Chester, and set off on his way to Ireland.

When Mr. Langlie returned in the evening, he discovered the loss he had sustained; on which he applied to Lord Gage, who wrote to the postmaster of Chester to stop the delinquent; in consequence of which he was apprehended with the stolen goods in his possession, and sent to London to take his trial, which happened soon afterwards at the Old Bailey, when he was capitally convicted.

After he had received sentence of death, he acknowledged that he was not tempted by want to the commission of the crime which had brought him into such deplorable circumstances; but that the vanity of appearing as a gentleman had been one principal instigation; and he was encouraged by the consideration that Mr. Langlie would soon return to France, so that there would be no person to prosecute him. He submitted to his unhappy lot with resignation, declaring that the thoughts of death did not so much terrify him as the reflection on the disgrace that he had brought on his family.

He was executed at Tyburn on the 18th of July, 1722, along with Nathaniel Jackson.

From the case of Builoge we may see the propriety of parents making choice of such professions for their children as will not necessarily expose them to temptations. The scenes he was witness to during his apprenticeship had, as we have ob

served, a natural tendency to debauch his manners; and, though they did not absolutely make a thief of him, yet they prepared his mind for the reception of the first ill impression that should be made on it. The poet says,

Children, like tender osiers, take the bow; And as they first are fashioned always grow. And to this observation the moralist may add, that' Nothing is so likely to contaminate the mind as the seeing others proceed in the ways of pleasurable iniquity without control.'

The almost immediate fate of this man, consequent on the robbing his master, should teach servants in general the propriety of behaving with fidelity to their protectors; and his stealing Mr. Langlie's money so soon after receiving a gratuity from him for his supposed integrity exhibits an instance of ingratitude which we hope will never be imitated.

Of late years we have seldom known an instance of a servant's robbing his master, and being convicted, but he has suffered the utmost rigour of the law and indeed it is proper it should be so; for an offence of this nature is one of the most enormous crimes of which any person can be guilty.

Butloge seems to have been, in some degree, a sacrifice to his own pride and ambition. Let those who are tempted to act as he did remember that A man's pride shall bring him low; but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.'

BUT WAS AFTERWARDS PARDoned. which those far removed from the Northern extremity of Britain will deem a curiosity.

At the sessions of the Old Bailey in September, 1722, Margaret

Fisher was tried for privately stealing thirteen guineas from the person of Daniel M'Donald, who gave the following evidence, with true Scotch pronunciation and gesticulation :

'And leek yer loardship, I had just taken my wages, thirteen guineas in goud, and was gawn alang King Strate in Westmanster, when I mat wi' this fow quean at the bare, and she speird where I was gawn; I taud her hame. She said gen I wad ga wi' hur tull Joanny Davis's hoose, she wad gi' me drame, sir, for, in troth, she tuck me for a poor gaw key boss-headed chiel, and leek yer loardship. Sa she tuck had o' my haind, and lad me a gat I kenna reet weel.

And

when we came tull Joanny Davis's hoose, she caud for muckle beer and braindy, and gerd me as bung as a swobe, and leek yer hoanour. I staid there wi' her a pratty while; and thane, sir, I put my haind in tull my bricks, to feel for money to pay the rackoning; but the deel a bawbie could I find, for it was aw tint. And when I speird about it, they glowred, and taud me, gen I wanna' tack myself awaw, they wad gar me ga, wi' a deel to me; and sa, sir, they dang me su' sair, and turned me oot at the back door, intull the strate, and I rambled aboot, and cou' na' find the hoose agen; and the watchmen met wi' me, and carried me untill the roond hoose. And there I taud 'em hoo I had been roabed. The neist moarning I gaed and food oot Joanny Davis's hoose, but she was ran awaw, and the prasoner too. But at neet, about saven a cloke, I mat wi' this impudent betch at the bare, and tuck her up. I ken well enugh that she must ha' my goud, for na saul also wi' me but Joanny Davis, wha brote what we cawd for. Let her denee it an she can. Somebody (but I kenna'

what it was) offered me sax guineas in my haind to make the matter up, but I wanna tack it.'

In her defence the prisoner alleged that, meeting with a coachman and the prosecutor, the former asked her to drink; on which they went to the house of Mrs. Davis; but that she sat on the opposite side of the room that the prosecutor did, and had not robbed him; and that nothing was found upon her when she was searched. The jury not believing her allegations, and the prisoner having no person to appear in behalf of her character, she was found guilty, and received sentence of death. Having, however, pleaded pregnancy, which was confirmed by a jury of matrons, she was afterwards pardoned.

The remark to be made on this case arises from the folly of those men who will suffer themselves to be robbed by the women of the town. Nothing is more common than for countrymen to be picked up by these abandoned creatures, who entice them to drink, and then strip them of their whole property. One would imagine that the repeated accounts of these transactions given in the newspapers might be sufficient to guard all men against the artifices of these wretches: but experience proves the contrary. It may, therefore, be proper to caution our readers from a higher authority than that of the newspapers.

My son, attend unto my wis dom; and bow thine ear to my understanding :-that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge:-for the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil :-but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword: her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.'-Proverbs.

ABOUT 1722 London and its environs were infested with desperate gangs of villains, of which a felon of the name of Blake was the Macheath; and in which character he was known as Captain Blueskin. In a few pages we shall give the particulars of this depredator; who, on the present occasion, owed his escape alone to his baseness in impeaching his associates in villainy.

Oaky, Levee, and Flood, were three of this gang: the first was apprenticed to a tailor in London, from whom he ran away, after serving about two years. He then associated with a set of blackguard boys, who for some time procured a miserable subsistence by picking of pockets, and who afterwards proceeded to the practice of cutting off the pockets of women.

In order to do this effectually, one of them used to trip up the women's heels, while the other cut off the pocket; and they generally got out of the reach of detection before the party robbed could recover her legs.

Many of Oaky's associates belonged to Jonathan Wild's gang, who caused several of them to be hanged, when he could make no further advantage of them. Having thus lost his old acquaintance, he became connected with a woman of the town, who taught him the following singular method of robbery.

In their excursions through the streets, the woman went a little before Oaky, and, when she observed a lady walking near where a coach was turning, she used to catch her in her arms, crying, Take care, madam, you will be run over ;' and in the interim Oaky was certain to cut off her pocket. But this way of life did not last long, for this abandoned woman soon

after died in consequence of some bruises she received from a fellow she had ill treated; and, on her death, Oaky followed the practice of snatching off pockets without a partner, and became one of the most dexterous in his profession.

Not long after this, he became acquainted with several housebreakers, who persuaded him to follow their course of life, as more profitable than stealing of pockets. In the first attempt they were successful; but the second, in which two others were concerned with him, was the breaking open a shop in the Borough, from whence they stole a quantity of calimancoes ; for which offence Oaky was apprehended: on which he impeached his accomplices, one of whom was hanged, and the other transported, on his evidence.

Deterred from the thoughts of housebreaking by this adventure, he returned for a while to his old employment, and then became acquainted with a man called Will the Sailor, when their plan of rob bery was this: Will, who wore a sword, used to affront persons in the streets, and provoke them till they stripped to fight with him; and then Oaky used to decamp with their clothes. However, these associates in iniquity soon quarrelled and parted; and Oaky, who by this time was an accomplished thief, entered into Jonathan Wild's gang; among whom were John Levee, Matthew Flood, and Blueskin. These men were for some time the terror of travellers near London.

John Levee was the son of a French gentleman who resided some time in England during the reign of Charles II. and taught the French language to three natural sons of that prince; but he retired

to Holland, and there died, soon after the advancement of King William to the throne. Young Levee was educated at the expense of the French Protestants in London, and was then bound apprentice to a captain in the royal navy.

He served as a sailor for some years, and was present at the defeat of the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, in Queen Anne's reign; and afterwards sailed under Admiral Norris, in his fruitless expedition against the Russian fleet in the Baltic.

When the admiral came back to England, Levee's friends recommended him to the service of a merchant iu Thames Street, in the capacity of under clerk, for which he was not ill qualified: but, being of too unsettled a temper to apply himself to business, he declined this opportunity of providing for himself, and soon spent the little money he was possessed of.

Going one evening to a public house in Holborn, he met with some thieves of Jonathan Wild's gang, who soon persuaded him to join them in their lawless depredations, which at length brought him to destruction.

Matthew Flood was the son of parents of good character, and born at Shadwell. He was apprenticed to a lighterman, with whom he lived a considerable time: but, being averse to a life of labour, his master and he parted by joint consent; and soon afterwards he became acquainted with Oaky and Levec, and their dissolute companions.

Among other atrocious robberies they stopped a coach between Camberwell and London, in which were five men and a woman. The men said they would deliver their money, but begged they would not search, as the lady was with child. Blueskin, holding a hat, received the money the passengers put into it,

which appeared to be a considerable sum, but, on examination, it was found to be chiefly halfpence. The gang suspected that Blueskin had defrauded them, as it was not the first time he had cheated his fellowthieves; but they were greatly mortified that they had neglected to search the coach, when they afterwards learned there were three hundred pounds in it.

Some time after this, Oaky, Levee, Flood, and Blueskin, stopped Colonel Cope and Mr. Young, in a carriage, on their return from Hampstead, and robbed them of their watches, rings, and money. Information of this robbery was sent to Jonathan Wild, who caused the parties to be apprehended; and, Blueskin being admitted an evi. dence, they were tried, convicted, sentenced, and ordered for execution.

After conviction their behaviour was exceedingly proper for persons in their calamitous situation. They did not flatter themselves with vain hopes of a pardon, but exerted themselves, by every act of devotion, to make a proper preparation for their approaching end.

At the last scene of their lives they addressed the spectators, advising them to take warning by their fatal end.

Oaky said that what gave him more concern than all his other offences was the burning a will which he found with some money and rings in a pocket which he had cut from a lady's side; a circum. stance which proved highly detri. mental to the owner.

These offenders suffered at Tyburn on the 8th of February, 1723.

In this, as in almost every other instance before us, we see that the ways of vice lead to destruction, to present disgrace, certain death, and perpetual infamy. We learn also the falshood of that common

and perpetual infamy. We learn also the falsehood of that common maxim that there is honour among thieves.' Oaky became an evidence against his associates, in consequence of which one of them was hanged, and the other transported. After this Blueskin became an evidence against Oaky and his two companions, all of whom suffered the utmost rigour of the law. Jonathan Wild made tools of these poor wretches for a while; and, when they had run their career,

he gave them up to public justice.

What a picture does this furnish of the calamitous life of a thief, who has not one friend in whom he can confide, nor can he think himself in security even for a single moment! The terrors of his conscience must for ever haunt him; sleep must fly from his eyes, and peace from his breast. The gallows must be continually in his view, and every previous hour of his life must be imbittered by reflecting on the disgraceful one that is to end it.