But this kind of
fitness is evidently not to be expected in the future; and something else
must be substituted for it.
These scenes at the police court are often well worth witnessing. The
controlling genius of the court, except when the stipendiary magistrate
presides, is the clerk, who is a man learned in the law. Nominally the
cases are decided by the aldermen, who sit in rotation, but at every
important point there comes a nod or a whisper from the clerk; and it is
that whisper which sets the defendant free or sends him to prison.
Nevertheless, I suppose the alderman's common-sense and native shrewdness
are not without their efficacy in producing a general tendency towards
the right; and, no doubt, the decisions of the police court are quite as
often just as those of any other court whatever.
June 11th.--I walked with J----- yesterday to Bebington Church. When I
first saw this church, nearly two years since, it seemed to me the
fulfilment of my ideal of an old English country church. It is not so
satisfactory now, although certainly a venerable edifice. There used
some time ago to be ivy all over the tower; and at my first view of it,
there was still a little remaining on the upper parts of the spire. But
the main roots, I believe, were destroyed, and pains were taken to clear
away the whole of the ivy, so that now it is quite bare,--nothing but
homely gray stone, with marks of age, but no beauty. The most curious
thing about the church is the font.
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