As the notion of the transmigration of souls is not at all new to
Cornish people, you may imagine that, in some former state of
existence, you lived out west about the time that old Justice Jones
resided in Penrose, and was long the unquestioned tyrant of that part
of the country. In complaisance with the good pleasure of the justice,
many old men in the parish, even farmers, did the work on his farms of
Penrose and Brew, for no other payment than his worthless promise that
their sons should not be impressed and sent off to serve the king on
board a man-of-war. It seems that in the time of this ancient edition
of Colonel Peard, the magistrates were intrusted with warrants which
empowered them to draft off whomsoever they pleased for the king’s
service, and to gratify their ill-will they had only to intimate to the
press-gang that the disliked were eligible men.