Is it not a saying in every one's mouth, Possession is half of the law:
that is, regardless of how the thing came into possession?
But often possession is the whole of the law. What are the sinews
and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish,
whereof possession is the whole of the law? What to the rapacious
landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish? What is yonder
undetected villain's marble mansion with a doorplate for a waif;
what is that but a Fast-Fish? What is the ruinous discount
which Mordecai, the broker, gets from the poor Woebegone,
the bankrupt, on a loan to keep Woebegone's family from starvation;
what is that ruinous discount but a Fast-Fish? What is the Archbishop
of Savesoul's income of 100,000 pounds seized from the scant bread
and cheese of hundreds of thousands of broken-backed laborers
(all sure of heaven without any of Savesoul's help) what is that globular
100,000 but a Fast-Fish. What are the Duke of Dunder's hereditary towns
and hamlets but Fast-Fish? What to that redoubted harpooneer, John Bull,
is poor Ireland, but a Fast-Fish? What to that apostolic lancer,
Brother Jonathan, is Texas but a Fast-Fish? And concerning all these,
is not Possession the whole of the law?
But if the doctrine of Fast-Fish be pretty generally applicable,
the kindred doctrine of Loose-Fish is still more widely so.
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