“Well,” continued he, after a long pause, "suppose you collect for me a correct account of the most notorious offenders which come under your notice for the future. My object is to compare their course and progress through crime, in connection with our system." I made my obeisance, and was withdrawing, when he said, "Go on with your work, but do not come again until I send for you." Two questions of difficulty presented themselves to me as I returned home; first, How an insane man could appear in manner perfectly rational? And, secondly, What could occasion his sending for me upon such apparent nothingness of matter? It fell out just as my friend predicted; the legislator probably forgot both me and his new theory the next day, as I never had any other communication from him, either upon that subject or any other, but it set me to work, and caused me to make many inquiries respecting criminals, which otherwise I should have neglected. The first remarkable case which came under my notice after the interview above named, was that of a gentleman of a most respectable family, who was committed to Newgate on a charge of forging the accepter's name on three bills of exchange for £333 6s. 8d. each. I shall first relate the history of the case, as I think it a useful one to publish, and then inform the reader how I possessed myself of the particulars. On my way home, having a little business to transact with my friend the surgeon, I called and mentioned the affair to him. An extravagant and fashionable young man "Take my word for it," said he, "that you of good family, having lost a considerable will never hear any more from him. I know sum of money at the gaming-table, had his these characters better than you do; theirs attention arrested by an advertisement in the is a madness not yet defined or named in our public newspaper, wherein the advertiser ofprofession. My father," continued he, "used fered to lend money to any amount upon perto say that it was peculiar to English legisla-sonal security. The young man, anxious to tors, and endemic only in the neighborhood pay some debts of honor and replenish his of St. Stephen's Chapel. I think, he ex- funds for another venture at play, vainly flatplained, that it was occasioned by a small tering himself that he might redeem his worm or maggot getting under the bump losses, in an evil hour applied for assistance which inclines men to the practice of law to the good-natured people, who cried aloud making; and that there it tickled or irritated in the highways for others to come and rethat portion of the brain so much, that the lieve them of their money. He had flattered patient could never rest unless he was fram- himself, from the wording of the advertiseing new, or abrogating old, laws. He then ment, that he should obtain the money upon explained to me that he once had a patient his own security; but to this mode of lending afflicted with this malady under his care, who cash many objections were made, the parties for seven years had his nights disturbed by saying they must have a collateral security, new and wild schemes of legislation entering and he came away disappointed. On the folhis head, but that none remained with him lowing morning, however, while at breakfast, more than a few hours; coming in and going a gentlemanly man (a stranger) was shown out so rapidly that before he could finish his up by his servant; after making his obeisance inquiries for the establishing one idea he was and taking a seat, he said, constrained to turn aside and pursue another; and the surgeon said this process went on until the patient lost his seat in Parliament by the destruction of rotten boroughs when the reform bill passed. I then inquired how it was with a disease of this nature that a man could make such long speeches as many of them did? "Don't you know," said my friend, "that the fluency of speech is entirely owing to the scarcity of matter in a man's head? He who has a mind full of ideas will naturally hesitate to select those which are the most "I am aware of this," rejoined the stranger, proper to urge, and to find appropriate lan- "and hence my visit here this morning. I guage to dress them in. Common speakers am no money-lender myself, but I am achave but one set of ideas, often but a single quainted with a respectable person whose idea, like my patient; also but one set of situation in life will bear the strictest inquiry, words, which are always ready and at the yet from pecuniary private difficulties must tongue's end. So people come faster out of very shortly go through the "Gazette:" he is a theatre when it is almost empty than when now in great want of money, and I have no a crowd is at the door. Others, who have doubt, that when I inform him that in acceptbeen disappointed in their political career, ing bills for you there is no risk, he will, for turn suddenly round and roar against their a small gratuity, accommodate you with his former doctrines with a zealous perverseness that astonishes all their friends." "It is the nature of late zeal, "Twill not be subject, nor rebel, Nor left at large, nor be restrain'd, But where there's something to be gain'd." VOL. I. 40 "Sir, I have been privately informed that you want the temporary loan of a thousand pounds." "Yes," replied the novice, "I did make an application yesterday to some parties for that purpose, but as they discount only bills accepted by other persons than the borrower, I have abandoned my hopes of raising the money. I have no bills, and, as I would not make my want public, have made up my mind not to ask a friend for his name.' name.' It is unnecessary to detail the whole of the subsequent conferences, suffice to inform the reader, that the person addressed in the end paid the sum of thirty-five pounds for three bills of £333 6s. 8d. each, he being the draw "I know nothing," said he, "of the moneylenders: I have given value for these bills in the way of my business; in fact, hard cash, and must have payment without delay." Thus ended the first visit. The second, the next day, the same individual appeared again with a friend; both assuming an air of great mystery, and assumed tone of authority. "Pray, sir," said one of them to the gentleman, "do you acknowledge yourself the drawer of these bills?" "I do," was the answer. "Have you many such bills out in the world?" continued the other. "No, only those three; for which I have not received the value of one," rejoined the drawer of the bills. and another person unknown to himself the this man coming into Newgate for trial, he accepter. The following day the young man being afterwards transported, I went to visit went, as directed by the procurer of the bills, him as an old acquaintance, and from him again to the money-lenders, who, first and obtained the particulars of the money-lending last, advanced about two hundred pounds in swindlers' tricks. His own case, as related cash, and as they (the money-lenders) said, by himself, I have every reason to believe is as much more in jewellery, that is, valueless a true one, and that many such do often oc trash, still continuing to promise, from time cur at the Old Bailey Court, but which no to time, further advances, until the first bill laws or any judge can prevent; and many became due. Now, the denouement of the plot say, ought not, as it is a benefit to the public developed itself; a new performer in the whenever one rogue transports another. Jack drama was introduced, namely, a stranger, had for nearly eight years acted as clerk, who represented himself as a respectable messenger, livery servant, and gentleman tradesman, and the holder of the three bills alternately, as required, for three of the parfor which he had given value. ty, who were his especial masters, having no regular payment of wages, relying upon their liberality whenever a scheme succeeded, to give him something for his support out of the profits. After the last affair was terminated, two out of three of his employers each gave him a ten pound note, which led him to calculate upon ten pounds more from the third, to whose lodgings, a few days subsequently, he was sent with a note by one of the other confederates; having no further orders than to deliver it, and being unacquainted with its contents, when it was read, the receiving party said, "Very well, that will do;" then, as if recollecting himself, said, "Here, Jack, here's a ten pound note." Jack, conceiving it to be his own, put it into his pocket as he had done the other two, and it did not attract his attention that another man stood by at the time. The following day he was in the custody of police officers on a charge of embezzlement; of which he was afterwards convicted, and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. It seems, that when the affair of the young man's robbery of the thousand pounds came to the ears of the father, that he, notwithstanding the settlement made, threatened to prosecute all the parties for a conspiracy. Now, I have before told this story, which is a the part that Jack had taken in the affair true one; but then suppressed the fact, that made him the only witness who could bring the young man was committed to Newgate them to justice, so that when they took the upon the charge of forgery without knowing alarm about the impending prosecution, they or foreseeing the peril of his situation. When at once resolved to make the law an instruhis friends learned the facts of the case, they ment in destroying the evidence against them: paid the money; on which the evidence and this they succeeded in doing, by handing which it was said would appear before the him a ten pound note under circumstances grand jury was withheld, and the bill of which they were aware would induce him to course ignored. I have often thought what consider it his own. The note, however, was a book could be made, were all the matter read in court, and contained a threatening apwhich has been discussed in the cells of New-plication for cash to that amount, while the gate collected, were we to go back only to strange man, who had been placed there for the period when the present building was the purpose, proved the delivery of it; thus erected, after the burning of the last in Lord George Gordon's time. My readers must understand that I had now learned, when any striking or doubtful case presented itself, to inquire for the name of the accuser, and the principal witnesses, by which plan I often found either an old acquaintance, or one that I had heard of in my career; when, however, this happened, I always knew there was something wrong in the affair with which they “Ah!" said the holder of the documents, "quite enough to hang you, sir; these bills which I hold in my hands I have ascertained are all forgeries, so far as regards the accepted name upon them; you have before this gentleman acknowledged yourself the drawer of them, and I have no terms to make with you; pay me the money, or take the consequence.' were connected. In the last-named case I had heard of one Jack Nose, as he was called, having something to do with it, and the following session, competing all the machinery of the trap to catch their victim in. Fenn's case, which is mentioned in another part of this work, was precisely of this nature; few of them, however, verify the adage, that "when rogues fall out, honest men obtain their rights." The case of Fauntleroy, the Berner street banker, is of comparatively recent date, and claims some notice. Firstly, because he was a member of a superior class in society to offenders in general. Secondly, because his practice of committing forgery commenced much earlier in life than is generally known. And lastly, because the mode was novel, and of considerable extent in its mischievous effects. his practice, until he was involved in a labyrinth, and had committed a series of forgeries which were too overwhelming for reflection. There is, perhaps, no instance on record of a man situated as Fauntleroy was well educated, and possessing a sensitive mind, enduring for so long a period a state of peril and danger, yet keeping up all the external appearances of gaiety and self-possession; though his acquaintance now say, that it was evident he labored to be at ease. There could be no doubt but that the latter part of his career was spent in making efforts to disengage himself from his own thoughts, one of the hardest tasks for man to accomplish; and it is highly probable, had his detection been protracted much longer, that his mind would have broken down under the energies his unhappy situation called him to exert. The force of a fall is always in proportion to the height from which we are hurled; the truth of this aphorism was illustrated in this case: he had no hope from the moment of his apprehension; his depression was complete, and but the work of an instant. The sight of Plank, the Marlborough street police officer, whom he knew, when he came into his presence, operated upon him like a coup de soleil, and he never afterwards rallied; his heart, indeed, must always have been like a watch, which never knows repose until it ceases to beat. As regards money, for several years he appears to have been reckless of consequences, his habits being of the most expensive nature. Fauntleroy said while in Newgate, that after he became of age, and was admitted a partner into the banking-house, he found it in a state of bankruptcy, (these were his own words to one who attended on him.) As the active management of the concern shortly afterwards devolved upon him, his pride, interest, and more than all, his partiality and liberality for the fair sex, prompted him to make the most desperate struggles to maintain his station in life, and with it the means of indulging his passions. It may be, however, that the recklessness of his situation, known only to himself, throughout his miraculous long run, might have impelled him to the gratification of passions, which a more regular course would have taught him the propriety of restraining. If this be a doctrine unintelligible to the generality of my readers, I can only reply, that it is one verified and proved by my own experience. I feel even now, had I been born to know my parents, and by them taught to fill any regular station in life, when young-even that of a chimney sweeper-that I should have gone through life's probation without being troubled with any unruly or inordinate desires, more than those to which all humanity is subjected, and which would not have seduced me from the path of honesty. To make a man or woman honest, we must give them a motive to its practice in early days; the possession of property, the acquirement of honor, fame, health, and long life, must be placed in their A troubled mind ever shows itself in inconview, when the aid of religion will come in to sistencies of character: he was a liberal subteach, that the welfare of the soul hereafter, scriber to many public charities, and freas well as the body here, dictates and points quently gave a sovereign when asked for out to man the direct and straight high road alms by casual beggars in the streets; at other of probity, as the only one of safety to travel times he either was, or affected to be, exon. Fauntleroy, unlike me, had a prize to tremely parsimonious. He, however, was win; but then, unfortunately for him, he did subjected to many more fits of extravagance not in time see that the honest would have than saving, many of which, without doubt, answered his purpose better than a contrary he plunged into whilst in a confused and percourse. He was well educated, and, more- turbed state of mind; they were efforts to over, was not driven by hunger and naked-gild a rotten heart, to paint in gaudy colors ness to the commission of crime, but was the exterior of a charnel-house, or whiten the tempted to it by pride, and a false notion of outside of a sepulchre. Knowing his own. station; as if a less elevated post in society hollowness, he on every side endeavored to than the principal of a falling banking-house entrench himself with splendid artificials, to could not be one of happiness. His crime is divert the eye from penetrating his internal ascribable to the self-determination of a condition. As he advanced, he said, "in life, strong will, acting upon the accidents of indi- he became more subject to paroxysms of desvidual destiny: he found the affairs of the pair, and at times wildly looked round for a house embarrassed; putting himself forward gap through which he might make his escape, to pilot the ship through the breakers, his but there was no hope left for him; in vain vanity and sanguine temperament, we may then would he call for mandragora, or pray suppose, led him to persuade himself, when for a plunge in Lethe's stream." These were he committed the first crime, that he was only borrowing the money. But it did not occur to him, that when he was once naturalized and enrolled as a subject of the prince of darkness, there was no rebelling against his authority. Having by the means of forgery sold out, and appropriated the stock of one individual to his own use, when that money was called for, he was constrained to have recourse to the same dishonest means to make up the amount, to prevent the discovery of his own words when giving some particulars of his life and feelings to a friend whilst in Newgate. "I could," said he, "any day have left the country with money sufficient to insure me a retreat in safety to some remote part of the world; this alternative often presented itself to my mind, but I wanted the resolution to dismount my fancied pedestal of consequence; the dread of the world discovering what I was, spell-bound me to the spot, and kept me waiting a ready victim to the offended laws of my country." False and passions, then pre-ordained?" inquired pride, and the idea that he was in some way the other. a man of consequence, possessed his mind to "God is the sole arbiter of the universe, the last. "Alas!" exclaimed he one evening, and has left nothing to chance he is the after his condemnation, while looking in the cause of all causes, and origin itself is comglass, and picking a bunch of grapes, a fruit prised in the term. Had vivid fancy fled to of which he was remarkably fond, "is this all its remotest borders in quest of language, or that is left of the once spoken of Henry vain conception in pursuit of words, none Fauntleroy? It was not long since I had could have been found more vague and simwealth, fame, and friends. What am I now? ple than what is called chance. It neither A man without estimation of any kind-a includes the common course of nature, or any condemned, disgraced felon." He then drop-secondary cause; but amounts, as a writer ped into a chair, burying his face between expresses it, simply to this: that something is his hands, resting them upon his elevated knees, in which position he would often remain for hours together. Rising suddenly up, and pacing the room, he muttered to himself, yet loud enough to be heard by the person who attended him, "It was natural for me to wish to pass through life with honor, and to maintain the position of my father; but I sought the honor of men, and a poor, unsatisfactory bauble it is: to acquire estimation and reputation here, we must become subservient, and conform to a world wholly made up of error. The d-d pride of winning a few little months' esteem from mortals has overthrown me." Casting his eyes upwards, the person who was in the room with him took the opportunity to point to a Bible which was lying on the table. "True," he continued, "I thank you. Time is rapidly on the wing, and I imagine that I shall have none to spare. Oh! had I but reflected that it must have come to this, I might have avoided the ignominy and disgrace, but, "Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescrib'd their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know, Or who could suffer being here below?" Suddenly becoming more fixed, apparently in thought, with his eyes directed towards the Bible, he continued: "Yes, there is a cause--a God, which supports, upholds, and governs all things-that regulates all things by an irresistible and sovereign decree-that pervades the whole moral and natural system. It pleased God that I should be born to take charge of a troubled house-to end my days on a scaffold yet had I not a will to cut out for myself some less dangerous path? Could I not have steered round the rock, instead of dashing the head of my vessel point blank against it? Had I chanced : "Do not use that word, Mr. Fauntleroy," said a pious friend of his mildly, as he at the moment entered the room unobserved. "Why not?" asked the unhappy man. "Because," he rejoined, "there is no such thing as chance." "Are all things, modes, attributes, actions, produced by nothing. God is the disposer of (To be continued.) ΑΙΜΙΛΙΑΝΟΥ ΝΙΚΑΕΩΣ. Εἰς Παῖδα τῆς μητρος τεθνηχνιας μασον θηλάζοντα. DRAW, child of sorrow, life's fast failing stream, Draw, 'tis the last from nature's font shall flow, In flight, to Pluto's dreary realms below, THE METROPOLITAN. No. LXI. FOR JUNE, 1836. SNARLEYYOW; OR, THE DOG FIEND.* | head, which was not a little swelled from the BY CAPT. MARRYAT. CHAPTER XIII. blows received from the broom of Babette, and Snarleyyow rubbed his nose against his master's trowsers, and then raised himself up, by putting his paw upon his master's knee. This brought the dog's head more to the light, In which the ship's company join in a chorus, and and Vansly perken observed that one eye was the corporal goes on a cruise. 66 swelled and closed. He examined it, and to his horror found that it had been beaten out by the broom of Babette. There was no doubt of it, and Mr. Vanslyperken's choler was extreme. Now, may all the curses of ophthalmia seize the faggot," cried the lieutenant, "I wish I had her here. My poor, poor dog!" and Vanslyperken kissed the os frontis of the cur, and what perhaps had never occurred since childhood, and what nothing else could have brought about, Mr. Vansly perken wept-actually wept over an animal, which was not, from any qualification he possessed, worth the charges of the cord which would have hanged him. Surely the affections have sometimes a bent towards insanity. MR. VANSLYPERKEN is in his cabin, with Snarleyyow at his side, sitting upon his haunches, and looking in his master's face, which wears an air of anxiety and discomfiture; the fact is, that Mr. Vanslyperken is any thing but content; he is angry with the widow, with the ship's company, with the dog, and with himself; but his anger towards the dog is softened, for he feels that, if any thing in this world loves him, it is the dognot that his affection is great, but as much as the dog's nature will permit; and, at all events, if the animal's attachment to him is not very strong, still he is certain that Snarleyyow hates every body else. It is astonishing how powerful is the feeling that is derived from After a short time the lieutenant rang his habit and association. Now that the life of bell, and ordered some warm water, to bathe his cur was demanded by one, and, as he was the dog's eye. Corporal Van Spitter, as aware, was sought for by many, Vanslyper- Small bones was in his hammock, answered ken put a value upon him that was extraor- the summons, and when he returned aft with dinary. Snarleyyow had become a precious the water, he made known to Mr. Vanslyperjewel in the eyes of his master, and what he ken the mutinous expressions of Jemmy suffered in anxiety and disappointment from Ducks. The lieutenant's small eye twinkled the perverse disposition of the animal, only with satisfaction. Damned the Admiral, endeared him the more. "Yes, my poor dog," did he,-which one was it-Portsmouth or apostrophized the lieutenant, " they would Plymouth!" seek your life-nay, that hard-hearted woman demands that you should be laid dead at her porch. All conspire against you, but be not afraid, my dog, your master will protect you against all." Vansly perken patted the animal on the 66 This Corporal Van Spitter could not tell; but it was certain that Jemmy had damned his superior officer; "And moreover," continued the corporal," he damned me." Now Mr. Vanslyperken had a great hatred against Jemmy Ducks, because he amused the ship's company, and he never could forgive any one who made people happy; moreover, he wanted some object to visit his wrath upon, so he |