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his poverty was at laft fo great, that it broke down the fences of honefty. For, being taken into the office of Mr. William Bull, an eminent Attorney of that city, who out of regard to the memoof his father deceased, articled him to be his Clerk, he took the advantage of his mafter's abfence in the country upon bufinefs, and forged a letter in his master's name, directed to Meffieurs Swift and company, Bankers in Dublin, defiring thofe Gentlemen to pay the faid Smith 130 1. or there abouts, (which they did in two 50 . notes, payable to William Bull, or bearer, and the remainder in money;) he hafted with all expedition to London, and negotiated thefe notes with Meffieurs Albert and Arnold Nefbit, Bankers in Coleman ftreet, of whom he received the money, on the 16th of July, 1745, having firft endorfed the notes with the name of William Bull.

He then afraid of being difcovered, entered himself on board the Surprize, a man of war, commanded by Captain Webb, into whofe good graces he foon ingratiated himself fo far, that he employed him as his Clerk; but was difcharged the fervice for fome practices that betrayed mean and dishoneft principles. After which he fubfifted for fome time by forging feamen's tickets, five of which were produced againft him in Court, and recorded.

The money he got this way was profufely and wickedly spent upon a noted woman of the town; which obliged him to feek for employment in the way of his calling; and he was entertained by a worthy engroffing fitationer near Furnival's Inn; under whofe good example he applied himself diligently to bufinefs, and fhewed himfelf capable of acquiring an agreeable livelihood; and by his graceful demeanour, entertaining converfation, and clafiical knowledge, established himself in the general efteer of his new acquaintance.

But God was pleased to difable him with a fevere fit of fickness; and contracted his joints in fuch a manner with the rheumatifin,thashe could not pro

cure his ufual fupport by engroffing, which reduced him both in his body and cloaths. In which condition, being met accidentally in the street by one of the aforefaid acquaintance, the Gentleman upon hearing his tale clothed him from head to foot, in a de. cent manner, and recommended him for cure to an eminent Phyfician; who alfo made him perfectly whole. But, about this time engaging with that notorious villain Patterson, who exceeded most people in the art of diffimulation; he never had the gratitude to go either to the Doctor, or his friend, to return them thanks; and even joined with Patterson and his accomplices, in one of their schemes, to extort a confiderable fum from the fame Phyfician; till quarrelling among themfelves, he was deferted by them, and again left in a neceffitous condition. In which his friend met him with very great furprize, and was wrought upon a fecond time by Smith's feeming grief and lamentable ftory of being obliged to fell his cloaths to fatisfy his creditors, and to furnish neceffaries for life; that he clothed him again, and ordered him to go and return the Doctor thanks for his kind and effectual affiftance and cure..

Smith thus equipped from top to toe, haftened to the Doctor's, was admitted into his ftudy, told him he was the perfon whom he had cured by the recommendation of Mr. ; and after the Doctor had kindly wished him joy of his health reftored, and enquir. ed after his friend, (behold this monfter of ingratitude!) he inftantly pulled out a piftol, prefented it to the Doctor's head; told him, he was an unfortunate Gentleman, and wanted money, and threatened to blow out his brains if he did not inftantly furnish him with five guineas. To which the Doctor replied with a good deal of calmnefs, That he might act as he pleafed with his piftol; but he was fure he durfl not fire it off: for, if he did and killed him, it was a matter of indifference to him, who had already one

foot

foot in the grave, and he was fure of being taken by the fervants, and as fure of being hanged for it declared he would not give him the money demanded: but advised him to walk off, and promised not to moleft him. This undaunted refolution, being more than expected, threw Smith into the utmost confufion; fo that reflecting on his ticklish fituation, and fearing he fhould be taken in fuch a villainous act, he fell upon his knees, and ufed his deceitful eloquence fo artfully, that, by his melancholy piteous tale, he fo moved the compaffion of the Doctor, that he put his hand into his pocket, gave him three guineas for his prefent relief, advised him to follow better courfes, and suffered him to depart unmolefted.

Nor was the fraud for which he fuffered clear of the fin of ingratitude: it was a forgery to defraud a poor man that had frequently affifted him in his neceffity.-The cafe was this, one Mr. Weekes received a letter with a bill of exchange in it for 45 7. which he left with a friend, till he should call for it, and received 10 %.

From this time Mr. Smith refolved to try if he could not trick his friend out of the expect ed cash, by counterfeiting Mr. Weekes's manual fignature, by way of indorsement on the bill of exchange; which he accordingly did, as foon as he got it into his hands, by intercepting the fecond letter with the fecond bill inclofed, as it is ufual, directed to be left till called for at the Temple Exchange Coffee-boufe: and in this villainy he was affifted by Mr. Weekes's indifpofition, who not being able to go out, defired Smith to enquire for it.

Having got the bill, Smith not only endorfed it in Weekes's name, but he alfo forged a receipt for the fum of to /. above-mentioned, received in part of payment; and went immediately and offered it to Mr. Jonathan Gurnell and company, Merchants in London, upon whom it was drawn, and demanded the mo ney. But Mr. Gurnell declaring he did not chufe to pay the money to any other than Mr. Weekes himfelf; and that if Mr. Weekes was fick in bed, as reported, he would fend his clerk with the money to him in the morning, Smith gave him directions to a lodging which Weekes had been lately obliged to leave, and then made what hafte he could to thefe lodgings, acquainted the landlord with Mr. Garnell's intention, and affured him, that there was no other way left to fecure his own debt than by permitting him to perfonate Mr. Weekes fick in bed, that fo he might get the remaining 35. in poffeffion, and pay himfelf. The scheme took, Smith was admitted to bed; the clerk came in the morning, and Smith fo artfully disguised his voice, and concealed his perfon in the bed, that he left the money on the table, and took a receipt ready drawn up on the fame place. But as foon as the clerk was

off, he rofe, and made directly off without paying the landlord a farthing. And, as he could not hope to hide himself from the fearch of the parties concerned, he refolved to make the beft of his way for Holland. But knowing that fum would prefently be confumed by his manner of life, and ftimulated by the general converfation of the town, which ran much upon a profecution entered in the King's Bench against Mr. Walpole, he was determined to fupply his travelling expences out of that Gentleman's purfe by fome artful scheme, before he fet out upon his journey. Therefore decking himself out in a very genteel manner, he forges a bond from Walter Patterson, the profecutor of that Gentleman, to William Smith, conditioned for the payment of 150 /, which bore the appearance of a proper attestation, and feemed to be obtained in a due course of legality.

With this bond Smith pofted down in a chaife to Mr. Walpole's feat at Frogmore in Berkshire; produced that bond, pretended that he had, ignorant of the purpose, lent that fum to Patterson, who, he fince understood, borrowed it to carry on a fraudulent prosecution against him; and to fhew the uprightness of his intentions, added, That he was come on purpose to affign the faid bond over to him, provided he thought it worth his while to put it immediately in execution, as a means effectually to extinguish the virulence of the profecution projected by the faid Patterson against him.

This fiction was plaufible; but Mr. Walpole, who knew that his innocence stood in need of no fuch means to stifle fuch an evi. dence, rightly judged that this was a further attempt to enfnare him: told him that he fufpected him to be an accomplice with Patter fon; and that he would detain him, till he could give a fatisfactory account of his character; and when Smith, with many apologies, endeavoured to escape, Mr. Walpole feized him by the collar, called in his fervants, fecured him, and carried him before a Justice of the Peace for examination; by whom he was committed to Reading gaol, where he was found by the injured Mr. Weekes, who brought him up to Nerogate by a Habeas Corpus, and arraigned him for the forgery as related before: to which indi&ment he pleaded guilty (fee his fpeech on page 141.) And, at the time he was called up to receive féntence of death, he moved the court for mercy in a most pathetic speech, which has been printed on page 142.

Yet his behaviour from his entrance into Newgate, indicated a thorough change of his heart. He expreffed the greatest and most unfeigned horror, fhame, and compunction for the wickedness of his paft life, and did not neglect any circumstance that could aggravate his fenfe of guilt, and augment his contrition. He wished for life, rather to employ

it

it in repentance, than for the fake of enjoyment, in which he could never have any relish. And though he wished, and the tenderness of his profecutor, who had recommended him to the mercy of the court, gave him fome glimmering hope; yet he built very little upon it, and ferioully prepared himself for eternity.. Indeed, in the firft tranfports of his agonies, on finding himself in the dead warrant, and for fome time after, he inveighed bitterly against a certain Gentleman, and was ready to charge him with obftructing the stream of mercy, which he had expected from the Government. But being exhorted to a contrary way of thinking, he was perfuaded that his life was a debt due to the public, and the laws of the land. When, his fetters were knocked off, he faid that he freely forgave, him. And then falling upon his knees in the Prefs-yard, he addrefied the Almighty in an extempore prayer, fo full of penitence and refignation, and with fuch a moving tone of voice, and juftnefs of action, that all that heard him were exceedingly moved. He did. the fame when he was placed in the cart; and at the conclufion, all the by-ftanders said Amen to his pious petitions for peace, mercy, and grace. }

As he was a very perfonable man, aged 30, about five feet eight inches high, of a good manly countenance, and well proportioned in his features and limbs, and graced with an admirable penetrating eye, he drew uncommon attention from the populace in the road to Tyburn. But he, all the way, fixed his eyes towards heaven, imploring the divine mercy. And at the place of execution, he behaved with all the graceful resolution of a man, and all the pious decencies of a chriftian, invoking his dear Redeemer with his laft breath.

Thus, if the life of this criminal was pernicious to fociety, his death was of utility to it, by ftrongly depicting the calamities, in which a fenfible man may involve himself, when vice fo triumphantly exalts her throne upon the ruins of reason, as to eradicate every bright and exalted principle of honour, gratitude, and integrity from the foul.

Let the world, in this unhappy man, behold an exemplary inftance of the fatality attendant on the unguarded hours, and joyous follies of unwary youth. His life was a scene of guilt his death an inftructive scene of mifery. And let every one fhun the error of his ways, and confefs the ftrength of a virtuous and liberal education, to fupport the repenting finner in his laft moments; as may be exemplified in what has been related, and in the following pathetic ejaculations, which flowed natural from this malefactor's heart.

An ODE on the melancholy Condition of Mr. Smith, an unhappy Convict now under Sentence of Death in Newgate,

Written by himself.

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Sweet WILLIAM. A New SONG.
Sung by Mifs STEVENSON at Vaux-hall.
Within Compass of the German Flute.

[graphic]

fweet

William's

hair.

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A

River which flows in the weft of this ifle,
To mistake-and an infect much given
to toil,

An interrogation, of ufe you
muft own,
Together compose the name of a town.
On Health, by the late Lord HARVEY.
Hough life itself's not worth a thought,
Yet, whilft I live, could health be
bought,

Whate'er brib'd Senators receive,
Or back again in taxes give;
Whatever force or fraud obtains,
What Pruffia from Silefia gains,
Or Hr from England drains;
Whate'er the Auftrian wars have coft,
Or Hungary's Queen disburst or loft;
What France has paid to fhape her crown,
Or we, like f-ls, to keep it on;
All that the Indies have fupply'd
To beggar'd Spain, to feed the pride
Of that Italian fury-dame,

Who keeps all Europe in a flame,

For her two brats, thofe princely things,
Whom God made fls, and she'd make Kings:
In short, to fum up all, whate'er

Or pride, or avarice, makes its care,

Did I poffefs it, I'd refign,

To make this richer treasure mine.

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The Occafional PROLOGUE, Spoken at
Covent-Garden Theatre, by Mr. BARRY.
HEN vice, or folly, over-runs a ftate,
Weak politicians lay the blame on
fate.

W

When Rulers useful fubjects cease to prize,
And damn for arts that caus'd themselves to
rife:

When jealoufies and fears poffefs the throne,
And Kings allow no merit but their own:
Can it be strange, that men for flight prepare,
And ftrive to raise a colony elsewhere?
This cuftom has prevail'd in ev'ry age,
And has been sometimes practis'd on the ftage:
Who fearlefs arm-and take the field with
For-entre nous-thefe managers of merit,
Spirit,

Have curb'd us Monarchs with their haughty
Mien,

And Herod *—have out-Herod-ed,-within.
[Pointing to the Green-Room.
O! they can torture twenty thousand ways!
Make bouncing Bajazet † retreat from Bays!
The Ladies too, with ev'ry pow'er to

charm,

Whofe face, and fire, an anchorite might

warm,

Have felt the fury of a Tyrant's arm.

By selfish arts expell'd our antient feat, We, from your favour, hope for this retreat. In fearch of candour-and in fearch of meat,

If Shakespear's paffion, or if Johnson's art, Can fire the fancy, or can warm the heart, That task be our's,-But if you damn their fcenes,

A SONG to the Tune, The Maid that's And heroes must give way to harlequins,

made for Love and me.

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We, too, can have recourfe to mime' and

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