room and were now on their way home, and running for dear life.

I do not expect that St. John of Jerusalem will figure prominently in
our Primrose fete. My reason for saying so is an urgent letter just
received from Sir Felix, who wishes to confer with me in the course of
the day.



COX _VERSUS_ PRETYMAN.


We are not litigious in Troy, and we obey the laws of England cheerfully
if we sometimes claim to interpret them in our own way. I leave others
to determine whether the Chief Constable's decision, that one policeman
amply suffices for us, be an effect or a cause, but certain it is that
we rarely trouble any court, and almost never that of Assize.

This accounts in part for the popular interest awakened by the suit of
Cox _versus_ Pretyman, heard a few days ago at the Bodmin Assizes. I
say "in part," because the case presented (as the newspapers phrase it)
some unusual features, and differed noticeably from the ordinary Action
for Breach of Promise. "No harm in that," you will say? Indeed no; and
we should have regarded it as no more than our due but for an
apprehension that the conduct alleged against the defendant concerned us
all by compromising the good name of our town.

At any rate, last Wednesday found the streets full of citizens hurrying
to the railway station, and throughout the morning our stationmaster had
difficulty in handling the traffic. The journey to Bodmin is not a long