Page:The genuine remains in verse and prose of Mr. Samuel Butler (1759), volume 2.djvu/202

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A

JUSTICE

OF

PEACE[1]

Is one that has a Patent for his Wit, and understands by Commission, in which his Wife and his Clerk are of the Quorum. He is Judge of the Peace, but has nothing to do with it until it is broken; and then his Business is to patch it up again. His Occupation is to keep the Peace, but he makes it keep him; and lives upon the Scraps of it, as those he commits do on the common Basket. The Constable is his Factor, and the Jaylor the Keeper of his Warehouse, and Rogues, Bawds, and Thieves his Goods. He calls taking of

  1. Many Strokes in this Character the Reader may find in that which Butler has drawn of his Counsellor and Justice in Hudibras P. 3. C. 3.