*178] 
teenth chapter, and indeed, in writ- 
ings of the didactic kind, examples 
can hardly be too often employed. 
The recital occurring in the tenth 
chapter, of the temptations which 
assail a justice of the peace'is forci- 
bly expressed : 
‘* Every situation and employment 
in life influences, by a variety of 
moral causes, the views, tempers, 
and dispositions, of those who are 
placed in it. The justice of the 
peace can plead no exemption from 
thisgeneral rule, The nature of his 
authority, and the mode in which 
itisexercised, have am obvious ten- 
dency to produce some very unde- 
sirable alterations in his character, 
by implanting new failings in it, 
or by aggravating others to which 
he may have antecedently been 
prone. His jurisdiction is extremely 
extensive, and comprises a multi- 
plicity of persons and cases, The 
individuals who are brought before 
him are almost universally his infe~ 
riors, and commonly in the lowest 
ranks of society. The principal 
share of his business is transacted in 
hisown house, before few specta- 
tors, and those in general indigent 
and illiterate. Hence he is liable 
to become dictatorial, brow beating, 
consequential, and ill-humoured ; 
domineering in his inclinations, dog- 
matical in his opinions, and arbi- 
trary in his decisions. He knows, 
indeed, that most of his decisions 
may be subject to revisal at the ses- 
sions, but he may easily learn to 
flatter himself, that he shall meet 
with no severe censure from his 
friends and brethren on the bench, 
for what they will probably consider 
as an oversight, or, at the most, as 
an error easily remedied, and there- 
fore of little importance, He knows 
too, that he may be called to account 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
before the court of king’s bench ; 
but he is also aware that great ten- 
derness is properly shewn by courts 
of law to the conduct of a justice, 
unless a culpable intention on his 
part is clearly proved, and that the 
objects he may be tempted to ag- 
grieve are usually too humble, igno- 
tant, and timid, to think of seeking 
redress, except in very palpable and 
flagrant cases, and frequently too 
poor to be able to undertake the 
task of seeking itin any. Incone 
sequence, moreover, of being per= 
petually conversant in his official ca- 
pacity with the most worthless mem- 
bers of the community, destined as 
it were to register every crime per- 
petrated within many miles of his 
habitation, and witnessing petty acts 
of violence, knavery, and fraud, 
committed by men who had pre 
viously maintained a tolerable good 
character in their neighbourhood, 
he may readily acquire the habit of 
beholding all mankind with a suspi- 
cious eye; of cherishing sentiments 
of general distrust, and: of looking 
with less and less concern on the dis- 
tresses of the common people, from 
a vague and inconsiderate persuasion 
that they seldom suffer more than 
they deserve. Against these snares 
and temptations which beset him on 
every side, and will infallibly cir- 
cumvent him in a greater or less de- 
gree, if he rests in heedless inatten- 
tion, orin false ideas of security, let 
him guard with unremitting vigi- 
lauce. If they are suffered to under- 
mine those better resolutions, and 
supplant those better purposes with 
which he entered upon his office ; 
let him not think that heshall escape 
from the circle of their influence, 
when he quits the limits of his 
justice-room. They will follow him 
into every scene of private and do- 
mestic 
