BURNS "JUSTICE. 



231 



his constitution. He at last ven- 

 tured a bold push at once, in the 

 following terms : " Doctor," said 

 he, " I have for a long time been 

 very far from being well, and as I 

 belong to an office, where I am 

 obliged to attend every day, the 

 complaints I have prove very 

 troublesome to me, and I should 

 be glad to remove them." The 

 doctor laid down his paper, and re- 

 garded his patient with a steady 

 eye, while he proceeded : " I have 

 but little appetite, and digest what 

 I eat very poorly ; I have a strange 

 swimming in my head," &c. In 

 short, after giving the doctor a full 

 quarter of an hour's detail of all his 

 symptoms, he concluded the state 

 of his case with a direct question : 

 "Pray, doctor, what shall I take?" 

 The doctor, in the act of resuming 

 his newspaper, gave him the follow- 

 ing laconic prescription : " Take, 

 v,*hy, take advice ! " 



LORD BOLINGBROKE. 



The famous Lord Bolingbroke 

 being at Aix-la-Chapelle, during 

 the treaty of peace at that place (at 

 which time his attainder was not 

 taken off), was asked by an imper- 

 tinent Frenchman, Whether he 

 came there in any public character? 

 *' No, sir," replied his lordship ; " I 

 come like a French minister, with 

 no character at all." 



BURN'S " JUSTICE." 

 Everybody has heard of the 

 book entitled, Burn's Justice of the 

 Peace. The author of that book, 

 Mr. Burn, was a curate in one of 

 the northern counties of England. 

 When he had completed it, he set 

 out for London to dispose of it in 

 the best way he could. When lie 

 arrived there, being an entire 

 stranger in town, he applied to the 

 landlord of the inn where he stop- 

 ped, a decent-looking, obliging sort 

 of a man, to see if he could recom- 

 mend him to any bookseller, who 



might be likely to purchase his 

 manuscript. The landlord readily 

 introduced him to a bookseller of 

 his acquaintance, who upon having 

 the matter explained to him, beg- 

 ged to look at the manuscript. The 

 papers were put into his hands, 

 which he returned in a few days, 

 telling the disappointed author, 

 that he could not venture to give 

 more than twenty pounds for the 

 book. This offer Burn could not 

 think of accepting. He returned 

 very melancholy to his lodging, 

 sincerely repenting that he had 

 ever put pen to paper on that sub- 

 ject. 



By this time, Mr. Andrew Millar 

 was well established in business, 

 and his name had been several 

 times mentioned with some degree 

 of respect to Mr. Burn ; so that he 

 resolved to wait upon him, without 

 any person to introduce him. He 

 went, communicated his business 

 in a few words, was politely re- 

 ceived, and informed, that if he 

 would trust the manuscript with 

 him for a few days, he should be 

 able to give him an answer; and 

 in the meantime, as he was from 

 home, he asked the author to dine 

 with him each day, till they should 

 conclude about the business. Mr. 

 Millar, who did not depend upon 

 his own judgment in cases of this 

 sort, sent the manuscript to a young 

 lawyer, with whom he usually ad- 

 vised in regard to law-books. The 

 gentleman after reading the per- 

 formance, returned it to Mr. Millar, 

 and informed him, that if he could 

 purchase the copyright for 200 

 pounds, he would certainly have a 

 great bargain ; for the book was 

 extremely well written, and much 

 wanted, so that the sale of it must 

 be very considerable. 



Mr. Millar having received this 

 information, met the author the 

 next day as usual, and then asked 

 what price he demanded for his 

 work ? The author, dispirited with 



