364 Lecture on Verbicide — By a Man nj" the Law. [Ai'itit, 



petrated without malice either legal or constructive, express or implied, 

 and also witliout either actual or constructive deliberation. This part 

 of ray subject, I hope is now made sufficiently clear to the dullest com- 

 prehension. — {Hear, hear, hear/)* 



A multitude of cases have been agreed upon, or ruled, after solemn 

 argument, by the sages of the law; but I shall content myself with 

 citing a few only, for the purpose of illustration, respecting what may be 

 regarded as the leading features in that august and superb system of 

 right (so called) which I hope to make familiar, as I said before, to the 

 meanest capacity. — {Hear, hear, hear !)-\ 



Suppose that a provocation were sought for, as a pretence for commit- 

 ting a pun, that a scuffle ensue, and a pun take place. The law would 

 imply malice in the party seeking such provocation, if the pun were per- 

 petrated by him. As where A. B. offered C. D. a pot of beer| to say 

 a few words to him before a third party, and then taking advantage of 

 what C. D. said, fell upon a part of speech, and abused it so, that a pun 

 followed, within a year and a day Ruled murder. 



Sed nota. — It would appear that, in the above case, if the pun had 

 been committed, not by A. B. but by C. D., the party speaking the 

 speech, and without malice of any sort, either implied or express, and 

 after retreating as far as he could with safety, from the attack of tlwi 

 said A. B., the said C. D. exercising a reasonable discretion, or what the 

 law calls ordinary care,§ it would have been either verb-slaughter in 

 C D., or excusable, if not justifiable verbicide ; great allowance being 

 made, by law, for the infirmity of man's nature, and for the difficulty 

 of apportioning every sort of defence, so as exactly to meet the peril, 

 in which he may be suddenly put, and overcome it, by the least possible 

 degree of counterbalancing power. 



And so, too, if a pun should occur in the pursuit of some' unlawful 

 game or occupation, or in the unlawful pursuit of some lawful pur- 

 suit or occupation, it may be either verb-slaughter, as above ; or ver- 

 bicide, with malice aforethought, by construction of law. Generally, 

 however, to constitute verbicide of the latter sort, the pun must have 

 occurred in the practice of that which is not only malum prohibitrim, but 

 malum in se : as where John Stokes and Robert Stiles went out to pun 

 together, and after knocking each other's words about for a long while, 

 J. S. one of the two was dreadfully beaten, so that a mortification took 

 place, whereof he died.|| Ruled a punning with premeditation. 



N.B. — The student will observe that, in this and every such case, all 

 parties are principals in the eye of the law ; that is, all aiders and abettei's 

 before the fact ;^ and that, in every verbicide with premeditation, the 

 great maxim of our law, quijacitper aliumjacit per se, applies.** 



• Intending to have tliis lecture woitliily reported, I have taken care to indicate a 

 few of tlie passages, where, in my humble opinion, the language or sentiment of the 

 speaker cannot fail to meet with a good sliare of applause : the reporter may go 

 further perhaps, than I have ; but I leave that, altogether to his better judgment. 



t Query to the orthography of this word. The sense, to be sure, is well enough. 



^ Vide V. Sheridan (R. B. not B. R. ) 1. T. Moore's Reports, where it appears 



to have been a "bottle of wine." Vide Foster P. C. 1. Hale P. C. 4-9*. 



§ Jones (Sir Wni.) Bailmevt. xvi. Millar (Joe) c. .31. see. 3. 



|l Re.r \'. Blackwood. Hunt's MS. Reports. Vide also Keats' case, and the great 

 Rule in Shclki/'s case, H. 



<f Qiiare de hoc — the usage being tolerated, like prize-fighting ; and every lawyer 

 knows, or should know that, rommunis error J'ucitjui : lilackstone, pass him ( Q,u. passivi ?) 



* * Ladij Anne '.« case, 2 Cof,i'\t Rep. 



