1935-06-21 — Page 7

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1935,

"IS LAW REASONABLE" SHIP ON FIRE MACDONALD TO RESIGN

!

Lecture To Students

There was a large attendance including many guests at the Dining Hall of the Hatal Ceci, yesterday afternoon, when, ander under the auspices of the Wah Yan Past Student's Association, Mr. H. C. Maenamara, barrister-at-law, gave an interesting and instructive lecture on "Is law reasonable." The meeting was pre- sided over by Mr. Ko Fook Sun."

After tea was served, Mr, Mao- better that one bad woman, like

not namara said: "It is

every Mrs. Bumble, should sufferter day that someone stung by ancrimes in respect of which they apparently unreasonable provision are both morally and legally in- of the law

"The nocent." that

declares

his harsh pronouncement

Law is a Hass." In the case of If Bumible. I say, -far been 'will- the Queen against Bumble thereing to listen to such an oration be was some excuse for his irrittion might, or might not, have modi- when they told num that his wife fed was, in law, presumed to act un-about the law, der his coercion. It would, to take a mederrs instance, be as it Mrs. Jiggs were presumed to act under the coercion of Mr. Jiggs.

Although we are not often driv- en to such caustic comments as Mr. Bumble's, yet one does often hear in casual conversation phrases that"

that imply

the speaker considers law to be some- what unreasonable. Such phrases

are "He got off on a legal point" "He had merely a legal defence." "Of course in law he could do s and so," the implication being that

Whatever might have been said about the rule in question in Bum- bie's time. it was felt as tione went on, that it was out of touch with modern realities, particular- ly I should think since the passing of the Act of 1888 which enabled prisoners to give evidence on their own behalf. Still the rule survey Ted, that reform by 27 years and was not abolished ti 1925. Of course even now a married woman is entitled to acquittal in certain. cases if she can prove that she acted under her husband's" coer-

no reasonable person would doctor. The law, however, will not anything of the sort.

It is. I think, useless for Ua. lawyers merely to ignore this cri- ticism, either expressed OF 1m- piled, and I intend this evening to consider the matter, quite trankly, and try to arrive at some definite conKlusion!

LAYMEN'S SAY

Whatever laymen may say about

now presume coercion.

BUMBLE'S COMPLAINT

It is clear then taas Bumble's main cause of complaint was thai a rule which might very well have been a reasonable one, 'ut some time or asher, was to bis particular case distinctly absurb.

So it will often be. The natural reason of which Lord Coke speaks the law, there is a very strong does not always' discerni

what is body of legal opinion which is al-reasonable law; particularly ways prepared to demonstrate the when this personal rights and Law's entirely reasonable charac-feelings of the employer of "na- ter. The Arst great dictum on tural reason" are concerned. This this point was made by a very human weakness does in fact ac- great lawyer indeed who lived over count for a great many of the 300 years ago. I refer to Lord complaints as to the upreasonable Coke, who, was successively Attor- character of law that we hear ney-General, Chief Justice of the

around us. For example some f Common Pleas and Chief Justice us. wonder at our water supply .of the Court of King's Bench,

Ibeing restricted while it is actual- will tell you one thing more about ly raining. him. That is something which On the other hand can we real- will. I think, perpetuate his me-y approve of Lord Coke's diction mory long after the time when that law is the perfection of rea- his own writings have been fore son even if we allow it to be gotten. He is immortalised by be judged by that "artificial perfec- ing referred to by the greatest tion of "reason gotten by long of our English Poeta.

study observation and experience" Cryriach Skinner was a grand-in other words is law entirely rea- son of Lord Coke and a friend nable even viewed by a lawyer Milton. I cannot refrain from who has to have, as a rule. Lord quoting the first four lines of the Coxe udoubtedly allowed his en- well-known, Sonnet. which Milton thistasm for his favourite "sturly addressed to his friend:-

to carry him too far.

on reason:,

"Cyriach whose grandsire on the

Law is a human device and. royal bench of British "Themis. like all human devices, it is im- With co mean applause, Pronoun- perfect. Lord's Coke's dictum is ced, and in his volumes taught, right to this extent that the "law

others at their in. Itself is founded our laws which Bar so often wrench.”

Our Judges do not B.S. B rule earn the whole hearted approval of poets, Lord Coke was lucky." I will now proceed to tell you what he said about the reasonableness of our law. He says:

and that to be understood it must be judged by those who have made it the subject of study. So far so good. He righly emphasizes ̈;- fundamental fact that law is rea- sonable, and also a distinction that the reason that would judge "And the law, that is the perit must be an informed and in- tection of reason, cannot suffer structed reason. anything that is inconvenient ...... For reason is the life of the law, nay the common law itself is no- thing else but reason: which is to be understood of an artificial per fection of reason, gotton by long study, observation and experience natural

and not of every man's reason."

EXAMPLES OF LAW Now it would be no use at all for me to give examples of how law appears to be unreasonable 1 the layman. It can occur in an almost infinite variety of ways. What it will be more useful to do will be to consider cases in which law appears to be unreasonable This, to my mind. is an extreme- even to a lawyer and to account, ly peretrating remark, and I pro- so far as possible, for these imper- pose to make it the basis of my fections. "To know all is to par- study of this somewhat difficult | don all and I can at least *** question.

pointing out unreasonable pravi- slons in our law explain how they came about, and, in sothe

cases,

LEARNED REMARKS

'

Little Damage

While the auxiliary schooner Talel Maru was moored aft Wan-. chai yesterday morning, a fire broke out which a Arst was thought to envelope the whole ship.

The engines were started at 9.18 a.m. and Games began to pour out of the exhaust. These spread to the bridge and in no time the wheel house was in the grip of the fiaries

The crew equipped with fire ex- tinguishers kept the fire in check and through their prompt action the fire was prevented from doing further damage, though the vessel. was made of wood and the decks were piled high with crates.

The fire was under control by the time a naval tug and a fre Boat arrived on the scene. On the whole the damage. was not very great.

of 100 tons the Talel Maru is mostly.engaged in carrying perish- able goods from Formosa to the Colony. She belongs to a fleet of trawlers operating from this Colony.

"SIR WILLIAM PEEL" FUND

donations Following additional have been received for the above fund:-"

Previously acknowledged $17.553.60 Anonymous

Contrary To Precedent To Make Statement

(SPECIAL AIR

MAIL SERVICE).

London, June 7.

`Mr. MacDonald's resignation from the office of Frium Mhuister "will be tendered to the King a week to-day-on June 6,

That he will be called upon to deliver another speech in Far- Hanent as head of the Government does not appear to be likely." He will, however, answer questions addressed to him as Prime Minis- ter in the normal way during the coming' week,

The programme of business be¡ of the speech. These are believed fore the House of Commons ad- to have been made by the English journs for the Whitsun 'recess department of the German Foreign apart from to-day's debate on Ofce. foreign affairs, in which Sir John Simon is to be the spokesman for the Government-is not of a sort which would be likely to call for Mr. MacDonald's intervention.

Mussolini, Litt. D. Cantab

Signor Mussolini must have been reading Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. At any rate his order that high officials in their speeches must avoid phrases Uke "conscious as I am of my heavy responsibilities" reminds me of the anti-cliché

Reconstruction Precedents When Mr. MacDonald told Mr. Maxton yesterday that it would be contrary to precedent" to make campaign long carried on by the a statement in the House about | Cambridge Professor of English Cabinet reconstruction, he evident-¦ Literature. ly assumed that Mr. Maxton ex- pected a statement before the King had approved the change in Premiership. That would be con- trary to precedent, since only the Ring can appoint Ministers.

a

In

There is. however, recent precedent for an announcement of 10.00 | forthcoming reconstruction

$17,583.60 Freliminary notice 19

hereby given that the above Fund, will be closed at the end of June, and fur-Government. ther Donations will be gratefully acknowledged by the Hon. Treasur-

ers:-

Mr. A. McKellar, c/o Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co., P. & 0. Building.

Mr. Kwok Chan, c/o The Banque. dë L'Indo-Chine, Queen's Road, Central,

UNCLAIMED TELEGRAMS

The following Unclaimed Tele- grams lying at the office of E.E. Telegraph Co., Ltd.

R2847, June 9, Napler Marble Hall Observatory Road, Kowloon, from Aucklandnz.

R4206, June 14, Sydney Malcolm, Gomes, Sa Hankow Road, Kowloon, from Singapore.

Sydney R4212 June 14, Mr. Gomes, 6A Hankow Road, Kowloon, from Singapore.

greatest of our modern lawyers, said in the course of a judgment In the House of Lords “My Lords, 1 doubt very much whether "any- one has urklerstood a mortgage of and English form by the light of pure reason."

December, 1918, Mr. Asquith moved the adjournment of the House to announce that the King had sp- proved a reconstruction of the

He was able to give no details, and in fact the House had one abortive sitting before, отег з week later, Mr. Lloyd George's Government was completed.

Since the war "there have been. seven changes of Government or major reconstruction. Never once has the Prime Minister announced them in advance. The House has met to find new Ministers in their seats.

Waiting For Father Coughlin

It will be interesting to see the reactions of Father Coughlin, "the radio priest, to the Supreme Court's destruction of the legality of the New Deal,-

"If the Treasury Bench had been young enough to hear his lecture on jargon they would never · say The answer to the question is 'In the negative."

Speaking of this favourite cir- cumlocution, he remarked: That means. “No.""

Can you discover it to mean anything less, or anything more, except that the speaker is a pompous person-which was no part of the Information demanded? Sir Arthur proceeded to declaim Hamlet's soliloquy in the manner of the platform:

To be. of the contrary? Whether the former or the latter be preferable would seem to admit of some difference of opinion; the answer in the pre- sent case being of an affirmative or of a negative character ac- cording as to whether one elects on the one hand to mentally suffer....

The Duce should soon become an hon. Litt. D. Cantab.

Bachelor's Plea

in the House of Commons on Sharp feelings may be aroused

Monday when Mr. Clifford Glossop puts the following question to the When Mr. Roosevelt was a canFirst Lord of the Admiralty: didate for the Presidency Father Coughlin campaigned enthusias- tically for his election...

"President Roosevelt is not going to make a mistake," he declared to his radio audience shortly after the President's inauguration, "for

ht." od Almighty is guiding The New Deal he described as

"Christ's Deal" ·

Els 10,000,000 radio audience will awalt his Sunday broadcast with eagerness. It on Sunday after- four o'clock that he

pronuncia- makes his political mentos.

noons at

Now you all know, roughly what for the repayment of a loan. As a mortgage is. It is a security

His Tower Fastness someone once said of something else it is "only that and nothing

On the preceding Friday evening mare." In practice the form is he retires to the tower-office of very different from the reality his new Church of the Little The mortgagor subject to a con- Flower, built out of the subscrip diton that if the mortgagor pays tions of his adherents; He takes off the loan on a certain day the his Great Dane with him. mortgagee will reassign the pro-

There he remains, cooking his perty. On the face of the docu-dresses--the ordinary Sunday ser- own meals and preparing three ad- ment if the mortgagor does not happen to pay off the loan on the children's sermon, and the radio mon, to be given at six masses, a appointed day his land is gone for ever. It would, however, be a very foolish mortgagee who would try to treat the land as his own even after the failure to reap on the appointed day. The Court, acting to it. as a court of equity, will always compel him to reassign the pro- three characteristic attitudes the My illustrations show him in perty upon tender of the princi- persuasive, the tub-thumping, and pal of the loan, interest and costs. the plous. This obligation binds not only

Now had "a great lawyer either how they have been, or can be. Lord Coke, or some other, been corrected." present when Mr. Bumble pro- Before starting on this delicate the mortgagee but his heirs, and

A 2

sermon,

The radio sermon is preceded by hymn or two sung by a quartet. a "few verses of poetry and a

Then Father Coughlin gets down

Will members who apply for single tickets for themselves for the Naval Review at Spithead be given preference over married members who apply for two tickets?

Mr. Glossop is a bachelor.

Not in the Dictionary Brig. Gen. Clifton Brown con- fronted the House of Commons He with a new word yesterday. asked a question about "Stas- sanisation."

Sir Hulton Young in his reply obligingly furnished the House with an explanation of what this It is a continuous flow process for the treatment of milk The word, unknown to any dic tionary, is derived from Dr. Stassano, the Continental bac- teriologist, who invented the pro-

means.

cess.

me

Angels from Moscow

Lady Chilston, who is now in

that the second large panel for London with her husband, tells a

the chapel of Lancing College is approaching completion.

designs for these tapestries to which I referred before her de- parture for Russia while in Mos- cow. -

She finds time to continue her

Recently she sent a number of drawings "co. The Foreign Office." to be duly sent to the tapestry works.

Not hearing of their safe arrival she despatched an anxious tele-

gram, to which the reply duly

came:

Boston'e Lost Silver

Dozen Copies For MP3 nounced his celebrated, remark task I would like to say that it anyone to whom he choses to as- the great lawyer could have ex-is only too easy to

Official coples of the translation exaggerate platried to Mr. Bumble, had the what is definitely unreasonable is sign the mortgage. What I want of the full text of Herr Hitler's latter been willing to listen to exceptional. In the vast majority in fact a word in the mortgage MPs to-day,

to point out is that there is never recent speech will be available to him, the difference between the of cases the law works reasonably which will reveal this essential

No angels yet from Moscow, There will, however, only be 12 perfect reason of the law and the enough, sometimes in spite of the fact. The instrument says one of them the maximum permitted pected happened.he angels In the end, however" the unex-

imperfect, because merely na fact that it is not sa reasonable thing, it means in reality, some-by the rules of the House. They from Moscow reachett Downing~ tural,rghson of; ' Mr. Bumble. as It might be. Even in ordinary thing very different. The real will be placed in the Library, where street. The learned man might have life we do not always eay exactly erms are impled in the doctrines members will be able to consult spoken such words as these: what we mean: To address some

of equity, and though these are them, but not to take them away. "your irritation. Mr. Bumble is one as "Dear Sir" or more inti- centuries old they are never ex- This is not a White Paper-no Yesterday's sale for £5,000 of natural, and, in the circumstan- mately as "Dear Jones" does not pressly mentioned in a document precedent could be found for the Great Mace belonging to the ces, excusable. Still the law is not either express or imply any affec which is, in theory, supposed to laking one out of the speech of city of Galway calls to mind the quite such a "Hass" as you think. tion in fact. All our ordinary life express the real intentions of the the head of a foreign nation to his sale of the silver-gilt mace-in the The rule which you find so Irra is, in detalls, unreasonable, it by parties. I will not try to slabor Parliament-but a departmental form of an par-associated with tional is so merely because it hard reasonable we mean a strict adate, this curious situation for fear paper issued by the Foreign Office Boston in Lincolnshire. ly fits your wife's particular case. herence to logic.

obecoming too technical, and It will therefore not be distribut. This came up in 1929 in the late Yet in itself is merciful rule, It is not surprising therefore '2 you must take my word for ited through either the Stationery Earl Brownlow's sale,-- Prisoners cannot give evidence in and that in law the legal instru- that what I am telling you is Opice or the Vole Office. In spite of the effort their own defence and if it were ment does not always say exactly true.

For printing a departmentaltonians to recover thei w paper of this sort the Foreign (which had been sold

Omice has its own plant

the abolition of the The translation also was made tlon), it joined the at the Foreign Ofice. It will be $1,800 of a well-know found to diner in places from the who has 's' Comtelle in this codn- translations sent over at the time

•

not for this rule many married what the Instrument actually women would have been condemn-means. Take for example, the

ed to death for crimes which they suteresting and common example

(To Be Continued)

in fact committed entrely under to a mortgage of land in the Mr. Joseph Ng, the Hon, Secre- ther husband's coercion. The law usual form. O such a document, tary, proposed a vote of thanks must act by general rules and it 's Lord Maenaghten, one of the which was carried unanimously.

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