e of his manor, was impropriator of
the great tithes, and this circumstance afforded him frequent
opportunities of petty altercation. The land of one part of Hawkins's
farm, though covered with corn, was lower than the rest; and
consequently exposed to occasional inundations from a river by which it
was bounded. Mr. Tyrrel had a dam belonging to this river privately cut,
about a fortnight before the season of harvest, and laid the whole under
water. He ordered his servants to pull away the fences of the higher
ground during the night, and to turn in his cattle, to the utter
destruction of the crop. These expedients, however, applied to only one
part of the property of this unfortunate man. But Mr. Tyrrel did not
stop here. A sudden mortality took place among Hawkins's live stock,
attended with very suspicious circumstances. Hawkins's vigilance was
strongly excited by this event, and he at length succeeded in tracing
the matter so accurately, that he conceived he could bring it home to
Mr. Tyrrel himself.

Hawkins had hitherto carefully avoided, notwithstanding the injuries he
had suffered, the attempting to right himself by legal process; being of
opinion that law was better adapted for a weapon of tyranny in the hands
of the rich, than for a shield to protect the humbler part of the
community against their usurpations. In this last instance however he
conceived that the offence was so atrocious, as to make it impossible
that any rank could protect the culprit against the severity of justice.
In the sequel, he saw reason to applaud himself for his former
inactivity in this respect, and to repent that any motive had been
strong enough to persuade him into a contrary system.

This was the very point to which Mr. Tyrrel wanted to bring him, and he
could scarcely credit his good fortune, when he was told that Hawkins
had entered an action. His congratulation upon this occasion was
immoderate, as he now conceived that the ruin of his late favourite was
irretrievable. He consulted his attorney, and urged him by every motive
he could devise, to employ the whole series of his subterfuges in the
present affair. The direct repelling of the charge exhibited against him
was the least part of his care; the business was, by affidavits,
motions, pleas, demurrers, flaws, and appeals, to protract the question
from term to term, and from court to court. It would, as Mr. Tyrrel
argued, be the disgrace of a civilized country, if a gentlem