Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1902 — Moot Point of law. [ARTICLE]

Moot Point of law.

An English writer gives a good example of those quibble* In legal practice that have a sort of fascination for minds. Some years ago, while traveling on the Continent he met the principal lawyer for the government of one of the principalities, who told him of a curious legal question. It had reference to a railway-station at the boundary between two principalities. Some one standing outside the window of the ticket-office had put his hand through and robbed the till inside. The boundary-line lay between where the thief stood and the till, so that he was actually in one territory while the crime was committed In the other. Here was a nice nut for the gentlemen learned in the law to crack. Which of the principalities should up* dertake the prosecution of the culprit? At It they went In good earnest, and, the arguments on either side were long and vehement, till the whole case was enYbalmed in many volumes. At last one side yielded so far as to say: “We will permit you, as an act of courtesy, to prosecute, while at the same time reserving all our sovereign rights.” At this point of the recital I asked “And how did the prosecution end?” “Ah! that Is quite another matter,” said my friend. “There was no prosecution; we were only arranging what we should do when we caught the robber; but we never caught him.”