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A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears. See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark in thine ear: Change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?
—King Lear.
Among those who took the most lively interest in endeavouring todiscover the person by whom young Charles Hazlewood had been waylaidand wounded was Gilbert Glossin, Esquire, late writer in ——, nowLaird of Ellangowan, and one of the worshipful commission of justicesof the peace for the county of——. His motives for exertion on thisoccasion were manifold; but we presume that our readers, from what theyalready know of this gentleman, will acquit him of being actuated byany zealous or intemperate love of abstract justice.
The truth was, that this respectable personage felt himself less atease than he had expected, after his machinations put him in possessionof his benefactor's estate. His reflections within doors, where so muchoccurred to remind him of former times, were not always theself-congratulations of successful stratagem. And when he looked abroadhe could not but be sensible that he was excluded from the society ofthe gentry of the county, to whose rank he conceived he had raisedhimself. He was not admitted to their clubs, and at meetings of apublic nature, from which he could not be altogether excluded, he foundhimself thwarted and looked upon with coldness and contempt. Bothprinciple and prejudice cooperated in creating this dislike; for thegentlemen of the county despised him for the lowness of his birth,while they hated him for the means by which he had raised his fortune.With the common people his reputation stood still worse. They wouldneither yield him the territorial appellation of Ellangowan nor theusual compliment of Mr. Glossin: with them he was bare Glossin; and soincredibly was his vanity interested by this trifling circumstance,that he was known to give half-a-crown to a beggar because he hadthrice called him Ellangowan in beseeching him for a penny. Hetherefore felt acutely the general want of respect, and particularlywhen he contrasted his own character and reception in society withthose of Mr. Mac-Morlan, who, in far inferior worldly circumstances,was beloved and respected both by rich and poor, and was slowly butsecurely laying the foundation of a moderate fortune, with the generalgood-will and esteem of all who knew him.
Glossin, while he repined internally at what he would fain have calledthe prejudices and prepossessions of the country, was too wise to makeany open complaint. He was sensible his elevation was too recent to beimmediately forgotten, and the means by which he had attained it tooodious to be soon forgiven. But time, thought he, diminishes wonder andpalliates misconduct. With the dexterity, therefore, of one who madehis fortune by studying the weak points of human nature, he determinedto lie by for opportunities to make himself useful even to those whomost disliked him; trusting that his own abilities, the disposition ofcountry gentlemen to get into quarrels, when a lawyer's advice becomesprecious, and a thousand other contingencies, of which, with patienceand address, he doubte