APPENDIX I
Description of Newgate.

 Anciently, the City of London was encompassed by a wall, in which,
at proportionate distances, were several gates, with posterns,
resembling the gate which still remains, called Temple Bar. The
exact period of time when Newgate, or, as it was first called, the
New Gate was erected it is not easy to determine; but we find that
as early as the year 1211, its apartments were used for the
confinement of felons, as a county gaol for London and Middlesex.
This gaol was re-edified in 1422, by the executors of Sir Richard
Whittington, and afterwards rebuilt with greater strength and more
convenience for prisoners, and with a gate and postern for
passengers. The prison then crossed the west end of Newgate Street.
In 1780, Newgate was almost burnt down by the rioters. It has since
been restored, and now presents a fine uniform exterior to the west,
consisting of two wings, the debtors' and felons' side, with the
gaoler's house in the middle.

 The north side, appropriated to debtors, men and women, consists of
two court-yards, which are far too circumscribed for the
inhabitants; the men's court being only 49 feet by 31 feet; the
women's of the same length, and about half the width. They are
entirely surrounded by the wards, which rise three stories above the
pavement. The women debtors are separated from the men by a wall 15
feet in height.

 The four sides are called the master's side, the cabin, from the
cabin bedsteads in them, the common side, and the women's side. The
men's apartments are fourteen in number; all of which, except one
which occupies in length the whole side of the prison, are nearly of
the same dimensions, 23 feet by 15. The number of inhabitants in the
rooms is from 12 to 20 in each. The largest room is sometimes
inhabited by as many as thirty. The Debtors' side almost always
contains 200 and sometimes as many as 300. The painted-room, as it
is called -- having been painted by a prisoner -- has been occupied
by a debtor ever since the prison was repaired; This apartment also
serves the purpose of a room for case of conscience debtors. Two
very close rooms are inhabited by prisoners, one at the bottom of
the master's, and another of the common side, which serve the
purposes of chandlers' shops by day, and sleeping-rooms by night.
This side is always too full, indeed it is difficult to conceive how
the prisoners exist, crowded as they generally are, and breathing
the same polluted air; for even the windows only open towards the
prison court.

 Women debtors have two rooms, one on the whole side length of the
debtor's court, the other much smaller; in these the inhabitants are
generally not very numerous, though some times they are crowded.
Debtors on the poor and women's sides have eight stone of beef
weekly, without bone, sent in by the Sheriffs. Debtors on the
master's side pay thirteen shillings and sixpence, eighteen pence of
which is spent in beer; the remainder goes to the ward, and finds
coals, candles, wood, mops, brooms, and pails. Those who plead
poverty are to keep the rooms clean.

 On the south side which properly belongs to felons, not only
felons, but offenders against government, libellers, sellers of
libels, and persons for small offences, are confined. This court is
rather larger than the men debtors': the rooms are in general in
good condition, being often let as single rooms to prisoners who can
afford to pay for such an indulgence. There are also four other
small yards in which felons are lodged, the number of the whole
varying from 140 to 300.

 The chapel is plain and neat, with galleries on each side; three or
four pews are appropriated for the felons; that in the centre is
occupied by the condemned. Service is performed by the chaplain
twice every Sunday.

 Malefactors under sentence of death are secured in cells built
expressly for that purpose; there are five upon each of the three
floors, each vaulted, in height about nine feet to the crown of the
arch, and about nine feet in length, by six in width. In the upper
part of each cell is a small narrow window double-grated. The doors
are four inches thick. The strong wall is lined all round with
planks, studded with broad-headed nails. In each cell is a barrack
bedstead. It is observed, that prisoners who had affected an air of
boldness during their trial, and appeared quite unconcerned when
sentence was pronounced on them, were struck with horror, and shed
tears, when they were brought to these dark and solitary abodes.

 Condemned felons are executed in front of the prison, on a large
moveable scaffold, (called the New Drop,) which is kept in the Press
Yard for this occasion. The malefactors stand upon a false floor,
and when their devotions are finished, on a signal being given, the
floor suddenly drops, leaving the unhappy sufferers suspended in the
air.



APPENDIX II
The Origin of the Gibbet in England

 IT is well known that the gibbet, so often named, in this work, is
now used in England, for carrying into effect the final sentence of
the law upon murderers; that their bodies may hang a dreadful
warning to the passenger, not to stray from the path of honesty;
yet, perhaps, few have inquired into its origin.

 The gibbet we find of doubtful derivation. It is both an English
word and a French word, implying the same meaning, 'A post on which
malefactors are exposed.' We find this punishment recorded in Holy
Writ, Joshua chap. viii. ver. 28,29:

 'And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a
desolation unto this day. And the king of Ai he hanged upon a tree,
and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should
take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of
the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that
remaineth unto this day.'

 Searching farther back into ancient history, we find from
Martinius, the learned etymologist, that this mark of the grossest
infamy which can be inflicted on a criminal, was not unknown to the
Greeks. It is most probable, however, that we had the mode of
punishment of the gibbet from the French; the people of that nation
seldom taking any usage or custom from the English, at so early a
period as the thirteenth century, when it was used here, and known
by that name.

 In the year 1242, says the historian, Matthew Paris, William De
Marisco, a knight, was judicially condemned and ignominiously put to
death. He was brought from the Tower to that infernal machine,
vulgarly called the gibbet; and, after he had breathed his last, was
hung on one of the hooks, and being taken down after he was grown
stiff, was disembowelled: his bowels were burnt, and his body being
divided into four parts, the quarters were sent to four cities. This
evidently answers to our hanging, drawing, and quartering, and has
the intention of exhibiting a terrible spectacle to the people, just
as our hanging a dead body in irons is meant to do. But it varies
much, we observe, from gibbeting. The gibbet, in this case, serving
only as a common gallows.

 The same author, Matthew Paris, in speaking of the execution of two
men, says, 'Paratum est horribile patibulum Londini quod vulgus
gibitem appellat.'

 One of these criminals, after he was dead, was hung upon a gibbet,
and the other was gibbetted alive, to perish by pain and hunger.
These cases come fully up to the point in hand, as the body of the
first was put upon the gibbet when dead, in order to be a permanent
spectacle of terror; and the other was not to die, as probably being
the most guilty, by the mere simple act of suspension, but by a more
lingering kind of death.

 About the same period of which Paris gives a history, the king of
France ordered all clippers of the coin, patibulis laqueatos, vento
praesentari, that is, to be hanged, and then exposed to the wind;
which, though irons be not mentioned, appears to be the very thing
the English do now, and to have the same intention.

 The first gibbet used in England, whereon to expose criminals,
after death, by hanging, was in the reign of King Henry III. A.D.
1236.

 We have shown that the ancient writer above quoted, adduces an
instance of a criminal being gibbetted alive, and left to perish by
that miserable death; but the severing the hand from the body, and
placing it above the carcase of the criminal, when gibbetted, the
knife stuck through it with which the murder was committed, we
believe to be exclusively Scottish; for we have not found it
practised by any other nation.

 We should hardly believe that in a part of our habitable globe
individuals, worked into the frenzy of fanaticism, inflict upon
themselves a temporary and more painful gibbetting; as though their
torture would expiate their supposed sins. Yet true it is, and we
have just met an account of this frightful penance, which places its
truth beyond the shadow of doubt: after reading accounts of the
voluntary sacrifice of a widow of Malabar burning herself to ashes
upon her husband's funeral pile, we may give credit to the horrid
voluntary gibbetting of the same race of people.

 The following account of this shocking spectacle has been well
authenticated by several officers in the service of the East India
Company, who have witnessed this religious rite among the Gentoos.

 There were three voluntary victims. The first was attended by a
numerous procession, and preceded by music and dancers. According to
the custom of Indian festivals, they were adorned with flowers,
clothed in their best apparel, and attended by their relations.

 They marched, or rather ran, round the apparatus several times,
flowers being in the mean time strewed before them.

 The engine of torture used upon this occasion was a stout upright
post, thirty feet in height. At the bottom was a stage, and about
half way towards the top another on which two priests, or rather
executioners, were mounted with drawn sabres, in place of books of
religion in their hands. Across the top of the post, or pole, was
another, of about half the length and circumference, strongly lashed
thereto with ropes. At each extremity were hooks of iron, somewhat
resembling, but larger than those used by butchers in England, to
hang up their meat in the shambles.

 The sufferer was hoisted up to the executioners. They immediately
proceeded to strip their prey of his robes, and then fixed the hooks
into the fleshy part of his back, near the shoulder blades. The
ropes affixed to these hooks, and tied to the transverse beam.
Behind him two smaller ropes depended from the beam which received
his great toes in separate loops. Over the penitent's head was
suspended a kind of flat muslin canopy, with a narrow flounce, just
sufficient to shade his face from the sun, but not conceal him from
the view.

 Thus prepared he is slung into the air, by means of ropes tied at
the opposite end of the pole, and hanged round to give full views to
the surrounding crowd. The air was now rent with shouts of applause,
almost to adoration. The trumpets sounded, the drums beat, and
pateraroes fired. The traverse beam, turning upon a pivot, was
slowly moved round, over the beads of the multitude. Notwithstanding
the torture which the victims must feel, they supported it generally
with patient firmness. The writer of the account now quoted, says he
was an eye-witness to three persons submitting to this punishment on
one afternoon.

 The first sufferer, continues the narrator, was a young man, about
twenty-four years of age. He got upon the scaffold with affected
indifference; but when launched into the air, I could distinctly
bear him send forth some agonising yells. Still he persevered, and
described the circle three times; he held a fan in one hand, and a
bundle of cajans (leaves of the palmira tree) in the other, which he
continued waving with seeming composure, until he made a signal, and
thereupon was let down.

 There was no difference in the mode of suspending the other two,
excepting that one beat a small taum taum (great drum) the whole
time; and that the second held a basket of flowers in one hand, and
scattered them with the other among the spectators, who eagerly
caught them. Either from the various accompanying noises, or from
the superior fortitude of the two latter, I could not distinguish
any expression of pain.

 When let down their backs were rubbed with turmeric; and they were
received by their friends with the highest marks of veneration and
joy.

 I was informed that these men were thenceforward esteemed the
particular favourites of Swamee (the Deity), and entitled to
particular privileges. I was also present at this ceremony, at
Madras, near the Black-Town. If I was to relate the many singular
customs of the disciples of Brama, of which I have frequently been a
spectator, I should only gain credit from Asiatic travellers, who
know from experience, the truth of Hamlet's observation, that 'there
are more things on earth, than are dreamt of in the philosophy of
the many.'



APPENDIX III
The Maiden, or Scottish Guillotine

 The Maiden seems to have been confined to the limits of the forest
of Hardwicke, or the eighteen towns and hamlets within its
precincts. The time when this custom took place is unknown; whether
Earl Warren, lord of this forest, might have established it among
the sanguinary laws then in use against the invaders of the hunting
rights, or whether it might not take place after the woollen 
manufactures at Halifax began to gain strength, is
uncertain. The last is very probable, for the wild country around
the town was inhabited by a lawless set, whose depredations on the
cloth-tenters might soon stifle the efforts of infant industry. For
the protection of trade and for the greater terror of offenders by
speedy execution this custom seems to have been established, so as
at last to receive the force of law, which was that "If a felon be
taken within the liberty of the forest of Hardwicke, with goods
stolen out or within the said precincts, either hand-habend, back-
berend or confessioned, to the value of thirteenpence halfpenny, he
shall, after three market-days, within the town of Halifax, next
after such his apprehension, and being condemned, be taken to the
gibbet, and there have his head cut from his body.'"

 The offender had always a fair trial, for as soon as he was taken
he was brought to the lord's bailiff at Halifax; he was then exposed
on the three markets, which here were held thrice in a week, placed
in the stocks with the goods stolen on his back, or if the theft was
of the cattle kind they were placed by him; and this was done both
to strike terror into others and to produce new informations against
him. The bailiff then summoned four freeholders of each town within
the forest to form a jury. The felon and prosecutors were brought
face to face, and the goods, the cow or horse, or whatsoever was
stolen, produced. If he was found guilty he was remanded to prison,
had a week's time allowed for preparation, and then was conveyed to
the spot where his head was struck off by this machine. I should
have premised that if the criminal, either after apprehension or on
the way to execution, could escape out of the limits of the forest
(part being close to the town), the bailiff had no further power
over him; but if he should be caught within the precincts at any
time after, he was immediately executed on his former sentence. 
This privilege was very freely used during the reign of Elizabeth;
the records before that time were lost. Twenty-five suffered in her
reign and at least twelve from 1623 to 1650; after which, I believe,
the privilege was no more exerted.  This machine of death is now
destroyed, but I saw one of the same kind in a room under the
Parliament House in Edinburgh, where it war, introduced by the
Regent Morton, who took a model of it as he passed through Halifax,
and at length suffered by it himself. It is in form of a painter's
easel and about ten feet high; at four feet from the bottom is a
cross bar, on which the felon lays his head, which is kept down by
another placed above. In the inner edges of the frame are grooves;
in these is placed a sharp axe, with a vast weight of lead,
supported at the very summit by a peg; to that peg is fastened a
cord, which the executioner cutting, the axe falls, and does the
affair effectually, without suffering the unhappy criminal to
undergo a repetition of strokes, as has been the case in the common
method. I must add that if the sufferer is condemned for stealing a
horse or a cow, the string is tied to the beast, which, on being
whipped, pulls out the peg and becomes the executioner.

 Thus we find, adds a commentator at the time, that the guillotine
of France is not an instrument of death of the invention of that
country. During the anarchy caused by a corrupt Court and the
oppression of the people this instrument, precisely on the model of
the Maiden, was in mercy applied to the King and Queen, their nobles
and the clergy, who it was calculated engrossed three-fourths of the
wealth of their nation. We say in mercy, because it produces a death
more instantaneous and consequently less painful than that inflicted
on criminals in Britain. A short period of time has brought about
wonderful revolutions and great changes in all European nations,
save our own islands, and we sincerely hope that a timely reform in
our internal affairs may render the return of the Maiden entirely
unnecessary.  Beheading was a military punishment among the Romans,
known by the name of decollatio. Among them the head was laid on a
cippus, or block, placed in a pit dug for the purpose; in the army,
without the vallum; in the city, without the walls, at a place near
the porta decumana. Preparatory to the stroke the criminal was tied
to a stake and whipped with rods. In the early ages the blow was
given with an axe, but in after-times with a sword, which was
thought the more reputable manner of dying. The execution was but
clumsily performed in the first times, but afterwards they grew more
expert, and took the head off clean with one circular stroke.  In
England, beheading was the punishment of nobles, being reputed not
to derogate from nobility, as hanging does. In France during the
revolutionary government, the practice of beheading by means of an
instrument called a guillotine (so denominated from the name of its
inventor) was exceedingly general. It resembles a kind of instrument
long since used for the same purpose in Scotland, and called a
"Maiden."  It is universally known that at the execution of King
Charles the First a man in a visor performed the office of
executioner. This circumstance has given rise to a variety of
conjectures and accounts, in some of which one William Walker is
said to be the executioner, in others it is supposed to be a Richard
Brandon, of whom a long account was published in an Exeter newspaper
of 1784. But William Lilly, in his History of my Life and Times, has
the following remarkable passage: "Many have curiously inquired who
it was that cut off his [the king's] head: I have no permission to
speak of such things; only thus much I say, he that did it is as
valiant and resolute a man as lives, and one of a competent
fortune." When examined before the Parliament of Charles II. he
states that "The next Sunday but one after Charles the First was
beheaded, Robert Spavin, secretary to Lieutenant-General Cromwell at
that time, invited himself to dine with me, and brought Anthony
Pierson and several others along with him to dinner. That their
principal discourse all dinner-time was only who it was that
beheaded the king. One said it was the common hangman; another, Hugh
Peters; others also were nominated, but none concluded. Robert
Spavin, so soon as dinner was done, took me by the hand and carried
me to the south window: saith he: "These are all mistaken; they have
not named the man that did the fact; it was Lieutenant Colonel
Joice. I was in the room when he fitted himself for the work; stood
behind him when he did it; when done, went in with him again. There
is no man knows this but my master [viz. Cromwell], Commissary
Ireton, and myself." "Doth not Mr Rushworth know it?" saith I. "No,
he doth not know it," saith Spavin. "The same thing Spavin hath
often related to me when we were alone."

Appendix IV.
The Newgate Bellman

IT was an ancient practice, on the night preceding the execution
of condemned criminals, for the bellman of the parish of St
Sepulchre to go under Newgate and, ringing his bell, to repeat
the following verses, as a piece of friendly advice to the
unhappy wretches under sentence of death:--

"You prisoners that are within, who for wickedness and sin, after
many mercies shown you, are now appointed to die tomorrow in the
forenoon, give ear and understand that in the morning the
greatest bell of St Sepulchre's shall toll for you in form and
manner of a passing bell, to the end that all godly people,
hearing that bell and knowing that it is for your going to your
deaths, may be stirred up heartily to pray to God to bestow His
grace upon you while you live. I beseech you for Jesus Christ's
sake to keep this night in watching and prayer for the salvation
of your own souls, while there is yet time for mercy, as knowing
tomorrow you must appear before the judgment seat of your
Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this life
and to suffer eternal torments for your sins committed against
Him, unless upon your hearty and unfeigned repentance you find
mercy through the merits, death and passion of your only Mediator
and Advocate, Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God
to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return to
Him."

The following extract from Stowe's Survey of London, p. 125 of
the quarto edition printed in 1618, will prove that the above
verses ought to have been repeated by a clergyman instead of a
bellman:--

"Robert Dow, Citizen and Merchant Taylor, of London, gave to the
parish church of St Sepulchre's, the sum of 50L. That after the
several sessions of London, when the prisoners remain in the
gaol, as condemned men to death, expecting execution on the
morning following; the clerk (that is, the parson) of the church
should come in the night time, and likewise early in the morning,
to the window of the prison where they lye, and there ringing
certain tolls with a hand-bell, appointed for the purpose, he
doth afterwards (in most Christian manner) put them in mind of
their present condition, and ensuing execution, desiring them to
be prepared therefor as they ought to be. When they are in the
cart, and brought before the wall of the church, there he
standeth ready with the same bell, and after certain tolls
rehearseth an appointed prayer, desiring all the people there
present to pray for them. The beadle also of Merchant Taylors
Hall hath an honest stipend allowed to see that this is duly
done."

APPENDIX V.
The punishment of whipping in England, Russia, and France

In Russia, this punishment is such as may well serve for the
sake of example. It is there very severe, while (through the
instrumentality of a guinea or so) it is often too leniently inflicted
in England.
 	The knout of Russia would be well applied to the shoulders
of an English swindler.. The instrument with which whipping is
inflicted in Russia is made of leather curiously twisted, and
brought to a fine end like whipcord: with this whip the
executioners dexterously carry off a slip of skin from the neck to
the bottom of the back, laid bare to the waist; and, repeating their
blows, in a little while rend away all the skin off the back in
parallel stripes. In the common knout, the criminal receives the
lashes suspended on the back of one of the executioners; but in the
great knout, which is generally used on the wheel in France, the
criminal is hoisted into the air by means of a pulley fixed to the
gallows, a cord fastened to the two wrists tied together, and
another, of a crucial form, under his breast. Sometimes his hands
are tied behind, over his back; and when he is pulled up in this
position, his shoulders are dislocated. The executioners make this
punishment more or less cruel; and it is said are so dexterous, that,
when a criminal is condemned to die, they can make him expire at
pleasure, either by one or several lashes.



APPENDIX VI.
Fleet Marriages

ONE of the most disgraceful customs observed in the Fleet
Prison in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the
performance of the marriage ceremony by disreputable and
dissolute clergymen. These functionaries, mostly prisoners for
debt, insulted the dignity of their holy profession by marrying in
the precincts of the Fleet Prison at a minute's notice, any persons
who might present themselves for that purpose. No questions were
asked, no stipulations made, except as to the amount of the fee for
the service, or the quantity of liquor to be drunk on the occasion. It
not unfrequently happened, indeed, that the clergyman, the clerk,
the bridegroom and the bride were drunk at the very time the
ceremony was performed.

These disgraceful members of the sacred calling had their
"plyers," or "barkers," who, if they caught sight of a man and
woman walking together along the streets of the neighbourhood,
pestered them with solicitations, not easily to be shaken off, as to
whether they wanted a clergyman to marry them. Mr Burn, a
gentleman who published a curious work on the Fleet Registers,
had in his possession an engraving (published about 1747) of A
Fleet Wedding between a Brisk Young Sailor and Landlady's
Daughter at Rederiff. "The print," he wrote, "represents the old
Fleet market and prison, with the sailor, landlady and daughter just
stepping from a hackney-coach, while two Fleet parsons in
canonicals are contending for the job. The following verses were in
the margin:--
"Scarce had the coach discharg'd its trusty fare
But gaping crowds surround th'amorous pair;
The busy Plyers make a mighty stir,
And whisp'ring cry, 'D'ye want the Parson, sir?
Pray step this way -- just to the pen in hand,
The Doctor's ready there at your command':
'This way' (another cries), 'sir, I declare,
The true and ancient Register is here':

Th'alarmed Parsons quickly hear the din,
And haste with soothing words t'invite 'em in:
In this confusion jostled to and fro,
Th'enamour'd couple know not where to go,
Till, slow advancing from the coach's side,
Th'experienc'd matron came (an artful guide)
She led the way without regarding either,
And the first Parson splic'd 'em both together."

One of the most notorious of these scandalous officials was
a man of the name of George Keith, a Scottish minister, who,
being in desperate circumstances, set up a marriage office in
Mayfair, and subsequently in the FIeet, and carried on the same
trade which has since been practised in front of the blacksmith's
anvil at Gretna Green. This man's wedding business was so
extensive and so scandalous that the Bishop of London found it
necessary to excommunicate him. It was said of this person and
"his journeyman" that one morning, during the Whitsun holidays,
they united a greater number of couples than had been married at
any ten churches within the bills of mortality. Keith lived till he
was eighty-nine years of age, and died in 1735. The Rev. Dr
Gaynham, another infamous functionary, was familiarly called the
Bishop of Hell.

"Many of the early Fleet weddings," wrote Mr Burn, were
really performed at the chapel of the Fleet; but as the practice
extended, it was found more convenient to have other places,
within the Rules of the Fleet (added to which the Warden was
forbidden, by Act of Parliament, to suffer them), and thereupon
many of the Fleet parsons and tavern-keepers in the neighbourhood
fitted up a room in their respective lodgings or houses as a chapel!
The parsons took the fees, allowing a portion to the plyers, etc.;
and the tavern-keepers, besides sharing in the money paid, derived
a profit from the sale of liquors which the wedding-party drank. In
some instances the tavern-keepers kept a parson on the
establishment, at a weekly salary of twenty shillings! Most of the
taverns near the Fleet kept their own registers, in which (as well as
in their own books) the parsons entered the weddings." Some of
these scandalous members of the highest of all professions were in
the habit of hanging signs out of their windows with the words
"WEDDINGS PERFORMED CHEAP HERE."

Keith, of whom we have already spoken, seems to have
been a barefaced profligate; but there is something exceedingly
affecting in the stings of conscience and forlorn compunction of
one Walter Wyatt, a Fleet parson, in one of whose pocket-books of
1716 are the following secret (as he intended them to be)
outpourings of remorse:--

"Give to every man his due, and learn ye the way of truth."

"This advice cannot be taken by those that are concerned in
ye Fleet marriages; not so much as ye Priest can do ye thing yt it is
just and right there, unless he designs to starve. For by lying,
bullying, and swearing, to extort money from the silly and unwary
people, you advance your business and get ye pelf, which always
wastes like snow in sunshiney day."

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The
marrying in the Fleet is the beginning of eternal woe."

"If a clerk or plyer tells a lye, you must vouch it to be as
true as ye Gospel, and if disputed, you must affirm with an oath to
ye truth of a downright damnable falsehood, Virtus laudatur &
algetur."

"May God forgive me what is past, and give me grace to
forsake such a wicked place, where truth and virtue can't take place
unless you are resolved to starve."

But this very man, whose sense of his own disgrace was so
deep and apparently so contrite, was one of the most notorious,
active and money-making of all the Fleet parsons. His practice was
chiefly in taverns, and he was known to earn nearly sixty pounds in
less than a month.

With such facilities for marriage, and such unprincipled
ministers, it may easily be imagined that iniquitous schemes of all
sorts were perpetrated under the narne of Fleet weddings. The
parsons were ready, for a bribe, to make false entries in their
registers, to antedate weddings, to give fictitious certificates, and to
marry persons who would declare only the initials of their names.
We read in a a journal of the time the following case:--

"On Saturday last a Fleet parson was convicted before Sir
Ric. Brocas of forty-three oaths (on the information of a plyer for
weddings there), for which a warrant was granted to levy L4, 6s.
on the goods of the said parson but, upon application to his
Worship, he was pleased to remit 1s. per oath upon which the plyer
swore he would swear no more against any man upon the like
occasion, finding he could get nothing by it." -- Grub Street
Journal, 20th July, 1732.

Thus if a spinster or widow in debt desired to cheat her
creditors, by pretending to have been married before the debt was
contracted, she had only to present herself at one of the marriage-
houses in the Fleet and, upon payment of a small additional fee to
the clergyman, a man could instantly be found on the spot to act as
bridegroom for a few shillings, and the worthless chaplain could
find a blank place in his register for any year desired, so that there
was no difficulty in making the necessary record. They would also,
for a consideration, obliterate any given entry. The sham
bridegrooms, under different names, were married over and over
again, with the full knowledge of the clerical practitioners. If, in
other instances, a libertine desired to possess himself of any young
and unsuspecting woman who would not yield without being
married, nothing was easier than to get the service performed at the
Fleet, without even the specification of names; so that the poor girl
might with impunity be shaken off at pleasure. Or if a parent found
it necessary to legitimatise his natural children, a Fleet parson
could be procured to give a marriage certificate at any required
date. In fact, all manner of people presented themselves for
marriage at the unholy dens in the Fleet taverns -- runaway sons
and daughters of peers; Irish adventurers and foolish rich widows;
clodhoppers and ladies from St Giles's; footmen and decayed
beauties; soldiers and servant-girls; boys in their teens and old
women of seventy; discarded mistresses "given away" by their
former admirers to pitiable and sordid bridegrooms; night-
wanderers and intoxicated apprentices; men and women having
already wives and husbands; young heiresses conveyed thither by
force and compelled, in terrorem, to be brides, and common
labourers and female paupers dragged by parish officers to the
profane altar, stained by the relics of drunken orgies and reeking
with the fumes of liquor and tobacco! Nay, it sometimes happened
that the "contracting parties" would send from houses of vile
repute for a Fleet parson, who could readily be found to attend
even in such places and under such circumstances, and there unite
the couple in matrimony!

Of what were called the "Parish Weddings" it is impossible
to speak in terms of sufficient reprobation. Many of the
churchwardens and overseers of that day were in the frequent
practice of "getting up" marriages in order to throw their paupers
on neighbouring parishes. For example, in The Daily Post of the
4th of July, 1741, is the following paragraph:--

"On Saturday last the churchwardens for a certain parish in
the City, in order to remove a load from their own shoulders, gave
forty shillings, and paid the expense of a Fleet marriage, to a
miserable blind youth, known by the name of Ambrose Tally, who
plays on the violin in Moorfields, in order to make a settlement on
the wife and future family in Shoreditch parish. To secure their
point they sent a parish officer to see the ceremony performed. One
cannot but admire the ungenerous proceeding of this City parish,
as well as their unjustifiable abetting and encouraging an
irregularity so much and so justly complained of as these Fleet
matches. Invited and uninvited were a great number of poor
wretches, in order to spend the bride's parish fortune."

In the Grub Street Journal for 1735 is the following letter,
faithfully describing, says Mr Burn, the treachery and low habits of
the Fleet parsons:--

SIR, -- There is a very great evil in this town, and of
dangerous consequence to our sex, that has never been suppressed,
to the great prejudice and ruin of many hundreds of young people
every year, which I beg some of your learned heads to consider of,
and consult of proper ways and means to prevent for the future. I
mean the ruinous marriages that are practised in the liberty of the
Fleet and thereabouts, by a set of drunken, swearing parsons, with
their myrmidons, that wear black coats, and pretend to be clerks
and registers to the Fleet. These ministers of wickedness ply about
Ludgate Hill, pulling and forcing people to some pedling ale-house
or a brandy-shop to be married, even on a Sunday stopping them as
they go to church and almost tearing their clothes off their backs.
To confirm the truth of these facts I will give you a case or two
which lately happened.

Since Midsummer last a young lady of birth and fortune
was deluded and forced from her friends, and, by the assistance of
a wrynecked, swearing parson, married to an atheistical wretch,
whose life is a continued practice of all manner of vice and
debauchery. And since the ruin of my relation, another lady of my
acquaintance had like to have been trepanned in the following
manner. This lady had appointed to meet a gentlewoman at the Old
Playhouse, in Drury Lane, but extraordinary business prevented
her coming. Being alone when the play was done, she bade a boy
call a coach for the city. One dressed like a gentleman helps her
into it and jumps in after her. "Madam," says he, "this coach was
called for me, and since the weather is so bad, and there is no
other, I beg leave to bear you company. I am going into the City,
and will set you down wherever you please." The lady begged to
be excused; but he bade the coachman drive on. Being come to
Ludgate Hill, he told her his sister, who waited his coming but five
doors up the court, would go with her in two minutes. He went,
and returned with his pretended sister, who asked her to step in one
minute, and she would wait upon her in the coach. Deluded with
the assurance of having his sister's company, the poor lady
foolishly followed her into the house, when instantly the sister
vanished and a tawny fellow in a black coat and black wig
appeared. "Madam, you are come in good time; the Doctor was
just a-going." "The Doctor!" says she, horribly frightened, fearing
it was a madhouse; "what has the Doctor to do with me?" "To
marry you to that gentleman. The Doctor has waited for you these
three hours, and will be paid by you or that gentleman before you
go!" "That gentleman," says she, recovering herself, "is worthy a
better fortune than mine," and begged hard to be gone. But Doctor
Wryneck swore she should be married, or if she would not, he
would still have his fee, and register the marriage from that night.
The lady, finding she could not escape without money or a pledge,
told them she liked the gentleman so well she would certainly meet
him to-morrow night, and gave them a ring as a pledge, which,
says she, it was my mother's gift on her death-bed, enjoining that if
ever I married it should be my wedding-ring." By which cunning
contrivance she was delivered from the black doctor and his tawny
crew. Some time after this I went with this lady and her brother in
a coach to Ludgate Hill, in the daytime, to see the manner of their
picking up people to be married. As soon as our coach stopped
near Fleet Bridge, up comes one of the myrmidons. "Madam," says
he, "you want a parson?" "Who are you?" says I. "I am the clerk
and register of the Fleet." "Show me the chapel." At which comes a
second, desiring me to go along with him. Says he: "That fellow
will carry you to a pedling ale-house." Says a third: "Go with me;
he will carry you to a brandy-shop." In the interim comes the
Doctor. "Madam," says he, "I'll do your job for you presently!"
"Well, gentlemen," says I, "since you can't agree, and I can't be
married quietly, I'll put it off until another time," and so drove
away. Learned sirs, I wrote this in regard to the honour and safety
of my own sex; and if for our sakes you will be so good as to
publish it, correcting the errors of a woman's pen, you will oblige
our whole sex, and none more than, Sir, your constant reader and
admirer,

VIRTUOUS.

Such were but a few of the iniquities practised by the
ministers of the Fleet. Similar transactions were carried on at the
Chapel in Mayfair, the Mint in the Borough, the Savoy, and other
places about London; until the public scandal became so great,
especially in consequence of the marriage at the Fleet of the Hon.
Henry Fox with Georgiana Caroline, eldest daughter of the Duke
of Richmond, that at length -- not, however, without much and
zealous opposition -- a Marriage Bill was passed, enacting that any
person solemnising matrimony in any other than a church or public
chapel, without banns or licence, should, on conviction, be
adjudged guilty of felony, and be transported for fourteen years,
and that all such marriages should be void. This Act was to take
effect from the 25th of March, 1754.

Upon the passing of this law, Keith, the parson who has
already been alluded to, published a pamphlet entitled,
Observations on the Act for Preventing Clandestine Marriages. To
this he prefixed his portrait. The following passages are highly
characteristic of the man:--

"'Happy is the wooing that is not long a-doing' is an old
proverb, and a very true one; but we shall have no occasion for it
after the 25th day of March next, when we are commanded to read
it backwards, and from that period (fatal indeed to Old England!)
we must date the declension of the numbers of the inhabitants of
England."

"As I have married many thousands, and consequently have
on those occasions seen the humour of the lower class of people, I
have often asked the married pair how long they had been
acquainted; they would reply, some more, some less, but the
generality did not exceed the acquaintance of a week, some only of
a day, half-a-day, etc."

"Another inconvenience which will arise from this Act will
be, that the expense of being married will be so great, that few of
the lower class of people can afford; for I have often heard a Fleet
parson say that many have come to be married when they have but
had half-a-crown in their pockets, and sixpence to buy a pot of
beer, and for which they have pawned some of their clothes."

"I remember once on a time, I was at a public-house at
Ratcliffe, which then was full of sailors and their girls; there was
fiddling, piping, jigging and eating; at length, one of the tars starts
up and says: 'D-n ye, Jack, I'll be married just now; I will have my
partner, and . . .' The joke took, and in less than two hours ten
couples set out for the Fleet; I stayed their return. They returned in
coaches, five women in each coach, the tars, some running before,
others riding on the coach-box, and others behind. The cavalcade
being over, the couples went up into an upper room, where they
concluded the evening with great jollity. The next time I went that
way I called on my landlord and asked him concerning this
marriage adventure. He at first stared at me, but recollecting, he
said those things were so frequent that he hardly took any notice of
them; for, added he, it is a common thing, when a fleet comes in, to
have two or three hundred marriages in a week's time, among the
sailors."

He humorously concludes: "If the present Act in the form it
now stands should (which I am sure is impossible) be of service to
my country, I shall then have the satisfaction of having been the
occasion of it, because the compilers thereof have done it with a
pure design of suppressing my Chapel, which makes me the most
celebrated man in this kingdom, though not the greatest."

In a letter to George Montagu, Esq., from Horace Walpole,
is the following notice of Keith:--

STRAWBERRY HILL, 11th June, 1753,

I shall only tell you a bon mot of Keith's, the marriage-
broker, and conclude; 'G-d d-n the Bishops!' said he (I beg Miss
Montagu's pardon), so they will hinder my marrying. Well, let 'em,
but I'll be revenged: I'll buy two or three acres of ground, and by
G-d I'll under-bury them all.'

The passing of the Marriage Act put a stop to the marriages
at Mayfair; but the day before the Act came into operation (Lady
Day, 17541) sixty-one couples were married there. In a letter to
George Montagu, Esq., dated 7th July, 1753, Horace Walpole says:
"Lady Anne Paulett's daughter is eloped with a country clergyman.
The Duchess of Argyle harangues against the Marriage Bill not
taking place immediately, and is persuaded that all the girls will go
off before next Lady Day."

It would exceed the limits of this brief sketch were we to
give the official history of the different scandalous ministers who
thus disgraced themselves, and impiously trifled with one of our
most sacred institutions. That some of these wretched adventurers
merely pretended to be clergymen is certain; but it cannot be
denied that many of them were actually in Holy Orders. Of this
latter class were Grierson and Wilkinson, the subjects of our
present notice; and, notwithstanding the heavy penalties imposed
by the statute, they were not to be deterred from continuing the
dangerous and unlawful traffic in which they had been engaged.
Wilkinson, who was the brother of a celebrated comedian of the
day, it would appear, was the owner of a chapel in the Savoy, and
Grierson was his assistant; and, their proceedings having at length
become too notorious to be passed over, proceedings were
instituted against them. Grierson was first apprehended, and his
employer sought safety in flight; but supposing that he could not
be deemed guilty of any offence, as he had not actually performed
the marriage ceremony -- a duty which he left to his journeyman --
he returned to his former haunts.

It was not long before he was secured however, and, having
been convicted with Grierson, they were shipped off as convicts
together to the colonies, in the year 1757.



APPENDIX VII.
An account of the various modes of punishment for adultery, in
distant nations.

WE consider it a part of our duty to give our readers
occasionally an account of the various modes of punishment, for
the commission of crimes, in distant nations.

No guilt is more frequent than adultery, and none, in its
progress, more tending to fatal consequences, involving whole
families in ruin, and driving others to seek revenge in the blood of
the spoilers of their honour.

That adultery is a crime which has been detested by all
wise and good people, as scandalous in its nature, pernicious to
society, and destructive of religion, appears by the various severe
laws and punishments by which legislators and magistrates have
endeavoured to restrain it.

The histories of the ancient heathens tell us that they
thought it a crime so very black and abominable, that they have
compared it to sacrilege, or to robbing of temples; and their
philosophers judged it to be worse than perjury. The old Ethiopians
ranked it with treason, as a crime of the like nature and guilt; and
the Egyptians had a law that the man guilty of it should have a
thousand stripes, and that a woman should lose her nose, as a mark
of perpetual infamy.

The ancient Athenians punished all adulterers with death,
and even those who were only suspected with some less penalty. It
was the custom of the Persians to throw the adulteress down
headlong into a deep well; for, as adultery was, at one time, a
common crime among the nobility and gentry in the court of
ancient Persia, it became the frequent cause of rebellions, murders,
and other dreadful calamities, in that empire.

The tragedy of Mejistes and his whole family, occasioned
by the adultery of his wife with Xerxes the emperor, is most
horrible to relate; and the punishment of Appodines the physician,
for debauching Amytis, the widow of Megabyzus, is also most
shocking and terrible.

The old lawgivers of Greece punished this crime with
death. Among the Lybians it was the custom to treat married
women guilty of adultery in the most severe manner, without
mercy and without pardon.

In a certain city of Crete, when an adulterer was caught in
the fact, and judicially convicted, he was first adjudged to be
covered with a crown of wool, in derision of his soft and
effeminate nature, signified by that material and the animal from
whence it was taken, then publicly to pay a heavy fine, and to be
rendered incapable of bearing any office in the government.

The King of the Tenideans made a law that the adulterer
should be beheaded with an axe; and commanded his own son,
found guilty of this fact, to be put to death in that manner.

The Lepreans made a law that the men should be led round
the city for three days together, and then burnt in the face with a
brand of indelible infamy; and that the women should stand in the
market-place for eleven successive days, clothed only with a thin
transparent garment, which should hang loose and untied, in order
to expose them more to public shame, contempt, and laughter.

Hippomines, one of the kings of Athens, having caught an
adulterer with his daughter Limona, ordered him to be tied to the
wheel of a chariot, and her to one of the horses, and to be dragged
about the streets till they died; a shameful and horrid spectacle to
the whole city, but a public example of the most severe and
impartial justice.

Dio the consul, the first King of the Romans, made a law
that the faulty wife should be put to death after what manner her
husband or relations thought fit; which law was afterwards
confirmed, and continued in force for many years. But the rigidly
virtuous Cato allowed the husband to dispatch his wife
immediately on finding her guilty, without staying for the forms of
justice. Many also of the Roman emperors punished this crime
with present death; though it must be confessed, indeed, that many
others of them, with their empresses and daughters, and ladies of
the highest quality, when Rome was declining, were notoriously
guilty.

We read of many Julias and Messalinas in the reign of the
twelve Caesars, and so downwards, for a great length of time.

This vice soon became very common among them in the
days of their conquests, national influence, and prosperity; and yet,
such diligence and labour had there been used to bring offenders to
condign punishment, that Tacitus says, when he was a chief officer
of Rome, he found in the public records the names of three
thousand who had been put to death for committing adultery. Even
the heathen Romans always punished malefactors convicted of this
crime by banishment, and, in cases of the highest degree, with
death.

The Hungarians, in those days when virtue was in more
esteem than at present, made death the punishment, with dreadful
infliction. The father was compelled to conduct and force his own
daughter to the place of execution, the husband his wife, and the
brother his sister.

In Old Saxony a woman convicted of this crime was
punished precisely as the English law punished the murderer of her
husband -- strangled, and then burnt to ashes. The adulterer was
then hung up over her grave; or else the chaste matrons of the town
where the fact was committed had liberty to scourge him with
whips and rods, from one village to another, until he died.

The Turks adopted the Levitical law, and stoned such
offenders to death; though, before the law of Moses, the adulteress,
when condemned, was burnt alive.

In holy writ, the prophet Jeremiah intimates that the King
of Babylon was more cruel than any other monarch, for he roasted
to death Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, and Ahad, the son of
Kolaiah, because they had committed adultery with their
neighbours' wives.

At this day, in Turkey, adulteries are often punished by
drowning the guilty woman, and castrating the man.

The Spaniards and the Italians, by nature jealous and
severe, wherever they suspect a man guilty with their wives, wait
an opportunity of plunging a dagger secretly in his heart.

In France, five hundred years ago, two gentlemen of
Normandy, who were brothers, were flayed alive, and hung upon
gibbets, for adultery.

Modern writers have stigmatized this crime with the name
it deserves -- a most execrable villainy. Some of the old fathers of
the Church have declared their minds with such sharpness and
vehemence, as to pronounce it, in many cases, unpardonable.

If we look into the old books of the civil and canon laws we
shall find that the several punishments made and ordained by them
were either death by the sword or the loss of their noses, or some
singular brand of infamy, or some large pecuniary mulct, or
banishment; as we find by the old statutes of the Belgians and
Hollanders. If a father caught his daughter in the fact, he might kill
her and her gallant upon the spot; but a husband was empowered,
in the like cases, to put the latter only to death, but the wife was
reserved to the judgment of the law.

Adultery, from being more immediately an offence against
the Church, has been generally excepted out of the acts of pardon
and indemnity, as an evil in itself, or of that nature which kings
themselves cannot or will not pardon.

It would be endless to recount the many kingdoms and
republics, with all their different laws and customs, where this
abominable crime hath been, and still is, chastised and exposed
with very signal, infamous, painful, and terrible punishments. In
England, we are sorry to say, its commission now too often goes
unpunished, whether in the prince or the pickpocket.

Let, however, this short extract from eminent authors,
contrasted with its barefaced commission in our own country, give
the immoral and incontinent a specimen of the opinion of the wise
and sober part of mankind; and let them dread the examples of the
downfall of mighty empires from profligacy, lest its general
adoption hurl their country into the like fate.



APPENDIX VIII
The Jail Fever

THIS malignant distemper was fatal and frequent in old
Newgate and other county jails in different parts of England.

The assize held at Oxford in the year 1577, called the
"Black Assize," was a dreadful instance of the deadly effects of the
jail fever. The judges, jury, witnesses, nay, in fact every person,
except the prisoners, women and chiLdren, in court were killed by
a foul air, which at first was thought to have arisen out of the
bowels of the earth; but that great philosopher, Lord Bacon, proved
it to have come from the prisoners taken out of a noisome jail and
brought into court to take their trials; and they alone, inhaling foul
air, were not injured by it.

Baker's Chronicle, a work of the highest authenticity, thus
speaks of the Black Assize:

"The Court were surprised with a pestilent savour, whether
arising from the noisome smell of the prisoners, or from the damp
of the ground, is uncertain; but all that were present, within forty
hours died, except the prisoners, and the women and children; and
the contagion went no farther. There died Robert Bell, Lord Chief
Baron, Robert De Olie, Sir William Babington, the High Sheriff of
Oxfordshire, some of the most eminent Lawyers, the Jurors, and
three hundred others, more or less."

In the year 1730 the Lord Chief Baron Pengelly, with
several of his officers and servants; Sir James Sheppard, Serjeant-
at-Law; John Pigot, Esq., High Sheriff for Somersetshire, died at
Blandford, on the Western Circuit of the Lent Assize, from the
infected stench brought with the prisoners from Ilchester Jail to
their trials at Taunton, in which town the infection afterwards
spread and carried off some hundred persons.

In 1754 and 1755 this distemper prevailed in Newgate to a
degree which carried off more than one-fifth of the prisoners.

Others attributed the cause of this sudden mortality at
Oxford to witchcraft, the people in those times being very
superstitious. In Webster's Display of Witchcraft we find the
following account of the Black Assize:--

"The 4th and 5th days of July, 1559, were holden the
assizes at Oxford, where was arraigned and condemned, one
Rowland Jenkes, for his seditious tongue, at which time there arose
such a damp, that almost all were smothered. Very few escaped
that were not thken at that instant. The jurors died presently --
shortly after died Sir Robert Bell, Lord Chief Baron, Sir Robert De
Olie, Sir Wm. Babington, Mr Weneman, Mr De Olie, High Sheriff,
Mr Davers, Mr Harcourt, Mr Kirle, Mr Pheteplace, Mr
Greenwood, Mr Foster, Serjeant Baram, Mr Stevens, etc. There
died in Oxford 300 persons, and sickened there, but died in other
places, 200 and odd, from the 6th of July to the 12th of August,
after which day died not one of that sickness, for one of them
infected not another, nor any one woman or child died thereof.
This is the punctual relation, according to our English annals
which relate nothing of what should be the cause of the arising of
such a damp. Just at the conjuncture of time when Jenkes was
condemned, there being none before, and so it could not be a
prison infection; for that would have manifested itself by smell, or
operating sooner. But to take away all scruple, and to assign the
true cause, it was thus: It fortuned that a manuscript fell into my
hands, collected by an ancient gentleman of York, who was a great
observer and gatherer of strange things and facts, who lived about
the time of this accident happening at Oxford, wherein it is related
thus: 'That Rowland Jenkes, being imprisoned for treasonable
words, spoken against the queen, and being a popish recusant, had,
notwithstanding, during the time of his restraint, liberty some time
to walk abroad with a keeper; and that one day he came to an
apothecary, and showed him a receipt which he desired him to
make up; but the apothecary, upon view of it, told him, that it was
a strong and dangerous receipt, and required some time to prepare
it; but also asked him to what use he would apply it. He answered,
to kill the rats, that, since his imprisonment, spoiled his books; so
being satisfied, he promised to make it ready. After a certain time
he cometh to know if it were ready; but the apothecary said, the
ingredients were so hard to procure, that he had not done it, and so
gave him the receipt again, of which he had taken a copy, which
mine author had there precisely written down, but did seem so
horribly poisonous, that I cut it forth, lest it might fall into the
hands of wicked persons. But after, it seems, he had it prepared,
and, against the day of his trial, had made a wick of it (for so is the
word, that is, so fitted, that like a candle it might be fired) which,
as soon as ever he was condemned, he lighted, having provided
himself a tinder-box, and steel to strike fire. And whosoever should
know the ingredients of that wick, or candle, and the manner of the
composition, will easily be persuaded of the virulency and
venomous effect of it.'"

Sir Stephen Theodore Jansen, one of the most philanthropic
magistrates of the City of London, took great interest on behalf of
the regulation of prisons, and the amelioration of the miseries of
unfortunate prisoners.

When Chamberlain of London, in the year 1767, he
published a pamphlet addressed to the Lord Mayor, in the cause of
jail fevers. He was Sheriff of London in the year 1750, when the
putrid fever, the consequence of filth and foul air, made such
dreadful havoc in the Old Bailey Sessions.

Sir Theodore strongly recommended a plan similar to that
of York Castle, which, he said, covered no less than two acres and
a rood of ground, with great plenty of water and other
conveniences.

He warmly remonstrated against the spot then proposed for
the reboilding of Newgate. He said it did not occupy more than
three-quarters of an acre, and that the number of convicts in that
prison was more than treble those of York Castle.

In the year 1772 the assizes for the Summer Circuit were
adjourned for Hampshire from the 17th of July to the 2nd of
September, on account of an infectious distemper in Winchester
Jail.

An expositor on this subject, who wrote under the signature
of "A Philanthropist," during that rage of the jail fever, says:

"The public may be rather concerned than surprised, at the
deplorable consequences of gaol distempers, and at the fatal
instances of their contagion. Several judges, sheriffs, magistrates,
juries, and whole courts of judicature, have been infected by those
contagious diseases, which caused the loss of many valuable lives,
particularly at the Old Bailey, and formerly at the assizes at
Oxford, all owing to the horrid neglect of gaolers, and even of the
sheriffs and magistrates, whose office it is to compel the gaolers, to
the most rigorous repeated orders and attention to their duty,
without the least indulgence or remission; as the gaolers are (some
excepted) frequently low bred, mercenary and oppressive
barbarous fellows, who think of nothing but enriching themselves
by the most cruel extortion; and who have less regard for the life of
a poor prisoner than for the life of a brute.

"The felons of this kingdom lie worse than dogs or swine,
and are kept much more uncleanly than those animals are in
kennels and sties, according to all accounts from clergymen, who
are obliged to go to the gaols. From them I have been assured, that
the stench and nastiness are so nauseous, that the very atmosphere
is pestiferous, and that no persons enter therein, without the risque
of their health or lives, which prevents even many clergymen and
physicians from going there, and assisting their sick and dying
fellow-creatures; so that they live and die like brutes, even worse
than many beasts, to the disgrace of human nature.

"Every person endowed with the least principle of real
humanity, and of true policy, must be affected with such
barbarities, neglects, uncleanliness, and dangers. A contagion of
that kind may spread over a whole country and kingdom; the
greatest precaution ought therefore to be taken in time.

"The gaolers ought to be forced to have all the rooms
sprinkled and fumigated with vinegar every day: as should all the
felons, before their appearance in a court of judicature; for some
hundred prisoners, particularly criminals, are early killed by a sort
of pestilence and vermin among them, occasioned by filth and
nastiness, and a corrupted air.

"All hospitals, prisons, and workhouses, should have
bathing-places, for the sake of cleanliness and health, as in Asia."



APPENDIX IX
Torture

 IN former times such prisoners as contumaciously refused to plead 
to their indictments underwent torture until they complied with the 
law as it then regarded their case. This punishment is, however, no 
longer deemed compatible with freedom; and it was therefore 
abrogated in the year 1772. Yet, as the inhuman practice still 
prevails in some of the English settlements abroad, and as many 
nations continue to torture criminals, we shall offer some 
observations thereon.

In order to extort confession, torture is not peculiar to Roman 
Catholic countries, but is even a custom in China. The instrument 
of barbarity called the rack is composed of a thick strong plank, 
having a contrivance at one end to secure the hands, and at the 
other a sort of double wooden vice. The vice is formed of three 
stout uprights, two of which are moveable, but steadied by a block 
that is fastened on each side. The ankles of the culprit being placed 
in the machine, a cord is passed round the uprights, and held fast 
by two men. The chief tormentor then gradually introduces a 
wedge into the intervals, alternately changing sides. The method of 
forcing an expansion at the upper part causes the lower ends to 
draw towards the central upright, which is fixed unto the plank, 
and thereby compresses the ankles of the wretched sufferer; who, 
provided he be fortified by innocence or resolution, endures the 
advances of the wedge, until his bones are reduced to a jelly.

Stedman, in his account of Surinam, relates the following horrid 
scene, to which he was an eye-witness:

'There was a negro whose name was Neptune, no slave, but his 
own master, and a carpenter by trade: he was young and 
handsome, but, having killed the overseer of the estate of Altona, 
in the Para Creek, in consequence of some dispute, he justly 
forfeited his life. The particulars, however, are worth relating:

'This man having stolen a sheep to entertain a favourite young 
woman, the overseer, who burned with jealousy, had determined to 
see him hanged; to prevent which, the negro shot him dead among 
the sugar-canes. For these offences, of course, he was sentenced to 
be broken alive upon the rack, without the benefit of the coup de 
grace, or mercy- stroke. Informed of the dreadful sentence, he 
composedly laid himself down upon his back on a strong cross, on 
which, with his arms and legs extended, he was fastened by ropes. 
The executioner, also a black man, having now with a hatchet 
chopped off his left hand, next took up a heavy iron bar, with 
which, by repeated blows, he broke his bones to shivers, till the 
marrow, blood, and splinters, flew about the field; but the prisoner 
never uttered a groan nor a sigh! The ropes being next unlashed, I 
imagined him dead, and felt happy; till the magistrates stirring to 
depart, he writhed himself from the cross, when he fell on the 
grass, and damned them all as a set of barbarous rascals. At the 
same time, removing his right hand by the help of his teeth, he 
rested his head on part of the timber, and asked the by-standers for 
a pipe of tobacco, which was infamously answered by kicking and 
spitting on him, till I, with some American seamen, thought proper 
to prevent it. He then begged his head might be chopped off; but to 
no purpose. At last, seeing no end to his misery, he declared, "that 
though he had deserved death, he had not expected to die so many 
deaths; however, (said he,) you Christians have missed your aim at 
last, and I now care not were I to remain thus one month longer." 
After which he sung two extempore songs with a clear voice; the 
subjects of which were to bid adieu to his living friends, and to 
acquaint his deceased relations that in a very little time be should 
be with them, to enjoy their company for ever in a better place. 
This done, he calmly entered into conversation with some 
gentlemen concerning his trial, relating every particular with 
uncommon tranquillity. "But (said he abruptly), by the sun it must 
be eight o'clock, and by any longer discourse I should be sorry to 
be the cause of your losing your breakfast." Then, casting his eyes 
on a Jew, whose name was De Vries, "Apropos, Sir (said he), 
won't you please to pay me the ten shillings you owe me?" "For 
what to do?" "To buy meat and drink, to be sure -- don't you 
perceive I'm to be kept alive?" Which speech, on seeing the Jew 
stare like a fool, this mangled wretch accompanied with a loud and 
hearty laugh. Next observing the soldier that stood sentinel over 
him biting occasionally a piece of dry bread, he asked him how it 
came to pass that be, a white man, should have no meat to eat 
along with it? " Because I am not so rich," answered the soldier, 
"Then I will make you a present, Sir (said the negro). First pick my 
hand that was chopped off, clean to the bones; next begin to 
devour my body till you are glutted; when you will have both 
bread and meat, as best becomes you:" which piece of humour was 
followed by a second laugh. And thus he continued until I left him, 
which was about three hours after the dreadful execution.

'Wonderful it is, indeed, that human nature should be able to 
endure so much torture! which assuredly could only he supported 
by a mixture of rage, contempt, pride, and the glory of braving his 
tormentors, from whom he was so soon to escape.

'I never recall to my remembrance without the most painful 
sensation this horrid scene, which must revolt the feelings of all 
who have one spark of humanity. If the reader, however, should be 
offended with my dwelling so long on this unpleasant subject, let it 
be some relief to his reflection to consider this punishment not 
inflicted as a wanton and unprovoked act of cruelty, hut as the 
extreme severity of the Surinam laws on a desperate wretch, 
suffering, as an example to others, for complicated crimes; while, 
at the same time, it cannot but give me, and I hope many others, 
some consolation to reflect that the above barbarous mode of 
punishment was hitherto never put in practice in the British 
colonies. I must now relate an incident which, as it had a 
momentary effect on my imagination, might have had a lasting one 
on some who had not investigated the real cause of it, and which it 
gave me no small satisfaction to discover.

'About three in the afternoon, walking towards the place of 
execution, with my thoughts full of the affecting scene, and the 
image of the sufferer fresh in my mind, the first object I saw was 
his head, at some distance, placed on a stake, nodding to me 
backwards and forwards, as if he had been really alive, I instantly 
stopped short, and, seeing no person in the Savannah, nor a breath 
of wind sufficient to move a leaf or a feather, I acknowledge that I 
was rivetted to the ground where I stood, without having the 
resolution of advancing one step for some time; till, reflecting that 
I must be weak indeed not to approach this dead skull, and find out 
the wonderful phenomenon if possible, I boldly walked up, and 
instantly discovered the natural case, by the return of a vulture to 
the gallows, who perched upon it as if he meant to dispute with me 
this feast of carrion; which bird, having already picked out one of 
the eyes, had fled at my first approach, and, striking the skull with 
his talons, as be took his sudden flight, occasioned the motion 
already described. I shall now only add, that this poor wretch, after 
living more than six hours, had been knocked on the head by the 
commiserating sentinel, the marks of whose musket were perfectly 
visible by a large open fracture in the skull.'

The torture of a criminal during the course of his trial is a cruelty 
consecrated by custom in most nations. It is used with an intent 
either to make him confess his crime, or explain some 
contradictions into which he had been led during his examination; 
or to discover his accomplices; or for some kind of metaphysical 
and incomprehensible purgation of infamy; or, finally, in order to 
discover other crimes, of which he is not accused, but of which he 
may be guilty.

No man can be judged a criminal until he be found guilty; nor can 
society take from him the public protection until it have been 
proved that he has violated the conditions on which it was granted. 
What right, then, but that of power, can authorize the punishment 
of a citizen, so long as there remains any doubt of his guilt? This 
dilemma is frequent. Either he is guilty or not guilty. If guilty, he 
should only suffer the  punishment ordained by the laws, and 
torture becomes useless, as his confession is unnecessary. If he be 
not guilty, you torture the innocent; for, in the eye of the law, every 
man is innocent whose crime has not been proved. Besides, it is 
confounding all relations to expect that a man should be both the 
accuser and the accused; and that pain should be the test of truth, 
as if truth resided in the muscles and fibres of a wretch in torture. 
By this method the robust will escape and the feeble be 
condemned. These are the inconveniences of this pretended test of 
truth, worthy only of a cannibal, and which the Romans, in many 
respects barbarous, and whose savage virtue has been too much 
admired, reserved for the slaves alone.

What is the political intention of punishments? -- To terrify, and be 
an example to others. Is this intention answered by thus privately 
torturing the guilty and the innocent? It is doubtless of importance 
that no crime should remain unpunished: but it is useless to make a 
public example of the author of a crime bid in darkness. A crime 
already committed, and for which there can be no remedy, can 
only be punished by a political society with an intention that no 
hopes of impunity should induce others to commit the same. If it 
be true that the number of those who from fear or virtue respect the 
laws is greater than of those by whom they are violated, the risk of 
torturing an Innocent person is greater, as there is a greater 
probability that, ceteris paribus, an individual hath observed than 
he hath infringed the laws.

There is another ridiculous motive for torture -- namely, to purge a 
man from infamy. Ought such an abuse to be tolerated in the 
nineteenth century? Can pain, which is a sensation, have any 
connexion with a moral sentiment, a matter of opinion? Perhaps 
the rack may be considered as the refiner's furnace.

It is not difficult to trace this senseless law to its origin; for an 
absurdity adopted by a whole nation must have some affinity with 
other ideas established and respected by the same nation. This 
custom seems to be the offspring of religion, by which mankind, in 
all nations, and in all ages, are so generally influenced. We are 
taught by our infallible Church that those stains of sin contracted 
through human frailty, and which have not deserved the eternal 
anger of the Almighty, are to be purged away in another life by an 
incomprehensible fire. Now infamy is a stain; and, if the 
punishments and fire of purgatory can take away all spiritual 
stains, why should not the pain of torture take away those of a civil 
nature? I imagine that the confession of a criminal, which in some 
tribunals is required as being essential to his condemnation, has a 
similar origin, and has been taken from the mysterious tribunal of 
penitence, where the confession of sins is a necessary part of the 
sacrament. Thus have men abused the unerring light of revelation; 
and, in the times of tractable ignorance, having no other, they 
naturally had recourse to it on every occasion, making the most 
remote and absurd applications. Moreover, infamy is a sentiment 
regulated neither by the laws nor by reason, but entirely by 
opinion; but torture renders the victim infamous, and therefore 
cannot take infamy away.

Another intention of torture is to oblige the supposed criminal to 
reconcile the contradictions into which he may have fallen during 
his examinations; as if the dread of punishment, the uncertainty of 
his fate, the solemnity of the Court, the majesty of the judge, and 
the ignorance of the accused, were not abundantly sufficient to 
account for contradictions, which are so common to men even in a 
state of tranquillity, and which must necessarily be multiplied by 
the perturbation of the mind of a man entirely engaged in the 
thoughts of saving himself from imminent danger.

This infamous test of truth is a remaining monument of that 
ancient and savage legislation in which trials by fire, by boiling 
water, or the uncertainty of combats, were called judgments of 
God; as if the links of that eternal chain whose beginning is in the 
breast of the First Cause of all things could ever be disunited by 
the institutions of men. The only difference between torture and 
trials by fire and boiling water is, that the event of the first depends 
on the will of the accused, and of the second on a fact entirely 
physical and external; but this difference is apparent only, not real. 
A man on the rack, in the convulsions of torture, has it as little in 
his power to declare the truth as, in former times, to prevent, 
without fraud, the effects of fire or boiling water.

Every act of the will is invariably in proportion to the force of the 
impression on our senses. The impression of pain, then, may 
increase to such a degree, that, occupying the mind entirely, it will 
compel the sufferer to use the shortest method of  freeing himself 
from torment. His answer, therefore, will be an effect as necessary 
as that of fire or boiling water, and he will accuse himself of 
crimes of which he is innocent; so that the very means employed to 
distinguish the innocent from the guilty will most effectually 
destroy all difference between them.

It would be superfluous to confirm these reflections by examples 
of innocent persons who, from the agony of torture, have confessed 
themselves guilty: innumerable instances may be found in all 
nations and in every age. How amazing that mankind have always 
neglected to draw the natural conclusion! Lives there a man who, if 
he has carried his thoughts ever so little beyond the necessities of 
life, when he reflects on such cruelty, is not tempted to fly from 
society, and return to his natural state of independence?

The result of torture, then, is a matter of calculation, and depends 
on the constitution, which differs in every individual, and is in 
proportion to his strength and sensibility; so that to discover truth 
by this method is a problem which may be better resolved by a 
mathematician than a judge, and may be thus stated. The force of 
the muscles and the sensibility of the nerves of an innocent person 
being given, it is required to find the degree of pain necessary to 
make him confess himself guilty of a given crime.

The examination of the accused is intended to find out the truth; 
but if this be discovered with so much difficulty in the air, gesture, 
and countenance of a man at ease, how can it appear in a 
countenance distorted by the convulsions of torture? Every violent 
action destroys those small alterations in the features which 
sometimes disclose the sentiments of the heart.

These truths were known to the Roman legislators, amongst whom 
slaves only, who were not considered as citizens, were tortured. 
They are known to the English, a nation in which the progress of 
science,  superiority in commerce, riches, and power, its natural 
consequences, together with the numerous examples of virtue and 
courage, leave no doubt of the excellence of its laws. They have 
been acknowledged in Sweden, where torture has been abolished. 
They are known to one of the wisest monarchs in Europe, who, 
having seated philosophy on the throne, by his beneficent 
legislation has made his subjects free, though dependent on the 
laws; the only freedom that reasonable men can desire in the 
present state of things. In short, torture has not been thought 
necessary in the laws of armies, composed chiefly of the dregs of 
mankind, where its use should seem most necessary. Strange 
phenomenon, that a set of men, hardened by slaughter and familiar 
with blood, should teach humanity to the sons of peace!

A very strange but necessary consequence of the use of torture is, 
that the case of the innocent is worse than that of the guilty. With 
regard to the first, either he confesses the crime which he has not 
committed, and is condemned; or he is acquitted, and has suffered 
a punishment he did not deserve. On the contrary, the person who 
is really guilty has the most favourable side of the question; for, if 
he supports the torture with firmness and resolution, be is 
acquitted, and has gained, having exchanged a greater punishment 
for a less.

The law by which torture is authorized says -- 'Men, be insensible 
to pain. Nature has indeed given you an irresistible self-love, and 
an unalienable right of self- preservation; hut I create in you a 
contrary sentiment, an heroical hatred of yourselves. I command 
you to accuse yourselves, amid to declare the truth, amidst the 
tearing of your flesh and the dislocation of your bones.'

Torture is used to discover whether the criminal be guilty of other 
crimes besides those of which he is accused, which is equivalent to 
the following reasoning -- 'Thou art guilty of one crime, therefore 
it is possible that thou mayest have committed a thousand others; 
but the affair being doubtful, I must try it by my criterion of truth. 
The laws order thee to be tormented because thou art guilty, 
because thou mayest be guilty, and because I choose thou 
shouldest be guilty.'

Torture is used to make the criminal discover his accomplices; but, 
if it has demonstrated that it is not a proper means of discovering 
truth, how can it serve to discover the accomplices, which is one of 
the truths required? Will not the man who accuses himself yet 
more readily accuse others? Besides, is it just to torment one man 
for the crime of another? May not the accomplices be found out by 
the examination of the witnesses, or of the criminal -- from the 
evidence, or from the nature of the crime itself -- in short, by all 
the means that have been used to prove the guilt of the prisoner? 
The accomplices commonly fly when their comrade is taken.

All man kind, being exposed to the attempts of violence or perfidy, 
detest the crimes of which they may possibly be the victims; all 
desire that the principal offender and his accomplices may be 
punished; nevertheless, there is a natural compassion in the human 
heart, which makes all men detest the cruelty of torturing the 
accused, in order to extort confession. The law has not condemned 
them; and yet, though uncertain of their crime, you inflict a 
punishment more horrible than that which they are to suffer when 
their guilt is confirmed. 'Possibly thou mayest be innocent; but I 
will torture thee that I may be satisfied: not that I intend to make 
thee any recompense for the thousand deaths which I have made 
thee suffer, in lieu of that which is preparing for thee.' Who does 
not shudder at the idea? St. Augustin opposed such cruelty; the 
Romans tortured their slaves only; and Quintilian, recollecting that 
they were men, reproved the Romans for such want of humanity.

If there were but one nation in the world which had abolished the 
use of torture -- if in that nation crimes were no more frequent than 
in others -- and if that nation be more enlightened and more 
flourishing since the abolition -- its example surely were sufficient 
for the rest of the world. England alone might instruct all other 
nations in this particular, hut England is not the only nation. 
Torture hath been abolished in other countries, and with success; 
the question, therefore, is decided. Shall not a people who pique 
themselves on their politeness pride themselves also on their 
humanity? shall they obstinately persist in their inhumanity, 
merely because it is an ancient custom? Reserve, at least, such 
cruelty for the punishment of those hardened wretches who shall 
have assassinated the father of a family, or the father of his 
country; but that a young person who commits a fault which leaves 
no traces behind it should suffer equally with a parricide, is not this 
an useless piece of barbarity?



APPENDIX X
Swindling


THOUGH our descriptions of the variety of thieves constantly
prowling, like the beasts of the forest, for plunder, have been
numerous, and, unless we had accompanied them with proof,
would almost exceed the belief of our country readers, yet have we
still to add other species of robbery. Among the finished villains of
London are a gang who extort money from gentlemen, charging
them with pretended crimes. These fellows are generally well
dressed, and accost elegant young men, demanding money; and, on
refusal, threaten to reveal a pretended abominable intercourse.
Others there are who have debauched innocent girls, and, when the
effects of the illicit commerce is evident, further seduce the
unhappy creatures to swear some wealthy married man as the
seducer, and, in case of his resisting the false accusations, to swear
that he is the father, thus at once rendering a numerous family
unhappy.

Other profligate wretches, as indeed we have already shown, swear
robberies against innocent men, in order to obtain the reward for
the apprehension of felons. Other frauds are practised, which we
shall hereafter notice, of dropping counterfeit gold articles and
diamonds, and picking the parcel up in the presence of some
innocent unsuspicious countryman, whom they acknowledge to be
entitled to one half of the pretended prize, and thus cheat him out
of whatever property he may have about him, on depositing the
spurious article with him, to be valued hereafter.

Instances of some of these artful villainies we have already
adduced; but the following has, on perusing the case, drawn from
us these additional observations. In truth, they cannot be too often
repeated, to guard countrymen against the numerous deceptions
practised in the metropolis.

Mr William Hird, of the village of Leyburne, in the North Riding
of the county of York, about forty years ago, came on business to
London. One day the countryman was caught in a heavy shower of
rain, and sought shelter under a gateway on Holborn Hill, where
others were for the same reason assembled. There he was accosted
by a well-dressed man, who observed that the storm was not likely
to abate, and proposed to the innocent countryman to retire to an
adjoining public house, and wait for fair weather over a pot of
porter. The invitation was readily accepted, and they went to the
house, where they found three or four more, who declared that they
came on the same errand.

The porter being drank, a bowl of punch was proposed; and the
countryman, on such an occasion, determined not to be outdone in
acts of courtesy, assented. While the intoxicating liquor passed
quickly round, one of the strangers observed that, as the rain
increased, a game at cards would pass the heavy time unnoticed;
and cards were immediately placed upon the table.

Mr Hird was, in his village club-room, thought to be expert at this
amusement; and, confident of his abilities, he scrupled not to take a
hand. But what are the best players, who play fairly, among
London sharpers? -- Mere dupes.

The game began, when Mr Hird and his partner were for some
time successful. The bets, at first small, were doubled, until the
stakes became high, when the poor countryman not only lost his
gainings, but all his cash soon followed.

This failure being evident, a kind friend in the company advanced
him money on his watch, then upon his silver buckles, and in fact
every valuable article about him was thus pawned. Entirely
stripped, one of the company went out to observe the weather,
another disappeared on another pretence, until the countryman was
left alone. Then came in the landlord, with his demand for the
liquor drank, and payment for the fatal cards.

In vain did poor Mr Hird plead his misfortune; the host insisted on
being paid, alleging that the company were all strangers to him,
and he must look to the last. References for payment were refused,
and the poor countryman was obliged to part with his coat and hat, 
and, the rain still continuing, to return to his inn, wet to the skin.

Swindling has of late years become so common a practice in the
metropolis that writers for diurnal papers frequently amuse
themselves in relating adroit performances of this nature in
burlesque, pun and hyperbole. One of these scribbling wits thus
made merry with a silly tradesman on being fiddled out of his
money:

"SWINDLING SET TO MUSIC."

A country-looking man lately called at a haberdasher's shop with a
fiddle under his arm, and after purchasing and paying for some
trifling articles, which he pretended to want, asked to be allowed to
leave his purchase and his fiddle till He did some other business
through the town. He had scarcely gone out when in comes an
accomplice (as it turned out), who, observing the fiddle, takes it up
and tries it, and is quite charmed with it. 'This is the most charming
fiddle I have ever met with; is it for sale? -- I'd give fifty guineas
for that fiddle.' He was told it was not for sale, but belonged to a
countryman who had just left it there till he should make some
other calls. 'When he comes back for it, try and buy it from him --
make the best bargain with him you can for yourself; but whatever
you buy it at, I promise to give you fifty guineas for it, and I will
call again by and by.' By and by back comes the countryman for
his fiddle. ' Will you part with that fiddle?' says the haberdasher; 'I
have taken a fancy for it.' The man answered he had no intention of
parting with his fiddle, for he knew it to be a very good one, and
did not know if he could get such another. 'I'll give you fifty
shillings for it,' said the haberdasher. 'No, no.' 'Five guineas for it,'
said the haberdasher. 'I'll not take twenty,' said the countryman. In
short, after a great deal of chapmanship, the haberdasher got the
fiddle at forty guineas; and a happy man was he, thinking he had
made ten guineas by the bargain. But he has been allowed to keep
the fiddle, to solace himself for the loss of his money. The fifty-
guinea merchant never returned."

On the 13th of October, 1809, a most infamous act of swindling
was practised on eight poor infirm widows in the Almshouses, near
the New Grove Road, Mile End Road, by a well-dressed man,
about five feet two inches high, stoutish made, hair tied, and light
green coat. He went to one of the poor pensioners' houses and thus
addressed them: 'You are all widows -- a lady has left you eight
pounds'; he then took their names down, and inquired who would
go with him, saying the minister and gentlemen were waiting for
them, that they must bring twenty-three shillings in silver to give
change, or they could not be paid. One of the poor women
borrowed the money at a neighbouring public-house, and a young
woman went with him to Stepney Church. He told her to wait at
the porch while he went and spoke to the clerk, which she saw him
do, and supposed all was right; but he told the clerk he wanted to
put up the banns of marriage, and the clerk desired him to come
when the service was over. He came out, told the girl all was right,
and she must go with him. He then asked the unsuspecting girl for
the twenty-three shillings and decamped with the money. The girl
went back to the clerk, where she was soon informed of her
mistake, to the no small grief of the poor disappointed pensioners.


APPENDIX XI
An Exposée of the whole system of GAMBLING, as practised in the
most notorious LONDON HELLS

CHAPTER ONE

OF all the disgraceful scenes which deform the metropolis, the
most vicious and ruinous is that of the fashionable hells, or rouge
et noir gambling; and it is matter of astonishment and reproach,
that they have yet remained undisturbed by the law, and hitherto
unnoticed by the public press. At this time a large number of these
sinks of iniquity are open for the purposes of fraud and seduction
in noon-day, and not a few profane the Sabbath by their diabolical
and sinful practices.

Although the metropolis has been time out of mind infested with
the imps of play, it has only been within the last ten years that they
have dared thus openly to pursue the practice in the broad face of
day. It may be impossible to entirely suppress the vice of
gambling, but surely some legislative enactment might be found
which would destroy the bands of well-organized gamblers who
now spread their nets for the unwary, and pursue their infamous
courses in the very centre of British society, and in the
neighbourhood of the throne and the two houses of parliament.

In exposing the vice we shall, however, cautiously avoid giving
additional pain to the agonized feelings of those who, from the
force of example and the seductive influence of fashion, may have
been incautiously made the dupes of wily and experienced
sharpers.

Our object is only to attack the incorrigible and the acknowledged
professor; the hunter who starts the game, and pursues his victim
till he has, for his own base purpose, plunged him, and with him,
wife, children, kindred, friend, into the gulf of misery, penury, and
destruction. To unravel the mystic web of secrecy with which these
sharpers hive surrounded themselves, was a work of no mean
exertion or enterprise. That we have succeeded (beyond even our
most sanguine wishes) will be of little gratification to us, if we
should fail in producing what we most desire, the interference of
the legislature in suppressing these schools of infamy. To this end 
we labour, and to effect this purpose we shall give a history of the
different gambling-houses, the proprietors, the frequenters, the
game, hours of play, stakes played for; with such anecdotes as will
tend to illustrate and expose the baneful and pernicious effects of
gambling.

The gambling-house displays a heterogeneous mass of human
character, weakness, folly, and duplicity, that is not to be met with
in any other situation. We shall endeavour to place an impartial
picture before the eyes of our readers, and it will be the fault of
those who are addicted to play, if they do not profit by the
exposure.

The following is a list of the principal gambling-houses:-- The G--
H--, in P-- M--, formerly conducted by a Clergyman of the Church
of England, (lately abolished). In addition to which, there are--

Five Houses in Pall Mall
	One House in Jermyn-street
	Two in St. James's-street
	One in Cleveland-row
	One in Bennett-street
	One in Piccadilly
	Two in King-street
	One in Leicester-square
	Four in Bury-street

To which might be added a long list of minor Hells, in and about
the same neighbourhood.

Some of the Principal Black Legs are known among their own
fraternity by the following nick-names:--

The Leviathan
	The Mathematician
	The Black Dwarf
	The Hebrew Star
	The Calculator
	Boniface
	The Neptune
	The Four German Barons
	Jack Spiggot
	Coaxing Tom
	Captain Whimper
	The Pill Gilder
	Mother Bunch
	Count Bluster
	Ella Rosenberg
	Old Square Toes
	Portugal John

To these might be added a very numerous list of persons of the
very highest rank in the state, not excepting some of orthodox
habits, from the top of nobility down to the very lowest of the low,
the scum and outcast of society, all commingled and identified in
one ruinous vice; all following the same criminal pursuits, and
each one endeavouring, by every means in his power, to ruin his
fellow.

These dens have the appearance of private dwellings, with the
exception, that the hall door of each is left ajar, during the hours of
play, like those of trap-cages, to catch the passing pigeons, and to
obviate the delay which might be occasioned by knocking; a delay
that might expose the customers to a glance of an unsuspecting
creditor, a confiding father, or a starving wife. It is generally
understood that a stranger must be what they term "introduced"
before he can get admission, or permission, to lose his money; and
this is to obviate the danger of being surprised by the officers of
the law: but it is, alas! too easy to break through that rule; and any
gentleman, whom the door-keeper has sufficient reason to think is
not a constable, finds the avenues of these labyrinths too ready to
his foot.

On passing the outer door the visitor is impeded by another in the
centre of the hall, in which is constructed a small spy-hole,
exhibiting the fixed ball of a ruffian's eyes, intently examining his
figure. If the visitor is a fair pigeon or an old crow, he is at once
admitted by this Cyclops, and politely bowed upstairs; at the top of
which another gate unbars its power. To this succeeds the last of
these barriers, a massy iron door, which on opening presents the
visitors of the house with a scene of dazzling astonishment.
Around an oblong table, covered with green cloth, assemble the
votaries of gaming on each side: while in the centre sit the priests
of the ceremony: one to deal the cards and decide events, the other
to assist him in collecting the plunder following these events.
Behind the company are seen two or three or the proprietors, with
eagle-eye, watching the progress of their gains: remorseless,
avaricious, and happy, unmarked with the lines of care which
contract and deform the faces of their victims, -- "they smile, and
smile, and murder while they smile."

Their attention is always directed to the Punters, (or Players) and
they talk and take snuff with them, not forgetting to explain the
fairness of the game, and the great losses they have sustained!
While the stranger's eye is delighted, and his avarice stimulated by
a profusion of money flying about the table, and heaped in the
centre, his senses become harmonized with his hopes through the
influence of strong wines, liquors, &c., with which he is
unceasingly plied by the obliging waiters; and, believing that his
Midas touch must turn anything into gold, he boldly adventures.

In nine cases out of ten he is successful on his first night's play;
and in the glare of his imaginary good fortune, he loses sight of all
that proper value which he had before been accustomed to bestow
upon his money; be becomes profuse in his expenditure, believing
that half an hour at Rouge et Noir will make up for all, and he
blesses the inventor of a system which ensures him all the
happiness of unlimited fortune. A few days, or weeks at the most,
convince him of his chimerical castles; and poverty, contempt, and
destruction, tumble in upon him with all their horrors. It is not
unfrequently the case, that men who one day stood beside the
proprietors of these tables, not only independently, but looked
down upon them, the next day they have been obliged to entreat
their pecuniary assistance, and to receive the mortification of a
refusal.

DESCRIPTION OF A GAMBLER AT ROUGE ET NOIR

It is heart-rending to observe the progress of the unfortunate
votaries to this destructive game, as they gradually sink into the
various stages of misery and want. A young man of fortune is first
seen playing high stakes, with hundreds, and even thousands of
pounds before him; he has alternate success, until losses throw him
off his guard: desperation then seizes him, and he loses all. The
following day he appears with a new capital; and again is
unsuccessful. Thus he goes on, day after day, until his resources
are exhausted; his credit gone, and his character blasted; he can
now only play occasionally, and, when he does play, his stake is a
crown, or less, as the gambling house he frequents, admits.

His appearance, which was at first fashionable and gay, and his
clothes, new and well-made, are now sadly changed. He is haggard
and pale, pining under distress and care; has passed the preceding
night at the Rouge Table, and afterwards lingered the time away at
Hazard, until five or six in the morning, and finished all by a futile
attempt at borrowing a crown, probably from the waiter at the
table; his fine spirit is gone; he shuns the companions of his
brighter days, he is himself avoided, and styled a Gambler, or
Black Leg. Look at him  -- where is the Man of Fashion? This
cannot be him, this young man has a rusty hat and thread-bare coat
on: he wears patched boots, and dirty linen; his pantaloons are in
holes, and he is detected sneaking through lanes and courts to
avoid his creditors, for he owes money to every person who would
trust him.

Such is the career of the Rouge et Noir Gambler.


CHAPTER TWO

THE first in order, and in consequence, of these Temples of
Iniquity, (which has lately been closed,) was known by the name
of the G-- H--. This spacious building was fitted up in the most
extravagant style of modern elegance, a profusion of chandeliers
and candelabras were tastefully arranged to light the victims to the
altar of seduction. The furniture was of the most splendid
description, and in the ante-room were arranged a collection of the
most fragrant shrubs and choice exotics, forming a grove through
which the dupes of these demons were led to destruction.

This house was opened by a joint stock company of the most
experienced gamblers, and was intended by its sumptuous fittings,
and extravagant arrangements, to have been exclusively used for
the purpose of easing young noblemen and men of fortune of their
superfluous cash, and the unnecessary incumbrance of a good
estate, or the more weighty difficulty of a large funded property.

The project originated with, and was carried into execution by, a 
Reverend Divine, who officiated as the high-priest of this Temple
of Vice.

As there are some curious circumstances connected with the origin
of this house, it would not be doing justice to the parties or the
public to pass them by unnoticed, particularly as the history
abounds with some curious characteristic anecdotes of this class of
persons.

A banker had become enamoured of a celebrated courtesan, over
whose confidence the Reverend Professor of the Black Art had a
most unlimited control. This lady lived in a very splendid style,
kept her carriage and her establishment in elegant liveries, gave
splendid parties to a few choice friends, and was in fact the gaze of
fashion, and the great orb of attraction among the licentious and 
the giddy, who buzz around the unfathomable whirlpool of
destructive folly. Many were the attempts of the Banker to obtain
an interview with this adorable, but all his efforts proved abortive,
till he had made certain arrangements with the high-priest of her
presence, her orthodox confessor.

Acceptances upon the Banking house were given for a sum of Five
Thousand Pounds, and to this was added a bonus of Two Thousand
more in ready rhino, such was the infatuation of this deluded man
for a notorious Cyprian, who, but a short time before was a nightly
attendant in the lobbies of the theatres.

Up to this period, the Parson had been a constant visitor at the most
notorious play-houses, occasionally picking up a crown or guinea
as the pigeons were knocked down by the more wealthy and
successful players. Tired of his dependence upon this precarious
revenue, and elated with the success of his late negotiation (which
far exceeded his former exploits with a French chere amie,) the
Reverend determined to form a society of congenial worthies for
the humane and moral purpose of opening a superior Gambling
House. The abilities of the Parson were too generally
acknowledged not to be highly appreciated, and accordingly eight
other depredators embarked with the Parson in the New Gambling
Scheme.

The house was opened with great éclat, but the success was by no
means equal to the anticipated gains of the parties; in short, the
thing was badly managed; the entrance through seven different
doors before you gained the Sanctum Sanctorum was rather
calculated to create suspicion in the minds of the most volatile or
thoughtless; in fact, the object was too notorious, and young men
of fashion, although quite foolish enough generally speaking, were
not to be duped out of their money quite so glaringly.

A separation of partnership was the consequence, but the Parson
being quite as well versed in the common as the canon law, and
being withal in possession of the premises, determined to remain in
statu quo. This was a gambling transaction, and such subjects are
always viewed with a suspicious eye, both by judge and jury; the
Parson was therefore under no great apprehensions of legal
reprisal, and being thus firmly seated in a new and elegant
establishment, determined to stand his ground, set his partners at
defiance, and keep possession of the property.

Some of the associated robbers brought actions for their One
Thousand Five Hundred Pounds each, but the Parson managed to
justify the bail, and the plaintiffs were too wise to proceed.

Ultimately the house was let by the Parson to a company of
Foreigners, at the head of whom was a person calling himself a
Baron. The rent was thirty guineas per day, and thirteen guineas
more were paid for house expenses, for which the Parson supplied
the company with wine, sandwiches, tea, coffee, and refreshments.
The sums, thus paid, will give some idea of the enormous gains of
these houses, and to this is to be added the sums paid to the dealers
and room-porters, door-keepers, &c., some of whom have their
five pounds per day, and all are very liberally rewarded.

The play at this house was from five shillings to nominally one
hundred pounds; but, in fact, for any sum you pleased, by its being
previously mentioned to the banker.

The chances in Rouge et Noir are about two per cent against the
player upon every stake arising from the apres, which, occur twice
out of three deals, or about twice in eighty coups or events. Hazard
was also played here to a very great extent, and it was no unusual
circumstance to see one thousand pounds upon the table at a time.

Some short time after the Parson had opened his Saloon, he found
out that some forgeries had been committed upon his bank, with
respect to the introduction of ivory counters which were then in
use. He laid a wager with one of his partners, that before twenty-
four hours, he would detect the person who brought them to the
house. A gentleman who had been in the daily habit of playing at
his table, happened to be sent for by a friend, with whom he had
made an appointment, and as it was in the middle of a deal he did
not wish to disturb the game by getting change for sixteen counters
be had left, and told the croupier he would take them away, and
return and play them in the evening. During his absence, a set of
silver counters were substituted in lieu of the ivory, and when he
came in the evening, be found to his astonishment, that be was not
permitted to stake them; they were alleged to be forgeries. The
gentleman protested against such usage, and said he had received
them at the table in the morning, and appealed to one of the
croupiers, who confirmed his statements, but said that nothing
could be done until the Parson made his appearance. When he
came he examined the tokens, and declared eight out of sixteen to
be false, charged the gentleman with having had them made, and
said he had a person in the house who was ready to swear he had
given him an order to make fourteen pounds worth. The gentleman
demanded to be confronted with him, and upon questioning the
man whether he had ever employed him, he declared he had never
seen him in his life, nor was he like the person he had given a
description of. Upon which his reverence got in a great passion,
and swore with many oaths they were both a set of swindlers, and
that his opinion was not in the least altered respecting the
transaction, and that he had now won his wager.

The Parson could bully in safety as he knew the gentleman could
not resent any insult he might offer, being bound over by his
friends not to play; and if it were known he was in the habit of so
doing he would lose a considerable annuity. Of this person the
Parson made selection as an instrument to win his wager.


CHAPTER THREE

THE house at the corner of B-- Street, St. James's, is generally
denominated the dandy house. Here the most elegant suppers are
gratuitously given to the infatuated punters, as an inducement to
play; the most intoxicating wines are freely distributed, and every
luxury provided that can lull suspicion, and promote the views of
the experienced sharper. The stakes here are from five shillings to
one hundred pounds, but for any sum the punter pleases, by its
being previously named to the banker. Many of the young officers
of the guards, and some clerical associates, will remember their
reverses in this house while they live.

It was here that one young man was first initiated into this dreadful
vice, and afterwards ruined of all the property bequeathed to him
by his lamented father; yet, such is his infatuation, that he still
continues a constant visitant at all the notorious hells, being by
nature far more attentive to the study of rouge et noir than to the
honourable and lucrative profession which rendered his father one
of the brightest ornaments of society.

As a proof of the destructive effects of such associations, we shall
here relate an anecdote of this young man, which, we are sorry to
say, is by no means a singular occurrence among the dissipated and
thoughtless, who, driven to desperation, seize on any circumstance
to recover some portion of their losses. This young sprig of
fashion, and student of Lincoln's Inn, after losing in one night
upwards of seven hundred pounds, went to a pawn-broker's in
Jermyn-street, disrobed himself of his shirt, pledged it for the
paltry sum of eight shillings, then buttoned up sans linen, and
returned to the table, where he won about one hundred pounds of
his money back again; and, will, it be believed, made his boast of
the degrading circumstance which had enabled him to resume the
same.

Next in destructive consequence to the Hell we last described is
one in K-- Street, St. James. The proprietors of this den of infamy
have assisted in no small degree for some years to people the
King's Bench prison. The public cannot fail to be benefited by a
full view of the internal mechanism by which, this diabolical
engine is kept in daily motion.

There are four croupiers, who alternately deal the cards. One was
formerly a commissariat clerk; and one a brother to the proprietor
(and of slight-of-hand notoriety, having always at command a
thirty-one apres, whenever the stakes are high).

These gentry are in perfect training, and move as regular as clock-
work, receiving a stipend of from three to four pounds per week,
and a percentage upon the winnings, or rather plunder. This is done
with a view to keep them upon the alert, and to extinguish any
spark of pity that might kindle in their bosom: in a few weeks they
become as callous and hard-hearted as their employers.

There are also in the constant pay of the concern, a number of
ruined gamesters, who are employed in the capacity of recruiting
officers, who frequent the fashionable coffee-houses at the West-
end, insinuate themselves into the society of young men of fashion,
introduce them to the houses, and are paid a bonus by the
proprietors, great, in proportion to the sum their victim has been
robbed of.

When the company musters thick, and there is much play, two of
them take their seats at the table opposite to each other, and deal
the cards by turns. Their fame for slight of hand is too well known
to require any comment; suffice it to say, that when they preside,
the colour on which the most money is staked is sure to lose, or if
stakes are nearly equal on both, a thirty-one apres is made, which
gives them the half of both the stakes.

This is playing a sure game, and numberless are the victims whom
these all-devouring monsters have thus destroyed; many are the
instances of men, who after having been ruined by them, have been
brought to the gallows. They have caused more ruin than plague,
pestilence, or famine, could have done; their system of play is
founded on deceit of all sorts, and by such means they rise like
mushrooms, become suddenly rich, owing their wealth to no
qualities but such as are most despicable, and holding in utter
contempt those who strive to gain an independence by slow and
honest means. Fraud and villainy are the deities worshipped by
them, and at the shrine of their insatiate avarice, is immolated the
victim, who, had he not been decoyed to this den of thieves, might
still have continued to be happy.

To illustrate this, let us cite the example of one of the first brokers
upon 'Change, who, a few years ago, rolled in wealth, whom they
have actually stripped of incalculable sums, and now reduced next
door to beggary. Of all the Hells about St. James's, this is the most
infamous (the parson's excepted) and its proprietors ought to be
held up to public execration.

Two gallants, brothers, officers in the army, who, after having
escaped the dangers and perils of the peninsular war, returned
home to enjoy in the bosoms of their families that peace and
comfort which their patrimony, of which they had lately become
possessed, promised them the enjoyment, became the prey of the
recruiting serjeants belonging to this establishment, in three years
were fleeced of a very large sum of money, and very speedily both
were confined in prison.

Let us next take a peep a few doors lower in the same street, kept
by the elder, and Dick -- of E. O. table, and false dice notoriety.
This Hell is less in rank, though not least in villainy, to the
foregoing; the aiders and abettors are Bill, son to the
aforementioned, who bids fair to rival his sire in the arts of false
play; Tommy, ci-devant conductor of stores to the army, a
complete Greek, always ready at hand, to second the motion of
Dick when a Johnny Newcome is to be fleeced; and last, not least,
behold the Squire, who, under the most meek and sanctified
outward appearance, conceals all the tricks and devices of an
experienced black-leg, a perfect Iago.

Of such materials is composed the staff of this establishment,
besides a good corps de reserve, always at hand.

They profess to place on the table a bank of three hundred pounds,
but it scarce ever exceeds one hundred and fifty pounds, and with
this trifling sum, they contrive to win from four hundred to five
hundred pounds daily, and 'tis not rare to see an individual lose
from eight hundred to twelve hundred pounds at a sitting. The
stakes are from two shillings and six-pence to twenty-five pounds;
one shilling and six-pence and two shillings are frequently put
down by the broken punter, and the smallest donations are
thankfully received by the bank.

You may daily behold at the table individuals who constantly win;
they are in the secrets of the cabinet, and play for the bank in order
to delude the young and unsuspecting punter into a belief there is a
possibility of winning, although experience proves that certain ruin
is sure to overtake him who is so infatuated as to persist in
following up this destructive game.

They seldom, at this house, give the broken-down player the
opportunity of resorting to the pawnbroker to recruit his finances;
if the victim has about his person a valuable watch, seals, chain,
diamond broach, or ring, from the moment of his entering this den
of thieves, Tommy has already calculated its probable value, and
steps forward and generously offers to lend about half its worth, on
this security, encouraging the poor fellow again to try his luck, and
he has always at his elbow one of the recruiting squad to recount
some unaccountable story of Mr Such-a-one, who borrowed a few
pounds on the security of his watch, and won all the money on the
table. The poor fellow is credulous, again ventures, and, in a few
moments, loses his last stake. When it is considered that his means
are exhausted, and he neglects to redeem his pledges, in a few
days, he is deemed completely plucked, and is refused admittance,
unless he is base enough to consent to introduce some candidate
who is flush (to use the cant words), in which case he is enrolled
on the recruiting service, and is paid in proportion to the ruin he
entails on those who may be weak enough to be deluded by him.

The bank can at first sight detect a forged note, being adepts in that
science; yet 'tis very strange how many forged notes are received
by the punters, and if they attempt to return them they are
threatened with exposure. These practices, strange as it may
appear, are carried on in the open face of day, and in defiance of
the wise laws which have been enacted to prevent excessive and
destructive gaming.


CHAPTER FOUR

PROCEED we next to a description of one of the Hells in B--
Street, St. James's. The door is decorated with a brass plate,
bearing the name of a pretended merchant. The hours of
destruction in this place are from one to four in the forenoon, and
from seven to eleven or twelve at night.

This hell is an immense gulf, in which many have been totally
swallowed up, many very much shattered and damaged, some
quite disjointed and broken to pieces; some, perhaps, may have
escaped the common wreck, but the number of the last is very
small.

The proprietors and setters-up of the game of Rouge et Noir, at this
place, are, first, a notorious black-leg, who has realized a good
fortune at the trade, and is said to be the proprietor of a large estate
at Sydenham in Kent. Second, one called Vulcan, from his being
lame; if report speaks true, 'tis said he was hurled (not from
heaven), but from a second-floor window, by a son of Mars, some
years since, for some little irregularity in casting the bones. His
present occupation is that of catching Pigeons, with a net of his
own construction, the meshes of which are so artfully woven as to
be imperceptible, and very few, who have the misfortune to be,
caught, escape complete plucking from the fangs of this
Polyphemus. Third, Captain --. He may never have distinguished
himself in that capacity, but it must be allowed that the trade he has
been following up, for some years past, has disgraced him as an
officer and a gentleman. He is a character devoid of moral feeling,
who did not scruple to initiate his son in the mysteries of the
Pandemonium, and made him his locum tenens, while forced to
secrete himself, in consequence of writs being issued against him.
Men, however depraved, generally wish to keep their offspring
free from depravity; but with him 'tis quite the reverse, lucre is his
god, and at its shrine he does not scruple to sacrifice parental duty
and affection, and without compassion or remorse, converts into
deadly poison the food he administers. Fourth, Jemmy, who goes
by many names, and is as complete a master of the art of
legerdemain as any professor at present exhibiting within the
precincts of St. James's; famous for the undeviating and continued
assiduity with which he has pursued his gambling career from year
to year -- whose depth of calculating villainy is only exceeded by
his power of assuming the semblance of modesty, a saint in
appearance, but a demon in reality!!!

These are the proprietors of this Hell -- a quartetto of fit associates
who have formed an odious and abominable conspiracy to effect
the ruin of all who have the misfortune to come within their vortex.

A notice, framed and glazed, to the following purport, is exhibited
most conspicuously opposite each entrance of the rooms:-"The
bank will be on the table precisely at one o'clock in the forenoon
till four o'clock, and in the evening at seven till eleven; the stakes
are from two shillings and sixpence to twenty pounds."

The staff of this establishment is not so numerous, but equally, if
not better, organized than that of their neighbours. There are three
croupiers in daily attendance. One, a ci-devant dealer in cattle,
from Yorkshire, who, in an unlucky moment was induced to play,
lost his all, and became a Pigeon, and, as a dernier resort, was
forced to take service under the banners of the Captain. He,
however, to speak the truth, is a good sort of a fellow, merely a
dealer, and not initiated in the mysteries of the black art, and is
possessed of more feeling than could be supposed to be left to one
of his employ.

Next comes a knight of the needle, who, feeling himself above his
calling, and "malicious fate having given him high notions and a
small estate," threw cabbage to the dogs (it was not profitable
enough), slept all day and diced all night; being raw and
inexperienced found himself deficient of the quelque chose, joined
a band of strolling players -- paid his footing, and was admitted a
member of the association, and from that time permitted to vend
his quaint saying, ply his nostrums, and physic the flats. Such were
his natural abilities, that from an entered apprentice he was raised
to a fellow craft, and with hasty strides soon acquired the rank of a
free and accepted blackleg. Scorning to be a satellite, he was not
tardy in eclipsing his teachers, and blazed forth upon the horizon a
fixed star of the first magnitude. Nothing could escape him, every
passing meteor being obliged to pay tribute; those who, previous to
his appearance, conceived themselves in the ascendency, were
soon proved to be in the decline. He was a good judge, for he
always backed the caster out; he could read the book of fate,
foretell events, and was even gifted with second sight!!! His being
no borrowed light, he felt assured he could work in the open face
of day as well as by night. He sold his knowledge to the proprietors
of this house; and it is here this worthy officiates at the game of
Rouge et Noir, having always ready a quaint saying, or an obscene
jest (for he is disgustingly foul-mouthed), to divert the attention of
his punters from the tricks he is playing them. He assumes the
most careless manner of dealing the cards, and an observer would
draw the conclusion, that he is naturally awkward; in fact, he
appears everything but a professor. How many have been deceived 
by him, how many have reason to curse the day they came in
contact with him!

Seated opposite to him may be seen the golden knight, commonly
known by the name of Porpoise, from the unwieldy bulk of his
stinking carcass, for it "hath an ancient and fish-like smell."

This hero is not so barefaced, yet not a whit less rogue than the
knight of the needle. He is a good dealer, and surprisingly active at
his trade; he can handle the cards with such ease, that the punters
very soon find themselves eased of the weight of their cash. Should
he hear any complain of ill luck, he gives them some consolatory
speech, coupled with the assurance that if they will but "call again
to-morrow," it is more than probable they shall retrieve their loss;
for, says he, (while he is shuffling, or rather packing the cards,) 'tis
very singular to be for ever hearing gentlemen complaining they
always lose; I can assure them (drawing himself up in his chair,
and looking big), we have, I mean the bank has, been losing for the
last eight months:" - "Tis true, so help me Bob," echoes the tailor;
his deluded audience, for the most part, take this for granted, and
keep at the game as long as there is a shot in the locker, but alas!
their eyes are only open to conviction when 'tis too late.

In fact, to those who are not in the secret of the Pandemonium, it
would appear the bank did not win; for the moment any punter has
been fleeced by the confederated black-legs present, in comes one
of their squad, and, after exchanging a few winks and significant
nods with the dealers, plays the highest stakes, and soon clears the
bank of the winnings, makes his exit, and as soon as strangers have
withdrawn, returns, and pays back the money, receiving his 
percentage for the job.

It is impossible to have any suspicion of these gentry, as they are
dressed in the very height of fashion, and come to the door either
in their gig or on horseback, attended by a servant. The Captain
keeps a gig for that very purpose; some of these gentry are styled
captains, colonels, and baronets. Having played their part for a
term, they are relieved by other actors; they are in perfect training;
and a very lucrative employment it is.

Let us now take a cursory view of the company frequenting this
hell. A bullying, thrice-bankrupted horse-dealer, and a pawn-
broker from the Strand, are in daily attendance, the first a rogue in
grain, and a sharp; the second a flat, who, if he has but for a while
longer the run of the house, will be forced to take refuge up his
own spout; they both act as supporters to an elegant, accomplished,
and facetious A-- of F--, who, though a severe sufferer, swears, he
will die game, "and cock-a-oodle-doo crow whilst he can." Many
of his acquaintance have wondered why he put down his curricle;
had they known he played rouge et noir, and French hazard, they
would have been able to account satisfactorily for the
circumstance.

Among the numerous visitors, behold, also a city broker, a German
lieutenant, a hatter from Oxford-street, a collector of poor rates, an
army agent, and the little whipper-snapper measurer of miles, near
Charing Cross, formerly a partner in the firm of this hell. The little
Tom-tit, or Lady-killer, and the brave major and learned doctor of
the same regiment. The latter swears it gives him the jaundice to be
so fleeced, and declares he will leave it off, yet is sure to be the
first at play the next day.

Two Roulette Banks are daily and nightly open, in St. James's of
which Monsieur -- is the principal manager; the other in -- Place,
St James's under the auspices of Monsieur -- and Mynheer --, well
known by the name of the Hebrew Star. This concern is reaping a
golden harvest, they have contrived to fleece Colonel -- of some
very heavy sums.

This game of Roulette, Anglice Roly-poly, seems to have taken
deep root, and the number of its dupes seem to be daily increasing.
Other tables have found their way across the channel, together with
a set of French croupiers. It is wonderful how they continue to get
these roulette tables to this country: they surely are too bulky to be
smuggled as a parcel of French lace. Do the Custom-house officers
allow them to pass on paying duty? The natural supposition would
be, that the use of such articles being strictly prohibited in the
country, they would be considered as contraband, and the
individuals attempting to introduce them liable to be prosecuted.

This Mons. B. is concerned with all the roulette banks in London,
-- to him we owe the introduction of this pestilence, and we
sincerely hope that the retributive arm of justice will reach this
delinquent before he has time to secure his unlawful gains and
depart from this country. Let the police-officers be on the alert.

One of the principal Hells is a house at the corner of -- Row,
Piccadilly, where Hazard and Rouge et Noire are played for the
benefit of a company of six black legs. As two of the proprietors
are so notorious for every description of foul play, it was thought
prudent their names had better be kept a secret. A-- of Sloane
Street, was a groom-porter to a person that kept a Hazard table at
the corner of St. James's Street, some few years back. He then went
to a coffee house in the same Street. C. was a fishmonger's man in
the Strand, but was all ways amongst low Greeks, at the inferior
Hells, till he became what they call a good workman, at card and
dice. Another proprietor was originally a lighterman, tugging at the
oar on the Thames, and being considered a good ruffian, he was
employed by P-- of lottery fame, (who kept a gaming-house in Pall
Mall,) also as croupier, or groom-porter, as he might be wanted. A
circumstance one night, when he was dealing the cards at faro,
fixed his fortune. Sir C-- was playing, and having won a large sum
of money at Hazard, and being elated with his success, said to a
gentleman that was with him, "If I win this stake, I will give it to
the croupier," which was C--. The baronet won, and as he did not
play any more that night, he gave it to C--. The sum was fifteen or
seventeen hundred pounds. C--has been known to say, that he has
never wanted money since. He after this attended Newmarket --
got concerned with the training grooms and jockeys, and now is a
great man in his own estimation; he is a little hurt at his old
acquaintance calling him by the name of Happy Jerry.

There is a new firm of Greeks established at Cheltenham, who
think themselves very snug. The proprietors of this firm are, a
person of the name of K--, master of the rooms, a son of K--, who
kept a Hazard table, in Jermyn-street, and Pall Mall: also a Mr B--,
who was a Billiard sharp in London for years. This B--, was
considered the best packer of cards at Rouge et Noir of any of
them, and cogger of a dice on dice, so you may judge how the
people are fleeced here. The other partner's name is --, a broken
down lawyer; this gentleman is considered clever at all games; he
can hand, reef, and steer with anyone of them; he has a wife that is
reported as clever as himself, and can cog a dice, or pack the cards
at Whist, or any other game, as well or better than her spouse. This
gentleman has a cottage, where he gives elegant supper parties, or
dinner, as it may suit. They are carrying on a roaring trade. The last
mentioned hero keeps his hunter and dogs, and picks up a number
of flats in the winter, with the assistance of a certain Colonel --, a
sprig of fashion in the neighbourhood.


CHAPTER FIVE

ROUGE ET NOIR, or, as the French call it, Trente et Quarante,
was introduced into this country some twenty-five or thirty years
ago, and took the place of FARO, which has not been publicly
played for many years; indeed, the odds at that game, and the
fraudulent tricks practised by the bankers, soon rendered the game
obsolete. Rouge et Noir is daily and nightly played at all the Hells,
about thirty in number, in St. James's.

The company take their seats at an oblong table, about six yards
long, and two and a half broad; on each side, at the centre, sits a
croupier (i. e. dealer) with bank notes and gold before him, and in
turn one of these worthies deal the cards, that is three deals each in
succession. At about eighteen inches from each extremity of the
table, which is covered with green cloth after the fashion of a
Billiard table, there are two patches, one red and the other black,
about three feet and a half long by two feet and a half broad; above
these there are two spaces marked by a yellow line. The punters,
for so the persons who play are called, place upon the patches,
either on the red or black patches as they may fancy, the sum of
money they wish to stake. The cards are then shuffled, which
consist of six packs, and tell as follow. Court cards are valued at
ten pips, and aces for one; other cards as they are marked. The
dealer, taking up a handful of cards goes on dealing the first row,
which is always for the black, and stops as soon as the pips exceed
thirty; thus, if he deals out three court cards, or three tens, which
make thirty, he must go on with another card, which we will
suppose to be an ace, it makes thirty-one, the lowest number. He
then stops and cries ONE, deals out another row for the red, and if
the pips exceed thirty-one the red loses. Thus an eight, two tens,
and a five, which make thirty-three pips, he cries three, red loses,
and goes on in this manner, taking the lowest number between
thirty and forty. The money staked on the losing colour is drawn
by the croupiers with a rake of the shape of a garden hoe, and an
equal sum paid to what has been staked upon the winning colour.

The odds at this game in favour of the bank, if no fraud is
practised, may be reckoned at about two and a half per cent.

When both colours turn up thirty-one, which is called a one apres,
the money staked on both colours is drawn within the two spaces
mentioned, and the players have the option of halving their stake
with the bank, or trusting to the chance of the next event: he who is
then upon the winning colour receives back his original stake only,
and the croupiers draw the money on the losing side; so that every
time a thirty-one apres occurs, the bank wins half the money staked
upon the table. The average is, that three thirty-one apres takes
place in two deals, or nineteen events; each deal consists of never
less than twenty-eight coups or events.

To give an idea of the profits accruing to the keepers of these
Hells, let us select the one kept by J-- D-- and R-- D-- in K--
Street, St. James's, one of the minor Hells, where to a certainty ten
pounds may be averaged to be staked through the year upon every
event. They play at this Hell full eight hours per day, three deals
take place every hour, which makes twenty-four deals per day.
Consequently thirty-six one apres takes place, on each of which
they win five pounds, making L.180 per day, L.1,080 per week,
and L.56,160 per annum. In this estimate the stakes are averaged
very low, for frequently may be seen from L.50 to L.300 staked
upon a coup or event.

Those who are infatuated or silly enough to follow this destructive
game for any length of time, are sure to be fleeced of their last
farthing; and the foregoing calculation has clearly proved, that a
person playing every day at Rouge et Noir, and staking only one
pound on each event, is sure to be loser at the end of the year, to
the amount of L.5,616. Suppose a person stakes only half-a-crown
on each event, he must pay to the bank for thirty-six apres four
pounds ten shillings in the course of a day's play, twenty-seven
pounds per week, and in a year, fifty-two weeks, L.1,404.

That it is impossible for anyone to be a winner for any length of
time, was proved by a wager laid some time since by a gentleman
and Mr T-- L-- of Roundhead notoriety, who betted that beginning
play with twenty pounds every day, at anyone time of the day he
should be a winner of half-a-crown, and this was to be done for
thirty days, which if he accomplished Tommy -- was to pay him
twenty pounds. He went on for some few days winning his half-a-
crown, but the twentieth day lost his capital of twenty pounds,
without being at anytime that day half-a-crown ahead; of course he
lost his wager. Does not this circumstance prove, clear as day, that
however great your capital may be at starting, your loss in the end
will be great in proportion.

Enormous as the profits are to the bankers or setters up of, this
game, still greater is their desire of satisfying their insatiate
avarice; it is almost impossible to detect their ingenious villainy, or
to check their art of multiplying deceit, which they practise with
unblushing impunity. They can at any time when it is worth their
while, and play is high, command a thirty-one apres. The young
inexperienced player is generally permitted to win for the first two
or three times, and when his appetite is a little whetted, they
proceed secundem artem, to phlebotomise, or, to use their slang
language, to flea bottomise their patient. To make use of a simile
quite applicable to the worthy Tommy --, he may be considered as
the Hyena, who begins by a private snap, goes on to a morsel
among friends, proceeds to a meal, advances to a surfeit, and at last
sucks blood like a vampire.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NEWLY-INTRODUCED FRENCH
GAME OF ROULETTE, OR ROLY-POLY

ROULETTE is played upon a round table composed of thirty-eight
compartments regularly numbered, thirty-six of which are for the
players, and two for the bankers. The compartments (les cases) or
receiving boxes, are numbered from one to thirty-six, half red and
half black, the two remaining compartments, are marked one, by a
single nought or zero, which is black; the other by a double zero,
which is red. When the ball is delivered, it must, of inevitable
necessity, fall into one of the compartments, which number is the
decided winner on the six chances marked upon the cloth; the
chance paid is equal to the stake put down, for the number thirty-
five times the stake (la mise) is paid. Upon the columns, (as they
are called) which is composed of thirty-six square compartments,
ten in length divided by four, nine of which contain the thirty-six
figures and four blanks; the double and single zeros being placed at
the opposite end. At the sides are three elliptics, embracing three
divisions of the figures, in which is written, Out, Red, Odd, on the
one side; and In, Black, Even, on the other. Only eight times is
paid, though it may be said thirty-six times is paid, taking the stake
into consideration. When a simple or single Zero takes place, the
banker calls out simple Zero, black or odds and in this case, he
does not pay any chances, but sweeps up all the stakes both in the
numbers and on the columns. It is precisely the same when the
double Zero takes place.

The most villainous deceptions are practiced, at this game. The
tables are made to act with a spring, which is managed with the
foot, and by which means, the director can make a zero whenever
he pleases. Of all the infamous games ever introduced in this
country for the purpose of fraud and robbery, this is decidedly the
most abominable. It is disgraceful to the police of the metropolis,
that these gangs of French sharpers are allowed to pursue their
destructive plans with impunity. Above twelve of these tables are
now in play, both day and night, in the neighbourhood of St.
James's alone. Can such things be, and escape the vigilance of the
magistrates?

CHAPTER SIX

THAT gaming leads to every vice is so true, that the most humane
persons, urged on by cards, have been known to commit the most
detestable crimes. The following true tale will illustrate the above.

Antonio, the only son and heir of the Count C--, was brought up
under the eyes of virtuous parents, and became himself a faultless
being. His form was noble and commanding. In his open
countenance you could read the slightest thought that was passing
in his well-stored mind. His temper was gentle and humane. In
fact, at the age of twenty, he was what every man should be, but
few are. No one, however virtuous, but possesses a vice. No one,
however vicious, but possesses a virtue. If Antonio did possess a
vice, it was his adoration of beauty. And how excusable. What man
that has not, at one time of his life, felt his heart palpitate with
rapture at the approach of the fairest part of the creation? Oh! lost,
indeed, is that man, whose careless breast is dead to every soft
emotion. But even virtue, when it rises to a passion, descends to a
vice.

Antonio became acquainted with a lovely female (Mademoiselle
Louisa), who, under the garb of modesty, could throw out lures to
catch the unsuspicious and innocent. Indeed, so great an adept she
was in deception, that a painter would have chosen her outward
form to portray Prudence: no wonder, then, that our hero, who was
wont to look at beauty as the paragon of bliss, was easily deceived.
For hours would he stand behind her chair, and listen to the
fascinating tone of her harmonized voice; or, while she hung upon
his arm, he would, with the greatest attention, hearken, as she
conversed of that she knew alone by name -- virtue. Who would
have thought, when they beheld her lovely blue eyes gazing with
animation on the sky above her, while from her lips flowed pious 
praises to the Most High, that she was a hypocrite. In a
countenance like hers, even Lavater could not have traced the dark
recesses of her bosom. From the moment Antonio became
acquainted with Louisa, he forgot all beside. At day he was her
constant companion, at night her image floated before his eyes to
bless his dreams. To oblige her, he would frequently sit down with
some of her friends to a game of cards. And, although he generally
got up minus twenty or thirty Louis, he did not heed the trifle,
because he was placed next to Louisa, and he would have bought
that bliss at a much higher price. Louisa's companions became his;
and, by degrees, he grew so fond of cards, that his nights were
spent in gaming. For Louisa would converse with him while her
friends fleeced him of his money.

One night, in the absence of Louisa, he played higher than usual.
Fortune against him, he became so frantic at his ill-luck, that he
doubled the stakes at each time, till he found himself a ruined man,
having lost every farthing he possessed. Distractedly he started up
from the table, and rushed from the apartment into another that
joined it, when, oh! horror, stretched on a sofa, lay Louisa locked
in the arms of Henry de Virville, the man he thought his dearest
friend, and to whom be had intrusted his love for Louisa. He felt
his brain burn like flames of fire, and, drawing his sword, he flew
towards them, and stretched them both lifeless at his feet.

Disturbed by a rustling noise, the servants entered the apartment,
and found their mistress and M. de Virville laying weltering in
their blood, while Antonio, with his still reeking sword, stood
exultingly over them, "See, see!" he madly exclaimed, "Go,
proclaim it to the world, Antonio is a ruined gamester and a
murderer. She swore love to me (pointing to the dead body of
Louisa)--I found her in the arms of De Virville -- I have punished
them. -- One thing alone remains undone, and thus, then, ends
Antonio's woes, and Antonio's crimes." Thus saying, before he
could be prevented, he fell upon his sword, and, with a frantic
shriek, expired.

Thus ended the life of one who, before he became acquainted with
cards, was generally admired and courted. True he was seduced to
play; but cards became first his passion, and then his ruin.

It is grievous to behold how much that detestable vice changes the
nature, the conduct, the feeling, the countenance, of a human
being.

"I have seen," says an indignant moralist, "and I relate it with
horror, the countenance of beauty -- ay, of female beauty, so much
distorted, that she appeared a complete fury; her eyes started from
her head, her teeth gnashed with rage, and her passion was so
great, that she could not speak for ten minutes, and all because her
partner played a wrong card."

Lieutenant Carelly, a half-pay officer, quite upon the town, called
upon his friend Juan for the loan of a sum of money, which the
latter was unable to lend him. The Lieutenant observed, that there
was no occasion for a spirited fellow to want money, while there
was a gambling-house in St. James's, and accordingly proposed
that they should go to one that very night. Juan had before heard
that many men of fashion lived by frequenting these houses; and
that some were so skilful or so fortunate in the line, as to pocket
considerable sums every night, as regularly as if it were the income
arising from the exercise of a trade or profession. He therefore
dosed with the proposal, and, calling a coach, proceeded with the
Lieutenant to No.--, St. James's Street.

The gambling-houses, or, as they have been very properly
designated, Hells, are generally elegantly furnished houses,
abounding in all parts of London, but particularly in and about the
neighbourhood of St. James's; many of them are supported by the
subscriptions of the visitors, and others are the private property of
unprincipled individual speculators. To the extensive and
destructive system of gambling carried on therein, may be traced
too many of those afflicting instances of raving madness, of self-
destruction, and the beggary of respectable families, which so
frequently occur in the metropolis. Herds of black-legs and
sharpers, without any other means of support than their illicit
income from the gaming-table, frequent all those houses, where, by
continual practice and collusion with the keeper of the house, they
contrive to fleece their short-sighted dupes out of sums of money
so considerable, as to enable them to live in all the pomp and state
of independent fortune. When once an inexperienced person
becomes introduced to this diabolical connexion, it rarely happens
that he can shake it off before his present means, and even his
future prospects in life, are entirely destroyed; for so completely
does be become enveloped in their serpentine folds, that in the
moment of frenzy produced by the loss of his ready cash, he
suffers himself to be persuaded to sign promissory notes, or
powers of attorney, transferring to the holder the growing rents of
his estates, or the profits of his business; and instances have been
known, wherein, on the death of a man who had lived in comfort
and affluence upon an independent property, his whole estate has
been claimed, to the ruin of his family, by virtue of post-obit bonds
extorted from him under the irritation of loss, and the dread of
exposure. Clerks and confidential servants having the chargé of
their employer's money, are also frequently involved in infamy and
ruin through their unfortunate visits to the gaming-table, where
they are regularly fleeced out of everything they stake, and are at
last induced to risk the property intrusted to their care, in the vain
hope of recovering their losses, and preserving their characters.

The room was crowded to excess with anxious groups, some
playing at the E.O. tables -- some at Faro -- others at Rouge et
Noir, and several, in the true spirit of gambling, staking enormous
sums on what suit would next turn up. Several young men, whom
the Lieutenant noticed, were lounging about, apparently with no
other object than that of partaking of the refreshments; but the
scene was new to Juan, and his active observation soon passed
from the mere lookers-on, to the actual performers of the important
drama in progress; and he found an ample field for reflection in the
countenances of a party seated round a table appropriated to the
game of Hazard.

It was a mixed and piebald association, composed of clerks,
tradesmen, half-pay officers, broken-down gentlemen, and
professed gamblers, all intent on the turn of a card which would
either consign to their grasp a considerable sum of money, or
promote by another grade the destined ruin of themselves and
families. Countenances that bore the stamp of youth, were
distorted by internal emotions; cheeks seemed burning with rage,
bosoms panting with disappointment; eyes darting forth the
lightnings of despair; and pallid lips quivering with the
apprehension of impending ruin. One individual alone seemed
indifferent to the progress of the game, and altogether unmoved
either by personal feelings or contagion from the atmosphere of
agitation by which he was surrounded, This was a hoary-headed
gambler -- a man grown old, and withering in the service of vice --
in whose veins the "milk of human kindness" had never circulated,
and whose iron heart was impervious to every sensation of
humanity. Whether by accident or fraud Juan could not discover,
but so it was, that the card upon which the game depended turned
up in favour of the hoary gamester, who eagerly cleared the table
of the stakes, and coolly looking round upon his penniless and
suffering victims, announced his triumph in a mixed farrago of
oaths and blasphemies, and, for the first and only time, relaxed his
frigid countenance into a Sardonic grin, while the rest of the party
left the table with visible signs of desperation and despair!

"Well," thought Juan, "this is indeed a lesson of human infirmity
and short-sightedness! The traveller who encounters the highway-
robber -- the libertine who commits his life and fortune to the
conduct of the wanton -- the mariner who launches his boat in a
tempest -- or the aeronaut who consigns his flimsy car to the mercy
of the hurricane -- all, all are less exposed to peril than the dupe
who commits himself to the destructive vortex of a gaming-table!
And yet the scene I now behold is one of no extraordinary
occurrence, but the common every-day routine of a London
gaming-house!"

The experienced Lieutenant Carelly was in luck that evening, and
after having won a considerable sum, had the prudence to leave
off, while Juan whose volatile and inconstant nature soon
suppressed his moral reflections, becoming familiar with the scene,
and recollecting the lowness of his finances, joined the table, and
at two ventures lost all the money be had.

He was, however, so stimulated, both by the success of his
companions and their sneers at his want of spirit, that he had
already staked a considerable sum, which, if he had lost, he
possessed no means of paying, when an unexpected circumstance
relieved him from the probable consequences of such a proceeding.
A whispering occurred at one end of the room -- a noise was heard
on the stairs -- angry voices, and a scuffle! One of the company
threw the cards which he was about to deal into the fire -- another
hurled the dice through the window, and a third was about to
follow the example by throwing himself after the dice, when the
door was burst open, and a party of police officers entering,
commanded all present to surrender at discretion.

A scene of infinite confusion ensued. Some attempted to break
through the mass -- some overturned the tables, and others put out
the lights. Juan made a dart at a window, and opened it with the
intention of descending, when three or four legal intruders sprung
from an ambush on the opposite side, and barred all egress.
Meanwhile a regular battle-royal was going on in the dark -- some
good blows were apparently put in on both sides, though the hands
that dealt them were unseen. Through this mass our hero contrived,
however, to fight his way, knocking some of the interlopers down,
and walking over others; and, having groped his way to the door,
made a rush downstairs, and thus succeeded in effecting his
escape.

The interior economy of these schools of licentiousness and
nurseries of vice, the utter hopelessness of anything like a rational
chance of advantage to the casual player, and the immense profits
made by the keepers of the tables, have of late been exposed in the
following valuable observations, published in a daily journal: --
"There are, within ten minutes walk of one another in the
neighbourhood of St. James's, upwards of thirty Gaming-houses,
opening every day at different hours, from one in the day till two,
three, and four in the morning; at some of which you may stake as
low as two shillings, at others as high as two thousand pounds in
one sum; and the tables are constantly filled with players. The
profits of these tables, leaving out of the question unfair play, are
immense. The banker's point, at the game universally played,
Rouge et Noir, is termed a thirty-one apres, which is calculated to
occur once in a deal of about twenty-eight coups. Upon this
occasion all the money on the table is impounded, and the next
deal decides which colour wins: the happy winner in this case gets
back his stake only; the loser, of course, gets back nothing. This
course is exactly equivalent to taking half the money staked on the
table at the time the apres happens, and at many of the higher class
of houses L.300 is staked every coup. Thus, then, we arrive at the
means of ascertaining the profits of some of these concerns --
twelve deals in a night is a usual quantity, in these twelve deals, on
an average, happen twelve apres, each giving the banker L.150;
thus one day's profit amounts to no less than L.1,800, making a
total of L.563,400, per annum, giving them credit for shutting Hell
up on the Sabbath, which is seldom done.

"Well may these men afford to receive their guests in magnificent
apartments, to spread out gratuitous feasts, with a profusion of
wine, &c.! amply are they enabled to bribe (if such things can be)
the Police; no wonder that, in defiance of law, these places are kept
open, and that any man with the appearance of a gentleman, may
be accommodated, to complete his ruin, with money upon his own
cheque! let us wonder only at the infatuation of the players.

"That no one may doubt the immensity of the profits, it may be
stated, that the sum paid to the French government for the licences
for gaming, amounts to between two and three millions sterling per
annum, and yet the contractor is generally the richest man in the
kingdom; what then, must be his profits, and the profits of those
who, by taking under-licences, make his fortune and their own?
This ruinous game is carried on here to the same extent as it is in
France, with this only difference, that here the bankers take all the
profit. A player going in with five pounds, may imagine that he
only pays his two per cent, (the lowest average profit of the
banker) on five pounds; but if he has the usual fluctuation of luck,
the fact is, that his five pounds will be staked twenty or thirty,
perhaps fifty times, in the course of a day's play; thus, supposing,
for the sake of example, this little sum shall have been staked
twenty times backwards and forwards, he will have paid two
pounds to the table. This calculation applied to L.100, of course
gives L.40 as the sum paid for the opportunity of playing while the
hundred pounds last." The encouragement which of late years has
been given in this country to the professor of gaming, or, more
properly speaking, of the black art, is truly wonderful;-- not
content with those of our own growth, exotics coming from abroad
receive every encouragement; here they strike root as soon as
imported, and the parish of St. James's may be compared to a vast
dunghill, which receives, and supplies them with that nutriment
which their own vernacular soil denies them. They have made
strange ravages there, and their depredations have spread with
pestilential rapidity, infecting almost every rank, from the peer to
the haberdasher's apprentice; while the vile miscreants, who are the
abettors of this infernal system, fatten upon the very vitals of the
victims they have immolated on the altar of destruction, enjoy
perfect security, and continue their nefarious practices with
unblushing, impudent audacity, under the very walls of a royal
palace.

Formerly, men of the lowest stamp, sprung from the very dregs of
the people, the vilest of the vile, were seen to embark in this trade
of villainy and deceit, such has had forfeited every claim on
society; but now we behold captains and colonels, holding his
majesty's commission, coming forward and unblushingly
announcing themselves as principal agents in this abominable
traffic;-- but, "oh, shame! where is thy blush!" most conspicuous
among this herd appears a clergyman of the Church of England,
(holding a considerable living, stated at L.1,500 per annum) setting
aside his sacred calling, presiding, officiating as high-priest at one
of the most noted of these temples of iniquity! To this man we are
indebted for the introduction of those foreigners who have of late
infested this metropolis, and set up French hazard and roulette, or
roly-poly, described in Chapter One.

It was under the patronage and fostering care of the Holy Saint that
the notorious Monsieur B-- and his gang were introduced to this
country; who, after having initiated his reverend patron and
colleagues in all the mystery of the black art, for which, by-the-
bye, the police of Paris, more on the alert than ours, forced him to
emigrate, took his reverence completely in, who paid dear for his
initiation fee, is now figuring away on his own account, leagued on
the one hand with Colonel M--, and Monsieur B--, in C-- R--; and
on the other with Mr--, alias the Hebrew Star; and, if report speak
true, another establishment has been opened under the auspices of
this worthy Monsieur B--, in M-- street, Manchester-square.

Honest Dick having, out of pure charity, taken his reverence in
tow, has, in these days of trouble and tribulation, been named
leader of the band, and he has now taken the field in earnest. He
has lately been seen, like "Solomon in all his glory," surrounded by
all his staff, and supported by certain auxiliaries on the retired list,
take his station in the avenues of the King's Bench, Westminster.
Nay, in the very sight of the Judge, attempting to intimidate, with
threats and abusive language, a gentleman who manfully stepped
forward and attacked this whole gang of depredators, and spread
fear and dismay in the very sanctum sanctorum of the
Pandemonium. Thanks to the exertions and perseverance of the
gentleman alluded to, the retributive arm of justice has reached
some of the principal members of the gang, and we trust soon to
see the best part of this nefarious crew annihilated;-- they are all
links of one chain, they have dug a pit for themselves, and which
ever way they move, backward or forward, to the right or the left,
it is ready to swallow them up. They now appear the picture of
"petty larceny personified;" every step they take brings them a
point nearer to the final catastrophe. Let these miscreant reptiles
begone, and cease to contend with insurmountable power. The
visitation will be dreadful, and we may now look with confidence
to the day when the whole system of fraud and villainy will meet a
total overthrow. Thoughtless mortals, let them "go build houses,
plant orchards, purchase estates, for to-morrow they die."

It will be no small satisfaction to the public to know that the
Rev.--, keeper of the gaming-house in Pall-Mall, has been taken up
upon a warrant, and held to bail to appear and take his trial; that
indictments are to be preferred against others, and that a number of
fashionable and distinguished punters are to be brought forward as
evidence upon the occasion; also, some haberdashers' apprentices,
and clerks from the vicinity of Cheapside, who have been enticed
by the parson's good wine and suppers, and have left on his rouge
et noir and hazard tables their master's money. His reverence has
had the assurance to affirm, that none but the first nobility in the
land were admitted into the precincts of his hell; but we shall make
it apparent to his reverence, though he fleeces the Nobility, he is
not above doing the like to the Mobility.

To return, however, to the French professors of the black art;--
they opened their conclave, and promised to eclipse and out-do, in
fraud and false play, every other establishment of the kind; they
employed none but light-fingered Frenchmen well versed in the art
of legerdemain. The proprietors of the English Hells took the
alarm, as well they might; the craft scarce knew how to proceed.
Were they to suffer the French intruders to poach with impunity on
a manor which, for many years, they had been in the habit of
considering as their own exclusive property? Many were the
consultations which took place upon the subject, and they all
agreed upon one point: viz, that this French gang ought to be
annihilated. A general meeting was accordingly held, and honest
old Dick --, veteran London Black-leg, argued thus: -- "This, my
worthy friends and fellow-sufferers, is the fruit of Parson A--'s
French importation; 'twas he who opened the road for these French
fouters; without him they would never have found their way over
here; 'twas a deuced unlucky hit. It appears to me there are but two
ways of putting these gentry to the rout; the first, to proceed boldly
against these intruders by information and indictment; but this, my
friends, is a path we must tread with the greatest caution, if we
pursue it; for you will all agree, 'tis dangerous to bring such
matters before a Jury: it serves to establish precedents, which,
sooner or later, may be brought to bear against us. The second is to
tip them a taste of the alien act; this might be done snugly; and the
coast once clear of these French vagabonds, we might take our
measures accordingly, and carry on our operations as heretofore.
This Hebrew vagabond, who is a German Jew, was the first who
made a serious attack upon our system; 'twas he who taught the
enemy our weak point; he made the first breach in our ramparts.
Why did you initiate him in our mysteries? You know how
strenuously I set my face against the countenance afforded him by
that stupid blockhead jack A--, who bribed him, with ready money
and fair promises, to destroy old S--'s establishment: it has turned
out as I predicted; you have given him stones to break your head
with, and he now sets you at defiance; he has unfurled the tri-
coloured flag; which now floats triumphantly under your very
noses; and what none of us were bold enough to attempt, he has
effected. Has he not transplanted from France the game of
roulette? and see how soon it has taken root in this soil. It has
attracted every punter which we had spared and were reserving for
a bonne bouche. We are visited by none but plucked pigeons, who
merely call in to take a glass of our wine, and be damned to them."

At length the French gang experienced a material falling off in
their play. Their sterling customers were drawn away to the other
decoys in the neighbourhood. In order to remedy this evil, they
sent round a polite circular, inviting the punters to return, and
grace by their presence, the United Club, as they styled
themselves; and partake of the amusements of the Rouge et Noir,
French Hazard, and Roulette; and pledging themselves that no
expense and trouble should be wanted, which might conduce to the
ease and comfort of the punters; the plain meaning of which is --
the comfort of their being eased of their cash, by every trick,
stratagem, and cheat, which human ingenuity is capable of
devising.

These swindling miscreants, base as they are deceitful, everything
that is at once despicable and wicked, sacrifice victim after victim,
by every foul and nefarious practice; and are, incessantly,
bellowing out lies about the fairness of their play; but "the balances
of deceit are in their hands."

Much about the same time, another Hell was established under the
immediate direction and superintendence of the Jew --, and of the
notorious Monsieur, a new curse to the metropolis, and a nuisance
to the neighbourhood; from which men ought to flee as from a
pestilence that walketh by night.

Very lately, on the morning between Saturday and Sunday, a
tremendous affray took place, between this gang of ruffians and
their customers, after a great deal of bow-wowing and quarrelling
and much altercation about fair play and cheating. From words and
threats they came to blows, missile weapons of all sorts were used,
candlesticks were thrown at the heads of the punters, who were not
backward in returning the compliment with interest; such was the
raging of the storm and uproar in this den of thieves, that it could
be heard half way down Pall Mall; and this on a Sunday
morning!!!

How long will the legislature suffer these Sabbath-breaking
ruffians to carry on their nefarious system with impunity?

On the following day this Hell presented a new scene of riot; a
gentleman having detected the croupiers at some of their tricks,
bluntly taxed them with the facts; he was taken to task by one of
the gang, who not finding himself of sufficient weight to support
the credit of the firm vi et armis, summoned up to his assistance a
strong and athletic ruffian, the door-keeper. This Cerberus fastened
upon the gentleman, and gave him a most unmerciful milling, the
marks of which upon his face bore ample testimony of his having
good cause to remember this visit to the infernal regions of
gambling.

These foreign gamblers have, by acts of fraud, wholly without a
parallel, and by a long string of contrivances, each of which merit a
halter, ruined hundreds of families; they ought not only to be made
to disgorge, but to undergo the most rigorous punishments the law
can inflict, in order that their fate may be a warning to all
fraudulent gamblers and common cheats, in time to come.

It is come to a pretty pass, when such vagabonds as these, not
contenting themselves with the enormous profits accruing to them
from the infamous game of Roulette, or Roly Poly, have recourse
to foul play, and enforce such cheating by assault and battery, and
keep in their own house hired ruffians to bully and insult the
victims they have plundered. Every hour such vagabonds are
permitted to carry on these depredations, is a disgrace to a civilized
country. Why does not the Secretary of State at once put a stop to
this abominable system, and send these miscreants out of the
country, by enforcing the alien act against them. A statement of
this infamous system ought to be presented to the House of
Commons.

Another set of these French gamblers are carrying on their
depredations under the very walls of St. James's Palace. A noble
colonel, brother to a peer of the realm is at the head of this
establishment, and daily superintends their machinations. The
principals in this concern are a French soi-disant colonel M--,
Monsieur B--, Monsieur L-- C--, and Monsieur de S-- F--, who is
the son of the man who invented the game of Rouge et Noir. All
these fellows are adepts at the system; and no doubt have come to
this country for more purposes than one.

It is really surprising that English gentlemen are such silly beings
as to suffer themselves to be duped, and, in the end, ruined by
these French cormorants. Why do they associate with such
blackguards; surely, if gamble they must, there are English club-
houses where they may be sure not to be cheated.

Lately, these Frenchmen withdrew their capital from one of these
tables, and left only sixty pounds, with the determination, if they
lost that sum, to shut up shop for a time; but so skilfully did they
manage their cards and roulette, that this trifling sum increased like
a snow-ball, and they determined to continue their depredatory
warfare, and not break into their former winnings, which are
immense. Some of the gang who had gone back to France to secure
their plunder, and who have a strange longing after our English
money, are about to despatch from Paris a well regulated company
of sharpers, to set up in opposition to their countrymen in this
town.

CHAPTER SEVEN

HAVING in our former Chapter lifted aside the veil of mystery
under cover of which the unholy rites of the modern hells were
celebrated, we now proceed to detail the means by which justice
has at length overtaken some portion of the worthless crew.

Numerous prosecutions have at different periods been commenced
against the keepers of common gaming houses, and in some
instances convictions have followed, but the defendants escaped
being brought up to receive the judgement of the Court; for it
unfortunately happened that the prosecutors were men, whose
fortunes had been lost at the gaming-table, and who were either
intimidated by threats and persecutions to drop proceedings, or
from the necessity of their circumstances were unable to withstand
a bribe, and were thus induced to compromise their public duty.

Such have been the means by which the gaming house keepers,
have for so great a length of time baffled the ends of justice, and
been enabled to continue their profitable, but iniquitous and
ruinous system of plunder, in open defiance of the laws.

It remained for a Mr Woodroffe and a Mr Grant, (the prosecutors
in the trials which we are now about to record) to perform the
important and beneficial duty of dragging to the Bar of Justice
some of the most notorious of the delinquents, there to receive that
just punishment, which the highly criminal and demoralising
nature of their offences had so long and so richly deserved.

To the firm and manly exertions of these prosecutors the public are
indebted for the first effectual check which the gaming-house
system has received. In the performance of these duties they have
been assailed by every species of obloquy and slander which the
pen of miserable and hireling calumniators could invent. They
rejected with scorn the offered bribe; and steadily pursued that
course which a sense of public duty pointed out. Their exertions
have been crowned with success: and there can be no doubt that
the severity of the sentence passed upon such of the proprietors of
the Hells as have at present been brought to justice, will effectually
deter others from the commission of similar offences. The
sufficiency of the laws to repress Gaming is herein demonstrated;
and the public will surely no longer behold with indifference the
continuance of that system which has brought thousands to ruin,
suicide, and the scaffold!

We now proceed to give a digested report of some of the trials
which have taken place on indictments against persons for keeping
common gaming-houses. The strictest attention which the reader
can bestow, on the evidence by which these indictments have been
supported, will be amply repaid by the very curious light which it
throws on the tricks and frauds of the master black-legs.

IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH
The King, on the Prosecution of John Woodroffe, Esq., against
Richard Bennett, Frederick Oldfield, John Philips, and Thomas
Carlos, for a Misdemeanour in keeping a Common Gaming House
at No. 75, St. James's-Street.

MR C. PHILLIPS and Mr Talford conducted the prosecutor's case,
and Mr Curwood and Mr Platt were for the defendants.

Mr TALFORD opened the proceedings by stating the nature of the
indictment against the defendants, which was for keeping a
common gaming-house. The specific acts were variously laid in
four counts.

Mr CHARLES PHILLIPS stated the case to the Jury. The offence
charged against the defendants, he said, was that of keeping a
common gaming house. In a criminal proceeding of so serious a
nature, he deemed it unjustifiable to introduce any observations
which might tend to prejudice or inflame the case against the
defendants, and would therefore confine himself to a simple and
naked statements of the facts, and to laying them before the jury.
The question was whether or not No. 75, St. James's Street, was a
house where unlawful games were played, and whether the
defendants were the masters of it? He hoped to be able to establish
this proposition to the entire satisfaction of the jury. He would not
at present pass any strong comments upon the defendants being
persons of the description charged in the indictment, because if
they were convicted of the offence, there would be another
occasion better fitted for the introduction of such remarks. This
indictment was preferred by a gentleman of the name of
Woodroffe, a student of the Inner Temple. From this gentleman,
who, like too many others, had been seduced to visit these
receptacles of vice, the jury would learn that sums of an unlawful
amount were played for there. It was Mr Woodroffe's misfortune to
lose considerable sums at play, and he was acquainted with the
persons of the four defendants. Upon the question of its being a
gaming-house, however, there could be little doubt; and the only
remaining question was, whether the four defendants were the
proprietors? Mr Woodroffe would speak to seeing the four
defendants present whilst the games were playing, and that they
acted as masters, being distinguished from the visitors by their not
wearing their hats, whilst all other persons in the room were
generally covered.

He would also tell the jury that he saw them dividing the spoil after
the play was done; and that upon one night particularly when he
came in late, he was informed by one of the defendants that the
game was over, but that they would be glad to see him another
time. Another witness would be called to confirm Mr Woodroffe's
testimony; and from him the jury would learn a circumstance
which would be important against one of the defendants. This
witness, having the too common misfortune to be involved in a
personal quarrel with another gentleman whom he met at a house
of this description, in obedience to the dictates of false honour, if
there could be any honour in such a place, requested that one of the
defendants to lend him a pair of pistols, he having been informed
that the defendant possessed an excellent pair: the defendant,
however, refused to accommodate him, observing, "You know I
must not. If anything unfortunate should occur, I should get into a
pretty scrape." So much for the proof of proprietorship against this
house. With one observation, then, he should leave the case in the
hands of the jury. An attempt might be made on the other side to
impeach the credit of the witnesses, on the ground of their being
disappointed gamesters. He (Mr Phillips) was convinced the jury
would find them honourable men. He did not however wish to
bespeak them any indulgence for them, for he wished the jury to
deal with them as they saw them. That they had gamed at this
house there could be no doubt, but it should be recollected, that if
credit was not to be given to the testimony of such witnesses, the
keepers of these dens of iniquity could never be brought to justice,
as no other persons would be good evidence but such as were
present. When he had laid this evidence before the jury, he had no
doubt of their verdict.

JOHN WOODROFFE, the prosecutor, was then called and
examined: "I know the house No. 75 St. James's-street. I first
frequented it in the latter end of July, 1821. I was introduced by a
gentleman whom I met at a coffee-house. There seemed to be great
difficulty in getting in; and we had to pass through several doors
strongly barricaded before we came to the gambling room, which
was in a front room upstairs. The furniture of the room was of a
gorgeous description, the curtains damask, and everything tended
to captivate the senses. There were about thirty persons present;
they played at a French game called Rouge et Noir. They all
played against the bank. The game is played upon a large oblong
table, covered with green cloth, upon which there are four
compartments or divisions, coloured red and black alternately, and
the players may stake their money upon either colour as suits their
fancy. The bank is placed on the middle of the table, and the
croupiers or dealers sit opposite each other, having the bank before
them. There were six packs of cards used in the play, and each
event or stake is decided in half a minute. Whenever a thirty-one
aprés occurs, which is calculated to take place three times in every
two deals of twenty-eight events, the keepers of the bank win half
the money staked on the table, without the possibility of losing
anything. The chances of winning are vastly in favour of the bank.
I have been to the house seven or eight times, and have invariably
been a loser. I have played at hazard there also. I have seen all the
defendants there, acting as masters or managers. The visitors
generally kept their hats on, but the defendants used always to be
uncovered, as if they were at home. I have heard them giving
directions to their servants about the refreshments. These,
consisting of the choicest wines, spirits, &C., were handed about,
gratis, and in profusion, and the visitors partook of them till many
became drunk. I recollect going in one night, after the game was
over, when the four defendants were sitting round the table
counting the money in the bank. Carlos told me the play was over,
but they would be glad to see me another night. I have always seen
the defendants there when I went. Upon one occasion I interfered
in the case of a gentleman who was drunk, and whose money I
thought they were taking unfairly, when Phillips said, 'We know
how to rectify mistakes without your interference.' The defendants
were always sober, but many of the players were often
intoxicated."

Cross-examined by Mr CURWOOD: "I have played in defendants'
house several times. I am a student of the Inner Temple, and expect
to be called to the bar. I have unfortunately lost too much time at
these houses. I have brought civil actions for the recovery of
money I have lost against these same defendants, and have
preferred an indictment against another gaming-house in Pall Mall.
I am not concerned in any other indictment. I was not much
alarmed when I was first introduced into this gaming-house. I had
lost a great deal of money, and by the advice of my friends
preferred this indictment. I have never been in the Fleet Prison, nor
have I ever taken the benefit of the Insolvent Act. I have been
arrested more than once by a sheriff's officer; but always paid debt
and costs. I have repeatedly refused to compromise this proceeding
against the defendants."

WILLIAM SMITH, a lieutenant in the army, who had
accompanied Mr Woodroffe: "Refreshments, consisting of wine,
spirits, fruit, sandwiches, &c, were provided for the players, and
distributed gratis. I have occasionally seen persons in the room
who were not quite sober. The defendants were generally sober.
All the defendants, except Oldfield, were constantly in the room,
and took an active part in the management of the concern. Oldfield
was not always there; he generally came in late. I once applied to
Bennett to lend me a pair of pistols, but he refused, with an
observation upon the impropriety of his lending me his pistols. I
was in the house on the 2nd of August, and saw Mr Woodroffe
there. The stakes played for at this house are from 10s. to L.100."

Cross-examined by Mr CURWOOD: "I have been indicted. The
keepers of the gaming-houses indicted me after I had taken
proceedings against them. I have never taken the benefit of the
Insolvent Act. I am now in the rules of the King's Bench, but
should not be there had I not been arrested by the gaming-house
keepers; and two of my detaining creditors at this moment are
keepers of gaming-houses."

Re-examined by Mr PHILLIPS: "I have lost very large sums of
money. I do not think I lost more than L.100 at 75, St. James's
Street. I have lost upwards of L.2,000 at 32, Pall Mall. I have been
a great loser at other houses."

JOHN TOMLINSON, the collector of taxes, proved that the house
was in the parish of St. James's.

Mr PHILLIPS. This is my case.

Mr CURWOOD addressed the Jury for the defendants. He
contended that the witnesses were disappointed gamblers, who had
commenced these prosecutions for the purpose of extorting money,
and that consequently their testimony was not worthy of credit.
They did not come into Court with clean hands; they accused
others of the very crime of which they themselves had been guilty.
Upon the whole, he trusted the Jury would look with great
suspicion upon their evidence, and disappoint the motives which
had induced this prosecution.

The Lord CHIEF JUSTICE reviewed the case, and said, there was
not even a shadow which could impeach the credit of the
witnesses. The Jury could not expect to get evidence in such cases,
if they did not receive the testimony of persons who frequented
these houses; and for his own part he saw no reason to disbelieve
the evidence which had been laid before them.

The Jury instantly found all four defendants, GUILTY.


IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH
The King, on the Prosecution of John Woodroffe, Esq., against
Charles Edward Rogier and William Southwell Humphries, for a
Misdemeanour in keeping a Common Gaming House, at No. 32,
late 40, Pall Mall.

Mr TALFORD opened the pleadings in this case. The indictment
was in all respects similar to the one in the preceding trial, with the
exception of the change of names.

The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE recapitulated the evidence, and
addressed a few words to the Jury, who instantly found the
defendants GUILTY.

On the following day, as soon as the court was full, the prisoners,
Rogier, Humphries, Bennett, Oldfield, and Carlos, were brought
into court, in the custody of Mr Gibons the tipstaff.

Mr CHARLES PHILLIPS then moved the judgment of the court
upon Richard Bennett, Frederick Oldfield, and Thomas Carlos.
John Phillips, who was also found guilty with them, did not appear
on account of illness, and a certificate from his physicians to that
effect, was read in court.

An affidavit in mitigation, on the part of Frederick Oldfield was
read. He stated that he withdrew from all concern and interest in
the house, No. 75, St. James's-street, in June, 1821, and that in the
September of the same year the nuisance was abated. Since that
period he had embarked his capital in trade, on which he now
depended for the support of his family. He had a wife and nine
children dependant upon him, who would be reduced to poverty if
any heavy fine should be inflicted; and he was subject to a disease
in his head, arising from a determination of blood to that part,
which protracted imprisonment would dangerously heighten.
Under these circumstances, he threw himself upon the mercy of the
court.

Bennett's affidavit set forth that the house in question was shut up
in September 1821; that he then retired with his family to the New
Road, where he now resided; that he had a wife and seven children,
and was in indigent circumstances; and that he was subject to
periodical attacks of the gout, which would endanger his life if he
should be detained long in prison.

The statements of Oldfield and Bennett respecting their health,
were confirmed by the affidavits of their medical attendants.

Thomas Carlos, in his affidavit of mitigation, deposed, that had a
wife and seven children. His wife was in a delicate state of health,
and he believed any severe sentence upon him would produce an
effect on her extremely dangerous. He had served as a lieutenant in
his majesty's service for nearly thirty years, and had been
employed in various parts of the world, particularly in the West
Indies, and during the rebellion in Ireland: but on the peace he was
thrown on the world destitute of money and resources, and at the
present moment he believed the whole of this property was barely
sufficient to pay his creditors. He further stated, that he had never
been concerned in a house of this description before, nor had he
ever before been indicted. He concluded by throwing himself upon
the mercy of the court.

Mr WOODROFFE, the prosecutor, put in an affidavit in
aggravation. He described the strong fastenings which secured the
approaches to the rooms; the furniture was of the most splendid
kind, and wines, spirits and refreshments were plentifully supplied
free of expense. Some of the visitors every night were in a state of
intoxication, and hazarded their money while in that condition. On
one occasion, a very young man was playing in a state of high
inebriation for large sums, and the defendant Phillips, took up his
money, as if he had lost on the event, whereas he had in reality
won; upon this Mr Woodroffe remonstrated, and Phillips paid the
young man, saying that it was a mistake, which they could rectify
without the interference of a stranger. Play was carried on in three
rooms to a great extent, and was shared by young men and lads,
apparently the clerks of merchants and tradesmen. Mr Woodroffe
remembered one of them stung to madness, by his losses, declaring
that the money he had lost, was the property of his employers. He
believed the defendants had been engaged for many years in the
management of gaming-houses -- that they had "branch
establishments" in various parts of the country, at Brighton, Bath,
Preston Guild, and many other places -- that many actions bad
been brought against them for money won at play -- and that
Oldfield and Bennett had been convicted on one indictment, but
judgment had never been prayed against them.

Mr CURWOOD here interposed, and said this ought not to be
stated, as it was only on belief.

The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. It will have no effect on us; what
ever a party in such an affidavit states on mere information and
belief, will always be entirely futile.

The affidavit of the prosecutor further stated that Oldfield and
Bennett were possessed of enormous wealth, and lived in a costly
style.

Mr CURWOOD addressed the Court on behalf of Bennett and
Oldfield. The character of the prosecutor was disclosed by the
affidavits which he had put in, which manifested a savage desire to
press down the prisoners with aggravated sufferings. But he was
sure the Court would divest their minds from every kind of
prejudice, which those affidavits might for the moment have
created. His learned friend (Mr Phillips) had eloquence and the
popular feeling on his side; he had topics which came home to
every heart; in fact, he carried the whole torrent of public
indignation against his unfortunate clients. He (Mr Curwood)
would not repeat those general observations which he had urged
yesterday; but he would beg the Court to remember that in the
opinion of some, gambling-houses were not totally without
defence, for it must not be forgotten that private ruin was not
always unmixed with public good, and some political writers of
eminence have thought that much benefit was conferred upon
society, by the breaking up of large capitals, which could only be
effectually distributed at the gaming table. (Much laughter.) The
learned counsel then urged the bodily infirmities to which his
clients were subject, and expressed his hope, that the Court would
remember, that to these persons, imprisonment would be so severe
while it lasted, that they might reasonably shorten the duration, for
upon them it would fall with accumulated severity.

Mr E. LAWES addressed the Court on the part of Thomas Carlos.
The Court would he trusted attend to his expressions of contrition,
and to his determination never again to be engaged in such an
occupation. He was unfortunately entrapped into an employment
which he now sincerely regretted; but having been for thirty years
an officer in his Majesty's service, he was, perhaps, from his
situation in life, the more liable to temptation; his offence,
therefore, was entitled to lenient sentence.

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. It does not appear upon the affidavit of
the prisoner Carlos, that he has abandoned the concern, or that this
house has been abated. I have looked anxiously into the affidavits,
and to see if they contained any statements that this party had
entirely ceased from his occupation, but there is nothing of the
kind in any of them, except that of Rogier, one of the defendants
who was before us yesterday.

Mr C. PHILLIPS then addressed the Court in aggravation, as
follows:

"I should ill repay the indulgence which I experienced yesterday, if
I occupied much of your Lordships' time upon the present
occasion. But I cannot refrain from remarking upon the strange
explanation given by my friend (Mr Lawes) of the situation of his
client. He says that he was in his Majesty's service thirty years, and
that his situation qualified him, as it were, for his new situation as
a gaining-house keeper. In what a very pleasant condition would
the country be placed, if in case we ever went to war again, that on
the return of peace all the half-pay officers were to set up
gambling-houses, a situation for which (my learned friend says)
their previous occupations had so eminently qualified them! (A
laugh.) There has been a remark made by my friend, Mr Curwood,
that I have on my side all the popular topics, and that the
observations which have been made upon the conduct of the
defendants came home to every heart. But unfortunately the
defendants formed an exception to this rule, for although they now
talked of the feelings of their families, they have evinced all their
lives a total disregard to the feelings and families of others. There
is one more topic to which I wish allude, I mean the censure which
has been cast upon the prosecutor; the Court has had a specimen of
what a man has to endure who comes into Court to prosecute
persons of this description. Every topic of calumny which
ingenuity could devise, my learned friends have been advised to
resort to, with a view to injure his character and prospects in life.
Mr Woodroffe is a very young man; he has been trepanned into a
line of conduct which he now sincerely regrets, not on account of
any losses he has sustained, for if he had consented to have
foregone this prosecution these would have been repaid ten-fold,
but on account of the exposure of his character, to which, by a
sense of public duty be is impelled, in calling up the defendants to
receive the judgment of this Court upon their offences. I will detain
your Lordships no longer than merely to state a communication
which I have just received from the prosecutor; he states that he
has made anxious inquiries, and that he is convinced the defendant
Rogier has entirely ceased to be connected with the trade of
gaming-houses; but not so the other defendants, as might be
inferred by their affidavits being silent on that part of the subject.

The Court having conferred together for a considerable time, Mr
Justice BAILEY addressed the prisoners as follows: --

"Charles Edward Rogier, William Southwell Humphries, Richard
Jennert, Frederick Oldfield, and Thomas Carlos, you appear here to
receive the sentence of the Court. You have been found guilty
upon indictments preferred against you for keeping common
gaming-houses. Much has been said by counsel, and stated in
affidavits, respecting the motives of the prosecutors; but this Court
looks at the offence of which you have been convicted, without
paying any regard to the motives of those by whom you have been
brought to justice. Nor can it fail to remark that whatever may be
the motive of the prosecutor, when a man brings forward into a
Court of Justice, a public delinquent, he is a great well-doer to the
public; and for this reason the Court did not think themselves
bound to examine the motives of the prosecutors. The offence is
one of a very high nature, and highly prejudicial to the interests of
the public. Houses of this description bring ruin not only upon the
individuals actually engaged in gaming, but upon their families and
connexions -- blast their prospects, and too frequently produce
irretrievable ruin. You were charged with keeping common
gaming-houses, and it was urged yesterday by your counsel that
keeping a common gaming-house was not an offence at common
law; but if your counsel had inquired more minutely into the law of
the case, he would have found, that, upwards of a century ago,
keeping a common gaming-house was held to be an offence at
common law. It is also sworn in the affidavit of Rogier, that the
game of Rouge et Noir is not an unlawful game. The Court is not
called upon to give any opinion upon that point, because you are
not charged with playing at Rouge et Noir, and thereby committing
an offence; but you are charged with keeping common gaming-
houses, and playing for large sums at the game of Rouge et Noir. A
common gaming-house is a nuisance of the worst description. It
has a tendency to make persons lose not only the property
belonging to themselves and their families, but in many instances it
holds out a temptation to persons intrusted with the property of
others, to hazard that property. You have submitted to the Court
that this was not unlawful gaming; but it is quite clear that you did
not feel that you were acting legally. The manner in which the
houses were conducted proved what your conviction was. The
doors were secured, and admittance refused to the officers of
justice. Why was this extraordinary course resorted to, unless you
had a consciousness of extraordinary danger? If bad practices were
not going on, why should you have been anxious to keep out
strangers? It appears that there were refreshments, foreign wines
and spirits, provided gratis for the persons engaged at play; and if
also appears that those persons were in many instances intoxicated,
whilst you, the keepers of these houses, were invariably sober. It
has been stated in the affidavits put in on the part of the
prosecutors, that Rogier had said he had large funds, out of which
would be advanced the sums necessary for paying any pecuniary
fines which might be imposed by the Court, and for defending all
prosecutions, and in the affidavit of Rogier that is not denied. It has
been urged on behalf of Bennett and Oldfield, that their
imprisonment would bring extreme distress upon their wives and
children. The Court cannot avoid feeling that these defendants
having wives and children, should have been securities for the
wives and children of others, who frequented these houses, many
of whom doubt less have been involved in unutterable ruin. The
Court has attended to that part of the affidavits in which it is stated
that a heavy imprisonment might prove fatal to two of the
defendants; and the Court has also attended to the affidavit of
Rogier, which states, that he has not, during a considerable time
past, been engaged in gaming, and that he is not now engaged in
any gaming practices; but the Court is sorry to observe that no such
declaration is made in the affidavits of any of the other defendants.
The Court, therefore, taking all the circumstances of the case into
consideration, and feeling that in the discharge of their duty they
owe it to the public to put down such practices, doth order and
adjudge,

That you, CHARLES EDWARD ROGIER, do pay to the King a
fine of L.5,000, and be imprisoned in his Majesty's House of
Correction, Cold Bath-fields, for the term of twelve calendar
months.

That you, WILLIAM SOUTHWELL HUMPHRIES, do pay to the
King a fine of L.200, and be imprisoned in the same prison for the
term of two years.

That you, FREDERICK OLDFIELD, do pay to the King a fine of
L.1,000, and be imprisoned in the prison of this Court for one year.

That you, RICHARD BENNETT, do pay to the King a fine of
L.l,000, and be imprisoned in the same prison for one year.

That you, THOMAS CARLOS, do pay to the King a fine of L.500,
and be imprisoned in his Majesty's House of Correction, Cold
Bath-fields, for the term of eighteen calendar months.

That each of you, at the expiration of your several periods of
imprisonment, do enter into recognizances for your good
behaviour for five years, yourselves in L.2,000 each, and two
sufficient sureties in L.1,000 each; and further, that you be
imprisoned in the said prisons until such fines be paid, and such
recognizances entered into.

Mr Justice BAYLEY farther observed, that in this instance the
Court did not, under the provisions of a late act of parliament, feel
themselves bound to order that the defendants during their several
periods of imprisonment should be kept to HARD LABOUR,
because the offences of which they had been found guilty were
committed prior to the passing of that act of parliament. Let it,
however, be understood, that the Court would in future punish with
hard labour persons convicted of offences similar to those for
which the defendants had received the judgment of the Court.

The defendants were then taken out of Court in the custody of the
tipstaff.



APPENDIX XII
Coining


The mischief arising from the counterfeiting the current coin of the
realm reaches to every door. A poor man, cheated by a single base
shilling often finds a loss, great as a forgery upon paper, to the
wealthy merchant.

Coining, or uttering base money, is high-treason in the second
degree. To rob all the people is to be a traitor to the state. Yet death
is a severe punishment. A lawyer was of opinion that such a
criminal should be condemned, as a useful hand, to work in the
royal mint with irons to his legs.

The extensive circulation of counterfeit money, particularly of late
years, is too obvious not to have attracted the notice of all ranks. It
has become an enormous evil in the melancholy catalogue of
crimes which the laws of the country are called upon to assist the
police in suppressing. Its extent almost exceeds credibility; and the
dexterity and ingenuity of these counterfeits have, after
considerable practice, enabled them to finish the different kinds of
base money, in so masterly a manner, that it has become extremely
difficult for a common observer to distinguish their spurious
manufacture from the worn-out silver of the mint. So systematic,
indeed, has this nefarious traffic become of late, that the great
dealers, who, in most instances, are the employers of the coiners,
execute orders for the town and country, with the same regularity
as manufacturers in fair branches of trade.

Scarcely a waggon or coach departs from the metropolis, which
does not carry boxes and parcels of base coin to the camps, sea-
ports, and manufacturing towns. In London, regular markets, in
various public and private houses, are held by the principal dealers;
where hawkers, pedlars, fraudulent bone-dealers, unlicensed
lottery-office keepers, gamblers at fairs, itinerant Jews, Irish
labourers, servants of toll-gatherers, and hackney-coach owners,
fraudulent publicans, market-women, rabbit-sellers, fish-criers,
barrow-women, and many who would not be suspected, are
regularly supplied with counterfeit copper and silver, with the
advantage of near 100L. per cent in their favour; and thus it
happens, that through these various channels, the country is
deluged with immense quantities of base money, which get into
circulation; while an evident diminution of the mint coinage is
apparent to every common observer.

Nor has the mischief been confined to the counterfeiting the coin
of the realm. The avarice and ingenuity of man is constantly
finding out new sources of fraud; insomuch that in London, and in
Birmingham, and its neighbourhood, louis d'or, half Johannas,
French half-crowns and shillings, as well as several coins of
Flanders and Germany, and dollars of excellent workmanship, in
exact imitation of the Spanish dollars issued from the Bank, in
1797, have been from time to time counterfeited; apparently
without suspicion, that under the Act of the 14th Elizabeth (cap. 3)
the offenders were guilty of misprision of high-treason.

These ingenious miscreants have also extended their iniquitous
manufacture to the coins of India: and a coinage of the star pagoda
of Arcot was established in London for years, by one person.
These counterfeits, being made wholly of blanched copper,
tempered in such a manner, as to exhibit, when stamped, the cracks
in the edges, which are always to be found on the real pagoda, cost
the maker only three-halfpence each, after being double gilt. When
finished, they were generally sold to Jews at five shillings a dozen,
who disposed of them afterwards at two shillings, three shillings
and even five shillings each: and through this medium, they have
been introduced by a variety of channels into India, where they
were mixed with the real pagodas of the country, and passed at
their full denominated value of eight shillings sterling.

The sequins of Turkey, another gold coin, worth about five or six
shillings, have in like manner been counterfeited in London. Thus
the national character is wounded, and the disgrace of the British
name proclaimed in Asia, and even in the most distant nations of
India. Nor can it be sufficiently lamented, that persons who
consider themselves as ranking in superior stations of life, with
some pretensions to honour and integrity, have suffered their
avarice so far to get the better of their honesty, as to be concerned
in this iniquitous traffic.

It has been recently discovered that there are at least a hundred and
twenty persons in the metropolis and the country, employed
principally in coining and selling base money! and this
independent of the numerous horde of utterers, who chiefly support
themselves by passing it at its full value.

It will scarcely be credited, that of criminals of this latter class,
who have either been detected, prosecuted, or convicted, within the
last seven years, there stand upon the register of the solicitor of the
mint, more than six hundred and fifty names! And yet the mischief
is not diminished. When the reader is informed, that two persons
can finish from 200L. to 300L.(nominal value) in base silver, in six
days; and that three people within the same period, will stamp the
like amount in copper, and takes into the calculation the number of
known coiners, the aggregate amount in the course of a year will
be found to be immense.

On the circulation of Spanish dollars in 1804, a Jew was
apprehended for uttering base ones, and also suspected of being the
coiner thereof but there being no provision in the Act against
counterfeiting this coin, though it had been called in before (1797),
on that account the offender escaped with impunity.

So dexterous and skilful have coiners now become, that by mixing
a certain proportion of pure gold with a compound of base metal,
they can fabricate guineas that shall be full weight, and of such
perfect workmanship, as to elude a discovery, except by persons of
skill; while the intrinsic value does not exceed thirteen or fourteen
shillings, and in some instances is not more than eight or nine, Of
this coinage, considerable quantities were circulated some years
since, bearing the impression of George II. and another coinage of
counterfeit guineas of the year 1793, bearing the impression of his
present Majesty, has been for some years in circulation, finished in
a masterly manner, for nearly full weight, although the intrinsic
value is not above eight shillings; half guineas are also in
circulation, of the same coinage; and lately a good imitation of the
seven shilling pieces. But as the fabrication of such coin requires a
greater degree of skill and ingenuity than generally prevails, and
also a greater capital than most coiners are able to command; it is
to be hoped it has gone to no great extent, for amidst all the abuses
which have prevailed of late years, it is unquestionably true, that
the guineas and half guineas which have been counterfeited in a
style to elude detection, have borne no proportion in point of
extent, to the coinage of base silver. Of this latter there are five
different kinds at present counterfeited, and which we shall
proceed to enumerate.

The first of these are denominated flats, from the circumstance of
this species of money being cut out of flatted plates, composed of a
mixture of silver and blanched copper. The proportion of silver
runs from one fourth to one third, and in some instances even to
one-half: the metals are mixed by a chemical preparation, and
afterwards rolled by flatting-mills into the thickness of shillings,
half-crowns, or crowns, according to the desire of the parties who
bring the copper and silver, which last is generally stolen plate. It
is not known, that there are at present above one or two rolling-
mills in London, although there are several in the country, where
all the dealers and coiners of this species of base money resort, for
the purpose of having these plates prepared; from which, when
finished, blanks, or round pieces, are cut out, of the sizes of the
money meant to he counterfeited.

The artisans who stamp or coin these blanks into base money, are
seldom interested themselves. They generally work as mechanics
for the large dealers, who employ a capital in the trade, and who
furnish the plates, and pay about eight per cent for the coinage,
being at the rate of one penny for each shilling, and two-pence
halfpenny for each half-crown.

This operation consists first in turning the blanks in a lathe; then
stamping them by means of a press, with dies with the exact
impression of the coin intended to be imitated; they are afterwards
rubbed with sandpaper and cork; then put in aqua fortis, to bring
the silver to the surface; then rubbed with common salt; then with
cream of tartar; then warmed in a shovel, or similar machine,
before the fire; and last of all rubbed with blacking, to give the
money the appearance of having been in circulation.

All these operations are so quickly performed, that two persons (a
man and his wife for instance) can completely finish to the
nominal amount of fifty pounds in shillings and half crowns in two
days, by which they will earn each two guineas a day.

A shilling of this species, which exhibits nearly the appearance of
what has been usually called a Birmingham shilling, is intrinsically
worth from two pence to four pence; and crowns and half-crowns
are in the same proportion. The quantity made of this sort of
counterfeit coinage is very considerable; it requires less ingenuity
than any of the other methods of coinage, though at the same time
it is the most expensive, and of course the least profitable to the
dealer; who for the most part disposes of it to the utterers, vulgarly
called smashers, at from twenty-eight to forty shillings for a
guinea, according to the quality; while these smashers generally
manage to utter it again to the full import value.

The second species of counterfeit silver money passes among the
dealers by the denomination of plated goods; from the
circumstances of the shillings and half-crowns being made of
copper of a reduced size, and afterwards plated with silver, so
extended as to form a rim round the edge. This coin is afterwards
stamped with dies, so as to resemble the real coin; and from the
circumstance of the surface being pure silver, is not easily
discovered, except by ringing the money on the table; but as this
species of base money requires a knowledge of plating, as well as a
great deal of ingenuity, it is of course confined to few hands. It is,
however, extremely profitable to those who carried it on, as it can
generally be uttered without detection, at its full import value.

The third species of base silver money is called plain goods and is
totally confined to shillings. These are made of copper blanks
turned in a lathe, of the exact size of a Birmingham shilling,
afterwards silvered over by a particular operation used in colouring
metal buttons; they are then rubbed over with cream of tartar and
blacking, after which, they are fit for circulation. These shillings
do not cost the makers above five halfpenny each; they are sold
very low to the smashers or utterers, who pass them where they
can, at the full nominal value; and then when the silver wears off,
which is very soon the case, they are sold to the Jews, as bad
shillings, who generally re-sell them at a small profit to customers,
by whom they are re-coloured, and thus soon brought again into
circulation. The profit is immense, owing to the trifling value of
the materials; but the circulation, on account of the danger of
discovery, it is to be hoped, is not yet very extensive. It is,
however, to be remarked, that it is a species of coinage not of a
long standing.

The fourth class of counterfeit silver money is known by the name
of castings, or cast goods. This species of work requires great skill
and ingenuity, and is therefore confined to few hands; for none but
excellent artists can attempt it, with any prospect of great success.

The process is to melt blanched copper, and to cast it in moulds,
having the impression, and being of the size of a crown, a half-
crown, a shilling, or a sixpence, as the case may be; after being
removed from the moulds, the money thus formed is cleaned off,
and afterwards neatly silvered over by an operation similar to that
which takes place in the manufacture of buttons.

The counterfeit money made in imitation of shillings by this
process, is generally cast so as to have a crooked appearance; and
the deception is so admirable, that although intrinsically not worth
one halfpenny, by exhibiting the appearance of a thick crooked
shilling, they enter into circulation without suspicion, and are
seldom refused while the surface exhibits no part of the copper;
and even after this the itinerant Jews will purchase them at three-
pence each, though six times their intrinsic value, well knowing
that they can again he recoloured at the expense of half a farthing,
so as to pass without difficulty for their nominal value of twelve
pence. A vast number of the sixpences now in circulation are of
this species of coinage.

The profit in every view, whether to the original maker, or to the
subsequent purchasers, after having lost their colour, is immense.

In fabricating cast money, the workmen are always more secure
than where presses and dies are used; because upon the least alarm,
and before any officer of justice can have admission, the
counterfeits are thrown into the crucible; the moulds are destroyed;
and nothing is to be found that can convict, or even criminate, the
offender; on this account the present makers of cast money have
reigned long, and were they careful and frugal, they might have
become extremely rich; but prudence rarely falls to the lot of men
who live by acts of criminality.

The fifth and last species of base coin made in imitation of the
silver money of the realm is called figs, or fig things. It is a very
inferior sort of counterfeit money, of which composition, however,
a great part of the sixpences now in circulation are made. The
proportion of silver is not, generally speaking, of the value of one
farthing in half a crown; although there are certainly some
exceptions, as counterfeit sixpences have been lately discovered,
some with a mixture, and some wholly silver; but even these did
not yield the maker less than from fifty to eighty per cent while the
profit on the former is no less than from five hundred to one
thousand per cent and sometimes more.

It is impossible to estimate the amount of this base money which
has entered into the circulation of the country during the last
twenty years; but it must be very great, since one of the principal
coiners of stamped money, who some time since left off business,
and made some important discoveries, acknowledged to the author,
that he had coined to the extent of two hundred thousand pounds
sterling in counterfeit half-crowns, and other base silver money, in
a period of seven years. This is the less surprising, as two persons
can stamp and finish to the amount of from 200L. to 300L. a week.

Of the copper money made in imitation of the current coin of the
realm, there are many different sorts sold at various prices,
according to the size and weight; but in general they may be
divided into two sorts, namely, the stamped and the plain
halfpence, of both which kind immense quantities have been made
in London: and also in Birmingham, Wedgbury, Bilston, and
Wolverhampton, &c.

The plain halfpence are generally made at Birmingham; and from
their thickness afford a wonderful deception. They are sold,
however, by the coiners, to the large dealers, at about a farthing
each, or 100 per cent. profit to the tale or aggregate number. These
dealers are not the utterers, but sell them again by retail in pieces,
or five shilling papers, at the rate of from 28s. to 31s. for a guinea;
not only to the smashers, but also to persons in different trades, as
well in the metropolis as in the country towns, who pass them in
the course of their business at the full import value.

Farthings are also made in considerable quantities, chiefly in
London, but so very thin, that the profit upon this specie of coinage
is much greater than on the halfpence, though these counterfeits
are not now, as formerly made of base metal. The copper of which
they are made is generally pure. The advantage lies in the weight
alone, where the coiners, sellers, and utterers, do not obtain less
than 200 per cent. A well-known coiner has been said to finish
from sixty to eighty pounds sterling a week. Of halfpence, two or
three persons can stamp and finish to the nominal amount of at
least two hundred pounds in six days.

A species of counterfeit halfpence made wholly of lead has been
circulated in considerable quantities, coloured in such a manner, as
even to deceive the best judges. They are generally of the reign of
George II and have the exact appearance of old mint halfpence.

The same kind of counterfeit penny-pieces are also in circulation;
and as six or twelve penny pieces are often taken in a lump, the
leaden ones, on account of their exact size and similitude, are
seldom or never noticed. The colouring, however, is very apt to
wear off at the edges.

But those are not the only criminal devices to which the coiners
and dealers, as well as the utterers of base money, have had
recourse, for answering their iniquitous purposes.

Previous to the Act of the 37th George III cap. 126, counterfeit
French crowns, half-crowns, and shillings, of excellent
workmanship, were introduced with a view to elude the
punishment of the then deficient laws relative to foreign coin.

Fraudulent die sinkers are to be found both in the metropolis and in
Birmingham, who are excellent artists; able and willing to copy the
exact similitude of any coin, from the British guinea to the sequin
of Turkey, or to the star pagoda of Arcot. The delinquents have
therefore every opportunity and assistance they can wish for; while
their accurate knowledge of the deficiency of the laws (particularly
relative to British coin), and where the point of danger lies, joined
to the extreme difficulty of detection, operates as a great
encouragement to this species of treason, felony, and fraud; and
affords the most forcible reason why these pests of society still
continued to afflict the honest part of the community.

When it is considered that there are seldom less than between forty
and fifty coinages or private mints, almost constantly employed in
London and in different country towns, in stamping and fabricating
base silver and copper money, the evil may justly be said to have
arrived at an enormous height. It is indeed true, that these people
have been a good deal interrupted and embarrassed, from time to
time, by detections and convictions; but while the laws are so
inapplicable to the new tricks and devices they have resorted to,
these convictions are only a drop in the bucket: while such
encouragements are held out, the execution of one rogue only
makes room for another to take up his customers; and indeed as the
offence of selling is only a misdemeanour, it is no unusual thing
for the wife and family of a culprit, or convicted seller of base
money, to carry on the business, and to support him luxuriously in
Newgate, until the expiration of the year and a day's imprisonment,
which is generally the punishment inflicted for this species of
offence.

It has not been an unusual thing for several of these dealers to hold
a kind of market, every morning, where from forty to fifty of the
German Jew boys are regularly supplied with counterfeit
halfpence, which they dispose of in the course of the day in
different streets and lanes of the metropolis, for bad shillings, at
about threepence each. Care is always taken that the person who
cries bad shillings shall have a companion near him, who carries
the halfpence, and takes charge of the purchased shillings (which
are not cut) so as to elude the detection of the officers of the police,
in the event of being searched.

The bad shillings thus purchased, are received in payment by the
employers of the boys, for the bad halfpence supplied by them, at
the rate of four shillings a dozen; and are generally resold to
smashers, at a profit of two shillings a dozen; who speedily re-
colour them, and introduce them again into circulation, at their full
nominal value.

These boys will generally clear from five to seven shillings a day
by this fraudulent business, which they almost uniformly spend,
during the evening, in riot and debauchery; returning penniless in
the morning to their old trade.

These dealers are also assisted by fruit women, who are always
ready to give change to ladies (particularly when no gentleman is
in company,) when perhaps not one shilling in the change is good;
and should the purchaser of the fruit object to any, abusive words
ensue. -- An instance of this happened not long ago in Cranbourn
Alley. Rabbit and fowl hawkers are likewise very dexterous in
passing bad money: they call in at shops, and propose bargains of
fowls, apparently fine looking, but generally old; when they
receive payment, they have a mode of changing the silver, and
telling the purchaser that he has given a bad shilling, or half-a-
crown, producing accordingly a most notorious base one: by their
peremptory, and afterwards abusive manner, they force the master
or mistress of the house (for who would have a mob about their
door?) to give them good money for their counterfeit. A person of
this description has imposed lately upon some very respectable
people in Chelsea, but was fortunately stopped in his career.

Thus it is that the frauds upon the public multiply beyond all
possible conception, while the tradesman, who, unwarily at least if
not improperly, sells his counterfeit shillings to Jew boys at
threepence each, little suspects, that it is for the purpose of being
returned upon him again at the rate of twelve-pence; or three
hundred per cent profit to the purchasers and utterers.

An opinion prevails, founded on information obtained through the
medium of the most intelligent of these coiners and dealers, that of
the counterfeit money now in circulation, not above one third part
is of the species of flats or composition money, which has been
mentioned as the most intrinsically valuable of counterfeit silver;
and contains from one-fourth to one-third silver: the remainder
being blanched copper. The other two-thirds of the counterfeit
money being cast or washed, and intrinsically worth little or
nothing, the imposition is obvious. Taking the whole upon an
average, the amount of the injury may be fairly calculated at within
10 per cent of a total loss upon the mass of the base silver now in
circulation; which, if a conclusion may be drawn from what passes
under the review of any person who has occasion to receive silver
in exchange, must considerably exceed one million sterling! To
this we have the miserable prospect of an accession every year,
until sonic effectual steps shall be taken to remedy the evil.

Of the copper coinage, the quantity of counterfeits at one time in
circulation might be truly said to equal three-fourth parts of the
whole, and nothing is more certain than that a very great
proportion of the actual counterfeits passed as mint halfpence,
from their size and appearance, although they yielded the coiners a
vast profit.

Even at present the state both of the silver and copper coinage of
this kingdom (the copper pence only excepted) deserves very
particular attention, for at no time can any person minutely 
examine either the one coin or the other, which may come into his
possession, without finding a considerable portion counterfeit.



APPENDIX XIII

Pretended Ghosts

We take this opportunity of referring to other cases of pretended
ghosts, which in their time attracted no inconsiderable portion of
public attention, and excited no small degree of alarm. The most
famous of these was known by the name of the " Cock Lane Ghost,"
and the circumstances connected with the case are so curious, and
afford so fair a specimen of the easy credulity even of well-
informed and otherwise sensible people, that we feel little
hesitation in placing an account of them before our readers.

The Cock Lane Ghost kept London in a state of commotion for no
short time, and was the universal theme of conversation among the
learned and the illiterate, and in every circle of society, "from
the prince to the peasant." It appears that at the commencement of
the year 1760, there resided in Cock Lane, near West Smithfield,
in the house of one Parsons, the parish clerk of St Sepulchre's, a
stockbroker, named Kent. The wife of this gentle man had died in
child-bed during the previous year and his sister-in-law, Miss
Fanny, had arrived from Norfolk to keep his house for him. They
soon conceived a mutual affection, and each of them made a will in
the other's favour. They lived for some months in the house of
Parsons, who, being a needy man, borrowed money of his lodger.
Some differences arose betwixt them, and Mr Kent left the house,
and instituted legal proceedings against the parish clerk for the
recovery of his money.

While this matter was yet pending, Miss Fanny was suddenly taken
ill of the small-pox, and, not withstanding every care and
attention, she died in a few days, and was buried in a vault under
Clerkenwell church. Parsons now began to hint that the poor lady 
had come unfairly by her death, and that Mr Kent was accessory to
it, from his too great eagerness to enter into possession of the
property she had bequeathed him. Nothing further was said for
nearly two years; but it would appear that Parsons was of so
revengeful a character, that he had never forgotten or forgiven
his differences with Mr Kent, and the indignity of having been
sued for the borrowed money. The strong passions of pride and
avarice were silently at work during all that interval, hatching
schemes of revenge, but dismissing them one after the other as
impracticable, until, at last, a notable one suggested itself.
About the beginning of the year 1762, the alarm was spread over
all the neighbourhood of Cock Lane, that the house of Parsons was
haunted by the ghost of poor Fanny, and that the daughter of
Parsons, a girl about twelve years of age, had several times seen
and conversed with the spirit, who had, more over, informed her,
that she had not died of the small-pox, as was currently reported,
but of poisons administered by Mr Kent. Parsons, who originated,
took good care to countenance these reports; and, in answer to
numerous inquiries, said his house was every night, and had been
for two years -- in fact ever since the death of Fanny, troubled
by a loud knocking at the doors and in the walls. Having thus
prepared the ignorant and credulous neighbours to believe or
exaggerate for themselves what he had told them, be sent for a
gentleman of a higher class in life, to come and witness these
extraordinary occurrences. The gentleman came accordingly, and
found the daughter of Parsons, to whom the spirit alone appeared,
and whom alone it answered, in bed, trembling violently, having
just seen the ghost, and been again informed that she had died
from poison. A loud knocking was also heard from every part of the
chamber, which so mystified the not very clear understanding of
the visitor, that he departed, afraid to doubt and ashamed to
believe, but with a promise to bring the clergyman of the parish
and several other gentlemen on the following day, to report upon
the mystery.

On the following night he returned, bringing with him three
clergymen, and about twenty other persons, including two negroes,
when, upon a consultation with Parsons, they resolved to sit up
the whole night, and await the ghost's arrival. It was then
explained by Parsons, that although the ghost would never render
itself visible to anybody but his daughter, it had no objection to
answer the questions that might be put to it by any person
present, and that it expressed an affirmation by one knock, a
negative by two, and its displeasure by a kind of scratching. The
child was then put into bed along with her sister, and the
clergymen examined the bed and bed-clothes to satisfy themselves
that no trick was played, by knocking upon any substance concealed
among the clothes, as, on the previous night, the bed was observed
to shake violently.

After some hours; during which they all waited with exemplary
patience, the mysterious knocking was heard in the wall, and the
child declared that she saw the ghost of poor Fanny. The following
questions were then gravely put by the clergyman, through the
medium of one Mary Frazer, the servant of Parsons, and to whom it
was said the deceased lady bad been much attached. The answers
were in the usual fashion, by a knock or knocks.

"Do you make this disturbance on account of the ill usage you
received from Mr Kent? " -- "Yes,"

"Were you brought to an untimely end by poison? " -- "Yes."

"How was the poison administered, in beer or in purl? " -- "In
purl."

"How long was that before your death? " -- "About three hours."

"Can your former servant, Carrots, give any information about the
poison?"  -- "Yes."

"Are you Kent's wife's sister?" -- "Yes."

"Were you married to Kent after your sister's death?" -- "No."

"Was anybody else, besides Kent, concerned in your murder? " --
"No."

"Can you, if you like, appear visibly to any one? Yes."

"Will you do so? " -- "Yes."

"Can you go out of this house?" -- "Yes,"

"Is it your intention to follow this child about everywhere?" -- -
" Yes."

"Are you pleased in being asked these questions?" -- "Yes."

"Does it ease your troubled soul?" -- "Yes."

[Here there was heard a mysterious noise, which some wiseacre
present compared to the fluttering of wings.]

" How long before your death did you tell your servant, Carrots,
that you were poisoned? -- An hour? " -- "Yes."

[Carrots, who was present, was appealed to; but she stated
positively that such was not the fact, as the deceased was quite
speechless an hour before her death, This shook the faith of some
of the spectators, but the examination was allowed to continue.]

"How long did Carrots live with you?" --  "Three or four days."

[Carrots was again appealed to, and said that this was true.]

"If Mr Kent is arrested for this murder; will he confess? " --
"Yes."

"Would your soul be at rest if he were hanged for it? " -- "Yes."

"Will he be hanged for it?" -- "Yes."

"How long a time first?" -- "Three years."

"How many clergymen are there in this room?"  -- "Three."

"How many negroes?" -- "Two."

"Is this watch (held up by one of the clergymen) white? " -- "No."

" Is it yellow? " -- "No."

"Is it blue?" -- "No."

"Is it black? " -- "Yes."

[The watch was in a black shagreen case.]

"At what time this morning will you take your departure?"

The answer to this question was four knocks, very distinctly heard
by every person present; and accordingly, at four o'clock
precisely, the ghost took its departure to the Wheatsheaf public-
house, close by, where it frightened mine host and his lady almost
out of their wits by knocking in the ceiling right above their
bed.

The rumour of these occurrences very soon spread over London, and
every day Cock-lane was rendered impassable by the crowds of
people who assembled around the house of the parish clerk, in
expectation of either seeing the ghost or of hearing the
mysterious knocks. It was at last found necessary, so clamorous
were they for admission within the haunted precincts, to admit
those only who would pay a certain fee; an arrangement which was
very convenient to the needy and money-loving Mr Parsons. Indeed,
things had taken a turn greatly to his satisfaction; he not only
had his revenge, but he made a profit out of it. The ghost, in
consequence, played its antics every night, to the great amusement
of many hundreds of people, and the great perplexity of a still
greater number.

Unhappily, however, for the parish clerk, the ghost was induced to
make some promises which were the means of utterly destroying its
reputation. It promised, in answer to the questions of the
Reverend Mr Aldritch of Clerkenwell, that it would not only follow
the little Miss Parsons wherever she went, but would also attend
him, or any other gentleman, into the vault under St John's
Church, where the body of the murdered woman was deposited, and
would there give notice of its presence by a distinct knock upon
the coffin. As a preliminary, the girl was conveyed to the house
of Mr Aldritch near the church, where a large party of ladies and
gentlemen, eminent for their acquirements, their rank, or their
wealth, had assembled. About ten o'clock on the night of the 1st
of February, the girl, having been brought from Cock-lane in a
coach, was put to bed by several ladies in the house of Mr
Aldritch, a strict examination having been previously made that
nothing was hidden in the bedclothes. While the gentlemen, in an
adjoining chamber, were deliberating whether they should proceed
in a body to the vault, they were summoned into the bedroom by the
ladies, who affirmed, in great alarm, that the ghost was come, and
that they heard the knocks and scratches. The gentlemen entered
accordingly, with a determination to suffer no deception. The
little girl, on being asked whether she saw the ghost, replied,
"No; but she felt it on her back like a mouse." She was then
required to put her hands out of bed, and, these being held by
some of the ladies, the spirit was summoned in the usual manner to
answer, if it were in the room. The question was several times put
with great solemnity; but the customary knock was not heard in
reply in the walls, neither was there any scratching. The ghost
was then asked to render itself visible, but it did not choose to
grant the request. It was next solicited to give some token of its
presence by a sound of any sort, or by touching the hand or cheek
of any lady or gentleman in the room; but even with this request
the ghost would not comply.

There was now a considerable pause, and one of the clergymen went
down-stairs to interrogate the father of the girl, who was waiting
the result of the experiment. He positively denied that there was
any deception, and even went so far as to say that he himself,
upon one occasion, had seen and conversed with the awful ghost.
This having been communicated to the company, it was unanimously
resolved to give the ghost another trial; and the clergyman called
out in a loud voice to the supposed spirit that the gentleman to
whom it had promised to appear in the vault was about to repair to
that place, where he claimed the fulfilment of its promise. At one
hour after midnight they all proceeded to the church, and the
gentleman in question, with another, entered the vault alone, and
took up their position alongside of the coffin of poor Fanny. The
ghost was then summoned to appear, but it appeared not; it was
summoned to knock, but it knocked not; it was summoned to scratch,
but it scratched not; and the two retired from the vault, with the
firm belief that the whole business was a deception practised by
Parsons and his daughter. There were others, however, who did not
wish to jump so hastily to a conclusion, and who suggested that
they were, perhaps, trifling with this awful and supernatural
being, which, being offended with them for their presumption,
would not condescend to answer them. Again, after a serious
consultation, it was agreed on all bands that, if the ghost
answered anybody at all, it would answer Mr Kent. the supposed
murderer; and he was accordingly requested to go down into the
vault. He went with several others, and summoned the ghost to
answer whether he had indeed poisoned her. There being no answer,
the question was put by Mr Aldritch, who conjured it, if it were
indeed a spirit, to end their doubts -- make a sign of its
presence, and point out the guilty person. There being still no
answer for the space of half an hour, during which time all these
boobies waited with the most praiseworthy perseverance, they
returned to the house of Mr Aldritch, and ordered the girl to get
up and dress herself. She was strictly examined, but persisted in
her statement that she used no deception, and that the ghost had
really appeared to her.

So many persons had, by their openly expressed belief of the
reality of the visitation, identified themselves with it, that
Parsons and his family were far from being the only persons
interested in the continuance of the delusion. The result of the
experiment convinced most people; but these were not to be
convinced by any evidence, however positive, and they therefore
spread about the rumour, that the ghost had not appeared in the
vault, because Mr Kent had taken care beforehand to have the
coffin removed. That gentleman, whose position was a very painful
one, immediately procured competent witnesses, in whose presence
the vault was entered, and the coffin of poor Fanny opened. Their
deposition was then published; and Mr Kent indicted Parsons and
his wife, his daughter, Mary Frazer the servant, the Rev Mr Moor,
and a tradesman, two of the most prominent patrons of the
deception, for a conspiracy. The trial came on in the Court of
King's Bench, on the 10th of July, before Lord Chief-Justice
Mansfield, when, after an investigation which lasted twelve hours,
the whole of the conspirators were found guilty. The Rev Mr Moor
and his friend were severely reprimanded in open court, and
recommended to make some pecuniary compensation to the prosecutor
for the aspersions they had been instrumental in throwing upon his
character. Parsons was sentenced to stand three times in the
pillory, and to be imprisoned for two years: his wife to one
year's, and his servant to six mouths' imprisonment in the
Bridewell. A printer, who had been employed by them to publish an
account of the proceedings for their profit, was also fined fifty
pounds, and discharged.

The precise manner in which the deception was carried on has never
been explained. The knocking in the wall appears to have been the
work of Parsons' wife, while the scratching part of the business
was left to the little girl. That any contrivance so clumsy could
have deceived anybody, cannot fail to excite our wonder. But thus
it always is. If two or three persons can only be found to take
the lead in any absurdity, however great, there is sure to be
plenty of imitators. Like sheep in a field, if one clears the
stile, the rest will follow.

About ten years afterwards, London was again alarmed by the story
of a haunted house. Stockwell, near Vauxhall, the scene of the
antics of this new ghost, became almost as celebrated in the
annals of superstition as Cock Lane. Mrs Golding, an elderly lady,
who resided alone with her servant, Anne Robinson, was sorely
surprised on the evening ,of Twelfth-day, 1772, to observe a most
extraordinary commotion among her crockery. Cups and saucers
rattled down the chimney -- pots and pans were whirled down-
stairs, or through the windows; and hams, cheeses, and loaves of
bread disported themselves upon the floor as if the devil were in
them. This, at least, was the conclusion that Mrs Golding came to;
and being greatly alarmed, she invited some of her neighbours to
stay with, her, and protect her from the, evil one. Their
presence, however, did not put a stop to the insurrection of china
and every room in the house was in a short time strewed with the
fragments. The chairs and tables joined, at last, in the tumult,
and  things looked altogether so serious, and inexplicable, that
the neighbours, dreading that the house itself would next be
seized with a fit of motion; and tumble about their ears, left
poor Mrs Golding to bear the brunt of it by  herself. The ghost in
this case was solemnly remonstrated with, and urged to take its
departure; but the demolition continuing as great as before, Mrs
Golding finally made up her mind to quit the house altogether. She
took refuge with Anne Robinson in the house of a neighbour; but
his glass and crockery being immediately subjected to the same
persecution, he was reluctantly compelled to give her notice to
quit. The old lady, thus forced back to her own house, endured the
disturbance for some days longer, when suspecting that Anne
Robinson was the cause of all the mischief, she dismissed her from
her service. The extraordinary appearances immediately ceased, and
were never afterwards renewed; a fact which is of itself
sufficient to point out the real disturber. A long time
afterwards, Anne Robinson confessed the whole matter to the Rev Mr
Brayfield. This gentleman confided the story to Mr Hone, who has
published an explanation of the mystery. Anne, it appears, was
anxious to have a clear house, to carry on an intrigue with her
lover, and resorted to this trick to effect her purpose. She
placed the china  on the shelves in such a manner that it fell on
the slightest motion, and attached horse-hairs to other articles,
so that she could jerk them down from an adjoining room without
being perceived by any one. She was exceedingly dextrous at this
sort of work, and would have proved a  formidable rival to many a
juggler by profession.

In later days, the alarming vagaries of "Swing," and "Spring-
heeled Jack," have occasioned scarcely less alarm. Their claims to
supernatural powers have not been supported by such plausible
evidence as those of any of the ghosts which we have yet named,
but their proceedings have been no less troublesome and
mischievous to the well-disposed of the subjects of this realm.

One or two anecdotes with regard to haunted houses, though rather
beside the immediate object of this work, may yet prove
interesting, as illustrative of the general subject of ghosts, and
the degree of belief to be put in such supernatural visitors.

One of the best stories which we recollect to have heard of a
haunted house, is that which is related of the Royal Palace at
Woodstock, in the year 1649, when the commissioners went down from
London by the Long Parliament to take possession of it, and efface
all the emblems of royalty about it, were fairly driven out by
their fear of the devil, and the annoyances they suffered from a
roguish cavalier, who played the imp to admiration. The
commissioners, dreading at that time no devil, arrived at
Woodstock on the 13th of October 1649. They took up their lodgings
in the late King's apartments -- turned the beautiful bed rooms
and withdrawing-rooms into kitchens and sculleries -- the council-
hall into a brew-house, and made the dining-room a place to keep
firewood  in. They pulled down all the insignia of royal state,
and treated with the utmost indignity everything that recalled to
their memory the name or the majesty of Charles Stuart. One Giles
Sharp accompanied them in the capacity of clerk, and seconded
their efforts apparently with the greatest zeal. He aided them to
uproot a noble old tree, merely because it was called the King's
Oak, and tossed the fragments into the dining-room to make
cheerful fires for the commissioners. During the first two days
they heard some strange noises about the house, but they paid no
great attention to them. On the third, however, they began to
suspect they bad got into  bad company; for they heard, as they
thought, a supernatural dog under their bed, which gnawed their
bedclothes. On the next day the chairs and tables began to dance,
apparently of their own accord. On the fifth day, something came
into the bedchamber and walked up and down, and fetching the
warming-pan out of the withdrawing-room, made so much noise with
it that they thought five church bells were ringing in their ears.
On the sixth day, the plates and dishes were thrown up and down
the dining-room. On the seventh, they penetrated into the bed-room
in company with several logs of wood, and usurped the soft pillows
intended for the commissioners. On the eighth and ninth nights,
there was a cessation of hostilities; but on the tenth the bricks
in the chimneys became locomotive, and rattled and danced about
the floors, and round the heads of the commissioners all the night
long. On the eleventh, the demon ran away with their breeches; and
on the twelfth filled their beds so full of pewter platters that
they could not get into them. On the thirteenth night, the glass
became unaccountably seized with a fit of cracking, and fell into
shivers in all parts of the house. On the fourteenth, there was a
noise as if forty pieces of artillery had been fired off, and a
shower of pebble-stones, which so alarmed the commissioners, that,
"struck with great horror, they cried out to one another for
help."

They first of all tried the efficacy of prayers to drive away the
evil spirits; but these proving unavailing, they began seriously
to reflect whether it would not be much better to leave the place
altogether to the  devil that inhabited it. They ultimately
resolved, however, to try it a little longer: and having craved
forgiveness of all their sins, betook themselves to bed. That
night they slept in tolerable comfort, but it  was merely a trick
of their tormentor to lull them into false security. When, on the
succeeding night, they heard no noises, they began to flatter
themselves that the devil was driven out, and prepared accordingly
to take up their quarters for the whole winter in the palace.
These symptoms on their part became the signal for renewed uproar
among the fiends. On the 1st of November, they heard something
walking with a slow and solemn pace up and down the with drawing-
room, and immediately afterwards a shower of stones, bricks,
mortar, and broken glass pelted about their ears. On the 2nd the
steps were again heard in the withdrawing-room, sounding to their
fancy very much like the treading of an enormous bear, which
continued for about a quarter of an hour. This noise having
ceased, a large warming-pan was thrown violently upon the table,
followed by a number of stones, and the jawbone of a horse. Some
of the boldest walked valiantly into the withdrawing-room, armed
with swords and pistols, but could discover nothing. They were
afraid that night to go to sleep, and sat up, making fires in
every room, and burning candles and lamps in great abundance;
thinking that, as the fiends loved darkness, they would not
disturb a company surrounded with so much light. They were
deceived, however: buckets of water came down the chimneys and
extinguished the fires, and the candles were blown out, they knew
not how. Some of the servants who had betaken themselves to bed
were drenched with putrid ditch-water as they lay; and arose in 
great fright, muttering incoherent prayers, and exposing to the
wondering eyes of the commissioners their linen all dripping with
green moisture, and their knuckles red with the blows they had at
the same time received from some invisible tormentors. While they
were still speaking, there was a noise like the loudest thunder,
or the firing of a whole park of artillery; upon which they all
fell down upon their knees and implored the protection of the
Almighty. One of the commissioners then arose, the others still 
kneeling, and asked in a courageous voice, and in the name of God,
who was there, and what they had done that they should be troubled
in that manner. No answer was returned, and the noises ceased for
a while. At length, however, as the commissioners said, "the devil
came again, and brought with it seven devils worse than itself,"
Being again in darkness, they lighted a candle and placed it in
the doorway that it might throw a light upon the two chambers at
once; but it was suddenly blown out, and one commissioner said
that he bad "seen the similitude of a horse's hoof striking the
candle and candlestick into the middle of the chamber, and
afterwards making three escapes on the snuff to put it out." Upon
this, the same person was so bold as to draw his sword; but he
asserted positively that he had hardly withdrawn it from the
scabbard before an invisible hand seized hold of it and tugged
with him for it, and prevailing, struck him so violent a blow with
the pommel that he was quite stunned. Then the noises began again;
upon which, with one accord, they all retired into the presence-
chamber, where they passed the night, praying and singing psalms.

They were by this time convinced that it was useless to struggle
any longer with the powers of evil, that seemed determined to make
Woodstock their own. These things happened on the Saturday night;
and, being repeated on the Sunday, they determined to leave the
place immediately, and return to London. By Tuesday morning early,
all their preparations were completed; and shaking the dust off
their feet, and devoting Woodstock and all its inhabitants to the
infernal gods, they finally took their departure,

Many years elapsed before the true cane of these disturbances was
discovered. It was ascertained, at the Restoration, that the whole
was the work of Giles Sharp, the trusty clerk of the
commissioners. This man, whose real name was Joseph Collins, was a
concealed royalist, and had passed his early life within the
bowers of Woodstock; so that he knew every hole and corner of the
place, and the numerous trap-doors and secret passages that
abounded in the building; The commissioners, never suspecting the
true state of his opinions, but believing him to be revolutionary
to the back-bone, placed the utmost reliance upon him; a
confidence which he abused in the manner above detailed, to his
own great amusement, and that of the few cavaliers whom he let
into the secret.

Quite as extraordinary and as cleverly managed was the trick
played off at Tedworth, in 1661, at the house of Mr Mompesson, and
which is so circumstantially narrated by the Rev Joseph Glanvil,
under the title of   "The Demon of Tedworth," and appended, among
other proofs of witchcraft,  to his noted work, called
"Sadducismus Triumphatus." About the middle of April, in the year
above mentioned, Mr Mompesson, having returned to his house at
Tedworth, from a journey he had taken to London, was informed by
his wife that during his absence they bad been troubled with the
most extraordinary noises. Three nights afterwards be heard the
noise himself; and it appeared to him to be that of "a great
knocking at his doors, and on the outside of his walls," He
immediately arose, dressed himself, took down a pair of pistols,
and walked valiantly forth to discover the disturber, under the
impression that it must be a robber; but, as he went, the noise
seemed to travel before or behind him; and, when he arrived at the
door from which be thought it proceeded, he saw nothing, but still
heard "a strange hollow sound." He puzzled his brains for a long
time,  and searched every corner of the house; but, discovering
nothing, he went to bed again. He was no sooner snug under the
clothes, than the noise began again more furiously than ever,
sounding very much like a "thumping and drumming on the top of his
house, and then by degrees going off into the air."

These things continued for several nights, when it came to the
recollection of Mr Mompesson that, some time before, be bad given
orders for the arrest and imprisonment of a wandering drummer, who
went about the country with a large drum, disturbing quiet people
and soliciting alms, and that he had detained the man's drum, and
that, probably, the drummer was a wizard, and had sent evil
spirits to haunt his house, to be revenged of him. He be came
strengthened in his opinion every day, especially when the noises
assumed, to his fancy, a resemblance to the beating of a drum,
"like that at the breaking up of a guard." Mrs Mompesson being
brought to bed, the devil, or the drummer, very kindly and
considerately refrained from making the usual riot; but, as soon
as she recovered strength, began again, "in a ruder manner than
before, following and vexing the young children, and beating their
bedsteads with so much violence that every one expected they would
fall in pieces." For an hour together, as the worthy Mr Mompesson
repeated to his wondering neighbours, this infernal drummer would
beat 'Roundheads and Cuckolds,' the 'Tattoo,' and several other
points of war, as cleverly as any soldier." When this had lasted
long enough, he changed his tactics, and scratched with his  iron
talons under the children's bed. "On the 5th of November," says
the Rev Joseph Glanvil, "it made a mighty noise; and a servant,
observing two boards in the children's room seeming to move, he
bid it give him one of them. Upon which the board came (nothing
moving it, that he saw) within a yard of him. The man added, 'Nay,
let me have it in my hand;' upon which the spirit, devil, or
drummer, pushed it towards him so close, that he might touch it.
This," continues Glanvil, "was in the day-time, and was seen by a
whole room-full of people. That morning it left a sulphurous smell
behind it, which was very offensive. At night the minister, one Mr
Cragg, and several of the  neighbours, came to the house on a
visit. Mr Cragg went to prayers with them, kneeling at the
children's bedside, where it then became very troublesome and
loud. During prayer-time, the spirit withdrew into the cock-loft,
but returned as soon as prayers were done; and then, in sight of
the company, the chairs walked about the room of themselves, the
children's shoes were hurled over their beads, and every loose
thing moved about the chamber. At the same time, a bed-staff was
thrown at the minister, which hit him on the leg, but so
favourably, that a lock of wool could not have fallen more
softly." On another occasion, the blacksmith of the village, a
fellow who cared neither for ghost nor devil, slept with John the
footman, that he also might hear the disturbance, and be cured of
his incredulity, when there "came a noise in the room, as if one
had been shoeing a horse, and somewhat came, as it were, with a
pair of pinchers," snipping and snapping at the poor blacksmith's
nose the greater part of the night. Next day it came, panting like
a dog out of breath; upon which some woman present took a bed-
staff to knock at it, "which was caught suddenly out of her band,
and thrown away; and company coming up, the room was presently
filled with a bloomy noisome smell, and was very hot, though
without fire, in a very sharp and severe winter. It continued in
the bed, panting and scratching for an hour and a half, and then
went into the next room, where it knocked a little, and seemed to
rattle a chain."

The rumour of these wonderful occurrences soon spread all over the
country, and people from far and near flocked to the haunted house
of Tedworth, to believe or doubt, as their natures led them, but
all filled with intense curiosity. It appears, too, that the fame
of these events reached the royal ear, and that some gentlemen
were sent by the King to investigate the circumstances, and draw
up a report of what they saw or heard. Whether the royal
commissioners were more sensible men than the neighbours of Mr
Mompesson, and required more clear and positive evidence than
they, or whether the powers with which they were armed to punish
anybody who might be found carrying on this deception frightened
the evil-doers,  is not certain; but Glanvil himself confesses,
that all the time they were in the house the noises ceased, and
nothing was beard or seen. "However," says he, "as to the quiet of
the house when the courtiers were there, the intermission may have
been accidental, or perhaps the demon was not willing to give so
public a testimony of those transactions which might possibly
convince those whom he had rather should continue in unbelief of
his existence."

As soon as the royal commissioners took their departure, the
infernal drummer re-commenced his antics, and hundreds of persons
were daily present to hear and wonder. Mr Mompesson's servant was
so fortunate as not only to hear, but to see this pertinacious
demon; for it came and stood at the foot of his bed. The exact
shape and proportion of it he could not discover; but "he saw a
great body, with two red and glaring eyes, which, for some time,
were fixed steadily on him, and at length disappeared."
Innumerable were the antics it played. Once it purred like a cat;
beat the children's legs black and blue;  put a long spike into Mr
Mompesson's bed, and a knife into his mother's; filled the
porringers with ashes; hid a Bible under the grate; and turned the
money black in people's pockets. "One night," says Mr Mompesson,
"there were seven or eight of these devils in the shape of men,
who, as soon as a gun was fired, would shuffle away into an
arbour;" a circumstance which might have convinced Mr Mompesson of
the mortal nature of his persecutors, if he had not been of the
number of those worse than blind, who shut their eyes, and refuse
to see.

In the mean time, the drummer, the supposed cause of all the
mischief, passed his time in Gloucester gaol, whither he had been
committed as a rogue and a vagabond. Being visited one day by some
person from the neighbourhood of Tedworth he asked what was the
news in Wiltshire, and whether people did not talk a great deal
about a drumming in a gentleman's house there? The visitor
replied, that he heard of nothing else; upon which the drummer
observed, "I have done it; I have thus plagued him! and he shall
never be quiet until he hath made me satisfaction for taking away
my drum." No doubt the fellow, who seems to have been a gipsy,
spoke the truth, and that the gang of which he was a member knew
more about the noises at Mr Mompesson's house than anybody else.
Upon these words, however, he was brought to trial at Salisbury
for witchcraft; and, being found guilty, was sentenced to
transportation; a sentence which, for its leniency, excited no
little wonder in that age, when such an accusation, whether proved
or not, generally insured the stake or the gibbet. Glanvil says,
that the noises ceased immediately the drummer was sent beyond the
seas; but that, somehow or other, he managed to return from
transportation, --  "by raising storms and affrighting the seamen,
it was said;" when the disturbances were forthwith renewed, and
continued at intervals for several years. It was believed by many
at the time, that Mr Mompesson himself was privy to the whole
matter, and permitted and encouraged these tricks in his house for
the sake of notoriety, but it seems more probable that the gipsies
were the real delinquents, and that Mr Mompesson was as much
alarmed and bewildered as his credulous neighbours, whose excited
imaginations conjured up no small portion of these stories, --
"Which roll'd, and, as they roll'd, grew larger every hour."

Many instances of a similar kind, during the seventeenth century,
might be gleaned from Glanvil and other writers of that period;
but they do not differ sufficiently from these to justify a detail
of them.



APPENDIX XIV
Witchcraft

A few anecdotes upon the subject of the belief in witchcraft, in
former days, we trust will not prove uninteresting to our readers.

The reign of James the Sixth of Scotland, and First of England,
may be said to have been the witchcraft age of Great Britain.
Scotland had always been a sort of fairy land; but it remained for
that sagacious prince, at a time when knowledge was beginning to
dispel the mists of superstition, to contribute, by his authority
and writings, to resolve a prejudice of education into an article
of religious belief amongst the Scottish people. He wrote and
published a "Treatise on Daemnologie;" the purpose of which was,
to "resolve the doubting hearts of many, as to the fearful
abounding of those detestable slaves of the Devil, witches, or
enchanters." The authority of Scripture was perverted, to show,
not only the possibility, but certainty, that such "detestable
scenes" do exist; and many most ridiculous stories of evil
enchantment were added, to establish their "fearful abounding."
The treatise, which is in the form of a dialogue, treats also of
the punishment which such crimes deserve; concluding, that "no
sex, age, nor rank, should be excused from the punishment of
death, according to the law of God, the civil and imperial law,
and the municipal law of all Christian nations." In answer to the
question, "What to judge of deathe, I pray you?" The answer is,
"It is commonlie used by fyre, but there is an indifferent thing
to be used in every country, according to the law or custume
thereof."

Such, in fact, was the cruel and barbarous law of James's native
country; and such became the law also of England, when he
succeeded to the sceptre of Elizabeth. Many hundreds of
unfortunate creatures, in both countries, became its victims,
suffering death ignominiously, for an impossible offence: neither
sex, nor age, nor rank, as James had sternly enjoined, was spared;
and it was the most hapless and inoffensive, such as aged and lone
women, who were most exposed to its malignant operation.

There were persons regularly employed in hunting out, and bringing
to punishment, those unfortunate beings suspected of witchcraft.

Matthew Hopkins resided at Manningtree, in Essex, and was
witchfinder for the associated counties of Essex, Suffolk,
Norfolk, and Huntingdonshire. In the years 1644, 1645, and 1646,
accompanied by one John Stern, he brought many to the fatal tree
as reputed witches. He hanged, in one year, no less than sixty
reputed witches of his own county of Essex. The old, the ignorant,
and the indigent, such as could neither plead their own cause nor
hire an advocate, were the miserable victims of this wretch's
credulity, spleen, and avarice. He pretended to be a great critic
in special marks, which were only moles, scorbutic spots, or
warts, that frequently grow large and pendulous in old age; but
were absurdly supposed to be teats to suckle imps. His ultimate
method of proof was by tying together the thumbs and toes of the
suspected person, about whose waist was fastened a cord, the ends
of which were held on the banks of the river by two men, in whose
power it was to strain or slacken it. Swimming, upon this
experiment, was deemed a sufficient proof of guilt; for which King
James (who is said to have recommended, if he did not invent it)
assigned a ridiculous reason, that, "as some persons had renounced
their baptism by water, so the water refuses to receive them."
Sometimes those who were accused of diabolical practices were tied
neck and heels, and tossed into a pond: if they floated or swam,
they were consequently guilty, and were therefore taken out and
burned; but if they were innocent, they were only drowned. The
experiment of swimming was at length tried upon Hopkins himself,
in his own way, and he was upon the event condemned, and, as it
seems, executed as a wizard. In a letter from Serjeant Widrinton
to Lord Whitelocke, mention is made of another fellow of the same
profession as Hopkins. This fellow received twenty shillings a-
head for every witch he discovered, and thereby obtained rewards
amounting to thirty pounds.

In an old print of this execrable character, he is represented
with two witches. One of them, named Holt, is supposed to say, "My
Impes are, i. Ile-mauzyr; 2. Pyewackett; 3. Pecke in the Crown; 4.
Griezell Griediegutt." Four animals attend: Jarmara, a black dog;
Sacke and Sugar, a hare; Newes, a ferret; Vinegar Tom, a bull-
headed grey hound. This print is in the Pepysian library.

Amongst a number of women (as many as sixteen) whom Hopkins, in
the year 1644, accused at Yarmouth, was one, of whom the following
account is given. It appears that she used to work for Mr Moulton
(a stocking merchant, and alderman of the town), and upon a
certain day went to his house for work; but he being from home,
his man refused to let her have any till his master returned;
where upon, being exasperated against the man, she applied herself
to the maid, and desired some knitting-work of her; and when she
returned the like answer, she went home in great discontent
against them both. That night, when she was in bed, she heard a
knock at her door, and going to her window, she saw (it being
moon-light) a tall black man there: and asked what he would have?
He told her that she was discontented, because she could not get
work; and that he would put her into a way that she should never
want anything. On this, she let him in, and asked him what be had
to say to her? He told her he must first see her hands; and taking
out something like a penknife, he gave it a little scratch, so
that a little blood followed, a scar being still visible when she
told the story; then he took some of the blood in a pen, and
pulling a book out of his pocket, bid her write her name; and when
she said she could not, be said he would guide her hand. When this
was done, be bid her now ask what she would have. And when she
desired first to be revenged on the man, he promised to give her
an account of it next night, and so leaving her some money went
away. The next night be came to her again, and told her he could
do nothing against the man, for he went constantly to church, and
said his prayers morning and evening. Then she desired him to
revenge her on the maid: but he said the same of the maid, and
that therefore he could not hurt her. But she said that there was
a young child in the house, which was more easy to be dealt with.
Whereupon she desired him to do what he could against it. The next
night he came again, and brought with him an image of wax, and
told her they must go and bury that in the church-yard, and then
the child, which he had put in great pain already, should waste
away as that image wasted. Where upon they went together and
buried it. The child having lain in a languishing condition for
about fifteen months, and being very near death, the minister sent
this woman with this account to the magistrates, who thereupon
sent her to Mr Moulton's, where, in the same room that the child
lay, almost dead, she was examined concerning the particulars
aforesaid; all which she confessed, and had no sooner done, but
the child, who was three years old, and was thought to be dead or
dying, laughed, and began to stir and raise up itself: and from
that instant began to recover. The woman was convicted upon her
own confession, and was executed accordingly.

A more melancholy tale does not occur in the annals of necromancy,
than that of the Lancashire Witches, in 1612. The scene of the
story is in Penderbury Forest, four or five miles from Manchester,
remarkable for its picturesque and gloomy situation. It had long
been of ill repute, as a consecrated haunt of diabolical
intercourse, when a country magistrate, Roger Nowel by name, took
it into his head that he should perform a great public service by
routing out a nest of witches, who had rendered the place a terror
to all the neighbouring vulgar. The first persons he seized on
were Elizabeth Demdike and Ann Chattox. The former was eighty
years of age, and had for some years been blind, and principally
subsisted by begging, though she had a miserable hovel on the
spot, which she called her own. Ann Chattox was of the same age,
and had for some time been threatened with the calamity of
blindness. Demdike was held to be so hardened a witch that she had
trained all her family to the mystery: namely, Elizabeth Device,
her daughter, and James and Alison Device, her great-grand
children. These, together with John Balcock, and Jane his mother,
Alice Natter, Catherine Hewitt, and Isabel Roby, were successively
apprehended by the diligence of Nowel, and one or two neighbouring
magistrates, and were all of them by some means induced, some to
make a more liberal, and others a more restricted confession of
their misdeeds in witchcraft, and were afterwards hurried away to
Lancaster Castle, fifty miles off, to prison. Their crimes were
said to have universally proceeded from malignity and resentment;
and it was reported to have repeatedly happened for poor old
Demdike to be led by night from her habitation into the open air,
by some member of her family, where she was left alone for an hour
to curse her victim, and pursue her unholy incantations, and was
then sought and brought back again to her hovel, her curses never
failing to produce the desired effect.

The poor wretches had been but a short time in prison, when
information was given that a meeting of witches was held on Good-
Friday, at Malkin's Tower, the habitation of Elizabeth Device, to
the number of twenty persons, to consult how, by infernal
machinations, to kill one Lovel, an officer, to blow up Lancaster
Castle, deliver the prisoners, and to kill another man, of the
name of Lister. The last object was effected; the other plans, by
some means, which are not related, were prevented.

The prisoners were kept in jail till the summer assizes; but in
the mean time, the poor blind Demdike died in confinement.

The other prisoners were severally indicted for killing by
witchcraft certain persons who were named, and were all found
guilty. The principal witnesses against Elizabeth Device were
James Device and Jennet Device, her grandchildren, the latter only
nine years of age. When this girl was put into the witness-box,
the grandmother, on seeing her, set up so dreadful a yell,
intermixed with dreadful curses, that the child declared that she
could not go on with her evidence, unless the prisoner was
removed. This was agreed to, and both brother and sister swore
that they had been present, when the Devil came to their
grandmother, in the shape of a black dog, and asked her what she
desired. She said the death of John Robinson; when the dog told
her to make an image of Robinson in clay, and after crumble it
into dust, and as fast as the image perished, the life of the
victim should waste away, and in conclusion the man should die.
This testimony was received; and upon the conviction, which
followed, ten persons were led to the gallows, on the twentieth of
August, Ann Chattox, of eighty years of age, among the rest, the
day after the trials, which lasted two days, were finished.

The judges who presided on these trials were Sir James Altham and
Sir Edward Bromley, barons of the exchequer.

Guluim, who gives the most simple and interesting account of this
melancholy case, conjectures, with much reason, that the old women
had played at the game of commerce with the Devil, in order to
make their simpler neighbours afraid of them; and that they played
the game so long, that in an imperfect degree they deceived
themselves. But when one of them actually saw her grandchild of
nine years old placed in the witness-box, with the intention of
consigning her to a public and ignominious death, then the
reveries of the imagination vanished, and she deeply felt the
reality, that, when she had been somewhat imposing on the child,
in devilish sport, she had been whetting the dagger that was to
take her own life. It was then no wonder that she uttered a
supernatural yell, and poured curses from her heart.

Such was the first case of the Lancashire Witches. In that which
follows, the accusation was clearly traced to be founded on a most
villainous conspiracy.

About the year 1634, a boy named Edmund Robinson, whose father, a
very poor man, dwelt in Pendle Forest, the scene of the alleged
witching, declared that, while gathering wild-flowers in one of
the glades of the forest, be saw two greyhounds, which he supposed
to belong to a gentleman in the neighbourhood. Seeing nobody
following them, the boy alleged that he proposed to have a course;
but though a hare was started, the dogs refused to run. Young
Robinson was about to punish them with a switch, when one Dame
Dickenson, a neighbour's wife, started up instead of the one grey
hound; and a little boy instead of the other. The witness averred
that Mother Dickenson offered him money to conceal what he had
seen, which he refused, saying, 'Nay; thou art a witch!'
Apparently, she was determined he should have full evidence of the
truth of what be said, for she pulled out of her pocket a bridle,
and shot it over the head of the boy, who had so lately
represented the other greyhound. He was then directly changed into
a horse; Mother Dickenson mounted, and took Robinson before her.
They made to a large house or barn, called Hourstown, into which
the boy entered with the others. He there saw six or seven persons
pulling at halters, from which, as they pulled them, meat ready-
dressed came flying in quantities, together with lumps of butter,
porringers of milk, and whatever else might, in his fancy,
complete a rustic feast. He declared that, while engaged in the
charm, they made such ugly faces and looked so fiendish, that he
was frightened.

This story succeeded so well, that the father of the boy took him
round to the neighbouring churches, where he placed him standing
on a bench after service, and bade him look round and see what he
could observe. The device, however clumsy, succeeded; and no less
than seventeen persons were apprehended at the boy's election, and
conducted, as witches, to Lancaster Castle. These seventeen
persons were tried at the assizes and found guilty; but the judge,
whose name has unfortunately been lost, unlike Sir James Altham
and Sir Edward Bromley, saw something in the case that excited his
suspicion, and, though the juries had not hesitated in any one
instance, respited the convicts, and sent up a report of the
affair to the Government. Twenty-two years had not elapsed since
the former case, in vain. Four of the prisoners were, by the
judge's recommendation, sent for to the metropolis, and were
examined, first by the king's physician, and then by Charles the
First, in person. The boy's story was strictly scrutinised, and in
the end, he confessed that it was all an imposture, in which lie
had been instructed by his lather; and the whole seventeen
prisoners received the royal pardon.

So late as the year 1679, several unfortunate persons were tried
and executed at Borrostowness in Scotland, for witchcraft, four of
them being poor widows, The following is a literal copy of the
indictment upon which they were arraigned

"Annaple Thompsone, widow in Borrostowness, Margaret Pringle,
relict of the deceast John Camphell, seivewright there, &c. &c.

"Aye, and ilk ane of you, are indighted and accused, that,
whereas, notwithstanding the law of God particularlie sett down in
the 20th chapter of Leveticus and the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy,
and by the lawes and actes of parliament of this kingdome and
constant practis thereof, particularlie to the 27 act, 29
parliament Q. Marie, the cryme of witchcraft is declaired to be
one horreid, abominable, and capitall cryme, punishable with the
pains of death and confiscatioiwn of moveables;-- nevertheless it
is of veritie, that you have comitted and are gwyltie of the said
crime of witchcraft, in awa far ye have entered in practicion with
the devile, the enemie of your salvatiown, and have renownced our
blessed Lord and Savior, and your baptizme, and have given
yoursellfes, both soulles and bodies, to the devile, and swyndrie
wyth witches, in divers places. And particularlie ye, the said
Annaple Thompsone, had a metting with the devile the time of your
weidowhood, before you were married to your last husband, in your
coming betwixt Linlithgow and Borrostowness, where the devile, in
the lykeness of one black man, told you, that you was one poor
puddled bodie, and had one lyiff and difficulties to win throu the
world; and promesed if ye wald followe him, and go alongst with
him, you should never want, but have one better lyiff; and about
fyve wekes thereafter the devile appeared to you, when you was
going to the coal-hill, abowt sevin a-clock in the morning. Having
renewed his former temtatiown, you did condeshend thereto and
declared yourself content to follow him and become his servant;
whereupon the devile * * * and ye and each persone of you wis at
several metting with the devile, in the linkes of Borrostowness,
and in the house of you, Bessie Vicker; and ye did eate and drink
with the devile, and with one another, and with witches in her
howss in the night tyme; and the said Wm. Crow bought the ale,
which ye drank, extending about sevin gallons, from the howss of
Elizabeth Hamilton; and you, the said Annaple, had another metting
about fyve wekes ago, when you wis goeing to the coal-hill of
Grange, and he inveitted you to go alongst and drink with him in
the Grange farmes; and you, the said Margaret Pringle, have bein
one witch this many yeeres by gone, hath renownced your baptizme
and becum the devile's servant, and promeis to follow him; and the
devile took you by the right hand, whereby it was for eight days
greivowslie pained, but, having it twitched new again, it
immedeatelie became haul; and you, the said Margaret Hamilton has
bein the devile's servant these eight or nine years by gone, and
he appeared and conversed with you at the town well of
Borrostowness, and several times at your owin howss, and drank
several choppens of ale with you. * * and the devile gave you ane
fyne merk piece of gold, which a lyttle after becam ane skleite
stone; and you, the said Margaret Hamilton, relict of James
Pullevart, has been ane witch, and the devile's servant, thertie
yeres since, bath renounced your baptisme, as said is
*            *            *            *            *            *           
*
And ye, and ilk of you, was at a meeting with the devile and other
witches, at the croce of Murestain, above Renneil, upon the
threttein of October last, where you all danced, and the devile
acted the piper, and where you endeavoured to have destroyed
Androw Mitchell, sone to John Mitchell, elder in dean of Kenneil."

The charges thus made against the "poor puddled bodies," Annaple
Thompsone and her associates, however ludicrous they may seem,
were substantiated to the satisfaction of a jury; and for so
meeting, and dancing, and drinking, and frolicking with his
satanic majesty (who condescended to act the piper), the
unfortunate defendants were solemnly condemned, "to be taken to
the west end of Borrostowness, the ordinary place of execution
there, upon Tuesday, the 23rd day of December current, betwixt two
and four in the afternoon, and then to be wirried at a steack
[that is, like a bull or a badger, by dogs in human shape] till
they be dead, and thereafter to have their bodies burned to
ashes."

The strange and eventful history of the Witches of New England is,
perhaps, generally known to the educated and informed; still there
must be many who are not aware of all its melancholy details. As a
story of witchcraft, without any poetry in it, with out anything
to amuse the imagination, or interest the fancy, it, perhaps,
surpasses everything upon record. The prosecutions for witchcraft
in New England were numerous, and they continued, with little
intermission, principally at Salem, during the greater part of the
year 1692. The accusations were of the most vulgar and
contemptible sort -- invisible pinchings and blows, fits, with the
blastings and mortality of cattle, and wains stuck fast in the
ground, or losing their wheels. A conspicuous feature in nearly
the whole of these stories, was what they named "the spectral
sight," or, in other worth, that the profligate accusers first
feigned, for the most part, the injuries they received, and next
saw the figures and action of the persons who inflicted them, when
they were invisible to every one else. Hence the miserable
prosecutors gained the power of gratifying the wantonness of their
malice, by pretending that they suffered by the hand of any one
against whom they had an ill will. The persons so charged, though
unseen by any one but the accuser, and who in their corporal
presence were at a distance of miles, and were doubtless wholly
unconscious of the mischief that was hatching against them, were
immediately taken up, and cast into prison. And what was more
monstrous and incredible, there stood the prisoner on trial for
his life, while the witnesses were permitted to swear that his
spectre had haunted them, and afflicted them with all manner of
injuries!

The first specimen of this sort of accusation was given by one
Paris, a minister of a church at Salem, in the end of the year
1691, who had two daughters, one nine years old, the other eleven
who were afflicted with fits and convulsions. The first person
fixed on as the mysterious author of these evils, was Tituba, a
female slave in the family, and she was harassed by her master
into a confession of unlawful practices and spells. The girls then
fixed on Sarah Good, a female, known to be the victim of a morbid
melancholy, and Osborne, a poor man who had for a considerable
time been bed-ridden, as persons whose spectres had perpetually
haunted and tormented them, and Good was, twelve months after
wards, hanged on this accusation.

A person, who was one of the first to fall under the imputation,
was one George Burroughs, also a minister of Salem. He had, it
seems, buried two wives, both of whom the busy gossips said he had
used ill in their life-time, and, consequently, it was whispered
that he had murdered them. He was accustomed, foolishly, to vaunt
that he knew what people said of him in his absence, and this was
brought as a proof that he dealt with the devil.

The following copy of the indictment, furnished us by a friend who
took it from the American Court record, must prove a matter of
curiosity to the reader at the present enlightened era:  -- 
'Essex, ss. (a town in the colony of Massachusets Bay, in New
England.)

'The jurors of our sovereign lord and lady, the king and queen
(King William and Queen Mary), present, that George Burroughs,
late of Palmouth, in the province of Massachusets Bay, clerk (a
Presbyterian minister of the Gospel), the ninth day of May, and
divers other days and times, as well before as after, certain
detestable arts, called witchcraft and sorceries, wickedly and
feloniously hath used, practised, and exercised, at and in the
town of Salem, in the county aforesaid, upon and against one Mary
Walkot, single woman, by which said wicked arts the said Mary, on
the day aforesaid, and divers other days and times, as well before
as after, was, and is, tortured, afflicted, pined, consumed,
wasted, and tormented, against the peace, &c.'

A witness, by name Ann Putnam, deposed as follows: 'On the 8th of
May, 1692, I saw the apparition of George Burroughs, who
grievously tormented me, and urged me to write in his book, which
I refused. He then told me that his two first wives would appear
to me presently, and tell me a great many lies, but I must not
believe them. Then immediately appeared to me the forms of two
women in winding-sheets, and napkins about their heads; at which I
was greatly affrighted. They turned their faces towards Mr.
Burroughs, and looked red and angry, and told him that he had been
very cruel to them, and that their blood called for vengeance
against him; and they also told him that they should be clothed
with white robes in Heaven when he should be cast down into hell;
and he immediately vanished away. And as soon as he was gone the
women turned their faces towards me, and looked as pale as a white
wall; and told me they were Mr. Burroughs's two wives, and that he
had murdered them. And one told me she was his first wife, and he
stabbed her under the left breast, and put a piece of sealing-wax
in the wound; and she pulled aside the winding-sheet, and showed
me the place: she also told me that she was in the house where Mr.
Daris, the minister of Danvers, then lived, when it was done. And
the other told me that Mr. Burroughs, and a wife that he hath now,
killed her in the vessel as she was coming to see her friends from
the eastward, because they would have one another. And they both
charged me to tell these things to the magistrates before Mr.
Burroughs's face; and, if he did not own them, they did not know
but they should appear this morning. This morning, also, appeared
to me another woman in a winding-sheet, and told me that she was
Goodman Fuller's first wife, and Mr. Burroughs killed her, because
there was a difference between her husband and him. Also, the
ninth day of May, during his examination, be did most grievously
torture Mary Walkot, Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Abigail
Williams, by pinching, pricking, and choking them.'

Upon the above, and some other such evidence, was this unfortunate
man condemned; and, horrible to relate, executed! Burroughs
conducted himself in a very injudicious way on his trial; but,
when he came to be hanged, made so impressive a speech on the
ladder, with fervent protestations of innocence, as melted many of
the spectators into tears.

The accusations, founded upon such stories as these, spread, with
wonderful rapidity. In Salem, many were seized with fits,
exhibited frightful contortions of their limbs and features, and
became a fearful spectacle to the bystanders. They were asked to
assign the cause of all this; and pretended to suppose, that they
saw some neighbour, already solitary and afflicted, and on that
account in ill odour with the townspeople, scowling upon,
threatening, and tormenting them. Presently persons, specially
gifted with the 'spectral sight,' formed a class by themselves,
and were sent about at the public expense from place to place,
that they might see what no one else could see. The prisons were
filled with the persons accused, and the utmost horror was
entertained, as of a calamity which in such a degree had never
before visited that part of the world. It happened, most
unfortunately, that Baxter's "Certainty of the World of Spirits"
had been published but the year before, and a number of copies had
been sent out to New England. There seemed a strange coincidence
and sympathy between vital Christianity in its most honourable
sense, and the fear of the devil, who appeared to be "come down
unto them, with great wrath." Mr Increase Mather, and Mr Cotton
Mather, his son, two clergymen of the highest reputation in the
neighbourhood, by the solemnity and awe with which they treated
the subject, and the earnestness and zeal which they displayed,
gave a sanction to the lowest superstition and virulence of the
ignorant. All the forms of justice were brought forward on this
occasion. There was no lack of judges, and grand juries, and petty
juries, and executioners, and still less of prosecutors and
witnesses. The first person that was hanged was on the 10th of
June, five more on the 19th of July, five on the 19th of August,
and eight on the 22nd of September. Multitudes confessed that they
were witches; for this appeared the only way for the accused to
save their lives. Husbands and children fell down on their knees,
and implored their wives and mothers to own their guilt. Many were
tortured by being tied neck and heels together, till they
confessed whatever was suggested to them. It is remarkable,
however, that not one persisted in her confession at the place of
execution.

The most interesting story that occurred in this affair, was of
Giles Cory, and Martha, his wife. The woman was tried on the 9th
of September, and hanged on the 22nd. In the interval, on the
16th, the husband was brought up for trial; He said he was not
guilty; but being asked how he would be tried, he refused to go
through the customary form, and say, "By God and my country." He
observed that, of all that had been tried, not one had as yet been
pronounced not guilty; and he resolutely refused in that mode to
undergo a trial. The judge directed, therefore, that according to
the barbarous mode prescribed in the mother country, he should be
laid on his back, and pressed to death with weights gradually
accumulated on the upper surface of his body, a proceeding which
had never yet been resorted to by the English in North America.
The man persisted in his resolution, and remained mute till he
expired.

The whole of this dreadful tragedy, says Mr Godwin, in his "Lives
of the Necromancers," was kept together by a thread. The spectre-
seers, for a considerable time, prudently restricted their
accusations to persons of ill repute, or otherwise of no
consequence in the community. By-and-bye, however, they lost sight
of this caution, and pretended they saw the figures of some
persons well connected, and of unquestioned honour and reputation,
engaged in acts of witchcraft. Immediately the whole fell through
in a moment. The leading inhabitants presently saw how unsafe it
would be to trust their reputations and their lives to the mercy
of these profligate accusers. Of fifty-six bills of indictment
that were offered to the grand jury on the 3rd of January, 1693,
twenty-six only were found true bills, and thirty thrown out, On
the twenty-six bills that were found, three persons only were
pronounced guilty by the petty jury, and these three received
their pardon from the Government. The prisons were thrown open;
fifty confessed witches, together with two hundred persons
imprisoned on suspicion, were set at liberty, and no more
accusations were heard of. The "afflicted," as they were
technically termed, recovered their health; the "spectral sight"
was universally scouted; and men began to wonder bow they could
ever have been the victims of so horrible a delusion.

Dr Cook, in his "General and Historical Review of Christianity,"
gives a melancholy description of the condemnation of a woman for
witchcraft, by a tribunal at Geneva, about the middle of the
seventeenth century. An enumeration of some of the particulars of
this case will afford a tolerably correct notion of the horrible
cruelty, which, in almost all proceedings against witchcraft, was
practised in different parts of Europe. The woman was accused of
having sent devils into two young women, and of having brought
distempers upon several others -- a charge sufficiently vague. To
substantiate the accusation, the members of the tribunal availed
themselves of an opinion, that the devil imprinted certain marks
upon his chosen disciples, the effect of which was, that no pain
could be produced by any application to the parts of the body
where these marks were. They sent two surgeons to examine whether
such marks could be discovered in the accused; who reported, not
much to the credit of their medical skill and philosophy, that
they had found a mark, and that, having thrust a needle into it,
the length of a finger, she had felt no pain, and that no blood
had issued from the wound. Being brought to the bar, the prisoner
denied the statement of the surgeons; upon which she was examined
by three more, with whom were joined two physicians. It might have
been expected that a body of men, who had received a liberal
education, and who must have bad some acquaintance with the nature
and construction of the human frame, would have presented a
report, showing the absurdity of the examination upon which they
were employed. This, however, did not occur to them; for they
gravely proceeded to thrust sharp instruments into the mark
already mentioned, and into others which they thought they had
found out; but, as the miserable patient gave plain indication
that she suffered from their operations, they were staggered, and
satisfied themselves with declaring, that there was something
extraordinary in the marks, and that they were not perfectly like
those commonly to be seen in witches. She was, notwithstanding,
doomed to another investigation, the result of which was, that
after some barbarous experiments, she felt no pain, and hence it
was inferred that the marks were satanical. She bad, previously to
this last inquiry, been actually put to the rack; but she retained
her fortitude and presence of mind, firmly maintaining that she
had sent no devils into the persons whom it was alleged she had
thus injured. She was again threatened with the torture; and, from
dread of undergoing it, made a confession, which it is painful to
think was not at once discerned to be the raving of insanity.
Similar proceedings were continued; and the conclusion of the
whole was, that she was condemned to be hanged and burned, for
giving up herself to the devil, and for bewitching two girls!

In the year 1748, in the bishopric of Wurtsburg, an old woman was
convicted of witchcraft, and burnt. This was an extraordinary
phenomenon in the eighteenth century, particularly among a people
who boasted of having trampled superstition under their feet, and
flattered themselves that they had brought their reason to
perfection.

We conclude this article by the well-known case of the trial and
acquittal of Lady Fowlis.

Catherine Ross, Lady Fowlis, was the daughter of Ross of
Balnagown, and second wife of the fifteenth Baron of Fowlis. The
object of her crimes was to destroy her step-sons, Robert and
Hector Monro, with about thirty of their principal kinsmen, in
order that her own children might succeed to the possessions of
their father, which were considerable, and lay in the counties of
Ross, Sutherland, and Inverness. Her brother, George Ross, seems
to have been in league with her for the accomplishment of this
diabolical purpose, and his wife, the young Lady Balnagown, was
marked out as a victim, whose removal, with that of the rest of
the family, might pave the way for his marriage with the wife of
Robert Monro, the young laird. Their schemes were brought into
active operation in the summer of 1577. Towards the end of that
year, four of their accomplices, Agnes Roy, Christian Ross, of
Canorth, William M'Gillievoricdam, and Thomas M'Kane More M'Allan
M'Evoch, were arraigned in a justice court, held in the Cathedral
Kirk of Ross, convicted, and burnt. One of the judges who presided
at this trial was Robert Monro, the husband of the principal
instigator of the crimes, and father of the family whose lives
were practised against. Lady Fowlis, upon the discovery of her
wickedness, fled into the county of Caithness, and, after
remaining there for the space of three quarters of a year, her
husband was persuaded to receive her home again; and she seems to
have lived unmolested during the rest of the life of the old
baron; and even the young laird, for whose destruction she had
perseveringly laboured, made no exertion to bring her to justice.
His brother Hector, however, on succeeding him in 1590, procured a
commission for the punishment of certain witches and sorcerers,
which was understood to be aimed at his step-mother; but before he
had time to act upon the power thus granted, she had influence 
enough to obtain a suspension of the commission; and it was not
till July, 1591, that she was brought to trial. The evidence
mainly rested upon, was that of the notoriety of the facts, and
the confession of the accomplices; each count of the indictment
closed with a reference to the record of the process before the
provincial court, with the occasional addition of  "as is notour,"
"as is manifest be the haill countie of Roiss," or words to that
effect. The verdict was favourable to the accused, but Mr Pitcairn
is of opinion that her escape was owing to her powerful influence,
"The inquest," he says, "bears all the appearance of a selected or
packed jury, being very inferior in rank and station of life,
contrary to the usual custom." The dittory or indictment is the
only part of the proceedings that is preserved; indeed, the
reading of it seems to have constituted the whole case of the
prosecutor, and the simple denial of the "samin and the hail
poyntis thereof," the whole case for the accused; after which the
jury retired to consider their verdict.

The first method adopted to compass the deaths of the persons who
stood in the way of her ambition, was to form figures to represent
the young Laird of Fowlis and the young Lady Balnagown, which were
to be shot at with elf-arrows, in conformity with the belief,
that, if these charmed weapons struck the typical bodies, the
wounds would be felt in the real bodies, and produce invisibly the
desired effect. For the performance of the necessary rites, a
meeting of three witches took place in the house of Christian
Ross, at Canorth, Christian herself being one of them, Lady Fowlis
another, and Marjory M'Allester, a hag of peculiar eminence,
distinguished also by the name of Loskie Loncart, the third.
Having constructed two images of clay, they placed them on the
north side of the western chamber, and Loskie, producing two elf-
arrows, delivered one to Christian Ross, who stood by with it in
her hand, while, with the other, Lady Fowlis shot twice at the
figure of Lady Balnagown, and Loskie three times at that of Robert
Monro, without success. In the mean time, the images not having
been properly compacted, crumbled to pieces; and their purpose
being thus thwarted for the present, the unhallowed convocation
broke up, Loskie having engaged, at the command of Lady Fowlis, to
make two other figures. M'Gillievoricdam seems now to have been
taken into their counsels; and by his advice, an image in butter
of the young Laird of Fowlis was placed by the side of the wall in
the same western chamber of Canorth, and shot at eight times with
an elf-arrow by Loskie, without effect. This was on the 2nd of
July, 1577; and nothing discouraged by repeated failures, a clay
figure of the same person was constructed on the 6th, when the
indefatigable Loskie discharged the elf-arrow twelve times, some
times reaching the image, but never wounding it. The other two
hags stood by, anxiously watching for a successful shot, Christian
Ross having provided three quarters of fine linen cloth, to be
bound about the typical corpse, which was to be interred opposite
the gate of the Stank of Fowlis, in order to complete the
enactment by a full representation of every circumstance which
they were desirous of producing as its consequence. The main part
of the rite, however, consisted in the infliction of a wound; and
this not having been accomplished, they desisted from the vain
labour.

The more secret arts of witchcraft having failed to effect the
desired ends, Lady Fowlis next had recourse to poison; and
numerous were the consultations held to concoct drugs and devise
means for administering them. The same assistants figured as the
chief agents in this equally abominable work. A stoup full of
poisoned ale was first mixed in the barn of Drumnyer, but
opportunity not serving for its immediate use, it was kept three
nights in the kiln, and the stoup being leaky, the liquor was
lost, all but a very small quantity; to prove the strength of
which, Lady Fowlis caused her servant lad, Donald Mackay, to
swallow it. The three confederates were assembled on this
occasion, and as the draught did not kill the boy, but only threw
him into a state of stupor, Loskie Loncart was dismissed, with an
injunction to make "ane pig-full of ranker poysoune." The obedient
hag prepared the potion, and sent it to her patroness, by whom it
was delivered to her nurse, Mary More, to be conveyed to Angus
Leith's house, where the young laird then was, that it might be
employed for his destruction. Night was the time chosen for
despatching her, on this errand: she broke the vessel by the way,
spilt the liquor, and, wishing probably to ascertain the nature of
what had been intrusted to her under such circumstances of
mystery, tasted it, and paid the forfeit of her curiosity with her
life; and what helps to show the deadly qualities of, their
preparation, the indictment adds, that "the place quhair the said
pig brak, the gers that grew upon the samin wes so hirch by
(beyond) the natur of other gers, that nather cow nor scheip evir
preavit (tasted) thairof." It were endless to detail all the
traffickings and messengers kept scouring the country to collect
the required quantity of poison. Loskie Loncart was lodged and
maintained a whole summer in Christian Ross's house, for the
greater convenience of assisting to drug drinks, and devise means
of administering them. M'Gillievoricdam was sent to consult the
gipsies about the most effectual way of poisoning the young laird.
He also purchased a quantity of the powder used to destroy rats,
of a merchant in Elgin, and another portion in Tam, and was
strictly questioned by Lady Fowlis whether it would suit best to
mix the ingredient with egg, brose, or kail. No fitting
opportunity seems to have occurred for administering any of the
portions to Robert Monro: but, after three interviews, John
M'Farquhar, Lady Balnagown's cook, was prevailed upon by the
present of two ells of grey cloth, a shirt, and twelve and
fourpence (Scots), to lend them his aid in accomplishing their
purpose on his mistress. That young lady being to entertain a
party of friends one night at her house at Ardmore, a witch, named
Catherine Mynday, carried poison thither to M'Farquhar, who poured
it on the principal dish, which was kidneys. This woman remained
to witness the effects, and after wards declared that she
"skunnerit," or revolted at the sight, which was "the sarest and
maist cruell that evir scho saw, seeing the vomit and vexacioun
that was on the young Lady Balnagown and her company." The victim
of these horrible practices did not die immediately, but
contracted a deadly sickness, "quhairin," says the indictment,
"scho remains yet (that is twelve years after taking the poison)
incurable."

The persons named as privy to the designs of Lady Fowlis were
numerous, and included the daughter of a baronet of her own name,
whose interest in the matter seems to have been merely that of a
connection, or, at most, a clanswoman; and the bribes with which
she purchased assistance and secrecy were of the paltriest kind.
She provided lodgings in the houses of her adherents, for some 
whom she wished to have near her, for the better maturing of her
schemes. The cook of young Lady Balnagown was bribed, as we have
seen, with little more than a shirt and a shilling sterling! The
fidelity of Christian Ross was bespoken, by reminding her that she
ought not to reveal anything against one who was her lady and
mistress. Another of the gang was paid with 'ane-haif furlett of
meill.' M'Gillievoricdam got four ells of linen for his trouble,
but, besides, appropriated six and eightpence (Scots) of the money
given to him to be expended for poison; at other times, however,
this person was conciliated with 20s., a firlot of meal, five ells
of linen, and 16s. The brother of Lady Fowls is also said to have
promised to Thomas M'Kane More M'Allan M'Evoch 'ane garmounthe of
dais' (suit of clothes) for his services in the same base plot.

From a review of this whole case, with others of the same date, it
will appear that the crimes of former times were distinguished
from those of the present day, not so much by the greater atrocity
of any single act, as by the length of time for which they were
meditated, and the number of persons admitted to a knowledge of
them, without any fear of disclosure. They were the offspring of
habitual thought rather than the effect of sudden starts of
passion.

Immediately after the acquittal of Lady Fowlis, her step-son and
prosecutor, the seventeenth Baron of Fowlis, was presented at the
bar on an accusation in some respects similar, of which be also
was found not guilty, by a jury, the majority of whom had sat on
the preceding trial. In January, 1588-9, this gentleman being
taken ill, sent a servant with his own horse, to bring to his
assistance Marion M'Ingarach, who is characterised as being 'ane
of the maist notorious and rank wichis in all this realme,' and
who, as soon as she entered the house where he lay sick, gave him
three drinks of water from three stones (probably rude stone
cups). After a long consultation, she declared there was no hope
of recovery, unless the principal man of the patient's house
should suffer death for him; and it was determined, after some
discussion, that this substitute should be George Monro, eldest
son of Catharine Monro, Lady Fowlis. A plan was next devised for
transferring the onus moriendi, for the present, to George;
according to which, in the first place, no person was to have
admittance to the house in which Hector lay, until his half-
brother came; and on his arrival, the sick man, with his left
hand, was to take his visitor by the right, and not to speak until
spoken to by him. In conformity with these injunctions, several
friends, who called to inquire for the patient, were excluded, and
messengers were despatched, both to George Monro's house and to
other parts of the country, where he was thought to be engaged in
the sports of the chase. Before he could be found, seven expresses
had been sent after him, and five days expired. On the
intelligence that his brother earnestly desired to see him, he
repaired to the place, and was received in the form prescribed by
the witch, Hector with his left hand grasping George's right, and
abstaining from speaking until asked "how he did," to which he
replied, "the better that you have come to visit me," and he
uttered not a word more, notwithstanding his urgency to obtain an
interview. The younger Monro having, in this manner, been brought
fairly within the compass of the witch's spells she that night
mustered certain of her accomplices and having provided spades,
repaired to a spot where two laird's lands met, and, at 'ane after
midnycht,' digged a grave of the exact length of Hector Monro, and
laid the turf of it carefully aside. They then came home, and
M'Ingarach gave her assistants instructions concerning the part
that each was to perform in the remaining ceremonies. The object -
-  namely, the preservation of Hector's life and the death of
George in his stead -- being now openly stated, some of those
present objected, that if the latter should be cut off suddenly,
the hue and cry would be raised, and all their lives would be in
danger. They therefore pressed the presiding witch not to make the
sacrifice immediately, but to cause it to follow after such an
interval as might obviate suspicion, which she accordingly engaged
to accomplish, and warranted him to live till the 17th day of the
ensuing April, at least. This being arranged to the satisfaction
of the persons assembled, the sick man was laid on a pair of
blankets, and carried out to the place where the grave had been
prepared. The party were strictly enjoined to be silent, and only
M'Ingarach and Christian Neil, Hector's foster-mother, were to
utter the necessary incantations. Being come to the spot, their
living burden was deposited in the grave, the turf being spread
over him, and held down by staves. M'lngarach stood by the side of
the grave, and Neill, holding a boy, a son of Hector Leith, by the 
band, ran the breadth of nine rings, then returned, and demanded,
'which is your choice?' Thereupon the other replied, 'Mr Hector, I
choose you to live, and your brother George to die for you.' This
form of conjuration was twice gone through that night; and, on its
completion, the sick man was lifted, carried home -- not one of
the company uttering a word further -- and replaced in bed.

To the efficacy of this spell was attributed not only the recovery
of Hector, but the death of George. Monro, though the latter
continued in perfect health not only for the time warranted by the
witch, but for a year longer. He was taken ill in April, 1590, and
died on the 3rd of June following. M'ingarach was highly favoured
by the gentleman who supposed he owed to her his life. As soon as
his health was restored, 'be the dewilisch moyan foir said,' he
carried her to the house of his uncle at Kilurmmody, where she was
entertained with as much obsequious attention as if she had been
his spouse, and obtained such pre-eminence in the country that no
one durst offend her, though her ostensible character was only
that of keeper to his sheep. Upon the information of Lady Fowlis,
the protector of M'Ingarach was compelled to present her at
Aberdeen, where she was examined before the king, and produced the
stones out of which she had made the baron drink. These enchanted
cups were delivered to the keeping of the justice clerk; but we
are not informed as to the fate of the witch herself.

The indictment charged the prisoner that 'ye gat yowr health be
the develisch means foirsaid,' And further, it said, 'ye are
indicted for art and part of the cruel, odious, and shameful
slaughter of the said George Monro, your brother, by the
enchantments and witchcrafts used upon him by you and of your
devise, by speaking to him within youre bed, taking of him by the
right hand, conform to the injunctions given to you by the said
Marian Ingarach, in the said month of January, 1589 years; throw
the which inchantmentis he tuke ane deidlie seikness in the moneth
of Apryle, 1590 yetris, and continew and thairin until Junii
thairafter, diceissit in the said moneth of Junii, being the third
day of that instant!'

It is astonishing that any persons could be so stupid as to
believe in the ridiculous doctrine of witchcraft. How absurd to
suppose that the power of Heaven is delegated to a weak and frail
mortal; and, of all mortals, to a poor decrepit old woman! for we
never hear of a young witch, but through the fascination of the
eyes. Just when a woman has been poor and old enough to obtain the
pity and compassion of every one; when nothing has remained to her
but her innocence, her piety, and her tabby cat; then has she, by
the voice of superstition, been dignified with the presumed
possession of a power which the God of Heaven alone could exert!


APPENDIX XV
Voluntary punishment of Gentoo widows on the death of their husbands

 IT has been our painful duty to record so many dreadful instances
of women murdering, and otherwise ill-treating their husbands, that our
readers will almost be inclined to doubt the fact, that there are parts
of this habitable globe, where females, so far from lifting a hand
against, will not even survive the loss of their partner in this life;
but offer themselves voluntary sacrifices on his funeral pile.

 To relate the mode of punishment in different parts of the world,
is a prominent feature in the proposals for the publication of this
work; and though it may be observed, that the law of the East itself
inflicts no penalty in such cases, yet custom, from time immemorial,
has devoted the widowed victim to the flames. A description, therefore,
of a punishment self-inflicted, will not, we presume, prove the least
acceptable part of our volumes. This we have been able to accomplish,
from meeting with a valuable work on the historical events relative to
the provinces of Bengal, and the empire of Hindostan,, by the late J.
Z. Holwell who resided in that country.

 Among other historical facts, Mr. Holwell gives the following
circumstantial account of the burning of a Gentoo lady, with her
husband's body, of which, with several other English officers, he was
an eye-witness.

 "At five of the clock in the morning, of the 4th of February,
1742-3, died Rhaam Chund Pundit, of the Mahahrattar tribe, aged twenty-
eight years; his widow, aged between seventeen and eighteen, as soon as
he expired, disdaining to wait the term allowed her for reflection,
immediately declared to the Bramins and witnesses present, her
resolution to burn; as the family was of no small consideration, all
the merchants of Cossimbuzaar, and her relations, left no arguments
unassayed to dissuade her from it. Lady Russel, with the tenderest
humanity, sent her several messages to the same purpose; the infant
state of her children (two girls and a boy, the eldest not four years
of age) and the terrors and pain of the death she sought, were painted
to her in the strongest and most lively colours; -- she was deaf to all
-- she gratefully thanked Lady Russel, and sent her word, "She had now
nothing to live for," but recommended her children to her protection.

 When the torments of burning were urged in terrorem to her, she,
with a resolved and calm countenance, put her finger into the fire, and
held it there a considerable time; she then, with one hand, put fire
into the palm of the other, sprinkled incense on it, and fumigated the
Bramins.

 The consideration of her children, left destitute of a parent,
was again urged to her. She replied, "He that made them would take care
of them." She was then given to understand, she should not be permitted
to burn; this, for a short space, seemed to give her deep affliction,
but soon recollecting herself, she told them, "death was in her power,
and that if she was not allowed to burn, according to the principles of
her cast, she would starve herself."-- Her friends finding her
peremptory and resolved, were obliged at last to assent.

 The body of the deceased was carried down to the water side,
early the following morning; the widow followed about ten o'clock,
accompanied by three very principal Bramins, her children, parents, and
relations, and a numerous concourse of people, The order of leave for
her burning did not arrive from Hosseyn Khan Fouzdaar of Morshadabad,
until after one, and it was then brought by one of the Soubah's own
officers, who had orders to see that she burnt voluntary.

 [Note: The Gentoos are not permitted to burn, without an order
from the Mahometan government, and this permission is commonly made a
perquisite of.]

 The time they waited for the order was employed in praying with
the Bramins, and washing in the Ganges. As soon as it arrived, she
retired, and stayed for the space of half an hour in the midst of her
female relations, amongst whom was her mother; she then divested
herself of her bracelets and other ornaments, and tied them in a cloth,
which hung like an apron before her, and was conducted by her female
relations to one corner of the pile. On the pile was an arched arbour,
formed of dry sticks, boughs, and leaves, open only at one end, to
admit her entrance. In this the body of the deceased was deposited, his
head at the end opposite to the opening. At the corner of the pile, to
which she had been conducted, the Bramin had made a small fire, round
which she and the three Bramins sat for some minutes, one of them gave
into her hand a leaf of the bale tree (the wood commonly consecrated to
form part of the funeral pile) with sundry things on it, which she
threw into the fire; one of the others gave her a second leaf, which
she held over the flame, whilst he dropped three times some ghee on it,
which melted and fell into the fire, (these two operations were
preparatory symbols of her approaching dissolution by fire) and whilst
they were performing this, the third Bramin read to her some portions
of the Aughtorrah Bhade (a periphrastic comment on the Shasta), and
asked her some questions, on which she answered with a steady and
serene countenance; but the noise was so great, we could not understand
what she said, although we were within a yard of her. These over, she
was led with great solemnity three times round the pile, the Bramins
reading before her; when she came the third time to the small fire, she
stopped, took the rings off her toes and fingers, and put them to her
other ornaments; here she took a solemn majestic leave of her children,
parents, and relations; after which, one of the Bramins dipt a large
wick of cotton in some ghee, and gave it, ready lighted, into her hand,
and led her to the open side of the arbour; there all the Bramins fell
at her feet: after she had blessed them, they retired, weeping; by two
steps she ascended the pile, and entered the arbour. On her entrance
she. made a profound reverence at the feet of the deceased; and
advanced and seated herself by his head; she looked, in silent
meditation, on his face, for the space of a minute, then set fire to
the arbour in three places; observing that she had set fire to leeward,
and that the flames blew from her, instantly seeing her error, she rose
and set fire to windward, and resumed her station. Ensign Daniel with
his cane separated the grass and leaves on the windward side, by which
means we had a distinct view of her as she sat. With what dignity and
undaunted a countenance she set fire to the pile the last time, and
assumed her seat, can only be conceived, for words cannot convey a just
idea of her. The pile being of combustible matters, the supporters of
the roof were presently consumed, and it fell in upon her."

 In a short account of the execution of Elizabeth Herring, on the
13th of September, 1773, for the murder of her husband, by stabbing him
in the throat with a knife, we find a minute description of the mode of
punishment for the commission of this horrid crime.

 "Mrs Herring was placed on a stool, something more than two feet
high; and a chain being placed under her arms, the rope round her neck
was made fast to two spikes, which being driven through a post against-
which she stood; when her devotions were ended, the stool was taken
from under her, and she was strangled. When she had hung about fifteen
minutes, the rope was burnt, and she sunk until the chain supported
her, forcing her hands up to a level with her face, and the flame being
furious, her body was soon consumed. The crowd of spectators was so
immensely great, that it was a long time before the faggots could be
placed for the execution."


APPENDIX XVI
Trial by ordeal of the Hindoos in the East
(By Ali Ibrahim Khan, and communicated by Warren Hastings, Esq. late
Governor General of Bengal)

 THIS kind of trial, described at large in the Comment on the
Dhetma Sastra, consists of nine forms:

 The Balance, in which the accused party, after fasting a day, is
weighed twice in six minutes; and if he weighs more, or the balance
breaks down, is pronounced guilty; if less, innocent; if exactly the
same, he must be weighed a third time,

 By fire, walking through a hole under ground, filled with burning
wood.

 By water, in which the party stands up to the navel, and diving,
remains under it, holding the foot of a Bramin, till two arrows, shot
to the greatest distance, can be gathered up.

 By swallowing poison, or by taking a ring out of a pot, in which
is the hooded snake called Nago.

 By drinking Cosha, a water in which the images of the gods have
been washed, and remaining unaffected with sickness fourteen days.

 By chewing dry rice, and spitting it out dry, or stained with
blood, both which are signs of guilt.

 By thrusting the hand into hot oil, or handling hot iron.

 By dipping into a pot for the figure of Justice in silver or
clay, and bringing out either. Then follow crimes or cases requiring
these ordeals. The author of this memoir saw a man tried at Benares, by
the hot iron, unhurt; but another man, tried by the hot oil, was burned
and mulcted.



APPENDIX XVII
Chinese punishments

 The Chinese code of penal laws is compiled in such a manner as to
have a punishment appropriated for every crime.

 The wisdom of the Chinese Legislature is nowhere more conspicuous
than in its treatment of robbers, no person being doomed to suffer
death for having merely deprived another of some temporal property,
provided he neither uses nor carries any offensive weapon. This 
sagacious edict renders robbery unfrequent; the daring violator of the
laws hesitating to take with him those means which might preserve his
own life, or affect that of the plundered, in the event of resistance,
he generally confines his depredations to acts of private pilfering,
and a robbery attended with murder is, of course, very rarely
perpetrated. This instance of justice, moderation, and wisdom in the
laws of China, receives an unfavourable contrast, in the decree which
pronounces the wearing of a particular ornament to be a capital crime,
and in the custom of attending to the fallacious information extorted
by the rack.

 By the laws of China, treason and rebellion are punished with a
rigor even beyond the severity of our judgments, for the criminals are
ordained to be cut in ten thousand pieces.

 Children cursing or striking their parents was considered as next
in atrocity to treason and rebellion, and in like manner punished by
cutting the delinquent in one thousand pieces.

 The usual capital punishments in China are strangling and
beheading. The former is more common, and is decreed against those who
are found guilty of crimes, which, however capital, are only held in
the second act of atrocity. For instance; all acts of homicide, whether
intentional or accidental; every species of fraud committed upon
government; the seduction of a woman, whether married or single; giving
abusive language to a parent; plundering or defacing a burying place;
and robbing on the highway.

 The punishment inflicted on disorderly women in China, is
effected by placing small pieces of wood betwixt their fingers, and
then drawing them very forcibly together with cords.

 There are no people existing who pay so sacred an attention to
the laws of decency as the Chinese. Habituated in preserving the
constant appearance of modesty and self-control, nothing is more
uncommon amongst them than deleterious examples of unblushing vice; and
if there be truth in the old maxim, that want of decency, either in
action or word, betrays a deficiency of understanding, they certainly
indicate more sense than some other nations, who affect to excel them
in education and refinement. The general manners of people of every
condition in China wear as modest a habit as their persons. They
discover no gratification in wresting their proper language into impure
meanings; and grossly offensive phrases are only to be heard amongst
the very dregs of the community, and at the risk of immediate and
severe judicial correction.

 For certain offences, the Chinese fasten a man to a large block
of wood, by passing a strong ring of iron through one corner of it.
From this ring a weighty chain is continued round the neck of the man,
and fastened by a padlock upon his breast.

 Wooden cage in China. -- For other crimes a malefactor is farther
secured by a chain from his neck to his ankle, whence another chain
proceeds round one of the corner posts of his wooden cage, the entrance
to which is through two moveable bars: these bars fastened by an iron
bolt, that passes through some staples, and is prevented from sliding
by a padlock. A plank serves the prisoner for a seat and for a bed.

 Another severe punishment in China, and which we have alluded to
in another part of our work, is the wooden collar, which is deemed very
disgraceful. The collar is formed of heavy pieces of wood closed
together, and having a hole in the centre, which fits the neck of the
offender, who, when this machine is upon him, can neither see his own
feet, nor put his hands to his mouth. He is not permitted to reside in
any habitation, nor even to take rest for any considerable length of
time, an inferior officer of justice constantly attending to prevent
him. By night and by day he carries this collar, which is rendered
heavier or lighter according to the nature of the crime and the
strength of the offender. The weight of the common sort of these wooden
collars is only fifty or sixty pounds, but there are those which weigh
two hundred, and which are so grievous to the bearers, that sometimes
through shame, pain, want of proper nourishment, or of natural rest,
they have been known to expire under them. The criminals find various
methods, however, of mitigating their punishment, by walking in company
with their relations and friends, who support the corners of the
collar, and prevent it from pressing upon the shoulders; by resting it
upon a table, a bench, or against a tree; or by having a chair
constructed for the purpose, with four posts of equal height, to,
support the machine. When this ponderous encumbrance is fixed upon an
offender, it is always before the magistrate who has decreed it, and
upon each side, over the places where the wood is joined, long slips of
paper are pasted, upon which the name of the person, the crime which he
bas committed, and the duration of his punishment are written in very
distinct characters; a seal is likewise stamped upon the paper, to
prevent his instrument from being opened. Three months is the usual
time appointed for those to bear about this collar for those who have
been convicted of robbery; for defamation, gambling, or breaches of the
peace, it is carried a few weeks; and insolvent debtors are sometimes
ordered to bear it till they have satisfied their creditors..

 When the offender is liberated from the collar, it must be in the
presence of the magistrate who imposed it. He then generally orders him
a few blows of the pan-tsee, and dismisses him, with an exhortation to
comport himself more regularly in future.

 Persons in this situation are supplied with food by a particular
kind of basins and spoons.

 The punishment of the wooden tube. -- A piece of bamboo cane is
provided, which nearly corresponds with the height of the criminal, and
is of considerable circumference. This bamboo being perfectly hollow,
admits the passage of a large iron chain, one end of which is rivetted
round a stake, the other encircles his neck, and is confined there by a
padlock: his legs are fettered by a few links of chain.


APPENDIX XVIII
Turkish Punishments inflicted on knavish butchers and bakers.

 ONE very great cause of the extreme poverty which has so long
prevailed in this country among a numerous class of its inhabitants, is
created by our land owners, who, for a series of years have, as it
were, confederated in the monopoly of farms. Mr. Pratt, that elegant
and philanthropic writer, has traced this oppression to it source.

 "Unless the system of domestic monopoly be vigorously
restrained," says Mr. Pratt, "and particularly the monopolizers of
land, a system which has been going on in wicked progression from bad
to worse, till terms are at last wanting to express its corruption, or
its complexity. When this many-headed monster, with the Hydra in its
train, shall be under control, when not till then, when ruined cottages
shall be rebuilt, agriculture encouraged as the first object of
industry, and farms more equalized, horrible as has been the
devastation, incredible as has been the destruction, the human species
may begin to breathe. We may then hope to see our credit regained, our
strength replenished, our reputation increased, the arts prevented from
taking wing, the exhausted remnants of the land gain time and energy to
recover; exertions keep pace with encouragement, and the song of
comfort and content become more heard from the ploughshare and the
loom. In a word, thus may the country be renewed -- thus may we boast
again of the vigour and name of Old England. But if the corrupt system
of diversified monopoly above-mentioned, with all that follows the
hideous train of rapacity and fraud be not broken link by link, even
the grand desideratum of exhausted and harassed nations, and harassed
nature -- peace itself must be inadequate to private happiness and
public honour."

Yet, wanton locusts of a foodful isle,
Where upon Freedom, Plenty us'd to smile; 
Where Plenty still supplies her utmost store, 
Broad, deep, and vast, to all but to the poor.
If ev'ry blessing now beneath the sky,
Be doom'd to sate thy selfish gluttony,
Let thy own pamper'd hand the harvest reap,
And thy own flinty breast the toil-drops steep;
Let thy own bloated limbs, by vice embrac'd, 
Or by a miser, or a spendthrift's waste.
Take from thy vassal hinds the useless trade,
The fork, the rake, the ploughshare, and the spade;
Yes, let them starve; -- or, if thy luxury 
Demands the fiend-like joy to see them die;
Pronounce their fate, when they have dress'd thy grain,
Each sink a corpse upon the fertile plain.
Pratt's Cottage Pictures.

 Now that the reader has had a true sketch of the real cause of
the nation's distress, and consequently of the enormous price of
provisions, what punishment, in such times, do the butcher and baker
deserve, who, not content with their profits, often give short weights.

 In Turkey, among a race of what we call Mahometans and
barbarians, the police is so very attentive to the people's rights,
that such villains are punished in the following manner, while ours
generally escape by simply losing their weights, for few care to go to
the trouble and expense of prosecuting them.

 In the dominions of the Grand Signior, if a butcher sells short
weight, or stinking meat, for the first offence his meat is all given
to the poor; he is then tied to a post all day in the sun, and a piece
of the stinking meat is hung close to his nose. This done, he is
sentenced to pay a sum of money to the poor. For a second offence he is
bastinadoed, or receives some other kind of whipping, and his fine is
then heavy. For the third offence he suffers death.

 The baker convicted in Turkey of selling short weight, or bad
bread, for the first offence, as with the butcher, his bread is seized,
and he is nailed to the post of the door, by an ear, and sometimes by
both, for the space of twenty-four hours. For a second offence, his
bread is in like manner seized for the use of the poor, and he suffers
from two to three hundred bastinadoes on the soles of his feet, or on
his back. Then his head is put through a hole in a large board, loaded
with lead, and made to walk through the streets, until he is almost
exhausted. If he survives this, and commits a third similar offence, he
is beheaded.

 We have not read of Turkish bakers base enough to, mix alum in
their bread, and give short weight into the bargain; as is practised in
the face of the law, in London. Such villains, for the very first
offence, should be hung up to the nearest lamp-post.

 Punishment of the mortar in Turkey.

 The celebrated Baron De Tott, an ambassador to the Turkish
Emperor, mentions this singularly cruel mode of punishment.

 He says, "That the ulemats, (the body of lawyers, of which the
mufti is the head) were to be exempted from the confiscation of goods,
nor were they to be put to death, but by being bruised in a mortar."

 He then adds, "That the Sultan Osman was irritated to that degree
by the haughtiness and insolence of the mufti, that he ordered the
mortar to be replaced, which, having been long neglected, was thrown
down, and almost covered with earth. This order alone produced a most
surprising effect, the body of the ulemats, justly terrified,
submitted."

 From this circumstance, the passage in the Bible which mentions
this punishment, naturally recurs to the mind: in Proverbs, xxvii. 22.
" Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat, with a
pestel, yet will not his foolishness depart from him."

 In this sense, the word FOOL means a transgressor, a violator of
the law. Now, as it is well known, that customs which prevail in the
oriental nations, have, in all ages remained invariable, the, question
is, whether Solomon, in the passage quoted, does not refer to a kind of
punishment which was inflicted somewhere in his days, similar to that
which is mentioned by the Baron de Tott. To us it strikes conviction,
but we shall be glad to find the passage expounded by some of our
studious divines.


APPENDIX XIX
Benefit of clergy.

 This is a legal phrase, or technical term, which is necessarily
often repeated in criminal reports, while numbers are not apprized of
its full meaning, or its origin.

 The dark clouds of barbarism, which succeeded the downfall of the
Roman empire, having deeply effaced literary pursuits, the regular and
secular clergy, with few exceptions, became the sole depositaries of
books and learning. Ignorance is the footstool of ambition and tyranny;
and thus the priest ruled the ignorant mass of the people with a rod of
iron; but as learning was slowly disseminated, the people's eyes opened
to their sordid delusions.

 As it is natural to respect what we do not understand, the monks
turned this advantage to good account, and it gradually became a
principle of common law, that no clerk, that is to say, no priest,
should be tried by the civil power; a privilege which was enjoyed and
abused for several hundred years, until the council or parliament of
Clarendon, provoked by murder, and other abominable crimes, set bounds
to ecclesiastical enormities, by a salutary relation of the subject.

 But a law, so necessary, was evaded by the insolence and artifice
of the proud à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, for his
turbulence, was assassinated before his own altar, and the base
pusillanimity of King John and his successors to the English throne,
during a long period, equally disgraceful to monarch as to clergy.

 A law was about this time made (kings being then nearly
arbitrary) by which any person convicted of felony was exempt from
punishment, "if he could read and write as a priest."

 From this finesse, the artful monks, (for priests, from the time
of Aaron down to Dr. Dodd, have ever been watchful of their own
interest,) derived considerable riches by teaching prisoners to read
and write, which acquirement, however odious and bloody their offences,
rescued them from the penalty of the law, and the contrivers of this
artful measure derived another advantage from it.

 Every desperate adventurer, every bold man, became a ready and
submissive tool to the church. This abominable imposition upon the
people was continued until the reign of Edward VI. when priestcraft
received some check.

 But during the unnatural and bloody wars between the houses of
York and Lancaster, the root of the noxious weed sprouted up in the
ignorance and confusion of those distracted times. A t length it was
enacted, that no person convicted of manslaughter should claim the
benefit of clergy, unless he be a peer of the realm, or actually in
Priest's orders; but by the 9th of James I. this partial and injurious
exemption was entirely abolished.

 It is a common opinion with numbers, that the words "Without
benefit of clergy," mean, that no spiritual assistance shall be given,
or a priest suffered to exhort the dying malefactor to confession of
sin. The meaning simply is, that even should a criminal be able to read
and write, it shall not, in any degree, diminish his punishment, and
that he shall not now be entitled to any of those privileges he
formerly enjoyed by the clergy.

 Thus in our preface we have said, "Such persons as have had no
opportunity of inquiring into the subject, will hardly credit the
assertion, that there are above one hundred and sixty offences punished
by death, or as it is denominated, Without benefit of clergy." -- that
is, for capital offences which the priest's art, once taught to the
accused, of reading and writing, would exempt them from.