and animate its movements. Accordingly, they got a sharp Newcastle attorney, called Jobson, who, to
vary my metaphor, finds it a good thing enough to retail justice at the sign of Squire Inglewood, and, as
his own emoluments depend on the quantity of business which he transacts, he hooks in his principal
for a great deal more employment in the justice line than the honest squire had ever bargained for; so
that no apple-wife within the circuit of ten miles can settle her account with a costermonger without an
audience of the reluctant Justice and his alert clerk, Mr. Joseph Jobson. But the most ridiculous scenes
occur when affairs come before him, like our business of to-day, having any colouring of politics. Mr.
Joseph Jobson (for which, no doubt, he has his own very sufficient reasons) is a prodigious zealot for
the Protestant religion, and a great friend to the present establishment in church and state. Now, his
principal, retaining a sort of instinctive attachment to the opinions which he professed openly, until he
relaxed his political creed, with the patriotic view of enforcing the law against unauthorised destroyers
of black-game, grouse, partridges, and hares, is peculiarly embarrassed when the zeal of his assistant
involves him in judicial proceedings connected with his earlier faith; and, instead of seconding his zeal,
he seldom fails to oppose to it a double dose of indolence and lack of exertion. And this inactivity does
not by any means arise from actual stupidity. On the contrary, for one whose principal delight is in eating
and drinking, he is an alert, joyous, and lively old soul, which makes his assumed dulness the more
diverting. So you may see Jobson on such occasions, like a bit of a broken-down blood-tit condemned
to drag an overloaded cart, puffing, strutting, and spluttering, to get the Justice put in motion, while,
though the wheels groan, creak, and revolve slowly, the great and preponderating weight of the vehicle
fairly frustrates the efforts of the willing quadruped, and prevents its being brought into a state of actual
progression. Nay more, the unfortunate pony, I understand, has been heard to complain, that this same
car of justice, which he finds it so hard to put in motion on some occasions, can on others run fast enough
down hill of its own accord, dragging his reluctant self backwards along with it, when anything can be
done of service to Squire Inglewoods quondam friends. And then Mr. Jobson talks big about reporting
his principal to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if it were not for his particular regard
and friendship for Mr. Inglewood and his family.
As Miss Vernon concluded this whimsical description, we found ourselves in front of Inglewood Place, a
handsome, though old-fashioned building, which showed the consequence of the family.