THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 187 



sion of a prison-cell, and the subjection to prison-rules, on the mere 

 suspicion that he has committed a murder ? " 



" The magistrates held that the rules allowed them to make no 

 distinctions. You would not introduce class-legislation into prison- 

 discipline ? " 



" I remember that is one of the excuses ; and I cheerfully give 

 credit to this endeavor to treat all classes alike. I do so the more 

 cheerfully because this application of the principle of equality differs 

 much from those which you ordinarily make as when, on discharging 

 some of your well-paid officials who have held sinecures, you give them 

 large pensions, for the reason, I suppose, that their expensive styles 

 of living have disabled them from saving any thing ; while, when you 

 discharge dock-yard laborers, you do not give them compensation, for 

 the reason, I suppose, that out of weekly wages it is easy to accumu- 

 late a competence. This, however, by the way. I am here concerned 

 with that action of your political system which makes it an aggressor 

 on citizens, whether rich or poor, instead of a protector. The instances 

 I have given are but trivial instances of its general operation. Law is 

 still a name of dread, as it was in past times. My legal adviser, being 

 my friend, strongly recommends rne not to seek your aid in recover- 

 ing property fraudulently taken from me ; and I perceive, from their 

 remarks, that my acquaintances would pity me as a lost man if I got 

 into your Court of Equity. Whether active or passive, I am in danger. 

 Your arrangements are such that I may be pecuniarily knocked on the 

 head by some one who pretends I have injured his property. I have 

 the alternative of letting my pocket be picked by the scamp who 

 makes this baseless allegation in the hope of being paid to desist, or 

 of meeting the allegation in Chancery, and there letting my pocket be 

 picked, probably to a still greater extent, by your agencies. Nay, 

 when you have, as you profess, done me justice by giving me a verdict 

 and condemning the scamp to pay costs, I find I may still be ruined 

 by having to pay my own costs if he has no means. To make your 

 system congruous throughout, it only needs that, when I call him to 

 save me from the foot-pad, your policeman should deal me still heavier 

 blows than the foot-pad did, and empty my purse of what remains 

 in it." 



" Why so impatient ? Are we not going to reform it all ? Was 

 it not last session proposed to make a Court of Appellate Jurisdiction 

 by appointing four peers with salaries of 7,000 each ? And has there 

 not been brought forward this session, even quite early, a Government- 

 measure for facilitating appeals ; so that the final judgments may not 

 be postponed from year to year ? Give us a little time, and we will 

 make these renewals of litigation much easier." 



" Thanks in advance for the improvement. When I have failed to 

 ruin myself by a first suit, it will be a consolation to think that I can 

 complete my ruin by a second with less delay than heretofore. Mean- 



