I WAS however perfectly satisfied with the experience I had already gained, and quietly paid the money. After that transaction, whenever any unjust claim was made on me, I endeavoured to compromise the matter, by offering to pay a third, or a half, of the amount; and, as my adversaries found it troublesome to go backward and forward, in attendance on the court, they were, in general, reasonable enough to comply with my wishes. This is the plan adopted by many sensible Englishmen, who find it easier to settle with their opponents in this manner, than to contend the point in a court of law.

I was disgusted to observe, that, in these courts, law very often overruled equity, and that a well-meaning honest man was frequently made the dupe of an artful knave; nor could the most righteous judge alter the decision, without transgressing the law.