THE OFFENSIVE GATES 319 



enclosing, as they did, about two miles of the road, Mr 

 Peckitt, who owned the land on both sides of the road, 

 was enabled to let the roadside grazing for a sum of 

 about thirty shillings per annum, to such owners of cattle 

 who affected for their beasts such precarious sustenance. 



But Mr Peckitt was a rich man, and thirty shillings a 

 year was useless to him, while to the mass of mankind 

 these gates were a source of dire rage, cursing, swearing 

 and all manner of evil ; especially if perchance one was 

 driving alone, with a lively horse, when it became neces- 

 sary to choose between two evils either to keep holding 

 the gate open, and trust your horse to chance till he got 

 through, whereupon he probably ran away ; or else, in 

 your efforts not to lose the horse, you let the gate swing 

 upon your trap with consequent damage. You could 

 not possibly lead the horse and hold the gate at least 

 not long enough to get clear, for they shut automatically. 



That was the position at the time I am dealing with, 

 and I, who had been studying Bentham, concluded that 

 the destruction of the gates would be for the greatest 

 happiness of the greatest number. 



The village butcher instructed me and a friend in a 

 method of destroying gates, and the method was a good 

 one, which, with a less determined man than Mr Peckitt, 

 would have availed. He, however, was ancient and 

 pig-headed, and steadfastly purposed to assert his right 

 in defiance of all men. The manner of the plan was 

 this : to open wide the gate, having first procured a large 

 stone ; then to insert your stone between the gate-post 

 and the heel of the gate, about half-way down ; then to 

 pull the gate to, whereby the hinges are drawn from the 

 post. So great is the leverage you can thus apply 

 against the stone that failure is impossible ; only, of 



