husband shall be presumed, unless the contrary can be shown." It was decided that bastardy would not be found, when it was not shown that the husband had been "beyond seas," for forty weeks before the birth of the child; it was generally held essential, even in later times, to establish the absolute impossibility of access of the husband during the natural period of gestation, and Lord Ellenborough, in a case decided the early part of the last century, refused to enter into the realm of mere probabilities, in such a case, but required a showing of absolute physical impossibility of the husband's being the father of the child.* As the case made, on the facts presented, did not present such strong probative force as to overcome the legal presumption of legitimacy, the inheritance, as a consequence of the conclusion against the bastardy of Phillip, would go to him. Sec. 172. Testamentary disposition disinheriting bastard. "Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force, Bast. The rule of the common law was that illegitimate children did not take, under a testamentary devise to the testator's children, and it was necessary that there should be evidence collected from the will itself, or from other competent source, to show affirmatively that the testater intended that his illegitimate children should inherit his estate, or they were not included. Of course, where the 1 Bl. Comm. 457. 2 Rex vs. Albertson, Carthew, 468, 9. 'Goodright vs. Saul, 4 Term. Rep. 356. 'King vs. Luffe, 8 East, 193, p. 207. "King John, Act I, Scene I. See opinion of Master of the Rolls, in Bagley vs. Mollard, 1 Russ. & My. 581. fact of illegitimacy is established by competent evidence, if the testator's will expressly decided against the illegitimate child, then it would be doing violence to his intent, to permit such a child to inherit his land, and this is the rule invoked by Robert, in this verse. Sec. 173. Landed 'Squire. "K. John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou thy desire, A landed knight makes thee a landed 'squire." 1 "Squire" is a contraction of the word esquire, which was a title applied by courtesy to various officers, members of the bar and others. The use of the term confers no particular distinction in law, but it was a title, in England, above that of a gentleman and below that of a knight. The eldest son of a knight and their eldest sons, in perpetual succession, were one class of esquires and justices of the peace and others who bore any office of trust under the crown, were called esquires. Robert, as the eldest son of a knight, was thus properly entitled to the term, as applied to him by King John. King John, Act I, Scene I. ' Camden. Speaking of Shallow, Falstaff said, in 2' Henry IV (Act III, Scene II): “Fal. . . And now is this Vice's dagger become a 'squire; and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt, as if he had been sworn brother to him." Shallow answers to Bardolph as follows: "Shal. I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county and one of the king's justices of the peace: What is your good pleasure with me?" (2 Henry IV, Act III, Scene II.) Referring to his desertion, before the battle of Patay, Talbot said of Fastolfe: "Tal... Before we met, or that a stroke was given, Like to a trusty 'squire, did run away." (Act IV, Scene I.) Before fighting Cade, Iden, said, in 2' Henry VI: "Iden. Nay. it shall ne'er be said, while England stands, That Alexander Iden, Sec. 174. Seduction. "Bast. But, mother, I am not sir Robert's son, I have disclaimed Sir Robert and my land. Legitimation, name and all is gone: Then, good, my mother, let me know my father: Lady F. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father; 2 To make room for him in my husband's bed."1 Seduction, in criminal law, is the act of a man in inducing a woman to commit unlawful sexual intercourse with him. The crime may as well be committed against a married woman, as against an unmarried female,3 and on such a trial there is a presumption of chastity on the part of a woman of previously good reputation." an esquire of Kent, Took odds to combat a poor famish'd man." (Act IV, Scene X.) And on presenting Cade's head to the king, Iden said: "Iden. Alexander Iden, that's my name; A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his king." (Act V, Scene I.) Emilia tells Iago, in Othello, in defending Desdemona: And made you to suspect me with the Moor." 'King John, Act I, Scene I. 2 Bouvier's Law Dictionary. 2 Bishop, Cr. Proc. sec. 95. 1 Bishop's Cr. Proc. 1106. (Act IV, Scene II.) The earl of Cambridge, in Henry V, said: "Cam. For me,the gold of France did not seduce." (Act II, Scene II.) Referring to the forces of King Edward, in 3' Henry VI, Exeter said: "Ere. The doubt is, that he will seduce the rest." IV, Scene VIII.) (Act Cassius reflects, after his conference with Brutus, over Cæsar's ambitious nature: "Cas. Therefore 'tis meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes: For who so firm, that cannot be seduc'd." (Julius Cæsar, Act I, Scene II.) Sec. 175. "Eli. Arbitration. whole, This might have been prevented and made With very easy arguments of love; Which now the manage of two kingdoms must Arbitration is the investigation and settlement of the differences between contending parties, by one or more persons chosen by the parties, called arbitrators. Any matter may be settled and finally adjusted by arbitration, which the parties themselves might have settled by contract or which could be the subject of an action at law. The use of the word, as it is found in this verse, is not strictly in its legal sense, for instead of showing an avoidance of the differences by agreement to submit to the judgment of disinterested persons, there is rather an absence of arbitration and a conflict over the rights, not adjusted by arbitration. But the word in its popular meaning is used as the Poet uses it here. 'King John, Act I, Scene I. 23 Bl. Comm. 16; Bacon, Abr. In King Richard II (Act I, Scene I), the duke of Norfolk, replies to Bolingbroke: "Nor. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal; "Tis not the trial of a woman's war. The bitter clamor of two eager tongues, "Just Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain." Mortimer welcomed death, in 1' Henry VI, as follows: death, kind umpire of men's miseries, With sweet enlargement, doth dismiss me hence." (Act II, Scene V.) Hector, replies to Ulysses, who predicts the fall of Troy, in Troilus and Cressida, as follows: "Heet. . . The end crowns all; and that old common arbitrator, time, will one day end it." (Act IV, Scene V.) Before taking the potion, Juliet observes, while looking on her dagger: "Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife Shall play the umpire: arbiting that Which the commission of thy years and art (Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene I.) Sec. 176. Usurpation-Denial of rights. "Chat. Phillip of France, in right and true behalf To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine; Usurpation, in governmental law, is the tyrannical assumption of the government by force, contrary to and in violation of the constitution of the country. Lord Coke spoke of usurpation arising whenever a subject used the franchise of the king, without lawful authority,3 and this is the sense in which the term is used in this verse. Sec. 177. Equity. “K. Phi. tread. For this down-trodden equity, we In warlike march these greens before your town." "Equity," in the broadest sense, signifies natural justice. In the meaning given to the term by the Poet, it denotes equal justice between contending parties for the right. This is the moral significance of the term, with reference to the rights of parties having conflicting claims. In the more limited use of the word, equity is applied to the courts of equity, as distinguished from the courts of law, and is used to signify the remedial procedure by 'King John, Act I, Scene I. 2 Bouvier's Law Dictionary. Coke, Litt. 277b. In 2' Henry VI, the petitioner, Peter, when questioned as to what his master had said of the King, said: "Peter. . my master said that he was, and that the king was an usurper." (Act I, Scene III.) 'King John, Act II, Scene I. |