and, the notes being of considerable value, insisted upon five pieces. The marshal told the boy that five pieces were enough to break him at once; that if he gave him two guineas he would be sufficiently paid; but as sured him that, if he had the good luck to obtain a handsome reward, he would then make it up five pieces. Upon this present encouragement and future expectation the boy de. livered up the pocket-book, and a few days afterwards, being informed that a very large reward had been given for the notes, he applied to the marshal for the remaining three guineas, according to promise; but all the satisfaction he got was, that he should be sent to the house of correction if he continued to demand it; the marshal telling him that such rascals as he were ignorant how to dispose of their money. This conniving at the intrigues of the pickpockets, taking the stolen pocket-books, and sending threatening letters to the persons that lost them, under pretence that they had been in company with lewd women; extorting money also from persons in various other ways; were the causes of the marshal's being suspended; and this most detestable villain having subsequently been fined twenty pounds, and pilloried, for a crime too loathsome to be named in these pages, left Wild at length alone to execute his plans of depredation on the public.

We shall now, quitting Mr. Wild's recriminating pamphlet, proceed in our regular account of the hero of this narrative. When the vagabonds with whom he was in league faithfully related to him the particulars of the robberies they had committed, and intrusted to him the disposal of their booties, he assured them that they might safely rely on him for protection against

the vengeance of the law; and indeed it must be acknowledged that in cases of this nature he would persevere in his utmost endeavours to surmount very great difficulties rather than wilfully falsify his word.

Wild's artful behaviour, and the punctuality with which he discharged his engagements, obtained him a great share of confidence among thieves of every denomination; insomuch, that if he caused it to be intimated to them that he was desirous of seeing them, and that they should not be molested, they would attend him with the utmost willingness, without entertaining the most distant apprchension of danger, although conscious that he had informations against them, and that their lives were absolutely in his power; but if they presumed to reject his proposals, or proved otherwise refractory, he would address them to the following effect: I have given you my word that you should come and go in safety, and so you shall; but take care of yourself, for, if ever you see me again, you see an enemy.'

The great influence that Wild obtained over the thieves will not be thought a very extraordinary matter, if it is considered that, when he promised to use his endeavours for rescuing them from impending fate, he was always desirous, and generally able, to succeed. Such as complied with his measures he would never interrupt; but, on the contrary, afford them every encouragement for prose ting their iniquitous practices; and, if apprehended by any other person, he seldom failed of procuring their discharge. His most usual method (in desperate cases, and when matters could not be managed with inore ease and expedition) was to procure them to be admitted evidences, under pre

text that it was in their power to make discoveries of high importance to the public. When they were in prison he frequently attended them, and communicated to them from his own memorandums such particulars as he judged it would be prudent for them to relate to the Court. When his accomplices were apprehended, and he was not able to prevent their being brought to trial, he contrived stratagems (in which his invention was amazingly fertile) for keeping the principal witnesses out of Court; so that the delinquents were generally dismissed in defect of evidence.

Jonathan was ever a most implacable enemy to those who were hardy enough to reject his terms, and dispose of their stolen effects for their own separate advantage. He was industrious to an extreme in his efforts to surrender them into the hands of justice; and, being acquainted with all their usual places of resort, it was scarcely possible for them to escape his vigilance.

By his subjecting such as incurred his displeasure to the punishment of the law, he obtained the rewards offered for pursuing them to conviction; greatly extended his ascendancy over the other thieves, who considered him with a kind of awe; and, at the same time, established his character as being a man of great public utility.

It was the practice of Wild to give instructions to the thieves whom he employed as to the manner in which they should conduct themselves; and, if they followed his directions, it was seldom that they failed of success. But if they neglected a strict observance of his rules, or were, through inadvertency or ignorance, guilty of any kind of mismanagement or error in the prosecution of the schemes he

had suggested, it was to be understood almost as an absolute certainty that he would procure them to be convicted at the next sessions, deeming them to be unqualified for the profession of roguery.

He was frequently asked how it was possible that he could carry on the business of restoring stolen effects, and yet not be in league with the robbers; and his replies were always to this purpose:- My acquaintance among thieves is very extensive, and, when I receive information of a robbery, I make inquiry after the suspected parties, and leave word at proper places that, if the goods are left where I appoint, the reward shall be paid, and no questions asked. Surely no imputation of guilt can fall upon me; for I hold no interviews with the robbers, nor are the goods given into my possession.'

We will now give a relation of the most remarkable exploits of the hero of these pages; and our detail must necessarily include many particulars relating to other notorious characters of the same period.

A lady of fortune being on a visit in Piccadilly, her servants, leaving her sedan at the door, went to refresh themselves at a neigh. bouring public house. Upon their return the vehicle was not to be found; in consequence of which the men immediately went to Wild, and having informed him of their loss, and complimented him with the usual fee, they were desired to call upon him again in a few days. Upon their second application, Wild extorted from them a considerable reward, and then directed them to attend the chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields on the following morning, during the time of prayers. The men went according to the appointment, and under the piazzas

of the chapel perceived the chair, which upon examination they found to contain the velvet seat, curtains, and other furniture, and that it had received no kind of damage.

A young gentleman, named Knap, accompanied his mother to Sadler's Wells, on Saturday, March 31, 1716. On their return they were attacked, about ten at night, near the wall of Gray's Inn Gardens, by five villains. The young gentleman was knocked down, and his mother, being exceedingly alarmed, called for assistance; upon which a pistol was discharged at her, and she instantly fell down dead. A consider. able reward was offered by proclamation in the Gazette for the discovery of the perpetrator of this horrid crime; and Wild was remarkably assiduous in his endeavours to apprehend the offenders. From a description given of some of the villains, Wild immediately judged the gang to be composed of William White, Thomas Thurland, John Chapman, alias Edward Darvel, Timothy Dun, and Isaac Rag. On the evening of Sunday, April 8, Wild received intelligence that some of the above-named men were drinking with their prostitutes at a house kept by John Weatherly, in Newtoner's Lane. He went to Weatherly's, accompanied by his man Abraham, and seized White, whom he brought away about midnight, in a hackney-coach, and lodged him in the round-house.

White being secured, information was given to Wild that a man named James Aires was then at the Bell Inn, Smithfield, in company with a woman of the town. Having an information against Aires, Wild, accompanied by his assistants, repaired to the inn, under the gateway of which they met Thurland, whose person had been mistaken for that of Aires. Thurland was provided

with two brace of pistols; but, being suddenly seized, he was de prived of all opportunity of making use of those weapons, and taken into custody.

They went on the following night to a house in White Horse Alley, Drury Lane, where they apprehended Chapman, alias Darvel. Soon after the murder of Mrs. Knap, Chapman and others stopped the coach of Thomas Middlethwaite, Esq. but that gentleman escaped being robbed by discharging a blun derbuss, and wounding Chapman in the arm, on which the villains retired.

In a short time after, Wild apprehended Isaac Rag at a house which he frequented in St. Giles's, in consequence of an information charging him with a burglary.. Being taken before a magistrate, in the course of his examination Rag impeached twenty-two accomplices, charging them with being housebreakers, footpads, and receivers of stolen effects; and, in consequence thereof, was admitted an evidence for the crown. This man had been convicted of a misdemeanour in January, 1714-15, and sentenced to stand three times in the pillory. He had concealed himself in the dust-hole belonging to the house of Thomas Powell, where being discovered, he was searched, and a pistol, some matches, and a number of pick-lock keys, were found in his possession. His intention was evidently to commit a burglary; but, as he did not enter the house, he was indicted for a misdemeanour in entering the yard with intent to steal. He was indicted in October, 1715, for a burglary, in the house of Elizabeth Stanwell, on the 24th of August; but he was acquitted of this charge.

White, Thurland, and Chapman, were arraigned on the 18th of May,

1716, at the sessions-house in the Old Bailey, on an indictment for assaulting John Knap, Gent. putting him in fear, and taking from him a hat and wig, on the 31st of March, 1716. They were also indicted for the murder of Mary Knap, widow: White by discharging a pistol loaded with powder and bullets, and thereby giving her a wound, of which she immediately dted, March 31, 1716. They were a second time indicted for assaulting and robbing John Gough. White was a fourth time indicted with James Russel for a burglary in the house of George Barklay. And Chapman was a fourth time indicted for a burglary in the house of Henry Cross.

These three offenders were executed at Tyburn on the 8th of June, 1716.

Wild was indefatigable in his endeavours to apprehend Timothy Dun, who had hitherto escaped the hands of justice by removing to a new lodging, where he conccaled himself in the most cautious manner. Wild, however, did not despair of discovering this offender, whom he supposed must either perish through want of the necessaries of life, or obtain the means of subsistence by returning to his felonious practices; and so confident was he of success, that he made a wager of ten guineas that he would have him in custody before the expiration of an appointed time.

Dun's confinement, at length, became exceedingly irksome to him; and he sent his wife to make inquiries respecting him of Wild, in order to discover whether he was still in danger of being apprehended. Upon her return Wild ordered one of his people to follow her home. She took water at Blackfriars, and landed at the Falcon ; but suspecting the man was employed to trace her, she again took water, and

crossed to Whitefriars: observing that she was still followed, she or dered the waterman to proceed to Lambeth, and having landed there, it being nearly dark, imagined she had escaped the observation of Wild's man, and therefore walked immediately home. The man traced her to Maid Lane, near the Bankside, Southwark, and perceiving her enter a house, he marked the wall with chalk, and then returned to his employer, with an account of the discovery he had made.

Wild, accompanied by a fellow named Abraham, a Jew, who acted the part himself had formerly done to the worthless marshal, one Riddlesden, and another man, went on the following morning to the house where the woman had been seen to enter.

Dun, hearing a noise, and thence suspecting tha the was discovered, got through a back-window on the second floor upon the roof of the pantry, the bottom of which was about eight feet from the ground.

Abraham discharged a

pistol, and wounded Dun in the arm; in consequence of which he fell from the pantry into the yard; after his fall Riddlesden fired also, and wounded him in the face with small-shot. Dan was secured and carried to Newgate, and being tried at the ensuing sessions, was soon after executed at Tyburn.

Riddlesden was bred to the law, but he entirely neglected that business, and abandoned himself to every species of wickedness. His irregular course of life having greatly embarrassed his circumstances, he broke into the chapel of Whitehall, and stole the communion-plate. He was convicted of this offence, and received sentence of death; but, through the exertion of powerful interest, a pardon was obtained, on condition of transporting himself for the term of seven years.

He