James is eloquent. How curious it is that the new road
which is to redeem the town from shame must run right over Billy's
building plots, and how very remarkable it is to think that the
corporation pays a swinging price for the precious land! Billy looks
more prosperous than ever; he sets up another horse, reduces rivals to
silence by driving forth in a new victoria, and becomes more and more
the familiar bosom friend of the bank manager. I might go on to give a
score of examples showing how innocent rate-payers are fleeced by
barefaced robbers, but the catalogue would be only wearisome. Let any
man of probity venture to force his way into one of these dens of
thieves and see how he will fare! It is a comic thing that the gangs
of jobbers consider that they have a prescriptive right to plunder at
large, and their air of aggrieved virtue when they are challenged by a
person whom they call an "interloper" is among the most droll and
humiliating farces that may be seen in life. The whole crew will make
a ferocious dead set at the intruder who threatens to pull their
quarry away from them; he will be coughed down or interrupted by
insulting noises, and he may esteem himself highly fortunate if he is
not asked to step outside and engage in single combat.
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