marked deference and respect.

CHAPTER II.

A year had rolled round, and Mrs Vincent was established in all her
rights. Sir John Steventon had been disappointed in the fraudulent
scheme he had devised; not disappointed, however, as he deemed, in the
revenge he had taken on the man who had frustrated it. Payment of Mr
Simpson's annuity was resisted, and the poor mathematician was in
great straits for those necessaries of life, which, necessary as they
may be, are often with a great portion of the human family very
fortuitous. Ask not on what legal pretexts Sir John had been
successful in inflicting this revenge. Such pretexts are "thick as
blackberries." _Facilis est descensus_--No rich suitor ever sought
long for admission into the Court of Chancery, however difficult even
he may have found the escape from it. Neither, do we apprehend, is
there any remedy for this abuse of law, in the legal reforms usually
contemplated by our legislators. The only effective remedy, if we may
be here permitted to give a remark, would be this--that the state
administer civil justice at its own expense to rich and poor
alike--that, as it protects each man's life and limb, so it should
protect each man's property, which is the means of life, which is
often as essential to him as the limbs by which he moves. This is the
only mode of realizing that "equal justice" which at present is the
vain boast of every system of jurisprudence, when the suitor has to
pay for protection to his property.

Poor Simpson, who had lived for some years on his scanty annuity, and
had lived content, for his wants were few, and his mind utterly
absorbed in his science, now found himself without the simplest means
of subsistence. He had escaped, as he thought, for ever, from the
necessity of applying his science to satisfy mere animal wants; he
began to think he should be very fortunate if all his science would
procure for him the commonest "board and lodging!" When a man has
ceased to cultivate his relationship with society, and wishes, after a
time, to return to them, he will find that a blank wall has been built
up between him and the world. There is not even a door to knock at,
let alone the chance of its opening when he knocks. Our mathematician
knew not where to look for a pupil, nor for a friend who would
recommend him. Some unavailing attempts he made to obtain his rights
through litigation; but he soon found, that to the loss of his money
he was addi