"We must not," replied Mr. Hooker, "for the sake of assisting one man or one family, do that which would be prejudicial to the whole parish. And besides, I thought that Fowler was one of the most drunken, idle fellows in the village."
"Why to be sure," said the farmer, "he does like drink better than work."
"And yet you and your brother farmers are here ready to certify that he is of good fame, sober life and conversation, and a fit and proper person to be intrusted with a licence! Do you not see that you have all set your hands to a direct falsehood?"
Barton looked foolish, but added, "Why one don't like to refuse such a thing—and when others do it, it would look so ill-natured."
"And so, for fear of being thought ill-natured, you can not only set your name to a lie, but give a helping hand to a measure, which by your own acknowledgment would be likely to increase the poverty as well as the immorality of many of your poor neighbours. Indeed, indeed, Mr. Barton, an English farmer ought to have had more manliness of character than this comes to."
"But then poor Bob is such a good-tempered fellow; and besides, you know, he is half disabled for work!"
"Yes, he received his hurt in the very act of breaking the laws of the land by poaching, and I do not think that a reason for putting him in a situation in some respects above that of the generality of cottagers."
Farmer Barton found that he was not likely to succeed in the object of his visit; and saying with a smile, "Well, Sir, I did not think you had been so hard-hearted," quitted the room.
"There! Stanley," said Mr. Hooker, "that's the way of the world. Most of the men who have signed that certificate are, as times go, decent and respectable men, and would, I doubt not, pretty much agree with me as to the probability that both poverty and immorality would be increased by the establishment of an ale-house in the village; but yet for the sake of being good-natured to an individual, they set forward a measure, which they think will be generally pernicious; and set their hands to a lie, rather than refuse an unreasonable request. Their good-nature, to be sure, is not confined to Fowler as its only object. Some of them, probably, wish to be good-natured to a brother farmer, who is the owner of the house; and some think that they shall do a kindness to the brewer, who will supply it with beer."
"But what," replied Stanley, "shall you do in this business?"