arrived at by the Lord Chief Justice
of England, Judge Coleridge, than whom there is not a greater jurist
living.

"The case is that of the British yacht 'Mignonette.' On July 5, 1884,
the prisoners Dudley and Stevens, with one Brookes and the deceased, an
English boy between 17 and 18 years of age, part of the crew of the
'Mignonette,' were cast away in a storm at sea 1,600 miles from the Cape
of Good Hope, and were compelled to take to an open boat.

"They had no supply of water, no supply of food, and subsisted for
twenty days on two pounds of turnips and a small turtle they had caught.
They managed to collect a little rain-water in their oil-skin capes.

"On the eighteenth day, having been without food for seventeen days and
without water for five days, the prisoners suggested that some one
should be sacrificed to save the rest. Brookes dissented, and the boy,
to whom they referred, was not consulted. On that day Dudley and Stevens
spoke of their having families, and of their lives being more valuable
than that of the boy. The boy was lying in the bottom of the boat, quite
helpless, extremely weak and unable to make any resistance; nor did he
assent to be killed to save the others. Dudley, with the assent of
Stevens, went to the boy and, telling him that his time had come, put a
knife into his throat and killed him. They fed upon his flesh for four
days. On the fourth day the boat was picked up by a passing vessel, and
the sailors were rescued, still alive but in a state of extreme
prostration.

"The prisoners were carried to the port of Falmouth and committed for
trial, the charge being murder. Their excuse was that, if they had not
killed the boy and fed upon his flesh, there being no sail in sight,
they would have died of starvation before being rescued. They said that
there was no chance of saving their lives, except by killing some one
for the others to eat. The prisoners were committed for murder and
sentenced to death, but appealed to the mercy of the court, pleading
ignorance. It was found by the verdict that the boy was incapable of
resistance, and authorities were then quoted to prove that, in order to
save your own life, you have the right to take the life of an unjust
aggressor in self-defence--a principle the truth of which is universally
admitted.

"But the evidence clearly showed that the defenceless boy was not an
unjust aggressor against their lives, and, consequently, their only plea
was that