till about the year 1828, when the fever came back upon him with greater violence than ever, and has never since left him.

Commissioner.Then you think that up to 1828, Mr. Bull was in possession of his perfect faculties, and quite capable of managing his affairs?

Faith. Not exactly so; I thought him never quite himself since he had his first attack of the fever; but not so bad as to need controul.

Com. And what has occurred since to make you alter your opinion?

Faith. A great many things. I remember, just about the time I speak of, something happening which first made me fear the poor gentleman was quite beside himself.

Com. Have the goodness to mention this to the jury.

Faith. Why, gentlemen, 'Squire Bull had some very fine preserves, which both he and his father had always been particularly anxious to keep free from foxes and weasels. Now about this time he was very much troubled in mind about the injustice, as he was pleased to term it, of keeping these vermin from their natural rights and privileges, talking a great deal about all creatures having a common right to walk the earth without molestation; and that, much as he valued his game and his preserves, he would not for a moment think of keeping them on at the sacrifice of justice; that they formed a constituent portion of the community,-what possible right had he to debar them from the full exercise of their citizenship? I reasoned with him upon the absurdity of his ideas, and told him that he would lose all his game. "Well, William," was his answer, "fiat justitia, ruat cœlum; we have no authority for using the arm of the civil power to restrain the thoughts and feelings of our fellow worms; if God has implanted in them a natural craving to satisfy their hunger by killing and devouring pheasants and partridges, it belongs not to vain man to fetter the appetite, which may be called the bodily conscience, by the weak chains of human might. Only think, William, of the monstrous impiety and iniquity of saying to these foxes-eat the same food that I eat, and digest it in the same way, or lose the natural rights of a fox to go where he pleases, under penalty of trap and halter. A fox is not responsible to his fellow-creatures for his peculiarities of appetite, he is responsible to his Maker alone; and never will I be a party to so foul an attempt as that of chaining what God has left free. Besides," added he, "we've always governed the foxes by force and restraint: I intend trying what kindness and concession will do; I doubt not but that, overcome by my disposition to treat them well and conciliate them, they will change their nature, give up their old habits, and instead of devouring, become some of the most zealous protectors of the game. In fact, William, I and the foxes have a perfect understanding; and to tell you the truth, they have actually petitioned to be taken by the gamekeepers, and employed in preserving the estate; and to-morrow morning, a deputation from their collected body, headed by an old Irish fox, who is spokesman for the whole, is coming to the Hall to take an oath I shall impose before admitting them to the office of preserving the game." I stared throughout all this, and

when he came to the last, could not for the life of me help laughing outright, and I said to him-"Why, 'Squire, you're surely playing your jokes upon me--you'd never think of having foxes to keep your game; they'd be after keeping it to themselves pretty much, I'm thinking." "William, remember the oath I told you of; besides, their sense of gratitude will prevent them doing me an injury." "Gratitude and oaths for foxes! well, heaven help me!" said I, "if I ever heard any thing come near this." "Faithful, you're an illiberal, narrow-minded brute. You judge of foxes from what they were many years agone, but they've advanced with advancing knowledge and civilization, as much as we have ourselves. I'm well aware that some well-meaning yet bigoted people still regard them as cunning, treacherous creatures; but then they've taken their ideas, not from the foxes of the present day, who are a very enlightened, honorable, and gentlemanly body, but from old smoke-dried histories, in which, too, the man has generally been the painter, as the lion in the fable wittily observed: let me never hear another such illiberal sentiment from your mouth." Well, I saw I had nothing to do but be silent. So the next day about twenty foxes were actually brought to the Hall, and were received by the 'Squire in the drawing-room as politely as if they had been human Christians; and he got out his Bible, and made them kiss it, and take a solemn oath they would, in the exercise of their duties, do no injury to the partridges and pheasants, just as if they had known a word of what was in the Bible, and then off they went again to assist the gamekeepers, being now regularly installed.

Com.-Thank you, Mr. Faithful, for your full statement of the case. Gentlemen of the jury, do you wish to put any question to the witness before he proceeds with his evidence?

By a Juror.-Did not any of his family interfere to prevent this folly ?

Faith. Why, sir, Dr. Peel, the family physician, reasoned against it as long as he thought it any use; but the Squire's head was so completely turned by the fever, that the more the Doctor reasoned and expostulated against it, the more bent was he upon pursuing it; so at last he gave up saying anything about it; and only endeavoured, by seeming to sanction the measure, to render it as harmless as possible; and he succeeded so far that they have not done nearly so much mischief as they otherwise would have done.

Juror.-Have they done much mischief?

Faith.-You may be sure, sir, they've done all they could-and that's no little; they're pretty closely watched by the other gamekeepers, however, so that their main object, as yet, has been to gnaw through and tear down the hedges that surround the preserves, in order to let in a greater number of foxes, and then they hope to be strong enough, and numerous enough, either to outwit the keepers or conquer them by force, and then make the game their easy prey.

Juror. You spoke of an old Irish fox as the spokesman of the rest; does he continue their leader?

Faith. Sir, there's no sort of mischief that old varmint is not as well up in, as a child in his A, B, C. I've heard of people looking two ways at once-he can look a hundred. He'd have taken the shine

out of Argus, and no mistake, in no time. He can look one thing out of one corner of his eye, and just the opposite out of the other. He can swear black white, and white black; while he puts his paw on his heart, and turns his eyes up to heaven, calling down imprecations on those who entertain the vulgar prejudice that foxes are great liars. Then he bamboozles the other foxes, so as to make them do all the dirty work, and run their noses into traps and their necks into snares, all for him; for he manages to take the lion's share of most things the poor creatures get, while he is always haranguing about the dreadful state the "finest animals in the whole world are in, from the tyranny of gamekeepers and landlords. There are many foxes now on the estate who go about with not more than one inch of tail, the rest having been lopped off in some unfortunate nocturnal expedition, undertaken entirely to pay his "demnably outrigeous quarterly tribute;" though as for tail, he has one of his own that beats the Darby Ram's, so celebrated in song, quite hollow.

Juror.-You've said very little, Mr. Faithful, about the weasels you spoke of.

Faith.-Why no, they follow the foxes at a humble distance; they're small vermin, though mischievous; and though the foxes join with them just now for convenience' sake, and make tools of them, directly they have all they want, they'll send them about their business very soon with a flea in their ear. For they hate them in reality much more than they do the real gamekeeper's dogs; and moreover despise them for their meanness and credulity in letting them get up on their shoulders, supposing that when they have got as high as they want, they'll politely lend them a hand to raise them to the same height. But no, foxes are foxes still, and weasels must be content with being weasels still! so they may think themselves well off, if they escape at last as well as the ass did when he went out hunting with the lion, or the stork when he pulled the bone out of the wolf's jaw.

Commiss. Southey.-Then, Mr. Faithful, if I understand you aright, your evidence amounts to this-that since the year 1828 your master has entertained the strange idea, that all living creatures are intended by their Maker to be on a perfect equality; and that consequently one creature has no right to obstruct another in the full exercise of this equality, even though that obstruction be essential to the good order of the whole community of beings, and even to their absolute preservation and existence. That, in accordance with this notion, he has admitted into his preserves, which he particularly valued, a species of vermin naturally and fiercely hostile to the inhabitants of those preserves; and has actually gone so far as to constitute them guardians of the preserves. That this mental hallucination has, furthermore, led him to adopt the strange delusion, that foxes could be bound by an oath; and, under its influence, to administer an oath to them in his own drawing room, and on his own Bible. Is this your meaning?

Faith. That's exactly what I meant, my Lord. This has been' the form of his disease all through: a continual harping upon the idea of all things being naturally equal, and its being a heinous offence against religion and liberty to use compulsion in any case.

Commiss. Lyndhurst. Can you, Mr. Faithful, mention any more recent instance of your master's supposed aberration of mind?

Faith-Why his conduct with respect to the young lady of the manor has been anything but what I should have expected from an ancient gentleman of his reputed modesty, and a married man too. He stares at her whenever she goes out, either to church, play, races, or merely for a morning drive; makes use of her name as his plea for carrying out all the strange vagaries I have mentioned; is always haunting her mansion, dining with her, driving out with her, holding tête-a-têtes at all hours of the day; so that folks begin to suspect he has something ulterior in view the young lady in question having a very pretty penny; though some think Mamma is the great attraction; besides, it would not be so scandalous. However, he must be either fool or knave to go on with her as he does. Does your lordship think a man in his sober senses would actually dine with a single lady just 278 days out of the 365, which he positively did last year, and both of them expect to keep their character for respectability? I can't say I've any hopes that my master will voluntarily break off the connexion-he's too far gone for that, and thinks he's a marvellously sly dog, and that no one takes any notice; but he's considerably mistaken, and the lady herself begins to open her eyes to the scandal she incurs; for though she is a sweet lady, and a blessing to the neighbourhood, yet people don't look half so gracious on her as they did before her name was connected with my master's strange doings; and, I'm sure, I don't at all mean to blame her, poor young thing-so sweet tempered and easily led as she is; it's the fault of those who had the care of her, and ought to have known better. But, as I said, she's opening her eyes at last, and will soon give the silly old man the notice to quit he so richly deserves; and we shall all love her the better for it.

Com. Phillpott.-Most scandalous! The old fool ought to be put into an Ecclesiastical court

Lyndhurst.-Patience, brother Phillpott, he'll be there time enough. You know the old joke about Purgatory and-ahem ! You must remember he has'nt reached the former yet. The Queen's Bench was the last place he was hauled up in; his tail was a little singed there, though, as they say, the devil's children have the devil's luck; and I've no doubt he will take pot-luck with his Majesty soon, instead of her Majesty.

Com. Phillpott.-Oh! Lyndhurst, you forget we're on the bench now. Lyndhurst.-Egad, so I do; though some malicious folks would say, if we had our deserts, we should both be at the bar. However, to the point. Have you anything further to communicate to the court and jury with respect to Mr. Bull's insanity?

Faith.-Why, one little matter that happened about twelve months agone would put the question beyond doubt. I really beg the court's pardon for the nature of my story, but it must be told. Throughout master's illness, he was so dreadfully bad internally, and at his vitals, that we almost forgot to pay due attention to what was going on in his hair, and about his skin; so the usual consequence of neglect in the department of combs and towels manifested themselves in an March 1839.-VOL. I.—NO. I.

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assiduous fierce attack made by certain "Anons," paraphrased by Burns as "jumping cattle." Lord, sir, they jumped about his dear old body like Frenchmen. And (would you believe it?) the 'Squire was so fond of his notions about equality and natural rights, that it was a very long time before he could be persuaded to use the weapons of the barber to get rid of them. He even went so far as to rejoice in the attack, inasmuch as it proved the noble energy of the vermin, who, he said, had the same right to their liberty as he had himself, and held their existence as citizens by the same tenure; and even after he had given permission to the barber to use force to compel them to submission, he hastily repented of his injustice, and at the instigation of a rival named Brush, who was jealous of the other's increasing custom since his employment at the Hall, fell into a violent passion, and after pouring a torrent of abuse upon the poor fellow's head, in return for the soap and ointment he had spread upon his, ordered him to quit the house, and threatened him with instant committal for a violation of the civil rights of God's creatures. So the poor fellow departed with a flea in his ear, for attempting to cure my master of something worse near his, and left the soap and ointment in lather on Mr. Bull's head, which now presents a very curious unfinished performance. These, gentlemen, are the principal facts I have in my memory relating to my poor master's insanity; but these I

think are sufficient to establish the fact in the minds of reasonable men. Com. Lyndhurst.—Mr. Faithful, you may sit down. Call Dr. Peel. Dr. Peel, have the goodness to step into the witness-box. You are, I believe, Mr. Bull's family physician, and also an intimate personal friend?

Dr. Peel. I was, my Lord, the former, and am still the latter, as far as he will allow me to be.

Com. Lyndhurst.-How is it that you ceased to be his medical attendant, if such a question be allowable ?

Dr. Peel. I believe the reason to have been, that he was disgusted at the strong treatment I recommended for his complaint, but which was, in fact, absolutely necessary. I humoured his fancies for a little time, but I found that only made him worse; so, after a consultation with my medical brethren, who were likewise in attendance upon him, we resolved to state openly our mode of treatment, and if he refused to submit to it, to retire at once in favour of some less conscientious and more complaisant physicians.

Com. Lyndhurst.-Who succeeded you?

Dr. Peel.-Oh! a firm who had picked up their medical education the Lord knows where, unless it was at the Medical Dissenter Office, established by those arch-quacks, Bentham and Malthus.

Com. Lyndhurst.-Are you aware of the treatment they pursued with respect to their patient?

Dr. Peel. I am; having still thought it my duty, as a friend of the family, to interfere occasionally, though, I am sorry to say, with but little success.

Com. Lyndhurst.-Would you have the goodness to state as briefly as possible the nature of their treatment, and the effect it would be likely to produce in such a case as the present.