This transitional chapter serves to preserve a tie between London, the present main scene of action, and the town where Oliver spent his first miserable years. Bumble's damaging report about Oliver further darkens the boy's prospects, for there now is apparently no one in outside society who might be interested in protecting him from being held captive by the criminals. Mr. Brownlow is, perhaps, too eager to believe the circumstantial evidence against Oliver, but his trusting nature is what originally caused him to place confidence in Oliver.
Bumble continues to mangle the language, and there is pronounced irony in his complaint that "all public characters . . . must suffer prosecution." It can also be seen how Dickens's satire loses its force when grossly overdone, as when Bumble explains, "We put the sick paupers into open carts in the rainy weather, to prevent their taking cold." This is so bizarre that, even coming from Bumble, it does not transmit conviction.
