THE
CONTRAST,
BY THE AUTHOR OF “MATILDA,” “YES AND NO,”
&c. &c.
Take but degree away--untune that string,
And hark! what discord follows.
SHAKSPEARE.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1832.
THE CONTRAST.
CHAPTER I.
Knights and dames I sing,
Such as the times may furnish: ’tis a flight
Which seems at first to need no lofty wing
Plumed by Longinus, or the Stagyrite:
The difficulty lies in colouring,
(Keeping the due proportions still in sight,)
With nature, manners which are artificial,
And rendering general that which is especial.
BYRON.
He’s justice of the peace, ay, and rotulorum.
SHAKSPEARE.
Some years had passed over Sir North Saunders’ head since we were
last in his company, and yet we shall find him much as we left him,
neither richer nor poorer, wiser nor better, nor, except “quoad”
baptismal register, much older than when, upon first establishing
himself for the summer season at Hornscliff Abbey, he had accompanied
Castleton and Lady Madelina to Morden Bay. He still looked much the
same; he could still eat as much, and walk as little. True, in the
interval one great epoch had occurred in the life of a politician of
his calibre; _he had sworn off_, or, to explain it in other words
to the uninitiated, he was now turned sixty: a fact which, when
sworn to, gives a member of Parliament an exemption from attendance
on committees, it being “in the wisdom of the legislature” thought
that to rise by ten o’clock in the forenoon would be very injurious
at that advanced age, though to sit up all night, and decide the
most important questions at five o’clock in the morning, is a duty
constantly exacted.
Coeval, however, with this survival of part of his senatorial
functions, he had assumed new provincial duties. He had lately acted
as a justice of the peace! in the jargon of the sessions, he had sued
out his _dedimus_, and become one of the _quorum_, a phraseology
probably retained to contradict the proverbial assertion, that
translation of the dead languages is of benefit to country gentlemen.
It may be thought a little late for an elderly gentleman, turned
sixty, to take upon himself, for the first time, the complicated
duties of administering the laws; but then it should be recollected
that he had passed the last forty in making them, and from the
singular ease with which he had, during that period, executed his
part in the former process, it is no wonder that he thought himself
perfectly adequate to the subordinate department he now undertook.
It may not be understood with what sort of “hocus pocus” facility
most of the enactments, on the construction of which Sir North
had undertaken to decide, had become the law of the land. Provided
they touched not the interests of any one within hearing, the whole
process seems to consist in a bit of parchment being subjected to the
magic touch of a certain number of men with wigs on their heads and
gowns on their backs, a certain number of times; true, it is also
said to be read a certain number of times, which, however, consists
in one of the gownsmen mumbling the first unmeaning half line in a
tone somewhat lower than that in which every voice is talking around
him. The chief of the gownsmen then, in somewhat the same tone,
invites all of one opinion to say “ay,” and all of the other “no;”
an invitation to which, whilst all are equally unconscious to what
it alludes, no one can pay the slightest attention. Having undergone
this mystic touch the prescribed number of times in one room, it for
once gets into the hands of a man without either gown or wig, who,
with sundry “kotous,” carries it into another room, where it is again
subject, a similar number of times, to the same touching process,
when at last all the wigs being now collected in one room, one of
them stands in the middle, produces a few strange sounds of barbarous
French, and the magic parchment at once becomes the law of the land,
without ninety-nine in a hundred, upon whose authority it has so
become, ever having heard more of it than the cabalistic syllable,
equally applicable to all, of “Whereas.”
The fact is, from the day of the Druids down to our own inclusive,
there never was any mummery more unmeaning than that with which an
unopposed law is passed through the British legislature. Therefore,
though from being constantly at the beck of every succeeding
whipper-in of the Treasury, Sir North had, perhaps, more frequently
than any other individual, bowed bills up to the bar of the House
of Lords; he was not by any means aware how much he had by that
contributed to complicate the new duties he had undertaken, off hand,
and expected to execute by intuition. But here, let not the reader
be alarmed: I am not going to start off with one of the sweeping
invectives, with some so popular, against the “great unpaid;” such
a digression would be out of place here, if I thought it in reason
anywhere. But my own opinion is, that it is a system which rather
requires to be regulated than superseded. I by no means think that
all is obtained that is required, because the magistrate is unpaid:
but neither do I think that all would be remedied if he was paid. I
do not think it by any means certain, that this change alone would
at once insure oracles of wisdom, and miracles of wit, all over the
country. If, too, their appointments are all to emanate from the
crown, I am much surprised that any, who entertain a constitutional
jealousy of the executive, should tolerate a plan, which either
must be made the means of increased patronage to the dependants of
Government and their supporters amongst the local aristocracy, or
if there ever should be a minister who should be disposed to drill
all under him into a sort of military subordination, would enable
him to organize a system, if not of police espionage, at least, of
ministerial surveillance. “Surveillance!” The word is not English;
because the thing itself has never been naturalized amongst us. And
next to the consideration of how the stipendiary magistrates are to
be appointed, comes that of from what class are they to be selected.
Probably from amongst those educated for the profession of the law.
But you could never expect that the infinite number of appointments
necessary, would be such as to tempt men of eminence or ambition to
accept them, so that everywhere you must be content with mediocrity
of talent and attainments. Added to this, is the name of lawyer,
whether deservedly or not, so popular among the lower orders, as
to make such a change desired by those for whose advantage it is
supposed to be proposed? Whatever the defects of the present system
may be, I am sure much good is frequently effected by the attention
willingly paid to the amicable recommendations of him who is looked
up to in his immediate neighbourhood, as uniting the character of
magistrate with that of kind protector, or benevolent landlord. Far,
however, am I from thinking that the present system is perfect. Many,
I am aware, are the instances both of injustice and ignorance,
which it has fostered under the head of injustice. The “game laws,”
administered by the very persons most interested against the accused
party, have led to much capricious tyranny. But abolish the game laws
(as you have begun to do); destroy the unjust law, and you remove
the temptation to injustice in the administration. As to ignorance,
too, I am afraid that there are but too many lamentable instances;
but why, then, is the most complicated and important business of
administering the laws, supposed to be the only one for which no
previous practice or preparation is required? A diploma is expected
for medicine; a degree or examination, for taking orders as a priest.
Why, as most of our magistrates are of the class usually educated at
one of the Universities, why should not a course of English law be
engrafted upon the many less useful things exacted as necessary to
a degree? or why should not a certificate from a separate college,
established for that purpose, be required from every one wishing
to act as a magistrate? Would it be very unreasonable to expect
that some little fitness should be ascertained, before duties were
undertaken, in which the interests of so many, and amongst them those
the least able to defend themselves, are involved. But nothing of
this kind was required of Sir North Saunders; and he had entered upon
the whole career of “summoning, passing, committing, and certifying,”
without undergoing any other _test_ than the one then exacted from
all, for the preservation of religious intolerance. Through life
it had been the maxim of Sir North Saunders, to unite as much as
possible the outward appearance of a dissipated man of pleasure, with
the solid advantages of a shrewd man of business; and as a principal
ingredient in maintaining his first character, he was always very
conspicuous in his devotion to some one of the reigning beauties
of the day. Not that his gallantries were ever of a nature either
to endanger the character of their object, or at all to interfere
with any more serious affair in which she might at the time be
engaged;--on the contrary, his gratification always seemed complete
when his house was proposed for any little flirting assignation, on
the part of the person whom he for the time admired. And this was a
favour not unfrequently granted to him, being on many accounts found
particularly convenient; for whilst the decorous character of the
society, which he united both in town and country, was maintained
by the tutelary presence of some of the most rigid dowagers of his
own party and connexion, always anxious for the support of splendid
establishments, whether domestic or political, and attracted by the
orthodoxy of his creed and kitchen, there was a most complete absence
of all constraint in a society where every one thought they rather
honoured the host, by condescending to partake of his hospitalities.
Not that Sir North was without his “toad-eaters;”--where is the man
of forty thousand a-year that ever was?--but it was so completely the
tone of the house to take every thing Sir North did for his friends,
as a matter of course, and as their due, that there was never any
openly avowed admiration of any thing, and his veriest creatures
only carried on a contraband trade in flattery, smuggling their
contingent of subserviency at a favourable moment, when unobserved;
and even these, to whom his hospitality was a convenience, and who
had no alternative between the Baronet and his Grace Humphrey, would,
without scruple, criticise the most _recherché_ of his _entrées_, and
make believe a bottle was corked to show they were not obliged to
drink it.
The party at present assembled consisted, as usual, of a strange
melange, composed of well-paid placemen in search of amusement during
the recess, and needy men of fashion seeking subsistence through the
dead months; of dowagers hunting marrying men, and dandies hunting
married women; but amongst those were to be found, some whom Sir
North had contrived to persuade to visit him, who were rather above
the class usually collected at a house whose ostentatious hospitality
was too much ridiculed to be very _recherché_. And in this list was
to be placed Lady Gayland, the young widow mentioned in Castleton’s
letter to his friend, as a continental acquaintance. She had lately
returned to her native country, and had accepted the invitation to
Hornscliff Abbey, eagerly pressed by Sir North. As she possessed
too much good spirits to be really bored anywhere; and too much
good sense to affect to be so at the caprice of others, and quite
wit enough to avail herself, as a matter of amusement, and in a
good-natured way, of the ridicule of Sir North’s character; she found
such a residence for a short time, well calculated to suit her easy
humour, and independent situation.