THE SQUIRE AMONG HIS NEIGHBOURS. 177 



the inhabitants, and the distinctions made between 

 those who were considered benefactors, and others 

 who were not, that fear was entertained of a 

 general uprising ; and application was made to Mr. 

 Forester, both as a friend and a magistrate. He 

 assumed more the character of the former, and 

 his presence acted like magic upon the rough 

 miners, who by his kindness and tact were at once 

 put into good humour. Having brought waggons 

 of coal, drawn with ropes, for sale, the first thing 

 the Squire did was to purchase the coal : he then 

 bought up all the butter in the market, and pur- 

 chased all the bread in the town, he emptied the 

 butchers' shops in the same way, and advised the 

 men to go home with the provisions he gave 

 them. 



We are quite aware that it might be said that 

 Squire Forester was not a model for imitation ; 

 and it might be replied that no man ever was, 

 altogether, even for men of his own time, much 

 less for those of one or two generations removed, 

 always excepting Him whose name should never 

 be uttered lightly, and in whom the human and 

 divine were combined. He had sufiicient inherent 

 good qualities, however, to make half a dozen ordi- 



N 



