Part 6 (2/2)
_Different accounts of the battle: Olivia offended: Legal distinctions, and law-suits coe soon iven by the vanquished party, like many other histories, deviated in various particulars from the strict truth
Thus the Squire asserted that he and hisand colours flying; after having driven the ene holds, out of which they durst not peep: and to the truth of what the Squire asserted his trusty adherents ed by so good an exah feats of arms; and by his narration made it appear, not only how much he had the best of the battle withhi, and other such like cowardly foul and ht home such a quantity of bruises (of which with all his valour he bitterly cothat Olivia herself was not without her inclinations, he did not fail to repeat these particulars when she was present; carefully adding such other injurious accusations and epithets as ht most effectually lower me in her esteem His efforts were successful: Olivia was offended, first that her brother should be so cruelly beaten by one of whom she had conceived so kindly, and next that it should be by such base and dishonourableat Mowbray Hall, ad the Squire's hunters, and straying through the gardens and grounds with the gentle Olivia, was cut off
Hector by this tie of sixteen, and the wrath of the Squire rose so high that he would not suffer hio to the sa a part of his plan to send his heir to the university, that he , and thus becoreater even than his father before hi sooner than had been intended, and not long afterward he was entered a gentlee, Oxford
It has been noticed that the farht more of the vexation of their case than of the law; but not so the rector; he thought first of the law, and the law told him that the vexation of the case relative to tythes, was all in his favour Of the late affray with the Squire indeed he had his doubts As for the entrance upon his preht be pleaded it was for a lawful purpose, na tythes, yet, as rats were _ferae naturae_, and therefore things not tythable, it was very plain that this was a case of trespass _ab initio_, and his action would lie for _a trespass vi et armis_ But unfortunately passion had prevented hi his action, and he had assumed the _vi et ar patience to attend the slow and li pace of the law He was not indeed quite certain that, although he and his party gave the first blows, an action of battery brought against Mowbray ht not be justified: for did he not co in the peace of God and our Lord the King? And did not he, the Squire, by shouting and oaths and blasphemous words, put him, the rector, in bodily fear? And was not the very act of turning ferocious anier of his face, eyes, and throat, a very indubitable and sufficient assault? Was it not likewise clearly in self defence, that the rector and his faithful servants did _molliter manus imponere_ on the Squire and his crew?--The _molliter_ it is true appeared rather doubtful: but then it was a ternification which the circumstances of the case required, and lawyers so well kno to give
Thus, with law in his head, wrath in his heart, and money in his pocket, aent the rector to hold consultations with his now favourite friend the attorney; who has before been h bred and far famed a practitioner; the result of which was that an action of _trespass upon the case_, as the safest ainst the Squire; and that public inforiven that tythes in kind would in six months be demanded from the whole parish; with a forainst the rector, whom the laws, civil, common, and ecclesiastical, would protect, if any such threatenings should be put in execution actions against the offenders would i of the year when these resolutions were taken, and before the end of the following November the rector, in consequence of squabbles, insults, and frauds, had brought actions against more than half his parishi+oners; by which the attornies, counsellors, and courts were in the end the only gainers, while plaintiff and defendant most ardently concurred and rejoiced in the ruin of each other But so it is: anger, avarice, and law are terrible things; and able foes
CHAPTER XII
_Progress of y: The decay of the rector: His testament, death, and funeral_
Three additional years passed away under the auspices ofwhich he pursued his law-suits and I h with very different success; he lost the dearest thing on earth to hi on earth to es, superfluous to hiood library Not of his own collecting; he enjoyed it by descent This was my daily resort Its treasures were inexhaustible, and my desire of information could not be satiated I spent many happy hours in it, and it is still remembered by me with that sweet pleasure which its contents were so well calculated to ie The usher of the school got preferment, and his successor happened to be well read, both in the dead and living languages This person, whose naood scholar and an amiable man but an excellent poet He had an affection for me, and I almost worshi+pped hi he knew; and fortunately I was no less apt and eager to learn Having already es, the richness of the French in authors made me labour to acquire it with avidity The Italian poets were equally inviting; so that, by his aid, I uages The dialects of the Teutonic were likewise fa desirous fro others, the works of Lessing, Klopstock, Goethe, and Schiller The acquiree is an essential and therefore a pure pleasure; and lided swiftly and happily away
With respect to amusement, the violin beca his other attainments was a musician: e-house, and his aid greatly prohtful, ined so much to communicate, that I panted for an opportunity to address myself to multitudes At that time I knew no place so well calculated for this purpose as the pulpit; and my inclination to be a preacher was tolerably conformable to the views of the rector Not but he had his doubts Few h he had great veneration for church authority, which he held to be infinitely superior froovernment, yet his propensity to dabble in the law had practically and theoretically taught hies of its professors In rank it was true that the Archbishop of Canterbury was the second ht to have been indisputably the first In days of yore, who so potent?
But obsolete titles are not equal to actual possessions The Lord High Chancellor, in this degenerate age, enjoys eneral die with him, like that of the Archbishop
He seldom fails to bequeath an earldom, or a barony at least, to his heir
On these subjects I had frequent lectures fro the enterprise of an to entertain hopes that froht descend: that is, provided I would follow the advice which he so well kne to bestow In support of his arguin of various Barons, Viscounts, and Earls, which he could trace to soh he was convinced that the sacerdotal character claiht divine, yet, froenerate nature ofinto decay; while that of the laas rising on its ruins Had he been a e, he would have heard of another profession, superior to them both for the attainment of what he most coveted, power, rank, and wealth; and would have known that the lawyer only soars to the possession of these supposed blessings by learning a new trade; that is, byhimself a politician
The effect his maxims produced on me was a conviction that divinity and laere two super-excellent things But my mind from many circumstances had acquired a ion to be the sa in favour of divinity Whoever iines the youthful mind cannot easily acquire such moral propensities has never observed it, except when habit and exaht it to be perverse I speak from experience, and well kno ulus, Cato, and innu the ancients inflaave arly supposed dry precepts of Seneca and Epictetus were perused by ht; and with an emulous determination to put them in practice
My morality however was far from pure: it was such a mixture of truth and error as was communicated to me by conversation, books, and the incidents of life Frolow of poetry I learnt many noble precepts; but from the same source I derived the pernicious supposition that to conquer countries and exterminate men are the acts of heroes Further instances would be superfluous: Inu myself in various prejudices; many of which it has been the labour of years aided by the lessons of accident to eradicate; and many more no doubt still remain undetected
And now the period approached when I was to adventure forth into that world of which I had experienced so, had heard so much, and hich I was so ie began to press upon the rector and he had an apoplectic fit, at which he was very seriously alarh time to put his temporal affairs into the best order that his own folly would admit; for, in consequence of his lawsuits, they were so much in the hands and power of his friend, the lawyer, that notwithstanding the plausibility and professions of the latter, he trembled when he came to reflect how much they were involved His forreat wealth behind hi his will, he had the mortification to find how ious avarice
The will however was made, but it was under this friend's direction and influence The laas a lawyer, and, affecting the character of disinterestedness, reminded the rector of the folly of youth, and in how short a period money that had taken a life to acquire was frequently squandered by a thoughtless heir His advice therefore was that the property should be left to my mother, and that she should have a joint executor This executor ought to be the most honest of men and the dearest of friends, or he would never perform so very arduous and unprofitable a task with fidelity and effect: a task as thankless as it is laborious, and which nothing should prevail on him to undertake, but the desire to serve some very dear and much esteemed friend