Dunscomb was extremely vexed; but he was too proud to make any answer. He knew that he had done that which, among the mass of this nation, is a very capital mistake, in not placing before its observation an intelligible _motive_—one on the level of the popular mind—to prevent these freaks of the fancy dealing with his affairs. It is true, that the natural supposition would be that he worked for his fee, as did Timms, had not the contrary got out; when he became subject to all the crude conjectures of those who ever look for the worst motives for everything. Had he been what is termed a favourite public servant, the very reverse would have been the case, and there was little that he might not have done with impunity; but, having no such claims on the minds of the mass, he came under the common law which somewhat distinguishes their control. Too much disgusted, however, to continue this branch of the subject, the worthy counsellor at once adverted to another. “Have you looked over the list of the jurors, Timms?” he demanded, continuing to sort his papers. “That I never fail to do, sir, the first thing. It’s my brief, you know, ’Squire Dunscomb. All _safe_ York law, now-a-days, is to be found in that learned body; especially in criminal cases. There is but one sort of suit in which the jury counts for nothing, and might as well be dispensed with.” “Which is——?” “An ejectment cause. It’s not one time in ten that they understand anything about the matter, or care anything about it; and the court usually leads in those actions—but our Duke’s county juries are beginning to understand their powers in all others.” “What do you make of the list?” “It’s what I call reasonable, ’Squire. There are two men on it who would not hang Cain, were he indicted for the murder of Abel.” “Quakers, of course?” “Not they. The time was when we were reduced to the ‘thee’s’ and the ‘thou’s’ for this sort of support; but philanthropy is abroad, sir, covering the land. Talk of the schoolmaster!—Why, ’Squire, a new philanthropical idee will go two feet to the schoolmaster’s one. Pro-nigger, anti-gallows, eternal peace, woman’s rights, the people’s power, and anything of that sort, sweeps like a tornado through the land. Get a juror who has just come into the anti-gallows notion, and I would defy the State to hang a body-snatcher who lived by murdering his subjects.” “And you count on two of these partisans for our case?” “Lord no, sir. The District Attorney himself knows them both; and Davis’s counsel have been studying that list for the last week, as if it were Blackstone in the hands of a new beginner. I can tell you, ’Squire Dunscomb, that the jury-list is a most important part of a case out here in the country!” “I am much afraid it is, Timms; though I never examined one in my life.”