"Why, I don't very well know," said Mr. Hooker. "You have been acquainted with me long enough to be assured, that I would suffer my hand to be cut off, rather than set it to a palpable falsehood;—and that I would never take any active step in assisting a measure which in my opinion will be hurtful to my parishioners.—But perhaps something of the same sort of weakness which I blame in others, may prevent me from taking any active measures against it. I am not fond of going into public, or of encountering the bustle of the justice-room.—Perhaps I shall be passive, and try to quiet my own conscience by saying, that things must take their course: that it is not for me to come forward in opposition to the declared wish of most of the respectable part of my parishioners."
"But surely the magistrates will not set up a new public house without the signature of the clergyman to the certificate?"
"The new Act requires the signature either of the clergyman, or that of the majority of the parish officers, together with four reputable and substantial householders;—or that of eight respectable and substantial householders. Fowler's certificate has all the parish officers but one, and other names in abundance, and good-nature will prevent any one from saying that some of those names are neither respectable nor substantial. The magistrates will see that the requirements of the Act are complied with, and they will perhaps feel like me;—they will be unwilling to incur the odium of opposing the wishes of all those respectable and substantial personages, and thus good-nature may induce them to sign the licence."
"At all events," said Stanley, "you will be able to keep Fowler in order by the penalties of the new Act. The old system of absolutely forfeiting the recognizance was too severe to be acted on."
"Perhaps," said Mr. Hooker, "now and then, in some flagrant case, by which some individual is personally injured, these provisions may be called into play. But how seldom do you hear—in the country at least—of penalties being enforced from a sense of public duty? Good-nature is always against it; and the man who from the purest motives endeavoured to enforce them, would be sure to have all the host of the good-natured arrayed against him."
Two days after was the licensing day: the good-natured Barton having undertaken the patronage of Fowler's application, set out in good time to advocate it at the justice-meeting. He had got about three quarters of a mile from the village, in his way to Chippingden the market town, when he was overtaken by Mr. Bentley, one of the magistrates.
"You have a dreadful road here, Farmer Barton," said Mr. Bentley. "Who is your surveyor?"
"Why, I am at present," replied Barton, "and as we are a little behind hand with the duty, I am afraid that I shall have to go on for another year."
"Then why do you suffer the road to continue in this state? The ruts are so deep, that it really is hardly safe."
"It is all occasioned by that high hedge," answered the farmer, "which keeps off both sun and wind.—And besides, from there being no trunk or tunnel in that gate-way, the water of the ditch is thrown into the road. To be sure it was pretty dirty in the winter, for all we buried so many stones in it." "Then why was not the hedge cut, and a tunnel made in the gateway to carry off the water?" said Mr. Bentley.