A subtle endeavoring to set aside truth or to escape the punishment of the law. This will not be allowed. If one person says to another that he will not strike him, but will give him a pot of ale to strike first, and, accordingly, the latter strikes, the returning the blow is punishable; and, if the person first striking is killed, it is murder, for no man shall evade the justice of the law by such a pretense. 1 Hawk. P. C. 81. So no one may plead ignorance of the law to evade it Jacob.