convicted at the Old Bailey, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. It happened that one of his fellow-convicts was possessed of a stolen bank note, which was changed, as is presumed, with the captain of the vessel, who had a gratuity for their liberty; for, when they arrived in America, they were set at large, and took lodgings at New York, where they lived some time in an expensive manner; and the captain, on his return to England, stopped at Rotterdam, where he offered the stolen note to a banker; on which he was lodged in prison, and did not obtain his liberty without considerable difficulty. Johnson and his associate, having quitted New York, embarked for Holland, whence they came to England, where they assumed the dress and appearance of people of fashion, and frequented all the places of public diversion. Thus disguised, Johnson used to mix with the crowd, and steal watches, &c. which his accomplice carried off unsuspected. The effects thus stolen were constantly sold to Jews, who sent them to Holland, where they were sold, and the robbers escaped undetected. In the summer time, when London was thin of company, Johnson and his companion used to ride through the country, the former appearing as a gentleman of for. tune, and the latter as his servant. On their arrival at an inn, they inquired of the landlord into the circumstances of the farmers in the neighbourhood; and when they had learned the name and residence of one who was rich, with such other particulars as might forward their plan, the servant was dispatched to tell the farmer that the 'squire would be glad to speak with him at the inn; and he was commissioned to hint that his master's property in the public funds was very considerable. This bait generally succeeded: the farmer hastened to the inn, where he found the 'squire in an elegant undress; who, after the first compliments, informed him that he was come down to purchase a valuable estate in the neighbourhood, which he thought so well worth the buying, that he had agreed to pay part of the money that day: but, not having sufficient cash in his possession, he had sent for the farmer to lend him part of the sum; and assured him that he should be no loser by granting the favour. To make sure of his prey, he had always some counterfeit jewels in his possession, which he used to deposit in the farmer's hands, to be taken up when the money was repaid; and, by artifices of this kind, Johnson and his associate acquired large sums of money; the former not only changing his name, but disguising his person, so that detection was almost impossible. This practice he continued for a succession of years; and, in one of his expeditions of this kind, actually got possession of a thousand pounds, with which he escaped unsuspected. In order to avoid detection, he took a small house in Southwark, where he used to live in the most obscure manner, not even permitting his servant-maid to open the window, lest he should be discovered. Thus he continued committing these kind of frauds, and living in retirement on the profits arising from them, till he reached the age of sixty years; when, though he was poor, he was afraid to make fresh excursions to the country, but thought of confining his talents to London. Hereupon he picked the pockets of several persons of as many watches as produced money enough to furnish him with an elegant suit of clothes, in which he went to a public ball, where he walked a minuet with the kept-mistress of a nobleman, who invited him to drink tea with her on the following day. He attended the invitation, when she informed him that she had another engagement to a ball, and should think herself extremely honoured by his company. He readi. ly agreed to the proposal; but, while in company, he picked the pocket of Mr. Pye, a merchant's clerk, of a pocket-book, contain ing bank-notes to the amount of five hundred pounds. Pye had no idea of his loss till the following day, when he should have accounted with his employer. Upon the discovery being made, immediate notice was sent to the Bank to stop payment of the notes; and Johnson was actually changing one of them, to the amount of fifty pounds, when the messenger came thither. Hereupon he was taken into custody, and being tried at the next sessions at the Old Bailey, for privately stealing, was capitally convicted; and this offence being without the benefit of clergy*, he was sentenced to death. BENEFIT OF CLERGY.-This is a legal phrase, or technical term, which is necessarily often repeated in criminal repɔrts, while numbers are not apprized of its full meaning or its origin. The dark clouds of barbarism which succeeded the downfall of the Roman empire having greatly effaced literary pursuits, the regular and secular clergy, with few ex ceptions, became the sole depositaries of books and learning. Ignorance is the footstool of ambition and tyranny; and thus the priest ruled the ignorant mass of the people with a rod of iron; but, as learning was slowly disseminated, the people's eyes opened to their sordid delusions. As it is common to respect what we do not understand, the monks turned this advantage to good account; and it gradually became a principle of common law that no clerk, that is to say, no priest, should be tried by the civil power; a privilege which was enjoyed and abused for several hundred years, until a council or parliament at that time existing, provoked by murders, and other abominable crimes, set bounds to ecclesiastical enormities by a salutary regulation of the subject. But this regulation was evaded by the insolence and artifice of the proud à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, for his turbulence, was assassinated before his own altar; and by the base pusillanimity of King John and his successors to the English throne during a long period. The artful monks procured a law to be made (kings being then nearly arbitrary), by which any person convicted of felony was exempt from punishment if he could read and write as a priest;' and from this they derived considerable riches, by teaching prisoners to read and write, which acquirements, however odious and bloody their offences, rescued them from the penalty of the law and the contrivers of this artful measure derived another advantage from it :-every desperate adventurer, every bold man, became a ready and submissive tool to the Church. This abominable imposition upon the people was continued until the reign of Edward VI. wben priestcraft received some check. At length it was enacted that no person convicted of manslaughter should claim the benefit of clergy, unless he be a peer of the realm, or actually in priest's orders; but by the 9th of James I. this partial and injurious exemption was entirely abolished. ་ It is a common opinion with numbers, that the words Without benefit of clergy' mean that no spiritual assistance shall be given, or a priest suffered to exhort the dying malefactor to confession of sin. The meaning simply is, that, even should a criminal be able to read and write, it shall not in any degree diminish his punishment, and that he shall not now be entitled to any of those privileges he formerly enjoyed by the clergy. Such persons as have had no opportunity of inquiring into the subject will hardly credit the assertion that there are above one hundred and sixty offences punished by death, or, as it is denominated, Without benefit of clergy:'-that is, capital offences, from the penalty of which the priest's art of reading and writing, once taught to the accused, would exempt them. JOHN RICHARDSON AND RICHARD COYLE, EXECUTED FOR PIRACY AND MURDER. THE crime of piracy is generally accompanied by murder. Richardson, to both these crimes, added that of swindling. His memory will with justice be particularly execrated by our female readers; for it will be found that, through the most consummate hypocrisy, he succeeded in seducing, and then abandoning, several of their sex. John Richardson was an American, having been born in the city of New York, where he went to school till he was fourteen years old: he was then put under the care of his brother, who was a cooper; but, not liking that busi VOL. I. ness, he sailed on board a merchantship, commanded by his namesake, Captain Richardson. After one voyage, he served five years to a carpenter; but having made an illicit connexion with his master's daughter, who became pregnant, he quitted his service, and entered on board a ship bound to Jamaica; on his arrival there he was impressed, put on board a man of war, and brought to England. The ship's crew being paid at Chatham, he came to London, took lodgings in Horsleydown, and spent all his money. On this he entered 24 as boatswain on board a vessel bound to the Baltic; but, being weary of his situation, he soon quitted that station, having first concerted and executed the following scheme of fraud. Knowing that there was a merchant in the country with whom the captain had dealings, he went to a tavern, and wrote a letter, as from the captain, desiring that the merchant would send him a hundred rix dollars. This letter he carried himself, and received the money from the merchant, who said he had more at the captain's service if it was wanted. Being possessed of this sum, he, the next day, embarked on board a Dutch vessel bound to Amsterdam; and soon after his arrival connected himself with a woman whose husband had sailed as mate of a Dutch East India ship. With this woman he cohabited about eight months, when she told him that it would be necessary for him to decamp, as she daily expected her husband to return from his voyage. Richardson agreed to depart, but first determined to rob her; and, having persuaded her to go to the play, he took her to a tavern after. wards, where he plied her with liquor till she was perfectly intoxicated. This being done, he at tended her home, and, having got her to bed and found her fast asleep, he took the keys out of her pocket, and, unlocking the warehouse, stole India goods to the amount of two hundred pounds, which he conveyed to a lodging he had taken to receive them. He then replaced the keys; but, finding some that were smaller, he with those opened her drawers, and took out sixty pounds. Some years afterwards he saw this woman at Amsterdam, but she made no complaint of the robbery; by which it may reasonably be supposed that she was afraid her hus band might suspect her former illicit connexion. Having put his stolen goods on board one of the Rotterdam boats, he departed for that place, where he found the captain of a vessel bound to New England, with whom he sailed at the expiration of four days. On their arrival at Boston, Richardson went to settle about fifty miles up the country, in expectation that the property he possessed might procure him a wife of some fortune. Having taken his lodgings at a farmer's, he deposited his goods in a kind of warehouse. It being now near the Christmas holydays, many of the country people solicited that he would keep the festival with them. These offers were so numerous, that he scarce knew how to determine; but at length accepted the invitation of a Mr. Brown, to which he was influenced by his having three daughters, and four maid-servants, all of them very agreeable young women. Richardson made presents of India handkerchiefs to all the girls, and so far ingratiated himself into their favour that in a short time all of them were pregnant. But before this circumstance was discovered there happened to be a wedding, to which the daughter of a justice of the peace was invited as a bride-maid, and Richardson as a bride-man. Our adventurer, soon becoming intimate with the young lady, persuaded her to go and see his lodgings and warehouse, and offered to make her a present of any piece of goods which she might deem worth her acceptance. At length she fixed on a piece of chintz, and carried it home with her. Two days afterwards Richardson wrote to her; and, her answer being such as flattered his wishes, he likewise wrote to her father, requesting permission to pay his addresses to the daughter. The old gentleman readily admitted his visits, and, at the end of three months, gave his consent that the young people should be united in wedlock. As there were no licenses for marriage in that country, it was the uniform custom to publish the bans three successive Sundays in the church. On the first day no objection was made; but on the second Sunday all the girls from the house where he had spent his Christmas made their appearance to forbid the bans, each of them declaring that she was with child by the intended husband. Hereupon Richardson slipped out of the church, leaving the people astonished at the singularity of the circumstance; but he had reason to suppose that it would not be long before he should hear from the father of the young lady, whom he had already seduced. Accordingly, in a few days he received a letter from the old gentleman, begging that he would decline his visits, as his conduct furnished a subject of conversation for the whole country; and with his request Richardson very cheerfully complied; but in about four months he was sent for, when the justice offered him 300l. currency, to take his daughter as a wife. He seemed to hesitate at first; but at length consenting, the young lady and he went to a village at the distance of forty miles, where the bans were regularly published, and the marriage took place, before the other parties were apprized of it. However, in a little time after the wedding, he was arrested by the friends of the girls whom he had debauched, in order to compel him to give security for the maintenance of the future children; on which his father-in-law engaged that he should not abscond, and paid him his wife's fortune. Having thus possessed himself of the money, and being sick of his new connexion, he told his wife and her relations that, not being fond of a country life, he would go to New York and build him a ship, and would return at the expiration of three months. The family, having no suspicion of his intentions, took leave of him with every mark of affection; but he never went near them any more. Having previously sent his effects to Boston, he went to that place, where he soon spent his money amongst the worst kind of compa ny, and, no person being willing to trust him, was reduced to great distress. It now became necessary that he should work for his bread; and, being tolerably well skilled in ship-building, he got employment under a master-builder, who was a Quaker, and who treated him with the greatest indulgence. The Quaker was an elderly man, who had a young wife, with whom Richardson wished to be better acquainted: he therefore one day quitted his work and went home to the house; but he had but just arrived there when he was followed by the old man, who came in search of him, and found him talking to his wife. The Quaker asked him what business he had there, and why he did not keep at his work. Richardson replied that he only came home for an augur: to which the Quaker said, Ah! friend John, I do not much like thee; my wife knows nothing of thy tools, and I fear thou hadst some evil thoughts in thy head.' Hereupon Richardson went back to his work without making any reply, but soon afterwards demanded his wages. The Quaker hesitated to pay him, hinting that he was apprehensive his wife had paid him already; on which Richardson said he would sue him |