he heart of a bailiff who might have reared a turnip from a deal table.
Gradually the farm became his fee-simple, and the farmhouse expanded
into a villa. Wealth and honours flowed in from a brimmed horn. The
surliest man in the town would have been ashamed of saying a rude thing
to Jos. Hartopp. If he spoke in public, though he hummed and hawed
lamentably, no one was so respectfully listened to. As for the
parliamentary representation of the town, he could have returned himself
for one seat and Mike Callaghan for the other, had he been so disposed.
But he was too full of the milk of humanity to admit into his veins a
drop from the gall of party. He suffered others to legislate for his
native land, and (except on one occasion when he had been persuaded to
assist in canvassing, not indeed the electors of Gatesboro', but those
of a distant town in which he possessed some influence, on behalf of
a certain eminent orator) Jos. Hartopp was only visible in politics
whenever Parliament was to be petitioned in favour of some humane
measure, or against a tax that would have harassed the poor.

If anything went wrong with him in his business, the whole town combined
to set it right for him. Was a child born to him, Gatesboro' rejoiced as
a mother. Did measles or scarlatina afflict his neighbourhood, the first
anxiety of Gatesboro' was for Mr. Hartopp's nursery. No one would have
said Mrs. Hartopp's nursery; and when in such a department the man's
name supersedes the woman's, can more be said in proof of the tenderness
he excites? In short, Jos. Hartopp was a notable instance of a truth not
commonly recognized; namely, that affection is power, and that, if
you do make it thoroughly and unequivocally clear that you love
your neighbours, though it may not be quite so well as you love
yourself,--still, cordially and disinterestedly, you will find your
neighbours much better fellows than Mrs. Grundy gives them credit
for,--but always provided that your talents be not such as to excite
their envy, nor your opinions such as to offend their prejudices.

MR. HARTOPP.--"You take an interest, you say, in literary institutes,
and have studied the subject?"

THE COMEDIAN.--"Of late, those institutes have occupied my thoughts
as representing the readiest means of collecting liberal ideas into a
profitable focus."

MR. HARTOPP.--"Certainly it is a great thing to bring classes together
in friendly union."

THE COMEDIAN.--"For laudable objec