chains, between Bow and Mile-end; but the woman was buried.

The denial by this unhappy couple of the crime, at the very moment their souls must appear before the Almighty, and after such clear proof, on which a jury, one half composed of their own countrymen, without hesitation found them guilty, greatly adds to their turpitude.

From the above narrative an important lesson may be learnt, particularly by our country readers. Mr. Norris was a country gentle man: the house kept by Van Berghen was, at the best, of very doubtful fame. Country gentlemen, when called to London on business, should be particularly cautious never to enter such a house. If this unhappy man had gone only where business

called him, he might have escaped the fatal catastrophe that befel him, and have long lived to bless his family and friends, and do credit to his country.

In the discovery of this murder the intervention of Providence is obvious. Every possible care was taken to conceal it; yet blood was found in the room where the murder was committed; and the thoughtlessness of Dromelius respecting the waterman contributed to lead to a ready discovery of the fact. Nothing is hid from the all-seeing eye of God. Let the righteous justice executed on the malefactors above mentioned impress on the minds of our readers the force of the sixth commandment:-"Thou shalt do no MURDER.'

THE next criminal that particularly calls our attention was of a noble family in Scotland, a murderer of the worst description; yet in whose fate we have an extraordinary dispensation of Providence in permitting his flight from justice, and granting him a long life after his conviction of this horrid crime; to the end, without doubt, of giving time for repentance to so great a sinner.

Alexander Balfour was born in the year 1687, at the seat of his father, Lord Burleigh, near Kinross. He was first sent for education to a village called Orwell, near the place of his birth, and thence to the University of St. Andrew's, where he pursued his studies with a diligence and success that greatly distinguished him. His father had intended to have sent him to join the army in Flanders, under the command of the Duke of Malborough, in which he

had rational expectation of his rising to preferment, as he was related to the Duke of Argyle and the Earl of Stair, who were majors-general in the army; but this scheme unhappily did not take place. Mr. Balfour, while at his father's house during a vacation at the university, became enamoured of Miss Anne Robertson, who officiated as teacher to his sisters. This young lady was possessed of considerable talents, improved by a superior education; but Lord Burleigh being apprised of the connexion between her and his son, she was discharged, and the young gentleman sent to make the tour of France and Italy. Before he went abroad, he sent the young lady a letter, informing her that, if she married before his return, he would murder her husband. Notwithstanding this threat, which she might presume had its origin in an. governable passion, she married Mr.

of his family. The scaffold was actually erected for the purpose; but, on the preceding day, his sister went to visit him, and, being very much like him in face and stature, they changed clothes, and he made his escape from the prison. His friends having provided a servant and horses for him, at the west gate of Edinburgh, they rode to a dis. tant village, where he changed his

clothes again, and afterwards left the kingdom. Lord Burleigh, the father, died in the reign of Queen Anne; but had first obtained a pardon for his son, who succeeded to the family title and honours, and who lived nearly fifty years after his escape, having died, in 1752, a sincere penitent for the murder he had committed.

THIS man, whose career of villainy in England was not long, had committed a variety of depredations in Flanders, where he served as a soldier under King William III. On the peace of Ryswick he received his discharge, and, with several of his confederates in acts of villainy, repaired to London, where they formed themselves into a gang of robbers, of which Holliday, under the name of Simpson, was appointed their captain. We can trace but few particulars of the depredations they committed in London and its environs, farther than that they were alternately highwaymen and housebreakers.

In the year 1700 Holliday was indicted, in the name of Simpson, for a burglary in the house of Eli. zabeth Gawden, and stealing there out two feather beds, and other articles; to which he pleaded guilty, and was, for that offence, hanged at Tyburn.

While under sentence of death, he made the following confession of the singular and daring robberies he had committed: his officers-the church-nay the king himself, were plundered by this daring villain. He said that his name was not Simpson, but Holliday, and that, during a great part of the war in the reign of King William, he was a soldier in Flanders, where he

used to take frequent opportunities of robbing the tents of the officers: and once, when the army lay before Mons, and his majesty commanded in person, Simpson happened to be one of those who were selected to guard the royal tent. On an evening when the King, accompanied by the Earl, afterwards Duke, of Marlborough, and Lord Cutts, went out to take a view of the situation of the army, Simpson, with a degree of impudence peculiar to himself, went into his majesty's tent, and stole about a thousand pounds. It was some days before this money was missed, and when the robbery was discovered, Simpson escaped all suspicion.. He said he had committed

more robberies than he could possibly recollect, having been a highwayman as well as a house-breaker.

He committed numerous robberies in Flanders as well as in England, and he affirmed that the gates of the city of Ghent had been twice shut up within a fortnight to prevent his escape; and that when he was taken, his arms, legs, back, and neck, were secured with irons; in which condition he was carried through the streets, that he might be seen by the crowd..

Simpson, and two of his companions, used frequently to stop and rob the Roman Catholics at

five o'clock in the morning, as they were going to mass: he repeatedly broke into the churches of Brussels, Mechlin, and Antwerp, and stole the silver plate from the altar.

This offender further acknowledged that, having killed one of his companions in a quarrel, he was apprehended, tried, and condemned for the fact, by a court-martial of officers, and sentenced to be executed on the following day, in sight of the army, which was to be drawn up to see the execution. During the night, however, hc found means to escape, and took refuge in the church of St. Peter in Ghent, where the army then lay. Being thus in a place of sanctuary, he applied to the priests, who made interest with Prince Eugene; and their joint in tercession with King William, who arrived in the city about four days afterwards, obtained his full pardon, and he immediately joined the army.

In a few days after he had ob tained his pardon, he broke into the church, and robbed it of plate to the value of twelve hundred pounds; which he was the better enabled to do, as he was acquainted with the avenues of the church, and knew where the plate was deposited. He was apprehended on suspicion of this sacrilege; for, as a crime of this kind is seldom committed by the natives of the country, it was conjectured that it must have been perpetrated by some one, at least, of the soldiers; and information being given that two Jews had embarked in a boat on the Scheldt for Middleburgh on the day succeeding the robbery, and that Simpson had been seen in company with these Jews, this occasioned his being taken into custody; but, as no proof arose that he had sold any plate to these men, it was thought Lecessary to dismiss him.

THIS young man received the education of a gentleman, was articled as clerk to an attorney of high repute, and enjoyed the utmost latitude of confidence with his master, but which a course of dissipation destroyed, and finally brought him to an untimely end. His misfortunes may prove a lesson to young gentlemen intended for the learned professions, while the danger which a young lady, his master's daughter, had, through him, nearly fallen into, will, we trust, be a caution to females against placing their affections without the sanction of their parents.

Mr. Griffiths was born at Thetford, in the county of Norfolk, and was the son of an eminent apothe cary of that town. On the expiration of the term of his clerkship, he was retained by his master, on a

handsome salary, to manage his business, and he discharged his duty for a considerable time with great regularity; but unhappily becoming acquainted with some young lawyers, who possessed more money than discretion, he soon spent the little fortune which his father had bequeathed to him, and also became indebted to several of his master's employers.

During great part of Griffiths's servitude, the only daughter of his employer had been at a boardingschool at Windsor, for the advantage of education; and now returning home, her father, who was uncommonly tender of her, requested that she would take his domestic affairs under her own management.

This old gentleman being frequently from home, the business of the office was committed to the care

of Mr. Griffiths; and an intimacy soon ensued between him and the young lady, in whose company he spent all those evenings in which he had not particular engagements with his old associates. The consequence was, that their acquaintance ripened into esteem; their esteem into love. The reciprocal declaration soon took place, and the young lady considered Mr. Griffiths as the man who was to be her future husband.

Some short time after this attachment Griffiths was under the necessity of attending his master on the Norfolk circuit; and, while he was in the country, he held a constant correspondence with the young lady but the father was totally unacquainted with all that had passed, and had not formed the least idea that his daughter had any kind of connexion with his clerk; but at length the circumstance of the affair transpired in the following manner: The daughter having gone to Windsor for a few days, on a visit to her former acquaintance, continued to correspond with Mr. Griffiths. On a particular day, when Griffiths was not at home, it happened that a letter was brought to the office, directed to this unfortunate man; when one of the clerks, imagining that it might be of consequence, carried it to the master, at an adjacent coffee-house. It is impossible that any language should express the surprise of the old gentleman when he saw the name of his daughter subscribed to a letter, in which she acknowledged herself as the future wife of the clerk.

The father knew that Griffiths had no fortune; but he soon found that he had been master of sufficient art to prevail on the daughter to believe that he was possessed of considerable property. Hereupon he

represented to his daughter the great impropriety of her conduct; in answer to which she said that Mr. Griffiths was a man of fortune, though he had hitherto carefully concealed this circumstance from her father. However, it was not long before a discovery was made, which represented Mr. Griffiths's situation in a light equally new and contemptible.

His master, for a considerable time past, had acted as the solicitor in a capital cause depending in Chancery; but the determination respecting it had been put off, on account of Lord Somers being removed from the office of chancellor, and the great seal given in commission to Sir Nathan Wright. The solicitor had received immense sums while the cause was depending, which he had committed to the care of his clerk; but the latter, pressed for cash to supply his extravagance, purloined some of this money. 'At length the cause was determined, and Griffiths was called upon to account to his master for the money in his hands.

Alarmed at this sudden demand, he knew not what course to take. He was already considerably indebted to different people, and had not a friend to whom he could apply for as much money as was deficient in his accounts; but, being driven to the utmost necessity, he came to the resolution of breaking open his master's bureau, which he did while the family were asleep, and stole a considerable sum of money; but, as nothing else except money was stolen, Griffiths would very probably have escaped suspicion, had he not been tempted to a repetition of his crime.

At this time the old gentleman and his daughter went to Tun bridge; and, during their residence at that place of amusement, Grif