SHAKSPEARE'S JUSTICE.

And then the justice;
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances,
And so he plays his part.

As you like it.

Our artist has admirably described Shakspeare's justice, "in fair round belly with good capon lin'd;" the pipe is very characteristic of the time when this comedy was written, for at that period tobacco had been introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh but about thirty years, consequently it may be supposed that smoking was a luxury indulged in only by persons of some rank and station in the world. It is observable that the justices, which we meet with in the plays of Shakspeare, are, in respect to their external condition, very different from the justice drawn in the Seven Ages of Man. Shallow, in the Merry Wives of Windsor;" Silence, in the "Second Part of Henry the Fourth;" and the Justice in "Measure for Measure," are not exhibited as by any means. remarkable for those circumstances which are the natural effects of good living. As a general description, however, the one before us is more appropriate to the character of the magistrate, than that of either of those persons to whom we have alluded; since it rarely happened that any people were elevated to this office, until they were in possession of so much wealth as to render their situation easy and affluent.

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The propriety of introducing the justice as the fifth general character in the poet's description of man, results from the circumstance, that persons of all professions, including the army, after having obtained sufficient riches to retire from the hurry and fatigue of business, assume the dignities and prerogatives of the magistracy. Justice Clement, in Ben Jonson's " Every Man in his Humour," is described as having been in military service previously to his being put into the commission of the peace.

With eyes severe." A passage similar to this may be found in "6 Henry the Fifth," where a parallel is drawn between the functions of man in the various concerns of life, and those of the industrious bees, which, on account of its G. 28.

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similarity to the subject that we are discussing, it may not be improper to quote at large.

True: therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey bees;
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor :
Who, busy'd in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone.

"Full of wise saws and modern instances." The meaning of this passage is, that the justice supports the authority of his decisions by a multitude of old sayings or proverbs, as well as by a ready appeal to the late determination of cases which had come before him, or some neighbouring magistrates. It is not improbable that our author intended, by this description, to insinuate that his justice was better qualified to deal out his decrees, under the influence of old proverbs, and modern practices, than by his knowledge of, and adherence to, the laws of the land.

To suppress riots and tumults, to punish smaller offences, to determine controversies, and to see that the ordinances of parliament were properly executed, justices of the peace were originally appointed by Edward the First.

The social laws from insult to protect,
To cherish peace, to cultivate respect;

The rich from wanton cruelty restrain,
To smooth the bed of penury and pain;
Wrest from revenge the meditated harm,
For this fair justice raised her sacred arm;
For this the rural magistrate, of yore
Thy honours, Edward, to his mansion bore.

Langhorne.

Respectable as the character and functions of a wise and upright magistrate are, yet it must be acknowledged that the office is too frequently entrusted to persons in every respect unqualified to sustain so important a character. From a desire of enjoying the consequences necessarily attached to magistracy, men of small property and despicable characters have from time to time crept into the commission of the peace, whose poverty has rendered them covetous, contemptible, and corrupt; and whose ignorance has been a bye-word and reproach in all ages. Characters of this kind our poet had probably in his eye, when he satirised the justice as "full of wise saws and modern instances." To these, also, Thomson alludes in his Winter :

The toils of law (what dark insidious men
Have cumbrous added to perplex the truth,
And lengthen simple justice into trade)

How glorious were the day, that saw these broke!
And every man within the reach of right.

THE PASSIONATE MAN.

It was my misfortune to be the eldest son of a rich widow. My father died when I was scarcely five years old, and my education was left to the care of my mother. From my infancy I was the favourite, and, from the death of her husband, the only object of her affection. My dress, my amusements, and the preservation of my health, were the grand business of her life. A tailor was kept in constant employment in fancying new fashions for the ornament of my person; two or three toyshops were liberally supported by the articles I consumed in play; and physicians and apothe

caries paid me so many visits, that I narrowly escaped the grave, from the prescriptions of the former, and the drugs of the latter. Every turn of my countenance, every motion of my body, was watched with an assiduity truly painful; and, if my constitution had not been particularly strong by nature, it must have fallen a victim to the care which was taken to preserve it. I soon learnt, that whatever I cried for, was instantly given me. I was, therefore, constantly in tears; and the swollen eyes, which these occasioned, were often declared the symptoms and forerunners of approaching illness.

Thus passed away my infancy, amidst cakes and medicine, tears and playthings. Before I was ten years old, my temper was entirely ruined. I dictated to the servants, wrangled with my mother, and was the terror of the neighbouring village. I hunted the cats of the old women, made my terriers fly at the legs of the girls, and rode over the corn of the farmers. A private tutor was now provided me; and as I was the patron of the living, on which my preceptor had set his eye, he took care to ingratiate himself, by the most servile adulation. What little I learnt was by the force of entreaty, and the promise of rewards; for authority and punishment were never exerted. My exercises were extolled as the most wonderful efforts of dawning genius; but my tutor afforded me such constant assistance, that they were, in fact, his compositions' and not mine; while my brother, who was treated with no indulgence, and was a boy of considerable talents and great assiduity, was censured for the slightest faults, and never commended, however great the merit of his perform

ance.

The consequence of my education was such as might be expected. I became every day more and more headstrong, self-willed, and impatient of contradiction. I was ignorant and domineering, vain and irritable. At the age of fourteen, I had nearly paid the forfeit of my violence; for having at tempted to horsewhip a country clown, who had incurred my displeasure, by defending himself with a stone from the bite of my favourite mastiff, the fellow snatched the instrument, with which I had threatened him, from my hand, and applied it with such unmerciful severity to my back, legs, and arms, that I was carried senseless to my bed. A fever ensued, and, for some days, my life was despaired of. When I recovered,