midnight
There is no gettin ' in money , and the only consolation I feel is , that I have honestly and conscientiously discharged my duty . I have cleared a great number of our enemies from the property , but , unfortunately , such is the state of things here , that there is the greater number of the holdings still unoccupied , other tenants that we could depend on being afraid to enter upon them , in consequence of the spirit of intimidation that is abroad . This M'Loughlin is certainly a most consummate swindler : he was unable to pay his rent , and I sent in an execution yesterday ; but , as every one knows , fourteen days must elapse before the public auction of property takes place . Judge of my surprise then , when , short as was the time , an affidavit has been made before me , that he and his family have come to the determination of emigrating to America , and , I suppose , by the aid of a midnight mob to take away all that is valuable of their property by force . I consequently must remove it at once , as the law , under such circumstances , empowers me to do -- for I can not sit by and suffer your lordship ' to be robbed , in addition to being both misrepresented and maligned by these men and their families . Granting the full force , however , of this unpleasant intelligence , still I do not think it necessary that you should at present leave the circles of polished and fashionable life in which you move , to bury yourself here among a set of malignant barbarians , who would scruple very little to slit your lordship 's weasand , or to shoot you from behind a hedge . `` I am in correspondence with Counsellor Browbeater , at the Castle , who , in addition to the glorious privilege of being , as he deserves to be , free of the Back Trot there , is besides a creature after my own heart .