![handle is hein.journals/lawnotes3 and id is 1 raw text is: LAW NOTES.
APRIL, 1899.
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD THOMPSON COMPANY,
NORTHPORT, LONG ISLAND, N. Y.
CONTENTS.
PAGE PAGE
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Tme Case of Madane La-
Rival Corporation Laws. . i farge ... ....... 8
Capital Punishment of Mr. Birrell on Legal Educa-
Women . ...... 1 tion ........... 10
A Corrupt Judge . . . 2 CASES OF INTEREST . ... 13
Lawyers Employed to Draft
Statutes . .... . . 2 REVIEWS:
Storey's Advice to Lawyers. 2 Campbell's Lives of the Chief
The Age Limit of Judges 2 Justices .. ...... 14
Minor Mention......... 3
NEWS OF THE PROFESSION . 15
ARTICLES: ENGLISH NOTES ..... 16
Judicial Gowns . . . 3 OBITER DICTA ..... 17
Recovery of Money Paid on
Forged Instruments . 5 CORRESPONDENCE:
77Te Kansas Court of Visita- Abuse of Witnesses 20
tion .. ........ . 7 The Lawyers of Dickens 20
April, 1899. CALENDAR
i I
1 Sa. I
FOR THE MONTH. I April, 1899.
Morrison R. Waite commissioned Chief Justice of the
United States, 1874.
Lord Chancellor Cairns died, 1885.
Lascelle v. Georgia, 148 U. S. 537, decided. Extradited
criminal tried for different offense. 1893.
Act of Congress to establish the flag of the United
States, 1818.
Samuel F. Miller, justice of U. S. Supreme Court, born,
1816.
Richard I., to whom we are said to be indebted for the
maritime laws of Oleron, died, 1199.
Wilson v. U. S., 149 U. S. 60, argued. Comment on
failure of accused to testify. 1893.
Louisiana admitted into the Union, 1812.
James T. Brady born, 1815.
Hugo Grotius born, 1583.
Charles Reade, lawyer, novelist, dramatist, died, 1884.
New York Code of Procedure adopted, 1848.
Thomas Jefferson born, 1743.
Deputy Marshal Neagle discharged on habeas corpus (see
135 U. S. 1), 1890.
David Dudley Field died, 1894.
Wager of battel allowed (Ashford v. Thornton, 1 B. &
Aid. 405), 1818.
In re Buchanan, 158 U. S. 31, decided. Mental com-
petency of juror not a federal question. 1895.
Roscoe Conkling died, 1888.
Thompson v. Connell, 31 Oregon 231, decided. Vacat-
ing judgment for excusable neglect. 1897.
Act of Congress establishing Wisconsin Territory, 1836.
Charles Matteson qualified as Chief Justice of Rhode
Island Supreme Court, 1891.
Henry Fielding, lawyer, novelist, magistrate, born, 1707.
Trial of Tichborne claimant began, 1873.
Thomas Addis Emmet born, 1764.
Act of Congress establishing general land office in Treas-
ury Department, 1812.
John Somers (Lord Chancellor), who defended the seven
bishops, died, 1716.
Jeremiah Mason born, 1768.
William M. Evarts began his argument on- President
Johnson's impeachment trial, 1868.
Oliver Ellsworth, Chief Justice of the United States,
born, 1745.
Lord Bacon sends a written confession of corruption to
the House of Lords, 1621.
THE rivalry that sometimes exists between cities is nothing
compared to the curious competition into which the States of
New Jersey and New York have entered. It is a struggle to
obtain corporate business. Of course the State whose laws are
the more favorable to corporations is more successful in the
competition, and it is asserted that the liberality of New
Jersey towards corporations has taken so much money into
that State out of New York as to be a matter of grave concern
to the latter State. The result has been the introduction into
the New York Legislature of a somewhat peculiar bill known
as The Competitive Corporations Law. This is an act
intended to hold out inducements to corporations and capital-
ists to emigrate to New York. It is said that the bill contains
many of the favorable features of the laws of New Jersey.
It reduces the amount of the fees that are to be paid upon in-
corporating, and also reduces the franchise tax and releases
stockholders and directors from many liabilities imposed by
existing statutes, which are considered inimical to capitalists.
Our State pride of course makes us hopeful that New-York
will reach the persimmon. This sort of competition may be
worse than curious, and may lead to the enactment of bad
laws, but we can say for it, at least, that it is not as bad as
the competition for divorce business that some States have
indulged in.
WE assert without fear of successful contradiction that one
of the last things that a jury would do would be to find a
woman guilty of murder in the first degree, knowing that her
guilt would be visited with death. We have not the time to
examine the reports and ascertain how many such verdicts
have been set aside as being contrary to the weight of the evi-
dence, but, without doing so, we know enough about the
sympathies of jurors to know that such a verdict is more apt
to be correct than other verdicts. Accordingly we believe
that Mrs. Martha Place, who in the State of New York
was recently found guilty of brutally smothering to death
her fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, and executed therefor, was
guilty of the offense. In addition to the verdict of twelve
jurors, and the opinion of an able and conscientious trial
judge, we have the opinions of the seven judges who con-
stitute the Court of Appeals, except Judge Gray, who was
absent. Numerous newspapers and more numerous maudlin
and incoherent sentimentalists besieged Governor Roosevelt
to pardon Mrs. Place or commute her sentence because of her
alleged insanity, and also because she was a woman; but it
was clearly discernible that executive clemency was sought
because of her sex, and that the plea of insanity was merely
subsidiary and intended as a cloak in which to envelop the
other ground.
WE disclaim the expression of any opinion upon the much-
mooted question whether capital punishment should be in-
flicted; but we are here to say that until such punishment has
been abolished the pardon of a woman convicted of murder
and sentenced to death, or the commutation of her sentence,
merely because she is a woman, would be an arrogant and
palpably improper abuse of the pardoning power, amounting
almost to a total subversion of law, and utterly demoralizing
in its effect upon the officers whose duty it is to enforce the
law. If the people of the State of New York are opposed to
the infliction of capital punishment, or, at least, to punishing
APRIL, 1899.]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lawnotes3&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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