Show I 1 the san bernardino man with two lawful wives we surrender a large portion of our columns today to day to the report of a case which has attracted and absorbed the attention of the whole community and created a greater excitement than any which has heretofore occurred in this section of the state the indignation of the public generally at this disgraceful result of the careless manner in which the new codes have been gotten up is excessive and as there is a painful sus suspicion n that other otiler defects defect sas as auspicio yet un undeveloped ev e loped may exist the fedeli feeling ng is universal that the civil code should be at once repealed and the other codes referred to a competent commission to revise them the case referred to is that of the people peoples vs oades just decided in the county court of san bernardino oades is an englishman of good education who came to that county about two years ago and purchased and settled upon a farm in temes Temey dil township in january last he married mrs arrs nancy foreland a young widow lady of great beauty residing in that neighbor hood bood 1 in whom ho he has bas since had a child now uv about one month old both parties have always been regarded in the neighborhood 0 as eminently respectable about two months ago a woman accompanied by three children two boys and a girl arrived at the city of san bernardino and after inquiring of oades whereabouts proceeded to his residence where she she has haa since continued to reside A short time since it transpired that this woman and oades comported themselves toward each other as man and wife and the neighbors indignant at such open profligacy laid a criminal compla int against them belore before justice billings under the act of march lath 1872 for open and notorious cohabitation and adultery when the parties were brought up for trial however they produced a certificate of marriage and proved by it and other authentic documents that the woman was oades wife having been married to him in england about twenty years ago and moved with him to new zealand where their children had been born the accused was therefore acquitted and returned to their home where oades continued to live with the two women as before thereupon another complaint was laid before the same justice against oades and mrs oades noa charging them with the same of fence on this trial it was proven lehat about eight years ago oades was living in wellington county ne new w zealand on the frontiers when without warning the laoris maoris a tribe at peace with england made an inroad into the settlements oades was at that time temporarily absent in victoria and returned only to find his homestead burned and his family disappeared some human remains were found in the ruins and from this and from such information as he could gain during the ensuing two years he was gradually forced to the conviction that his wife wire and children were dead and being loth to remain amid the scenes of his distress he left new zealand and came to california upon this 13 state t ate of facts oades claimed that his marria marriage e with mrs oades no 2 was valid under the second subdivision of the sixty first section of the civil code which provides that the marriage of a person having a former husband or wife living is void unless such former husband or wife was absent and not known to such person to be living for the space of five successive years immediately preceding such subsequent marriage in which case the subsequent marriage is void only from the time its nullity is adjudged t by a proper tribunal trio unal 11 upon an examination of the law this proposition was found too clear to bo be disputed as there was no doubt that when oades married his second wife lie he had llad been reyno ignorant c of the existence of the tilo first wife for more than five years the complaint was therefore dismissed oades still continuing in open cohabitation with the two women a deputation was sent by the neighbors to lay jay the matter before the district attorney who who after examining the cases ease case referred it to the grand jury who found a true bill against oades for bigamy the trial which took place last monday attracted a large crowd of eager spectators among whom the observed of all observers observe appeared eared the two mrs airs oades the same state of facts was proven and after atter the close of the evidence the district attorney opened the case for the prosecution in able and eloquent argument of which we can only give a brief abstract thelah Th the elaw law he urged was to be construed ace aee according g to its spirit and intent and the language where contrary thereto was to DO 0 disregarded these time honored principles have been expressly adopted in the new code I 1 where the reason of a rule ceases so should tile the rule itself civil code sec cessante legis cassat ipsa rex lex 9 and again where the reason is the same the rule should be the same id sec obi cadem ratio ibi idem fus ius 1 and again he who consla consia considers ers merely the letter goes but skin deep into the meaning qui haerel in lethera bettera haerel in in cortice co sit bit b now in this case s he continued fethe the evident intention of the law was simply to provide against the illegitimacy of the chi ehl chidden teil tell of the second marriage and it certainly never could have been intended to make bigamy lawful it is true that at the date of the second marriage oades was ignorant of the existence of his first wife but ills his I 1 voluntary cohabitation with both women after learning the facts was to be taken as conclusive proof of a guilty intention ab inirio initio and in support of this this view the counsel cited cite the six carpenters case 8 cokes IL that case was very similar in principle to this and it was adjudged that the law judges by the subsequent act the quo animo or intent for acta exteriors exter iora indicant interiors inter iora secreta 11 on the other hand the counsel for the accused relied upon the provisions of the penal code in r relation elation to bl bigamy ams amy which expressly provides that no person shall be held guilty of bigamy whose husband or wife had been absent for five consecutive years prior to the second marri marzi marriage age without being known to such person within that time to be living and in reply to the argument of the district attorney he urged upon the court that in criminal matters it would bo be a dangerous precedent to adopt so liberal a principle of construction as that contended for by and he cited in support of his position the following maxims A verbis begis non est recen dum Is Index and mato mate dicta exposito quod corrum pet tex tum the meaning of which as he explained for the benefit of the court was that in the interpretation of statutes we must stick to the letter that it is true that the intention must govern but the language is the evidence of the intention 11 and that 1911 it is wrongly called interpretation te rp when we alter the text sl the learned judge said that however desirable it might be to convict the prisoner the position taken by his counsel was clearly the right one and accordingly he instructed ted the jury to acquit which was done and oades returned home triumphantly with his two wives thereupon all the most eminent counsel of san Bernai dino were retained by citizens interested in the virtue of the community with a view of ascertaining some means of removing this terrible scandal of oades and his two wives and after an exhaustive examination of the case they came to tho conclusion that the only method of annulling the marriage was to proceed under the 2nd and subdivision of the section of the civil code which provides that a marriage may be annulled where the former husband or wife is living 0 at the time of the second marriage but as under the 1 ad 0 d subdivision of the sid section of the civil code an action for the annulment of such a marriage can be brought only by one of the parties to the second marriage or by the husbands wife of the first marriage it was evident that as neither oades nor either cither of his wives are willing to bring the sult suit the biffi culty remained as great as ever what further furt ller lier steps will be taken is at present unsettled but the people ople opie are aro re very much excited and net ret determined determined not to let the matter drop eminent counsel in san francisco and including one of the code commissioners have been written to but as yet no answer has been received the latest information upon the sub subject eject is furnished by a special correspondent dispatched by us several eral days since to san Bernai bernal dino our correspondent interviewed last night from whom he learned some details not hitherto divulged it seems that last wednesday john howlett hewlett of san bernardino was by advice of anim sel dispatched to eek an luti lutt with mrs oades no 1 avith a view of of offering fiering her inducements to bring a suit to annul the marriage of oades with mrs oades no 2 it was thought that she being the party principally injured by the second marriage might easily be persuaded to do so after considerable difficulty and some danger having on one occasion been run off by oades with a shotgun howlett hewlett on thursday morning in 0 managed to secure a private interview e 1 ew with mrs oad oades ei no N 0 1 while oades was out riding with ills his second wife she appeared to be a mild timid woman but it was impossible to induce her to move in the matter altha alt all hugh gil gli howlett hewlett offered her to do so oades she said had bad sworn that if she attempted to annul his second marriage he lle would not only beat her half to death but also would never live with her any more that she knew oades well enough to know he would keep ills his worda words word that she she mind the beating so much but that she p preferred referred to submit to the present state of circumstances cum stances rather than to lose oades altogether especially as being married to him she marry anyone else howlett hewlett therefore returned wit houteff acting anything and after consultation of counsel was again dispatched to make the same proposition to mrs oades no 2 but neither would she accept the offer if there was any way she said of annulling ann oades first marriage she might be induced to move in the matter although slie she really mind mrs oades no I 1 much as she was getting too old to be a very formidable rival and besides she found her a considerable help about the house but as to her bringia bringing suit to annul her own marrage there ere was no use of talking about it as she was perfectly well satisfied with oades even with the incumbrance of ills his first wife and children upon the reception of this information the rev bev mr biggett Kig gett a minister of great and deserved influence in the community was dispatched to expostulate with oades himself oades received ree rec elved him courteously and discussed the matter with great frankness theoretically lie he said he was a monogamist and believed that the law should not allow a man to have more than one wife ho he therefore joined with his reverend friend in saying that the action of the code cade commission in allowing bigamy could not be too severely condemned butruch but Bu tsuch such matters he continued after all are to be settled in each state as the legislators in their wl wisdom adom should deem best it being now a settled principle in ii n jurisprudence that all rights and obligations have their source solely in legislative enactment act ment that all the most eminent including the new york and california code commissioners sio ners are agreed that right is what the ille legislature wills this being the fundamental idea upon which the civil code is based As to the old notion of natural right that is entirely exploded avons change tout cela 11 said oades who appears to be somewhat of a literary turn if there were such a thing he continued the appointment of the code commission to reduce all law or right into a code would have been as absurd as to have appointed them to codify chemistry or mathematics would in ia short have been to repeal principles established by the almighty and to substitute in their place the shallow notions of ignorant and aud fallible men for his part lie he pretend to be wiser or more virtuous than the laws and as the laws allowed him two wives his conscience disturb him for having them neither of ills liis wives were willing to give ino lve IN 0 him up and to tell tile the truth lie ho could not get along very well without both of them ho he loved them both so well ilo ho lie added facetiously that lie he was like the ass between two bundles bundies bundies of hay bay and know how low to choose between between them besides if either cither marriage was annulled it would have to be the last one and while he might possibly stand the loss of the old woman that is his first wife nothing on earth would induce him to part with the last the reverend gentleman thereupon left in great and just indignation which was greatly increased on sunday bunday at seeing oades who had always been regular in his attendance at church seated in ills his pew with his two wives listening complacently to the tho sermon As we stated yesterday the san Per bernardino nardino lawyers had written to one oue of the code commissioners was shown the answer but did not have the opportunity port unity of taking a copy he was able however to send us a very full abstract of its contents the codifier who appears from his letter to be a much more sensible man than one would think judging only from the codes wrote that it was a bad thing and he see what was to be done about it s but that the tile commission was not responsible for it that all they had done was to copy the code of that eminent codifier david dudley field that it was evidently the intention of the legislature that the commission should pursue this course for if they had wanted a new code made they certainly should have known better than to ref refer erthe the matter to them that it be expected that a commission of three men without any special training or experience for the purpose could complete in two years a work for which justinian had found it necessary to employ the great Tibo nian and seventeen other of the most eminent lawyers a in the empire during many years a work of such transcendent difficulty that the greatest of english austin had thought it necessary to recommend that a large number of the ablest men should be especially ally educated for it and should devote their whole lives jives to it a work 11 nally finally so extensive that it had taken even david dudley field some time to accod accomplish lish it As for himself he said he ee never had pretended jre are tended to be much of a codi codifier fler but aut the position was offered to him with a good salary and 1 nd he be feel eel called upon to t decline it that he lie made it a rule never to decline anything that was offered on account of his own incompetency that being a matter that concerned only those who employed him that if any one were to ofner offer to employ him to make mae a piano or a steam engine which was as much out of ills his line as codifying itself he would accept the ofner offer r provided always that it was on a salary and that he was not to be paid by the job that in his opinion the other commissioners were no better than himself and finally hab that hat the whole commission reminded him very forcibly of pan ta gruels Lagrue Ps opinion of the french lawyers which he quoted as foll follows aws seeing that the law is excerpted out of the very middle of moral and natural natura I 1 philosophy how should these fools have understood it ft who have studied less in philosophy than my male mole s all other means failing failings yesterday a mass meeting was called to |