NEW YORK.
 

CHAPTER V,
 

How William the Testy enriched the province by a
multitude of laws, and came to be the patron
of lawyers and bum-bailiffs. And how the
people became exceedingly enlightened and un¬
happy, under his instructions.

Among the many wrecks and fragments of ex¬
alted wisdom, which have floated down the stream
of time, from venerable antiquity, and have been /
carefully picked up by those humble, but indus¬
trious wights, who ply along the shores of litera¬
ture, we find the following sage ordinance of Cha¬
rondas, the Locrian legislator—Anxious to pre¬
serve the ancient laws of the state from the addi¬
tions and improvements of profound "country
members," or officious candidates for popularity,
he ordained, that whoever proposed a new law,
should do it with a halter about his neck; so that
in case his proposition was rejected, they just hung
him up—and there the matter ended.

This salutary institution had such an effect, that
for more than two hundred years there was only
one trifling alteration in the criminal code—and
the whole race of lawyers starved to death for
want of employment.    The consequence of this