· Indeed, doctor,' cries Booth, 'I did not expect to have been sent hither by the gentleman who did me that favour.'

How so, sir?' said the doctor, you was sent hither by some person, I suppose, to whom you ⚫ was indebted. This is the usual place, I apprehend, for creditors to send their debtors to. But you ought to be more surprised that the gentleman who sent you thither is come to release you. -Mr. Murphy, you will perform all the necessary ceremonials.'

The attorney then asked the bailiff with how many actions Booth was charged; and was informed there were five besides the doctor's, which was much the heaviest of all. Proper bonds were presently provided, and the doctor and the serjeant's friend signed them; the bailiff, at the instance of the attorney, making no objection to the bail.

Booth, we may be assured, made a handsome speech to the doctor for such extraordinary friendship, with which, however, we do not think proper to trouble the reader; and now every thing being ended, and the company ready to depart, the bailiff stepped up to Booth, and told him he hoped he would remember civility-money.

I believe,' cries Booth, you mean incivilitymoney; if there are any fees due for rudeness, I 6 must own you have a very just claim.'

'I am sure, sir,' cries the bailiff, I have treated your honour with all the respect in the world; no man, I am sure, can charge me with using a gentleman rudely. I knows what belongs to a gentleman better; but you can't deny that two of my men have been knocked down; and I doubt not but, as you are a gentleman, you will give them something to drink.

Booth was about to answer with some passion, when the attorney interfered, and whispered in his car, that it was usual to make a compliment to the

officer, and that he had better comply with the

custom.

'If the fellow had treated me civilly,' answered Booth, I should have no objection to comply with a bad custom in his favour; but I am re'solved, I will never reward a man for using me ill; and I will not agree to give him a single far.6 thing.'

'Tis very well, sir,' said the bailiff; I am ' rightly served for my good-nature; but if it had "been to do again, I would have taken care you should not have been bailed this day.'

Doctor Harrison, to whom Booth referred the cause, after giving him a succinct account of what had passed, declared the captain to be in the right. He said it was a most horrid imposition, that such fellows were ever suffered to prey on the necessitous; but that the example would be much worse to reward them where they had behaved themselves ill. ' And I think,' says he, the bailiff is worthy of great rebuke for what he hath just now said; in which I hope he hath boasted of more power than is in him. We do, indeed, with great justice and propriety value ourselves on our freedom, if the liberty of the subject depends on the pleasure of

such fellows as these !'

It is not so neither altogether,' cries the lawyer; but custom hath established a present or fee to them at the delivery of a prisoner, which they call civility-money, and expect as in a manner their due, though in reality they have no right.'

But will any man,' cries doctor Harrison, after what the captain hath told us, say that the bailiff hath behaved himself as he ought; and if he had, is he to be rewarded for not acting in an unchristian and inhuman manner? it is pity, that instead of a custom of feeing them out of the pocket of the poor and wretched, when they ⚫ do not behave themselves ill, there was not both

6

a law and a practice to punish them severely when they do. In the present case, I am so far from agreeing to give the bailiff a shilling, that, if there be any method of punishing him for his rudeness, I shall be heartily glad to see it put in execution; for there are none whose conduct should be sɔ strictly watched as that of these necessary evils in society, as their office concerns, 'for the most part, those poor creatures who cannot do themselves justice, and as they are generally

'the worst of men who undertake it.'

The bailiff then quitted the room, muttering that he should know better what to do another time; and shortly after Booth and his friends left the house; but, as they were going out, the author took doctor Harrison aside, and slipped a receipt into his hand, which the doctor returned, saying he never subscribed when he neither knew the work nor the author; but that, if he would call at his lodgings, he would be very willing to give all the encouragement to merit which was in his power.

The author took down the doctor's name and direction, and made him as many bows as he would have done had he carried off the half guinea for which he had been fishing.

Mr. Booth then took his leave of the philosopher, and departed with the rest of his friends.

AMELIA.

BOOK IX.

CHAP. I.

In which the History looks backwards.

BEFORE

it

we proceed farther with our history, may be proper to look back a little, in order to account for the late conduct of doctor Harrison; which, however inconsistent it may have hitherto appeared, when examined to the bottom, will be found, I apprehend, to be truly congruous with all the rules of the most perfect prudence, as well as with the most consummate goodness.

We have already partly seen in what light Booth had been represented to the doctor abroad. Indeed, the accounts which were sent of the captain, as well by the curate as by a gentleman of the neighbourhood, were much grosser and more to his disadvantage than the doctor was pleased to set them forth in his letter to the person accused. What sense he had of Booth's conduct, was, however, manifest by that letter. Nevertheless he resolved to suspend his final judgment till his return; and, though he censured him, would not absolutely condemn him without ocular demonstration.

The doctor, on his return to his parish, found all the accusations which had been transmitted to him confirmed by many witnesses, of which the curate's wife, who had been formerly a friend to Amelia,

and still preserved the outward appearance of friendship, was the strongest. She introduced all with, I am sorry to say it, and it is friendship which bids me speak; and it is for their good it should be told you;' after which beginnings, she never concluded a single speech without some horrid slander and bitter invective.

Besides the malicious turn which was given to these affairs in the country, which were owing a good deal to misfortune, and some little perhaps to imprudence, the whole neighbourhood rung with several gross and scandalous lies, which were merely the inventions of his enemies, and of which the scene was laid in London since his absence.

Poisoned with all this malice, the doctor came to town; and, learning where Booth lodged, went to make him a visit. Indeed, it was the doctor, and no other, who had been at his lodgings that evening when Booth and Amelia were walking in the Park; and concerning which the reader may be pleased to remember so many strange and odd conJectures

Here the doctor saw the little gold watch, and all those fine trinkets with which the noble lord had presented the children; and, which from the answers given him by the poor ignorant, innocent girl, he could have no doubt had been purchased within a few days by Amelia.

This account tallied so well with the ideas he had imbibed of Booth's extravagance in the country, that he firmly believed both the husband and wife to be the vainest, silliest, and most unjust people alive. It was, indeed, almost incredible, that two rational beings should be guilty of such absurdity; but, monstrous and absurd as it was, ocular demonstration appeared to be the evidence against them.

The doctor departed from their lodgings enraged at this supposed discovery, and unhappily for Booth, was engaged to supper that very evening