OFFENCES BY UNOFFENDING ANIMALS. Fourteen hundred and eighty years before Christ, Moses either made or revived the law: "If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit." And from this ancient edict comes it, no doubt, in the English law of to-day, that evidence is required that the owner who has permitted his dog to be at large to the injury of John Bull knew him to be of a savage and quarrelsome disposition. After giving this command, Moses proceeded to enforce the doctrine of the responsibility of the beast's owner, and to ensure his punishment should he wittingly let a dangerous animal run loose. He also made provision for his security under extenuating circumstances. These laws found their way into those of medieval Europe; the law-makers introducing improvements of their own, and enforcing them in numerous cases, at once amusing and instructive, as instances will show. Thus, in days gone by, if a child, for example, was injured by a sow, or a man by a bull, the trial was conducted precisely as though sow and bull were morally criminal. They were apprehended, placed before the ordinary tribunal, and, if convicted, given over to execution. They received, however, the benefit of a lawyer, who was engaged for the defence; and witnesses were bound over in the usual way. mode of execution, in cases where the victim was convicted, was by hanging or burning. Here are some extracts from calendars in the possession of the Society of Antiquarians in Paris. The A.D. 1266. A pig burned at Fontenay-aux-Roses, near Paris, for having devoured a child. A.D. 1386. A judge, at Falaise, condemned a sow to be mutilated in its leg and head, and then to be hanged, for having lacerated and killed a child. It was executed in the square of that town, dressed in man's clothes. The execution cost 6 sous, 6 deniers, and a new pair of gloves for the executioner. A.D. 1389. A horse tried at Dijon, on information given by the magistrates of Montbar, and condemned to death, for having feloniously killed a man. A.D. 1499. A bull was condemned to death at Canroy, near Beauvais, for having in a fury “occis a little boy of fourteen years old. Here is a sample list of expenses, actually incurred in the case of an unhappy sow, sentenced to be hanged, on having been found guilty of having maliciously eaten a child :— ... To expenditure on the criminal while in gaol... ... Sou. Deniers. 6 ... ... 54 0002 462 8 The records do not show why the sow was removed to Menlam for execution-unless, maybe, a rising of the tribe to rescue their mother was feared. The Charter of Elenora (Sardinia) entitled "Carta de logu,” drawn up about 1395, contains the complete civil and criminal code of that period. It enjoins that oxen and cows may be legally killed when "taken marauding." Asses convicted of similar delinquencies-common enough by the way—were let off much cheaper. Thus, for example, an ass, taken before a magistrate and charged with being in a field not belonging to his master, was found guilty and adjudged to lose one of his ears. And this was the punishment also for the second offence. Should the culprit (as was indeed likely) become hardened in sin, and offend still further, it was not hanged; it did not even lose its tail: it was confiscated to the Crown, and went to swell the royal herds.1 Gross relates, in his "Petite Chronique de Bâle," that in the month of August, 1474, "an abandoned and profligate cock of that town, accused of the crime of having laid an egg," was brought before the magistrates, tried, convicted, and condemned to death. The court delivered over the culprit to the executioner, who burned it-with its eggamidst a great concourse of people, in a place called Köhlenberger. It is elsewhere related that there was an ancient superstition, bearing, as all these cases must, an affinity to the most ancient belief in sorcery, that from such accursed eggs sprang basilisks, or horrible winged serpents. Not even insects were permitted to escape (what may perhaps be called) a County Court summons. Insects devouring grain were summoned before the Ecclesiastical Courts, as the Common Law Courts could not enforce obedience. Chasseneux, writing in the sixteenth century, gravely discusses the legality of citing insects to appear before a Court of Justice, and says "they are bound to appear;" and he adds his opinion that "where Locusts or other plagues are devouring a country, and when cited yet will not appear, the remedy found most effectual is to 1 At Colgong, on the Ganges, the natives still pursue the practice of cutting off the ears of animals convicted of trespass. make a female in the most dégagé costume conceivable perambulate the canton, with bare feet also." But this method, he naïvely remarks, is open to grave objections. The legend appears to be akin to that (which bears date in 1043) of Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom, of Coventry. Chasseneux was, in 1510, appointed by the authorities of Autun to be advocate for some rats who were cited to appear before the Ecclesiastical Courts to answer certain charges "of eating the harvest up over a large portion of Burgundy." He first defended the case by showing that the rats had not been summoned by the court; and he actually obtained a decision directing that all the clergy of the afflicted villages should agree to an adjournment, taking out orders for the defendants to appear on a certain day. At the adjourned hearing he defended the non-appearance of his clients on the ground of the roads being infested with cats. He made an able defence, and obtained a second adjournment sine die. TRIALS AND PUNISHMENTS. CHAPTER XIII. N this chapter brief reference will be made to a few of the varied forms of trials and punishments that at different periods have been known to English law. It would, of course, in an unpretentious work of such a character as the present, be out of place to make mention of every form of trial and punishment that has been known to England, or to make more than passing mention of such of the forms as are here selected. It will be sufficient for the readers of this book-who are for the most part more concerned with Yorkshire crime, it is imagined, than the way in which the wrong-doers were convicted and made to suffer for their crimes-if of the forms of trial a few words be said of the Trial by Wager of Law, the Trial by Wager of Battle, the Trial by Ordeal, and the Trial by Jury. As for punishments, they have been almost as numerous, especially in the days of the inquisition, as offences themselves. They have frequently included, |