440 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



[Mat 22, 1885. 



etittorial (Sosesitp. 



I HAVE received a pamphlet from Colonel Parnell (late 

 R.E.), beiug a reprint of a paper read by him before the 

 Royal Meteorological Society, which contains matter at 

 once novel and interesting. It is " On the Mechanical 

 Characteristics of Lightning Strokes," and deals with the 

 results of observation of 923 cases in which lightning struck 

 various bodies, animate and inanimate. Colonel Parnell 

 combats the commonly-received idea that lightning descends 

 from the clouds to strike houses, trees, and people, and 

 contends that, on the contrary, in a very large number of 

 instances, it passes out of the earth through the body 

 "struck." The evidence he adduces must be sought in his 

 own pamphlet. Speaking for myself, I am inclined to 

 credit it, not only from its intrinsic force, but because 

 (j.iace Professor Tait) I have myself distinctly seen lightning 

 strike ujoward^. 



Amid the opprobria of English jurisprudence, the exist- 

 ing law of libel seems to me to hold a prominent place ; 

 in fact, the entire abolition of civil actions for it would 

 appear to be imperatively called for. Thtit any Gentleman 

 should seek to make money under pretence of salving his 

 wounded honour and credit, it is monstrous to suppose ; 

 but unfortunately actions for damages, are, in the over- 

 whelming majority of cases, not instituted by people with 

 any claim (save an empty statutable one) to be so de- 

 scribed. For, sooth to say, libel suits are, in ninety-nine 

 cases out of a hundred, merely " attorneys' actions " 

 brought for the sake of the costs, and nothing else ; and 

 many a man will put up with an almost indefinite amount 

 of vilification from another out of whom no costs are to 

 be had, who would promptly enough attempt to exact 

 reparation from anybody from whom money was to be 

 extorted. 



I HAVE been led into this train of thought by seeing 

 that a Mr. Legge, who a short time ago brought an action 

 against the World for libel — and lost it — has been figuring 

 in the Bankruptcy Court ; and by the reminiscence which 

 this induced of the termination of the notorious case of 

 Belt V. Lawes, after a similar fashion. 



Now, it is positively scandalous that a man who may be 

 actuated merely by a wish to advertise himself, by personal 

 rancour, conceit, or by a dozen other equally worthy 

 motives, should be able to drag any one into court and 

 subject him to the pains and penalties of a long and most 

 costly trial, and then, when the verdict goes against him- 

 self, quietly to become bankrupt, leaving the victim of his 

 (judge - and -jury declared) unjust action saddled with 

 enormous costs. 



The remedy for such a state of things is obvious. Pend- 

 ing the speetly and entire abolition of civil actions for libel, 

 no one should be suffered to bring such an action without 

 first finding security for the whole of the costs. This 

 abolition accomplished, then a slight modification of the 

 44 and 45 Vict., c. GO (with the special retention of s. 3 of 

 that Act), w-ould enable every really-aggrieved person to 

 ■obtain a remedy, and to vindicate his unjustifiably-assaUed 

 reputation promptly and effectually. 



as these initial holders of peerages-and-water had to pay 

 him £1,000 each for their aggrandisement, he contrived to 

 raise a by no means inconsiderable sum by selling his bran 

 new titles. Time has now cast its halo over them, and the 

 Order of Baronetcy has at least as much lustre shed upon 

 it by some of its members as it confers upon them, and 

 commands an amount of respect and deference which it 

 scarcely obtained when admission could be gained to it, as 

 to a show, by payment at the doors. 



The dignity of a baronet is just 274 years old to-day ; 

 for on May 22, IGll, that slobbering pedant James I. made 

 Lis first batch of them. The king was very hard-up, and 



Under various statutes, beginning with 10 and 11 

 ^Ym. III. c. 17, and culminating in 42 Geo. III. c. 119, 

 lotteries are declared to be public nuisances. A penalty 

 of £500 is imposed on every one who exercises or opens a 

 lottery ; a similar penalty upon any person who knowingly 

 suffers his house or room to be used for the purposes of a 

 lottery ; and also a penalty of £20 upon every person who 

 shall jilay, throw, or draw at any lottery. Nor are these 

 Acts merely a dead letter, for not many years ago a certain 

 conjuring " Professor " at Brighton found himself inside 

 Lewes Gaol for distributing some articles of jewellery by 

 lot at one of his entertainments. Exhibiting such care as 

 this for the morals and safety of the inhabitants of these 

 islands, it might reasonably be expected that our paternal 

 Government would itself studiously avoid giving any 

 facilities in the United Kingdom for what it is so 

 ready to punish in a highly-penal fashion ; and yet there 

 are perpetually passing through the General Post-ofiice 

 by book-post, and open to the inspection of every one 

 through whose hands they may pass, thousands of cir- 

 culars from Jews (calling themselves "bankers") in Ham- 

 burg, inviting people to take shares in a "great money 

 lottery under the Government guarantee." The whole 

 thing ajiproaches so closely to a swindle that it is infinitely 

 discreditable to our postal authorities that these circulars 

 are not all returned to the senders. That the chance 

 bought by the confiding idiot who returns a pecuniary 

 reply to any of these gull-traps refers only to one of the 

 " classes " of drawing set forth in them, is never even hinted 

 at. Hence the odds against his winning any thing whatever 

 are overwhelming, even supposing that the whole thing were 

 fair and above board. As it is, it is, I must repeat, infi- 

 nitely discreditable that the authorities at St. Martin's-le- 

 Grand do not summarily suppress the circulation of these 

 announcements at once and for ever. They cannot plead 

 the excuse that they are ignorant of the nature of them, 

 inasmuch as — as I have previously said — they are open to 

 the inspection of every one. 



Ax announcement in the newspapers, under the heading 



of " Deaths," seems to snap a curious link with an almost 

 historical past : — 



Shelley. — May lOth, at Tandridge Court, Godstoue, Surrey, 

 Hellea Shelley, daughter of Sir Timothy Shelley, Bart. ; born 

 Sept. 29, 1799. 



This was the sister " Hellen " of that hHe noire of our 

 grandfathers and gi-andmothers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 

 the poet, who was drowned in the bay of Spezzia just 

 sixty-three years ago. Strange it seemed to see this 

 lamented lady moving in society within the last few 

 months, or even weeks, and to think of her immediate 

 personal connection with a past so utterly dead and buried 

 to the present generation. The beau- ideal of a high-bred 

 Englishwoman, she, clad in dark velvet and lace, looked 

 as though she had just stepped out of one of Kueller's 

 frames. She was reticent about " Bysshe " (as she always 

 called her brother), and never cared to talk of him. 



