four and sixpence, but I'll give ye just a shilling for a small _taaste_ of it.'--'No,' says Tom Nagle, 'get along wid ye,' says he--'fait ye sha'n't have any _taaste_ of it at all,' says he. Then the buckish young bricklayer, bad luck to him! took the bottle from Tom Nagle by force, and took a taste of it, just in no time to spake of, and slithered his fist into Tom Nagle's breeches pocket, and pulled out ten shillings from the bottom of it; and split back again along the road--with the shillings in one hand, and the bottle of _Jimakey_ in the other, and Tom Nagle went to look for a constable. In reply to all this it was stated, by the buckish young bricklayer, and the parish clerk, and two other witnesses, that Tom Nagle was neither more nor less than a bit of a smuggler, and a great pest to all the country round about Cranford for many miles; that on the night in question he was very much the worse for the beer, and that the company at the Queen's Head did certainly joke him about his spirituous calling; that he was very angry in consequence; that he went out of the house in a passion; that the bricklayer followed him, and having given him a shilling for a taste of his rum, he took the bottle from him--telling him, "in a lark," that he would inform against him, for selling spirits without a license. It was further stated, that the bottle was carried back to the Queen's Head, and safely deposited with the landlord, to be re-delivered to Tom Nagle, when he should call for it; and as to the ten-shilling story, it was declared by everybody to be a great fib--a pure invention of Tom Nagle's, and intended by the said Tom as a set-off against the threat of information for selling contraband spirits. The magistrate asked Tom Nagle--"Is it true that you were drunk at the time?" "Yer honour," replied Tom Nagle, "I was _hearty_--but not _drunk_ by no manes--bekase I'd only _three pots_ of the beer, and a small drop of the gin." "Could you walk steadily?" asked his worship. "Is it _that time_, your honour?" said Tom Nagle: "Fait, then, I could walk as well as I can now--and _better_." His worship observed that, however disreputable and illegal Tom Nagle's occupation might be, the bricklayer had done wrong in taking his property from him, and he should therefore take care that he was forthcoming at the Sessions, where Tom Nagle might indict him if he thought proper. Tom Nagle thanked his worship, and the buckish young bricklayer was held to bail. A WHITE SERGEANT, OR PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT. Among the "_disorderlies_" brought before the magistrate from St. Clement's watch-house, was a Mr. H., a very respectable law-stationer.