servant to the
house of correction or common jail without sufficient cause."--"True!"
exclaimed the other limb of the law, "and, for contempt of the law,
attachment may be had against justices of peace in Banco Regis. A
justice of the peace was fined a thousand marks for corrupt practices."

With these words, advancing to Mr. Clarke, he shook him by the hand, with
the appellation of brother, saying, "I doubt the justice has got into a
cursed hovel." Mr. Gobble himself seemed to be of the same opinion. He
changed colour several times during the remarks which the lawyers had
made; and now, declaring that the gentlemen were at liberty, begged, in
the most humble phrase, that the company would eat a bit of mutton with
him, and after dinner the affair might be amicably compromised.

To this proposal our adventurer replied, in a grave and resolute tone,
"If your acting in the commission as a justice of the peace concerned my
own particular only, perhaps I should waive any further inquiry, and
resent your insolence no other way but by silent contempt. If I thought
the errors of your administration proceeded from a good intention,
defeated by want of understanding, I should pity your ignorance, and, in
compassion, advise you to desist from acting a part for which you are so
ill qualified; but the preposterous conduct of such a man deeply affects
the interest of the community, especially that part of it, which, from
its helpless situation, is the more entitled to your protection and
assistance. I am, moreover, convinced that your misconduct is not so
much the consequence of an uninformed head, as the poisonous issue of a
malignant heart, devoid of humanity, inflamed with pride, and rankling
with revenge. The common prison of this little town is filled with the
miserable objects of your cruelty and oppression. Instead of protecting
the helpless, restraining the hands of violence, preserving the public
tranquillity, and acting as a father to the poor, according to the intent
and meaning of that institution of which you are an unworthy member, you
have distressed the widow and the orphan, given a loose to all the
insolence of office, embroiled your neighbours by fomenting suits and
animosities, and played the tyrant among the indigent and forlorn. You
have abused the authority with which you were invested, entailed a
reproach upon your office, and, instead of being revered as a blessing,
you are detested as a curse among yo