MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 227 



a bield for sheep and cattle, and besides would 

 produce grass both in quantity and quality such 

 as never grew there before. 



The chief offices which gentlemen and free- 

 holders are called upon to fulfil are, member of 

 Parliament, magistrate, and juryman. The first 

 is the most important; but, indeed, in that as well 

 as the others, the requisite ingredients are honesty 

 and intelligence. If we look at the wretched tools 

 which boroughmongers obtrude upon the nation, 

 we may anxiously look to the importance of 

 electing gentlemen who will unceasingly and 

 boldly oppose such men ever being allowed to 

 sit as representatives. But these have already 

 gone far on the road towards paralysing the 

 British constitution, and establishing on its ruins 

 an oligarchy, which is the worst and most odious 

 of all governments. 



In the troublesome and gratuitous office of 

 magistrate, great sagacity and penetration are 

 requisite to enable the holders, in their political 

 capacity, to discriminate between stretching too 

 far the, perhaps, ill-defined, and often arbitrary 

 laws, beyond the due bounds prescribed by justice 

 and mercy. They ought to detest being made the 

 tools of despotic acts of corruption, and being like 

 Turkish Bashaws spread over the provinces. In 

 their civil capacities, matters come more nearly 

 home to them; and in this they have much need 

 of cool deliberation, as well as extreme vigilance, 

 for without these there would be no such thing as 

 living in peace while such numbers of the dregs of 

 the people remain in ignorance and depravity. 

 These latter do not know the meaning of either 

 religion or morality, and it is only the strong arm 



