The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-05-19
AFAILuRE OF JUSTICE.

A Tale OF "a New England Magistrate who
Was Very Fresh Indeed.
/ have always,sI hope, entertained a
/ due respect for the powers that be, but
1 I never fully appreciated the position
of those powers till became one of
them myself, by being made a Msgis-
\ trate " for .Middlesex. Such was the
common phrase by which the thought
| less thrOng described my accession to
that dignity, but / need scarcely say
that the correct description of it is
that was put in the Commission of the
Peace. It is only men of war that are
:" put into commission" on the water,
but on land it is different. In ancient
bOroughs and other places where fine
old English customs still survive, per-
sons who are thus exalted even have a
sword girt on them by the corporation
or other important body, kneeling, but
no such ceremony now ordinarily takes
place. According to modern practice
the Lord Lieutenant of the county
(after much mature thought, and per-
haps praYer) selects the most honorable
and fitting persons for this post and
then appoints them by letter. In this
simplicity there is perhaps as much sig
nifcance-for those who can see below
the surface-as in the more ancient
forms of investiture.
To all outward appearance was the
same man as I was the day before nv
elevation, "but ahia the difference to
mep' Inmy inmost heart / felt myself
cu8tos rotulOrUn1, which is not a thing
to be metwith every day, let me tell YOU
nor every other day. did not quite
know what it meant myself, but-lfke a
professor of metaphysics-I was quite
prepared to let other people know.
caused cockades to be attached to
the hats of my men-servants, so large
that, in the case of the page, some said
it looked as if the page was attached to
the cOckade, which, sentimentally speak
ing, he certainly was not, since he COM
planned to my wife of its making him an
object of ridicule. / sent for him to nv
study and harangued him-as if from
the bench-in very satisfactory and
telling manner, dismissing him after
three-quarters of an hour without a
stain upon his character" but in floods
of tears. l found the phrase Gan original
one, tfatter myselfl, 81 do not seek,
unhappy Lad, to add to the poignancy of
your position" exceedingly eficacious.
1t was my first intention, In order to
fit myself for my important duties, to
read " Burns Justice" from title page to
closing line; but after six attempts-five
of which resulted in slumber and the
last one so deep and stertorous that it
resembled an apOplectic seizure-I gave
that up and fell back upon the police re-
ports, where, after ali, one gets the es-
sentials. / found it good practice, so
far as department was concerned, to ad-
dress myself to organ grinders in the
street, beginning, "Look here, my man,
l am Magistrate" and ending with a
quotation from the fourth section of the
10Th act of Victoria. Before had done
they generally packed up their traps,
white mice and all, and muttering
something about insensato which, | sup
pose, is the Italian mode of expressing
penitence-move6 off pretty quickly.
I am very far, Observation-Disclosures
ing what certain envious people (who
have no more chance of becoming JUS
tices of the Peace than Members of
Parliament) may chance to say-from
being busybody, but / confess that l
rather desired an opportunity of dis
pensing Justice, not collectively, as it
were. upon the bench (where the indi
vidual is merged into the majority, or,
what is almost as bad, in the minority,
but in my own proper person, and at last
that opportunity came. It happened,
too, in the company of my nephew
John from Eton, which was all the more
agreeable to me, as the boy was inclined
to be frivolous and needed perhaps to
have impressed upon him a due rever-
ence and respect for the high Office into
which ] had been inducted.
We had been dining out at Christmas
time with another uncle of his in the
IN NortDe2sJern district or L0ndon, ana
had been detained by the various
connected with that festive
snap-drag0n, forfeits,
and gin punch-till late hour. Tt was
q bitterly cold and snowy night. There
was no cab-stand near the house and we
had started home on foot, with the in
tention of picking up the first four
nephew called It al
g growler,n though 1t Is nowhere 50 de-
scuDeu IN Ine Active Culuu Iness WlTn
At 1910 we found one standing at the |
door of a public house, which at that
hour ought, of course, to have been
closed, and to have harbored neither |
cabman nor any other customer. With |
the cunning peculiar 70 those awho |
habitually defy the law, the landlord |
had put out the lights in the house, but |
With the shorl SIP ghtedness peculiar to |
crime, he had forgotten mat the pres
snce of tae enntY cab outside BETRAYED !