at to which we have referred--this secret authority
transpired, and in a manner so ludicrous that it deserves to be
recorded. The incorporation of Dyers and Scourers of P---- (at the
time of which we speak a considerable fraternity) had a deacon and
boxmaster; the former named Murdoch Waldie, and the latter Andrew
Todd. Their names still figure in the old books of the corporation, if
these are not gone astray; and there is, or was, an entry in these
same books, connected with the reign of the two worthies, which,
illustrative and probative as it is of our story, we shall have
occasion to lay before our readers. Well, to proceed in historical
order, the worthy boxmaster had been married for a number of years. He
might be about fifty years of age, was of small stature, very bland
and affable in his manners, of an easy disposition, but, withal, as
ambitious of fame as any of the aspirants for office in his
corporation. Endowed by nature with very inadequate powers of
judgment, he experienced no want of the powers of speech, which was as
fluent as a shallow mind could make it; and he had, besides, a species
of humour about him, which owed its existence rather to the simplicity
and _bonhommie_ of his nature, than to the more ordinary source of a
perception of the ludicrous. As almost every want is remedied by some
equipollent surrogation which strangely often supplies its place,
Andrew Todd was _sensible_ of his want of mental powers; and thus he
exhibited that sense of a _want of sense_, which is often more
valuable than sense itself, in so far as the modesty with which it is
accompanied leads the individual to seek the assistance of good
advisers, by which he sometimes surpasses, in the race of life,
conceited wiseacres. We do not say that he married Mrs Jean Todd
merely because he saw she was endowed with greater powers than
himself; but it is certain that, after he came to appreciate the
extent of her understanding, he had the prudence to take every
advantage of her excellent sense and judgment, as well in the private
affairs of his business, as in the public concerns of the corporation
treasurership, with which he came, by her means, to be invested. This
was not only advantageous to his pecuniary interests, but congenial to
his feelings, as, getting quit, in this way, of the trouble of
thinking--a most laborious operation to him, and generally very ill
executed, if not altogether bungled--he was left at liberty to indulg