it for a sound new one. You recollect when that
super-superior villain, Expected Thorne, brought an action
of defamation agin' me, to Slickville, for takin' away
his character, about stealing the watch to Nova Scotia;
well, I jist pleaded my own case, and I ups and sais,
'Gentlemen of the Jury,' sais I, "Expected's character,
every soul knows, is about the wust in all Slickville.
If I have taken it away, I have done him a great sarvice,
for he has a smart chance of gettin' a better one; and
if he don't find a swap to his mind, why no character is
better nor a bad one.'

"Well, the old judge and the whole court larfed right
out like any thin'; and the jury, without stirrin' from
the box, returned a vardict for the defendant. P'raps
now, that mought be the case with the Tories."

"The difference," said Mr. Hopewell, is jist this:--your
friend, Mr. Expected Thorne, had a name he had ought to
have been ashamed of, and the Tories one that the whole
nation had very great reason to be proud of. There is
some little difference, you must admit. My English
politics, (mind you, I say English, for they hare no
reference to America,) are Tory, and I don't want to go
to Sir Robert Peel, or Lord John Russell either."

"As for Johnny Russell," said Mr. Slick, "he is a clever
little chap that; he--"

"Don't call him Johnny Russell," said Mr. Hopewell, "or