest one of property, of the kind referred to by the King, is to dispossess one and to convey or vest the title in another.2 Divestiture is characteristic of the term real property, or of the title to an office, for it is the taking away of the title, so the King speaks of his act of divesting himself of "rule, interest of territory and cares of state," meaning that he will not only relinquish the title to his lands, but to his office, as king, as well, and the cares accompanying it. 'King Lear, Act I, Scene I. 2 Bouvier's Law Dictionary. 9 Tiedeman's R. P. (3d ed.). Sec. 444. Entailment of estate. "Lear. We make thee lady: To thine and Albany's issue Be this perpetual.—What says our second daughter, To thee and thine, hereditary ever, In conveying and confirming one-third of his kingdom upon Goneril and her husband and their issue, as the Poet makes Lear do, in these lines, he practically entailed the third of his kingdom to his daughter and the heirs of her body by Albany.2 An entailment arose at common law, whenever the words of the conveyance indicated an intent on the part of the grantor that the legal course of succession of the land was cut off and the title was to vest in the grantee and certain of his or her heirs, as distinguished from all of the grantee's heirs, as, in this instance, where the grant was to one and the heirs of her body, or issue, by a certain husband. This was an estate tail, known as a special entail. A grant to a man "and the heirs of his body," was a general entail, as distinguished from a grant "to a man and the heirs of his body, by his wife, Joan." And the limitation, in the grant of the third of the kingdom to Regan, "in space, validity and pleasure," like that "confirm'd on Goneril," amounted to a creation, in Regan, of a fee-simple conditional, or an estate tail, at common law. 'King Lear, Act I, Scene I. 2 Tiedeman's R. P. (3d ed.). For legislation concerning estates tail, see II Reeve's History Eng. Law, 459. In the grant to his first daughter, the language used by Shakespeare is not unlike the habendum of a comman law conveyance. And this is followed, it will be noted, further on, by the confirmation, "Which, to confirm, this coronet part between you." 'II Reeve's History, supra. |