An Abridgement of the Law of Nisi Prius (Volume 2) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1857. Excerpt: ... a reasonable objection to a wager, that it has a tendency to influence and pervert the course of criminal "justice. Hence, *1419] a. -wager as to the conviction or acquittal of a prisoner on trial, on a criminal charge, is illegal, (t) as being against public policy. A contract in restraint of marriage generally, is illegal, as being against the sound policy of the law. Hence, a wager that the plaintiff would not marry within six years, was holden to be void;(w) for although the restraint was partial, yet the immediate tendency of such contract, as far as it went, was to discourage marriage, and no circumstance appeared to show that the restraint, in the particular instance, was prudent and proper. Any wager which leads to a public inquiry into the mode of playing an illegal game, (a;) e. g., hazard, by which the by-standers may acquire a knowledge of it, is contrary to good morals and the policy of the law, and, therefore, not a ground on which an action can be maintained. In like manner, the court will not entertain an action on a wager upon an abstract question of law or judicial practice, not arising out of pre-existing circumstances, in which the parties have an interest.{y) And in another case, (z) Gribbs, C. J., following the example of Lord Loughborough, and Lord Ellenborough, in the foregoing cases of Brown v. Leeson, and Henkin v. Ghuerss, refused to try an action upon a wager, whether an unmarried woman had had a child. An action cannot be maintained upon a wager on a cock-fight, (a) because it is a barbarous diversion, which ought not to be encouraged or sanctioned in a court of justice; and further, because it would tend to the degradation of the court to entertain such inquiries. So if the subject of the wager lead to improper inquiries, which respect the interest and ge...