George's Fields, and overtook him him at Newington Butts. Having brought him back to his house, and guarded him properly for that night, he was examined by the secretary of state on the following day, and committed to Newgate.

The king and council now determined that no time should be lost in bringing Layer to a trial; wherefore a writ was issued from the Crown Office, directed to the sheriff of Essex, commanding him to impannel a grand jury, to inquire into such hills as should be presented against the prisoner: in consequence of which the jury met at Rumford, and found a bill against him for high treason; and this bill was returnable into the Court of King's Bench.

Soon after the bill was found, the trial came on before Sir John Pratt, Lord Chief Justice, and the other judges of that court. Mr. Layer had two counsellors to plead for him, and they urged every possible argument that could be thought of in his behalf; contesting every minute circumstance with the counsel for the crown, during a trial that lasted sixteen hours; but at length the jury found the prisoner guilty, after having been out of court about an hour.

When the prisoner was brought up to receive sentence, his counsel made another effort in his behalf, by urging the informality of some of the legal proceedings against him; but their arguments being thought insufficient, the sentence ordained by the law was passed on him.

As he had some important affairs to settle, from the nature of his profession, the Court did not order his execution till more than two months after he had been condemned; and the king repeatedly reprieved him, to prevent his clients being sufferers

by his affairs being left in a state of confusion.

After conviction, Mr. Layer was committed to the Tower, and at length the sheriffs of London and Middlesex received a warrant to execute the sentence of the law; in consequence of which he was drawn on a sledge to Tyburn, dressed in a suit of black, full trimmed, and a tic-wig.

At the place of execution he was assisted in his devotions by a Nonjuring clergyman ; and, when these were ended, he spoke to the surrounding multitude, declaring that he deemed King James (so he called the Pretender) his lawful sovereign. He said that King George was an usurper, and damnation would be the fate of those who supported his government. He insisted that the nation would never be in a state of peace till the Pretender was restored; and therefore advised the people to take up arms in his be half. He professed himself willing to die for the cause; and expressed great hopes that Providence would effectually support the right heir to the throne on some future occasion, though himself had failed of being the happy instrument of placing him thereon.

He was hanged at Tyburn on the 15th of March, 1723, and, his body being quartered, his head was placed over Temple Bar.

Mr. Layer is said to have been a man of sense, and, from his education and profession, we may presume that he was a man of learning; yet his conduct was such as, one would imagine, no person above the level of an ideot could have been guilty of. The scheme he undertook was absurd in the highest degree; and his folly in revealing his sentiments to the women whom he kept was as egregious as his guilt was glaring.

Those who preach up the nonsense of a divine indefeisible right inherent in kings may possibly admire the madness by which this man was inspired: but Englishmen ought to be thankful that their sovereigns can govern only in conformity to the laws; laws more perfect than those which human wisdom has yet framed in any other country under

Heaven. We cannot conclude this account more properly than in the words of the poet :

Remember, O my friends, the laws, the rights,

The generous plan of power delivered down, From age to age, by your renowned forefathers:

O, let it never perish in your hands;
But piously transmit it to your children!

WILLIAM BURK was born in the parish of St. Catherine's, near the Tower of London. His temper, it was alleged, was bad when a boy; but which of us are not early way. ward, until precept and correction teach us better? But it was also admitted that the mother, by illJudged fondness and indulgence, made it much worse.

Having reached the eleventh year of his age, he was guilty of some faults that required severe chastisement, which having received, he ran away from school, and went to the water-side, inquiring for a station on board a ship. A man, observing his inclination, took him down to the Nore, and put him on board the Salisbury man of war.

The mother, learning where her darling boy was gone, followed him on board the ship, and endeavoured to prevail on him to return, but in vain; for the youth was obstinately bent on a seafaring life.

In about a fortnight the ship sailed for Jamaica, and, during the voyage, had an engagement with a Spanish galleon, which she took, after a bloody and obstinate fight, in which young Burk was wounded. After this they met with another galleon, which they took without the loss of a man; but a woman, the only one on board, having the curiosity to look on the deck, lost

her life by a chain-shot, which severed her head from her body. The common men shared each fifteen pounds prize money on these captures; but some of the principal officers got sufficient to make them easy for life.

The ship was stationed for three years in the West Indies, during which Burk learned the art of stealing every thing that he could secrete without detection. At Jamaica there was a woman that had been transported from Newgate some years before; but, having married a planter, who soon died, she was left in affluent circumstances, and took a tavern. Wanting a white servant, she prevailed on the captain to let William attend her customers.

The boy was pleased with his new situation, and might have continued in it as long as he was on the island, but he could not refrain from defrauding his mistress; but she, who had been herself a thief, soon detected him. detected him. Hereupon he fell on his knees, and begged pardon, which was granted; but he was ordered to depart the house immediately.

Alarmed at the danger from which he had escaped, he seems to have formed a temporary resolution to live honestly in future, and, with that view, shipped himself for Maryland, where a merchant would have

employed him, but the captain he sailed with would not permit him to accept the offer. Hence he made a voyage to the coast of Guinea, where he had a very narrow escape of being murdered by the natives, who killed several of his shipmates.

On the return of his ship from Guinea to England, the weather was so bad that they were five months on their voyage to the port of Bristol, during which they suffered innumerable hardships. Their provisions were so reduced, that they were almost famished, the allowance of each man for the whole day being not so much as he could eat at two mouthfuls; and at length they were obliged to fast five days successively.

However, they reached the port in safety; and, notwithstanding the miseries they had endured, the captain resolved on another voyage to Guinea, in which Burk accompanied him. Having purchased a number of slaves, they set sail for the West India Islands; but, during the voyage, the negroes concerted a scheme to make themselves masters of the ship, and would have probably carried it into execution, but that one of their associates betrayed them; in consequence of which they were more strictly confined than they had hitherto been.

Burk sailed from the West Indies to England, where he entered on board a man of war, and sailed up the Baltic, and afterwards to Archangel, to the north of Russia, where his sufferings, from the extremity of the cold and other circumstances, were so severe, that on his return to England he determined to abandon the life of a sailor.

Being now quite out of all honest methods of getting his bread, he took to robbing passengers in and near Stepney; but he continued his

depredations on the public only for a short time, being apprehended for committing the fourth robbery.

He was indicted at the sessions held at the Old Bailey, in February, 1723, for robbing William Fitzer on the highway; and again, on the same day, for robbing James Westwood; and, being found guilty on both indictments, he received sentence of death.

There was something remarkably cruel in the conduct of this malefactor, for he carried a hedge-bill with him to terrify the persons he stopped; and one old man hesitating to comply with his demand, he cut him so that he fell to the ground.

After conviction he became sensible of the enormity of his crimes, received the sacrament with great devotion, and declared that, if he obtained mercy from God, it must be through the merits of Jesus Christ.

He was executed at Tyburn on the 8th of April, 1723, in the twenty-third year of his age.

The subject of this biography, though born of parents so poor that they were glad to get him into a charity school, yet had a fair chance of becoming an useful member of society. Little doubt can be entertained but that the fault of mothers, by a too great and too long indulgence to their children, which they call kindness, was the primary cause which led this man to his wretched fate. Some unreflecting women, by mistimed fondness, would have their children, while they should be in search of an honest livelihood, still at home; or, to use the vulgar expression, still within the length of their apronstrings.' It is rare, indeed, to find a great boy, pampered by the mother, possessing the rare qualities of a good boy. Indulgence to a

youth at home unnerves him when abroad, and, subject to no control, he becomes insolent, weak, and contemptible to strangers.

Happy the child whose younger years
Receive instruction well;
Who hates the sinner's path, and fears
The road that leads to hell.

When we devote our youth to God,
'Tis pleasing in his eyes;

A flow'r, when offer'd in the bud,
Is no vain sacrifice.

'Tis easier work, if we begin
To fear the Lord betimes;
While sinners that grow old in sin
Are harden'd in their crimes.
DR. WATTS.

THE mode of plunder practised by this villain at the time of committing his depredations was not common; but now the great metropolis of our country abounds with such insidious robbers. This kind of thieving, in modern times, is ycleped SWINDLING,* and the latter part of our pages will adduce instances of the tricks of sharpers, passing almost credibility. The fellow now before us was, however, circumstances considered, an adept, and, like our modern swindlers, had a fictitious name, an accomplice, sometimes acting as his footman, a hired house, and borrowed carriage.

The great qualifications, or leading and indispensable attributes, of a sharper or swindler, are, to possess a genteel exterior, a demeanour apparently artless, and a good address.

Among the various classes of sharpers may be reckoned those who obtain licenses to become pawnbrokers, and bring disgrace upon the reputable part of the trade by every species of fraud which can add to the distresses of those who are compelled to raise money in this way; for which purpose there are abundance of opportunities. Swindling pawnbrokers of this class are uniformly receivers of stolen goods; and, under the cover of their license, do much mischief to the public.

The evil arising from them might, in a great measure, be prevented by placing the power of granting licenses in a general board of police; and rendering it necessary for all persons to produce a certificate of character before they can obtain such license, and also to enter into recognizance for good behaviour.

Also sharpers who obtain licenses to be hawkers and pedlars; under the cover of which every species of villainy is practised upon the country people, as well as upon the unwary in the metropolis, and all the great towns in the kingdom. The artifices by which they succeed are various, as for example, by fraudulent raffles, where plated goods are exhibited as silver, and where the chances are exceedingly against the adventurers; by selling and uttering base money, and frequently forged bank notes, which make one of the most profitable branches of their trade; by dealing in smuggled goods, thereby promoting the sale of articles injurious to the revenue, besides cheating the ignorant with regard to their value; by receiving stolen goods, to be disposed of in the country, by which discoveries are prevented, and assistance afforded to common thieves and stationary receivers; by purchasing stolen horses in one part of the country and disposing of them in another,

in the course of their journeys; in accomplishing which, so as to elude detection, they have great opportunities, by gambling with E-O tables at fairs and horse-races.

A number of other devices might be pointed out, which render this class of men great nuisances in society, and show the necessity of either suppressing them totally (for, in fact, they are of little use to the public), or of limiting the licenses only to men of good character; to be granted by a general board of police, under whose control they should be placed, while they enter at the same time into a recognizance in a certain sum, with one surety for good behaviour; by which the honest part would be retained, to the exclusion of the fraudulent.

Also sharpers known by the name of duffers, who go about from house to house, and attend public houses, inns, and fairs, pretending to sell smuggled goods, such as India handkerchiefs, waistcoat pat terns, muslins, &c. By offering their goods for sale, they are enabled to discover the proper objects which may be successfully practised upon in various ways; and, if they do not succeed in promoting some gambling scheme, by which the party is plundered of his money, they seldom fail passing forged country bank notes, or base coin, in the course of their dealings.

In London a number of female sharpers also infest public places. They dress elegantly, personate women of fashion, attend masquerades, and even go to Court. These, from their effrontery, actually get into the circle, where their wits and hands are employed in obtain ing diamonds, and whatever other articles of value, capable of being concealed, are found to be most accessible.

The wife of a well-known sharp

er is said to have appeared at Court, dressed in a style of peculiar elegance; while the sharper himself is supposed to have gone in the dress of a clergyman. According to the information of a noted receiver, they pilfered to the value of 17007. on the king's birth day, 1795, without discovery or suspicion.

Houses are kept where female cheats dress and undress for public places. These sharpers gene. rally attend all masquerades, in different characters, where they seldom fail to get clear off with a considerable booty.

The first deception which we find played off by Alexander Day was to take an elegant house in Queensquare, and then to send his pretended footman to a livery stable, to inquire the price of a pair of horses, which he himself afterwards agreed to purchase, and then desired the stable-keeper to recommend him a coachman, a man rather lusty, as he had a suit of livery clothes of a large size by him.

The man was accordingly recommended; but, when the livery was tried on, Day observed, that, as they did not fit him, he would send into the country for his own coachman; but this objection was obviated by the footman, who saying that the clothes would fit, with a small alteration, the 'squire consented to hire the man.

When the stable-keeper saw the coachman he had recommended, he inquired to what places he had driven his new master; and, being informed to the Duke of Montague's, and other persons of rank, he seemed satisfied, though he had begun to form ideas unfavourable to his new customer.

Mr. Day, having kept his coach and horses something more than a week, gave orders to be driven to