 | Ginx's Baby: His Birth and other Misfortunes: A Satire |  |
V.—Magistrate's Law.
THE personnel of the magistrate to whom Mr. Dignam Bailey, Q. C., (with him Mr. Adolphus Stigma), applied in the case of re an infant, exparte Ginx, is not material to this history. He was like his fellow stipendiaries —mild as to humor, vigilant in his duties, opinionated in his views, resenting the troublesome intrusion into his court of a barrister, apt to treat him with about one-eighth of the courtesy extended to the humblest junior by the Queen's Bench, and curiously unequal both with himself and his brother magistrates in adjusting punishment. It will be most convenient to insert the report of the Daily Electric Meteor:—
"WESTMINSTER.
"Mr. Dignam Bailey, Q.C., (with whom was Mr. Adolphus Stigma), applied for a summons against Mary Dens, commonly called Sister Suspiciosa, of the convent of the Sisters of Misery, in Winkle Street, for abducting and detaining a male child of John Ginx and Mary his wife.
"MR. D'ACERBITY. On whose behalf do you apply?
"The learned counsel stated that he was instructed by the Protestant Detectoral Association to apply on behalf of the mother. The case was also watched by the solicitors of the Society for Preventing the Suppression of Women and Children.
"MR. D'ACERBITY. Does the father join in the application?
"MR. BAILEY. No, sir.
"MR. D'ACERBITY. Why? He ought to be joined if living.
"MR. BAILEY. Perhaps you will allow me, sir, to state the case. The circumstances are peculiar. The fact is—
"MR. D'ACERBITY. I cannot understand why the father should not be represented if the child has been abducted. Where was it taken from?
"Mr. Bailey proceeded to state that the child had been taken by a nun from No. 5, Rosemary Street, without the mother's consent, and was now imprisoned in the convent. The father appeared to be indifferent, or to have given a sort of general acquiescence. This was Mrs. Ginx's thirteenth child, around whom gathered the concentrated affections
"MR. D'ACERBITY (interrupting the learned
"Mr. Bailey called attention to the consolidated statutes of criminal law, and said he was going for illegal detention rather than abduction, and argued at great length from section 56. At the conclusion of the argument, after refusing to hear Mr. Stigma,
"Mr. D'Acerbity said that the case clearly did not come within the section, and he was afraid the learned counsel knew it. The father had been a consenting party, on the counsel's own statement, to the child's removal, and no suggestion had been made that he had withdrawn his consent. He should refuse a summons.
"Mr. Bailey endeavored to address the magistrate but was stopped.
"MR. D'ACERBITY. I have no more to say. You can apply to the Queen's Bench. I have no sympathy with you whatever.''
Mr. D'Acerbity's law was good, but—what has justice to do with "sympathies?'' Surely the day after this report appeared the magistrate must have had a letter from the Home Secretary?
| Ginx's Baby: His Birth and other Misfortunes: A Satire | |