254 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



respect, and he adressed the doctor as * My Lord 

 Judge/ ^ Your Grace/ and ^ Venerable Sir.' But 

 when the verdict was given, and the defendant 

 heavily fined, I never saw anything in dissolving 

 views so marvellous as Tom Perrin. He set his hat 

 jauntily on the side of his head ; he shut his lexicons 

 with a bang, and confronting his judge with a look of 

 scorn and disgust, he said — * MacBride, if this be law, 

 hequity, or justice' Fm well, let us say, some- 

 thing which happens to a brook when its waters are 

 arrested by a temporary barrier constructed across 

 the stream. 



So does our Irascible Exhibitor now glare around 

 him with ' the dragon eyes of angered Eleanor/ He 

 would like a revival of those days when ^ a judge was 

 not sacred from violence. Any one might interrupt 

 him, might accuse him of iniquity and corruption in 

 the most reproachful terms, and, throwing down his 

 guantlet, might challenge him to defend his integrity 

 in the field ; nor could he without infamy refuse to 

 accept his defiance, or decline to enter the lists 

 against such an adversary. ^ That is to say, he 

 would like to interrupt, to accuse, to reproach, and 

 perhaps to challenge, but certainly not to fight, for 

 these passionate folk are invariably cowards. They 

 dare not attack with anything but words ; unless they 

 ^ Robertson's History of Charles vol. i. 



