Who said, "The law, sir, is an ass."

Hi thinkerbillhackett!

I thought this would be an easy question to answer but searches on
Google gave few leads on who might have said this.

The Google search: [
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22The+law+sir+is+an+ass%22&num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&filter=0
], returns only 12 results from the entire search engine index.
There seems to be references to two presidents, George Bush and Bill
Clinton within these results although, upon further investigation, it
looks like neither actually said these exact words.

The George W Bush connection (last paragraph):
[ http://www.omnivore.org/barb/Bush/Bush_files/story.htm ]

Bill Clinton suggestions (end of the third paragraph):
[ http://www.sulekha.com/articledesc.asp?md=o&oldurl=/jperry_clinton.html
]

The Bill Clinton article compares his verbal style to a character in
Charles Dickens' famous story "Oliver Twist", which can be referenced
further in an article from West Hawaii Today: [
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/daily/2001/Dec-02-Sun-2001/opinion ]
(near the top of the page).
Changing my search strategy brought more promising results though,
many quotes and sayings get distorted over time so I entered the
search terms: "charles dickens oliver twist law is an ass" [
://www.google.co.uk/search?num=20&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=charles+dickens+oliver+twist+law+is+an+ass&meta=
], and saw many more than I did previously.

It certainly looks as if the quote was actually "'The law is a ass - a
idiot." by the character Mr Bumble in Chapter 51.
The entire chapter is here if you would like to read it in context: [
http://www.migrant.org/assets/literature/oliver_twist/chapter-51.html
].
It's strange how an author such as Charles Dickens would write such an
obvious grammatical error by writing: "...>a< idiot...", but it may be
the author developing the personality of the character.

All the evidence points to this being the correct answer and I feel
very confident of this.

I have discovered further information in the slightly bizarre Web page
here: [ http://www.culham.info/cw/assemblies/013s_law.php ], the quote
is near the top but I couldn't help reading to the bottom!

I hope you enjoy visiting the pages I have referred to.

regards,
Errol-ga.

---

Clarification of Answer by errol-ga on 10 Nov 2002 08:31 PST

Thank you for your comments Bill :-)
regards,
errol-ga.

Bless Errol-ga.  :-)  Great shot, close miss.  :-)  Your fine research
on Google and further found that Google, built by us humans, is
humanly loaded with quite a lot of wrong information.  :-)  Charles
Dickens, despite all the Google attributions, did NOT write, "The law.
sir, is an ass!"  :-)  "Close but no cigar."  I had gotten that far
myself and stuck there.  Dickens' character (I believe it was "Mr.
Bumble" in the book, OLIVER TWIST, and tried to find it at
http://www.online-literature.com/booksearch.php said something like,
"If that be the law, the law be a ass." My quick search did not bring
it up and I am out of time this morning at dawn on a Sunday here in
Santa Barbara, but while I surely thank you for your effort, my
question is, "Who said, 'The law. sir, is an ass!'", and Dickens said,
"...the law be a ass." As I say, "Close, but no cigar."  :-)  If this
fact-checking interests you as it does me,  stay tuned.  :-) 
--"Thinker Bill" Hackett

Dear thinkerbillhackett-ga 

The extract from Oliver Twist reads:

"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat
emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass- a idiot. If that's the
eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law
is, that his eye may be opened by experience- by experience."

http://www.litrix.com/olivertw/olive053.htm

answerfinder-ga