"And so, for fear of being thought _ill-natured_, you can not only set your name to a lie, but give a helping hand to a measure, which by your own acknowledgment would be likely to increase the poverty as well as the immorality of many of your poor neighbours. Indeed, indeed, Mr. Barton, an English farmer ought to have had more manliness of character than this comes to." "But then poor Bob is such a _good-tempered_ fellow; and besides, you know, he is half disabled for work!" "Yes, he received his hurt in the very act of breaking the laws of the land by poaching, and I do not think _that_ a reason for putting him in a situation in some respects above that of the generality of cottagers." Farmer Barton found that he was not likely to succeed in the object of his visit; and saying with a smile, "Well, Sir, I did not think you had been so hard-hearted," quitted the room. "There! Stanley," said Mr. Hooker, "that's the way of the world. Most of the men who have signed that certificate are, as times go, decent and respectable men, and would, I doubt not, pretty much agree with me as to the probability that both poverty and immorality would be increased by the establishment of an ale-house in the village; but yet for the sake of being _good-natured_ to an individual, they set forward a measure, which they think will be generally pernicious; and set their hands to a lie, rather than refuse an unreasonable request. Their _good-nature_, to be sure, is not confined to Fowler as its only object. Some of them, probably, wish to be _good-natured_ to a brother farmer, who is the owner of the house; and some think that they shall do a kindness to the brewer, who will supply it with beer." "But what," replied Stanley, "shall you do in this business?" "Why, I don't very well know," said Mr. Hooker. "You have been acquainted with me long enough to be assured, that I would suffer my hand to be cut off, rather than set it to a palpable falsehood;--and that I would never take any _active_ step in assisting a measure which in my opinion will be hurtful to my parishioners.--But perhaps something of the same sort of weakness which I blame in others, may prevent me from taking any _active_ measures _against_ it. I am not fond of going into public, or of encountering the bustle of the justice-room.--Perhaps I shall be _passive_, and try to quiet my own conscience by saying, that things must take their course: that it is not for me to come forward in opposition to the declared wish of most of the respectable part of my parishioners." "But surely the magistrates will not set up a new public house without the signature of the clergyman to the certificate?"