I came across the following passage in a legal textbook by the renowned English jurist Glanville Williams, published in 1951: 'In R v Coney (1882) it was held that the spectators at a prize fight were not guilty of any crime. They did not assist (save in the Gallic sense), and therefore were not principals in the second degree to the misdemeanour.' My question is: what is he referring to when he says 'save in the Gallic sense'?
If my understanding is correct, he's not talking about the (historical) Gauls at all, but about the French. So he means 'Gallic' in its more modern sense of 'French' e.g. 'Gallic charm', 'Gallic flair' etc.
So if you replace the word 'Gallic' with the word 'French' in the sentence, you get "They did not assist (save in the French sense)". This makes a lot more sense, since the French verb assister means 'to attend'. What Williams is saying is a really pretentious way for saying 'They did not a assist with the crime, they only attended the fight, and therefore were not... etc. etc.'. Hope that clears it up!