XOTKS OF THE MONTH. 



gregating, till there was such a noise and such an uproar, that had there 

 been the least chance for me to escape I certainly should have done so. 

 When the lights were brought, and Mr. Von Tromp exhibited himself, 

 the laugh was loud. Two or three constables were now on the spot, 

 and I was taken charge of; and Mr. Von Tromp, to the great delight of 

 a numerous auditory, gave an account of the adventure. The letter that 

 was intended for his daughter had fallen into his hands, through the 

 mistakes of his footman, who had given him the packet of medicine in- 

 tended for her. The people seemed highly diverted at my expense. I 

 said no one had any right to detain me; but the old German said, 

 " Dead or alive, I should that night go back to Mr. Grubbins's ;" and 

 as I saw his arguments, backed by two constables, were irresistable, I 

 resigned, and they took me back to the place whence I came, much to 

 the astonishment of Mr. and Mrs. G. Mrs. G. mildly observed, " I 

 always thought you would come to some bad end !" 



There was nothing to be done : in a few days the old German and his 

 daughter left the neighbourhood, and I was quite as anxious to take my 

 leave also. The time of my apprenticeship was just expiring, and so, 

 with the consent of all parties, I bade adieu to this place, and thus 

 finished the principal adventures of my apprenticeship. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



THE OLD BAILEY LUCKY BAG. Never let it be said that all lotte- 

 ries are put down. No ; the Recorder holds a lottery every session, in 

 which certain persons, as luck guides them, draw blanks or prizes. 

 There are some twenty or thirty individuals who make an audience for 

 the tragic scene, in which the Recorder, "just like one of the harlotry 

 players/' acts the impressive and the solemn, condemning in sonorous 

 and emphatic voice, one and all. The dock is filled, the Lord is pro- 

 pitiated to have " mercy on the souls" of the culprits, and Newgate 

 becomes a scene for the damned. There is howling and gnashing of 

 teeth the whole place is a den of horror. Not so, (cries one experi- 

 enced in the routine of our criminal laws) there is but little of these 

 poetic terrors it is pretty well understood, that, in nine cases out often, 

 the ceremony of passing sentence of death is a mere farce a trick of 

 Punch in a black cap. Then why, returns common reason, enact the 

 mockery ? If the taking away of life be repugnant to the better huma- 

 nity of the times, why still cling to a barbarous ceremony, which, if 

 serious, is criminally awful if a mere trick of law, is scarcely less 

 odious? Are the lives of men to be played with like dice? Is human 

 feeling to be made a thing for mere hustle-cap ? The subjoined is from 

 the daily papers : 



" On Tuesday (July 17) the Recorder made his report to his Majesty, of the 

 prisoners in Newgate under sentence of xleath, convicted at the last May ses- 

 sions, viz. Andrew Morgan, 52 ; John Dalton, 2Q ; Thomas Fuller, 44 ; Eliza- 

 beth Pencock, alias Paternoster, 49; and Cornelius Driscoll, 41, for uttering a 

 forged will ; David Elliott, 26 ; Samuel Crowsen, alias Fisher, 2/ ; James Cray- 

 ford, 23; John Bates, 18; Elizabeth Martin, 60; Robert Jones, 23; George 

 Robinson, 22 ; Henry Godfrey, 20, housebreaking ; Patrick Cane, 32 ; Richard 

 Brown, 25; Henry M'Namara, 22; Lucy Biddle, 23, stealing in a dwelling- 

 house ; George Jones, 34, burglary; William Dancer, 20 ; and John Grafton, 



