liar to all. Those legal
oddities, the public had seen over and over again, but they had passed
unnoticed till this clever observer set to work and noted them. As I
say, it required a deep knowledge of the law to set these things in a
grotesque light.

Boz had been a sort of general reporter on the _Chronicle_: he "took"
everything. He had reported at police courts as well as at the law
courts. His quick and bright intelligence seized the humours here, as it
did those of the street. He later reported in the Gallery, and was
dispatched across country in post-chaises to "take" eminent political
speakers--always winning the hearty commendation of his employers for his
zeal and energy.

THE CAUSE OF ACTION.

Mr. Pickwick was a well-to-do bachelor, who lived by himself near the
city, where he had been in trade. His age was about fifty, as can be
accurately calculated by his remark on the sliding at Manor Farm. "I
used to do so on the gutters when I was a boy . . . but I hav'nt done
such a thing these thirty years." This was said in 1828. He resided in
Goswell Street--now Goswell Road--with a widow lady, whose husband had
been in the Excise. He cannot have paid more than a pound a week, if so
much, for two rooms on the first floor. There was no servant, and the
hardworking landlady, Mrs. Martha Bardell, performed all the duties of
her household single-handed. As her Counsel later described it,--and see
all she did for him!--"She waited on him, attended to his comforts,
cooked his meals, looked out his linen for the washer-woman when it went
abroad, darned, aired, and prepared it for his wear when it came home,
and, in short, enjoyed his fullest trust and confidence." Thus Sergeant
Buzfuz, duly "instructed." Not only was there Mr. Pickwick, but there
was another lodger, and her little boy Tommy. The worthy woman took care
of and looked after all three. This might incline us to take a favorable
view of her. She regarded her lodger with feelings of veneration and
attachment, of which proof is found in her later talk with Sam. To him
she said that "he had always behaved himself like a perfect gentlemen,"
and then added this significant speech: "It's a terrible thing to be
dragged in this way before the public, but _I now see_ that it's the only
thing that I ought to do." That is, she seems to have held out as long
as possible, believing that her amiable lodger would act as a perfect
gentlemen and lik