58 Notes for the Month. 



he obtain the same goods from the tradesman, on the pretence that he has 

 come from Mr. A. or Mr. B., (that tradesman's known customer) with 

 orders that they shall be delivered to him on the account of those parties, 

 then he becomes a robber within the view of the criminal law ; and, 

 instead of going to the Fleet, or the King's Bench prison, he goes to Van 

 Dieman's Land for the offence. This distinction is so clear, that it can 

 need no pressing. The actual villainy in both the above cases perhaps is 

 pretty nearly the same. But the first belongs to a class of crimes which 

 the law (criminally) would be unable to deal with because the very mis- 

 statement (which constitutes the whole offence) would become a question 

 of degree it is not a simple, distinct fact, which can be given in evidence, 

 but a matter of inference, which it is difficult, with sufficient exactness, 

 to prove. But the second case stands upon a different, and upon a tangible 

 footing ; the offender has passed the line which the mercy and caution of 

 the law (rather .than its justice) has said shall be established for his pro- 

 tection ; and it is not because the knave, who has robbed me to-day, by 

 becoming a bankrupt with 3000/. of my property in his possession, 

 happens to leave me according to the usages of the community without 

 a remedy, that the rogue who forges a check for the same amount upon 

 me to-morrow although in either case, I am but cheated of so much 

 money shall be suffered to escape. 



The legal propriety of the conviction of the Messrs. Wakefield, therefore, 

 stands beyond a question. Of their moral guilt, it is unnecessary to 

 sprak ; a more heartless or cold-blooded act of violence than that which 

 they have committed, induced by no motive beyond that of the mere de- 

 sire of gain, it would be difficult to conceive. And, if we try them by 

 that spurious sort of equitable jurisdiction under which they have set up 

 a miserable claim to be adjudged by the law that gives a civic wreath 

 to the hat of the highwayman, who goes up Holborn-hill with his boots 

 well cleaned, and a nosegay in his bosom, or places an urn over the cross- 

 road grave of the forger, who closed his career by his own hand to escape 

 that of the executioner even under this tf cutter's law" the Brummagem 

 code of honour the case of the Messrs. Wakefield becomes more inde- 

 fensible still; because its immunities extend "only to crimes which are 

 redeemed by some shew of talent or qualification ; and theirs has not a 

 single trait of spirit or gallantry about it not a single bright spot from 

 the beginning to the end. 



It is an unlucky feature, indeed, in the practice of this court of " cas- 

 sation,*' to which the Messrs. Wakefield, in the desperation of their 

 course, have attempted to appeal, that it is a tribunal which is never 

 favourable to unsuccessful gamesters : and, moreover, as lawless as it 

 appears, it is still guided by some principles in its decisions, which find no 

 holding or application to their case. The sort of illegitimate complacency 

 with which we dwell upon the unhallowed exploits of Turpin or Jack 

 Shepherd, is not wholly without a foundation in reasonable feeling, or a 

 reference to the real interests and advantage of society. It is not that we 

 are disposed to excuse, or palliate crime ; but, that, where the same picture 

 that exhibits an act of offence, displays at the same moment an evidence of 

 power, we do not refuse to " look at both indifferently." Where a high- 

 wayman beats off, single-handed, half-a-dozen police officers or a de- 

 serter from the army shoots an equal number of the soldiers, who are sent 

 to apprehend him we are not rejoicing in the bloodshed, nor do we hesi- 



