indeed could be no other than that the Parts were improperly
disposed.
    Perhaps, Reader, I have another Illustration, which will set my Intention in
still a clearer Light before you. Figure to yourself then a Family, the Master
of which should dispose of the several oeconomical Offices in the following
Manner; viz. should put his Butler in the Coachbox, his Steward behind his
Coach, his Coachman in the Butlery, and his Footman in the Stewardship, and in
the same ridiculous Manner should misemploy the Talents of every other Servant;
it is easy to see what a Figure such a Family must make in the World.
    As ridiculous as this may seem, I have often considered some of the lower
Offices in our civil Government to be disposed in this very Manner. To begin, I
think, as low as I well can, with the Watchmen in our Metropolis; who being
appointed to guard our Streets by Night from Thieves and Robbers, an Office
which at least requires Strength of Body, are chosen out of those poor old
decrepit People, who are from their Want of bodily Strength rendered incapable
of getting a Livelihood by Work. These Men, armed only with a Pole, which some
of them are scarce able to lift, are to secure the Persons and Houses of his
Majesty's Subjects from the Attacks of Gangs of young, bold, stout, desperate
and wellarmed Villains.
 
Quæ non viribus istis
Munera conveniunt.
 
If the poor old Fellows should run away from such Enemies, no one I think can
wonder, unless it be that they were able to make their Escape.
    The higher we proceed among our public Officers and Magistrates, the less
Defects of this kind will, perhaps, be observable. Mr. Thrasher, however, the
Justice before whom the Prisoners above-mentioned were now brought, had some few
Imperfections in his magistratical Capacity. I own, I have been sometimes
inclined to think, that this Office of a Justice of Peace requires some
Knowledge of the Law: for this simple Reason; because in every Case which comes
before him, he is to judge and act according to Law. Again, as these Laws are
contained in a great Variety of Books; the Statutes which relate to the Office
of a Justice of Peace, making of themselves at least two large Volumes in Folio;
and that Part of his Jurisdiction which is founded on the common Law being
dispersed in above a hundred Volumes, I cannot conceive how this Knowledge
should be acquired without reading; and yet certain it is Mr. Thrasher never
read one Syllable of the Matter.
    This perhaps was a Defect;