“But how could it be,” protested the Clerk, “since, by the law’s own admission, he was wrongfully convicted? If he hadn’t been, he couldn’t have hurt the warder. If you strike me first, mayn’t I hit you back? I tell you, the law acknowledged that it was in the wrong.”
“Not at all. It acknowledged that the man was in the right.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“O, my friend! I see you haven’t got the rudiments. Hussey was a prisoner; a criminal is a prisoner; ergo, Hussey was a criminal.”
“But he was a prisoner in error!”
“And the law might very properly pardon him that; but not his violence in asserting it.”
The Deputy Clerk shrugged his shoulders hopelessly.
“Well, it was all the same in the end,” said he; “for it hanged him for pointing out its error to it, and so spoiled a very pretty romance. The lady accompanied him to the scaffold, and afterwards died mad. Sic itur ad astra. I will cap your syllogism, sir. An ass has long ears; the law has long ears; ergo, the law is an ass.”
“Young man,” said Brindley, with more good humour than I expected, “you have missed your vocation. Take my advice, and go to writing for the comic papers.”
“What!” cried the Deputy Clerk. “Haven’t I been a law reporter all my life!”