The
Counsel Quoted The Old French Law, And A French Law-Writer Of 1700,
Chardon, And Also English And Canadian Authorities.
The French Canadian
judge having, during the oration, thrown in an observation or two in
English, which he did not speak over fluently, at length uttered in
French a long comment upon the fallacy of the argument - which sounded
strangely.
The counsel for the architect went at the argument of his
opponent with great vigour, stimulated by the expressed opinion of
Judge Mondelet, and went back to the days of ancient Rome to show that
forms of action had been difficult even in those days, having once
caused a revolt. He declared that even in England they were as
unsettled as ever; and wound up by propounding as a dogma, that the
Canadian law was neither English, French, Roman, nor of any other
precedent, but was founded upon common sense, which was the only guide
and authority in the administration of it. In corroboration of this,
the little black eye of Judge Mondelet brightly twinkled, and he nodded
his head in dignified approbation. Judge Van Feloon, who seemed more
phlegmatic, quietly settled the matter by saying, that he supposed if a
man did work for another, and the other had agreed to pay him,
he was entitled to the money, and that therefore the court would have
to see that a bargain had been made, and the work duly performed, and
then decide. The next case argued arose out of a fraudulent assignment;
and in this, too, French authorities, in the old language of a hundred
and fifty years since, were often appealed to - Chardon being apparently
the standard book of reference.
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