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THE BARON COURT OF LITTLE BROUGHT-IN. 



CHAP. II. FAMOUS PROJECT FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE 

 HUMAN RACE. 



" Sic itur ad astra." 



THE members of the Baron Court are the most generous and self- 

 denying creatures that the world ever saw ; and there is not a thing 

 which they will not do, or leave undone, for THE PUBLIC GOOD, 

 Business, family matters, and all sorts of personal occupations, 

 observances, and enjoyments are forgotten, and the Luds Spoutfire 

 even say their prayers by proxy, so that they may be punctual in 

 their attendance in the court for the public good. This *' public 

 good" is a most universal sort of thing, and has a side toward any 

 project or opinion that may be started in the court or out of it. In 

 fact, it beats the famous old dial at the castle of Glammiss, which 

 either was or was not invented by Macbeth, and which (when the 

 sun is in a shining humour) shows the hours of the 365 days of the 

 year by the shadows of 365 stiles upon the same number of faces. 

 This, it may be supposed, is proof upon proof, beyond all parallel, 

 as to how the world wags ; but really, such is not the case, for, in 

 heaping proof upon proof, and saying the same thing over and over 

 again, the members of the Baron Court beat the Glammiss dial 

 hollow. There is indeed one little matter, in which the dial appears 

 to have some advantage : it has a very large colony of honey-bees 

 in its inside, whereas it is said that the few bees which are found in 

 and about the Baron Court are, in reality, nothing but drones. We 

 do not, however, vouch for the truth of this ; for, if not a law, it is a 

 practice of this wicked world, that the great shall always be greatly 

 slandered, upon the principle, or the practice rather, that those who 

 cannot mount up themselves are constantly trying to pull others 

 down. 



The devotion of the members to this public good is at once the 

 most exemplary and the most extraordinary that ever possessed any 

 portion of the human race ; for, in order to promote that, they care 

 not what trouble they take, or in how ridiculous lights they place 

 themselves. Often you will hear one of them deliver a good set 

 speech of two or three hours, all for the public good, to show that 

 black is white ; and when he gets out of breath, up bolts another, and 

 in an equally good set speech, occupies the same length of time in 

 endeavouring to show that white is black ; and, after you have listened 

 to them ana a dozen more pro and con, you are quite bewildered, 

 and forced to leave the court with your old impression that " black 

 is black, and white is white/' the same as if nobody had said one 

 word upon the subject. 



JUNE, 1837. 2 S 



