le
to do so. It is quite as honourable, in my judgment, to bring an action
when you may never be paid as to bring it when you know you will be."

"Who was the person referred to as 'the man?'"

"I don't know," said I, "but I strongly suspect he is, in reality, a
nominee of Prigg's."

"That is exactly my opinion," said my wife. "And if so, between them,
they will ruin that poor man."

"I can't tell," said I, lighting my pipe. "I know no more about the
future of my dream than you do; maybe when I sleep again something else
will transpire."

"But can no one do anything to alter this state of things? I plainly
perceive that they are all against this poor Bumpkin."

"Well, you see, in a tinkering sort of way, a good many try their hands
at reforming the law; but it's to no one's interest, that I can see, to
reform it."

"I hope you'll write this dream and publish it, so that someone's eyes
may be opened."

"It may make me enemies."

"Not among honest people; they will all be on your side, and the
dishonest ones, who seem to me to be the only persons benefited by such a
dilatory and shocking mode of procedure, are the very persons whose
enmity you need not fear. But can the Judges do nothing?"

"No; their duty is merely to administer the law, not to change it. But
if the people would only give them full power and fair play, Old Fogeyism
would be buried to-morrow. They struggle might and main to break through
the fetters, but to no purpose while they are hampered by musty old
precedents, ridiculous forms and bad statutes. They are not masters of
the situation. I wish they were for the sake of suitors. I would only
make one condition with regard to them. If they were to set about the
task of reform, I would not let the Equity Judges reform the Common Law
nor the Common Law Judges the Equity."

"I thought they were fused."

"No, only transposed."

CHAPTER XI.

Commencement of London life and adventures.

And I dreamt again, and methought there were three things with reference
to London that Joe had learnt at school. First, that there was a Bridge,
chiefly remarkable for the fact that Captain Cook, the Navigator, shot
his servant because he said he was under London Bridge when he was in the
South Pacific Ocean; secondly, that there was a famous Tower, where the
Queen's Crown was kept; thirdly, that there was a Monument built to show
where the Great Fire began, and intimately connected in it