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In the main, however, the law and lawyers are presented farcically in Pickwick
rather than in a more sinister light. Professional lawyers are all more or less knaves whilst
laymen involved with the law such as magistrates or J.P.'s are seen to be fools. Here again,
Dickens is following an old tradition (think of Shakespeare's Dogberry in Much Ado About
Nothing, for example) when he presents us with a character like Mr Nupkins:
'First', said Mr Pickwick, sending a look through his spectacles,
under which even Nupkins quailed. 'First, I wish to know what I and
my friend have been brought here for?'
'Must I tell him?' whispered the magistrate to Jinks.
'I think you had better, sir', whispered Jinks to the magistrate.
'An information has been sworn before me', said the magistrate,
'that it is apprehended you are going to fight a duel, and that the
other man, Tupman, is your aider and abettor in it. Therefore - eh,
Mr Jinks?'
'Certainly, sir'.
Therefore, I call upon you both, to - I think that's the course,
Mr Jinks?'
'Certainly, sir'.
'To - to - what Mr Jinks?' said the magistrate, pettishly.
'To find bail, sir'.
'Yes. Therefore, I call upon you both - as I was about to say,
when I was interrupted by my clerk - to find bail'.
'Good bail', whispered Mr Jinks.
'I shall require good bail', said the magistrate.
'Town's-people', whispered Jinks.
'They must be town's-people', said the magistrate.
'Fifty pounds each', whispered Jinks, 'and householders, of
course'.
'I shall require two sureties of fifty pounds each', said the
magistrate aloud, with great dignity, 'and they must be householders,
of course'.
'But, bless my heart, sir', said Mr Pickwick, who, together
with Mr Tupman, was all amazement and indignation; 'we are perfect
strangers in this town. I have as little knowledge of any householders
here, as I have intention of fighting a duel with anybody'.
'I dare say', replied the magistrate, 'I dare say - don't you,
Mr Jinks?'
'Certainly, sir'.
Magistrate-baiting was not only a matter of tradition in the 1830s and 1940s,
however. There were several notorious cases of ignorant, overbearing, prejudiced magistrates
at least two of whom Dickens lampooned. Mr Laing, the Hutton Garden magistrate was
notorious for his bad temper and excessive punishments, and well deserved his showing-
up as "Mr Fang" in Oliver Twist.
Similarly, Sir Peter Laurie, sometime Lord Mayor of London, with his grotesquely
heartless campaign to "put down" suicide was ripe for exposure by the time Dickens
caricatured him as "ALderman Cute" in The Chimes. When Dickens was first planning the
weekly journal which became Master Humphrey's Clock he wrote that one of its objects
would be to "keep a sharp look-out on magistrates in town and country and never to leave
those worthies alone". Although this part of his plan did not materialise he did often return
to criticism of the bench in his later journalism and at least once in his novels (Creakle
