for three, in others for six-and "if any such person shall have been before adjudged an incorrigible rogue," for two years moreover, during such confinement, the doubly incorrigible rogue is "to be further corrected by whipping, if the justices shall think fit." Again, "any justice by whom any person shall be adjudged to be a rogue, vagabond, or incorrigible rogue, shall order such rogue, or vagabond, or incorrigible rogue, to be searched; and his or her trunks, boxes, bundles, parcels, or packages to be inspected." Again, " into any house, kept for the reception, lodging, or entertainment of any poor travellers, where idle and disorderly persons, rogues and vagabonds, and incorrigible rogues are, or are reasonably suspected to be harboured and concealed, any justice of the peace may authorize any constable, or other person to enter at any time, and to apprehend and bring before him, or any other justice, all persons found therein, and so suspected : and if, on examining such persons, it shall appear to such justice that they, or any, or either of them,* or cannot give a satisfactory account of themselves, it shall be lawful for such justice to commit him, her, or them, to the common gaol, or house of correction, there to be dealt with in the same manner as rogues and vagabonds, or incorrigible rogues, are hereinbefore directed to be dealt with by this Act :"-that is, they are to be condemned to hard labour, which is by interpretation, the tread-mill.

It will be said, there is an appeal. Yes; but the difficulty of appeal must be considered in the case of a person likely to be committed as a rogue and vagabond, or an incorrigible rogue. We must remember, too, that if the appeal fails, treble costs are awarded to the magistrate, and severer punishment is often inflicted upon the person, or persons, who appealed.

Fourthly, we have affirmed, that the new Vagrant Act is an incitement to petty tyranny and iniquitous oppression on the part of constables and police-officers. Is it not enough, that a premium of five shillings is granted on the conviction of a vagrant? Need we add more? Yet it may be worth while to observe how the system works: for instance, to take a story from the * Such are the exact words of this precious Act, which the very framers hardly appear to have read over. 2 c

VOL. II.

public journals: an officer goes to a poor woman, asks her to tell him his fortune, gives her a glass of gin for her compliance, then informs against her, convicts her on his sole evidence, has her sent to the house of correction and hard labour, and pockets the five shillings. For we must never suffer ourselves to lose sight of the fact, that "the oath of one witness before one justice" is sufficient; so that between an interested dishonest constable and a strict magistrate, the chance which the person apprehended has of acquittal or escape must be "poor indeed :"-he is entirely at their mercy. Nor must we forget, that "any person whatsoever, without any warrant for that purpose, may apprehend a suspected rogue and vagabond, or incorrigible rogue; that in case any other person, not being a watchman, constable, or other peace-officer, shall refuse, or wilfully neglect, to use his best endeavours to apprehend such offender, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty shillings;" but if any other person does apprehend the suspected vagrant, he too will become entitled to the douceur of five shillings: so that the framers of the new Vagrant Act would fain convert us, by the united stimulus of rewards and punishments, into a nation of rogue-catchers.

We now leave the subject in the hands of our readers. If they are disposed from our remarks to inquire and think for themselves upon the matter, our end will be answered. We want no more. Let but this Act be thoroughly examined, and it must be speedily repealed. It will not survive, until the time of its natural dissolution on the 1st of September, 1824.

By way of conclusion, we shall seize this opportunity of noticing some communications, which we have received, relative to our letters upon gamblers and gaming-houses. "A Friend to Morality" does us injustice. We trust that we too are friends to morality. He mistakes our argument. We will tell him our opinion in two words. It is better that a thousand gamesters should be ruined, than that a principle, such as has been lately acted upon, should be adopted into the system of English law. But further, the plan will be ineffectual, because excessive severity always ultimately defeats its own object. Again, when there are two methods of prosecution, we think, however frequent may be the contrary practice,

that the mode of proceeding ought rather to be left to the option of the defendant than of the prosecutor; but in the case of the proprietors of gaming-houses, it would now almost appear that, a man may be punished twice and in two different manners for the same offence.

Another correspondent argues, that gaming-houses ought to be licensed; and suggests a new and specific plan for that purpose. We agree with him, that to license gaming-houses would be an improvement upon the present arbitrary system: but we are by no means certain that some third plan, better than either, may not be discovered. Our judgment, we confess, is hardly settled; we see a thousand difficulties on all sides.

A third gentleman proposes the following scheme; and offers his zealous assistance in its execution-an assistance, by the way, on which he seems inclined to set a far higher value than ourselves. He wants us to get a list of noblemen, ministers, generals, magistrates, and all men, in short, of authority, influence, or rank, who are known to play; to publish it, with the names of the houses which they frequent, and the amount of the sums which they are said to have lost and won :-or else to keep it by us for the present, and whenever a poor man is sent to the house of correction and the treadmill, for gambling in a public-house, to shew up some of the lords and dukes, who gamble in club-houses or subscriptionhouses. We mention this scheme, not by way of menace, but to demonstrate what may, and will be done, if harsh and hor rible measures are continued. To our correspondent we would say; it being notorious that a large proportion of our nobility does gamble to a certain extent and gamble with impunity-the argument is precisely as strong against the infliction of degrading punishments upon humbler persons, as if we mentioned the names of individuals. We can, therefore, neither see what good the exposure would do, nor what right either he, or we, can have to make it. No excess of duty on the part of Bow-street officers, no despotic severity on the part of justices of the peace, could warrant or palliate, either in him, or in us, such a malicious and ungentlemanly interference.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

PRESIDENT'S SPEECH-NOTICE OF AN INTENDED POLITICAL PUBLICATION.

IF, in imitation of most societies, we were to publish all our transactions, they would soon fill a large volume of reports. If the deliberations of our assembly were all printed, an ample harvest of debates might be added to the present stock. These remarks are peculiarly applicable to the month, which has just passed over our heads. The Decemvirs of Great Britain have held frequent meetings; and their discussions have turned upon the most interesting points. In general, no persons have been admitted to these meetings, except the members of the Council themselves. At the last, however, when its private business had been settled, and the state and prospect of its affairs accurately ascertained, several 'confidential friends of "the Ten" were introduced; and, besides, many candidates for admission into a larger society, which will be connected with "the Ten" by identity of principles and of design: and of which, in fact, "the Ten" will form a part. It was, therefore, before a large, attentive, and unanimous audience, that the President rose, and spoke to the following effect.

GENTLEMEN,

It is with pride and pleasure that I address you on the present occasion. I am enabled, with perfect sincerity, to congratulate you both upon the events of the past, and the expectations of the future. That our efforts have been hitherto rewarded with success, some among you must know as well as myself:-to the rest, the most convincing proof of our flourishing condition must be a circumstance in which they are themselves concerned;-I mean the fact, that the scope of our design is about to be extended—and, let us trust the sphere of our usefulness enlarged. Our labours will spread into various fresh ramifications: new channels will be opened to our attempts: but the old will not be dried up, nor will their fountains be deserted.

Gentlemen, upon looking back upon what has been done, we have a source of honest satisfaction, which mere temporary

success, the mere applause of others, can never give and of which the failure of our best endeavours could not have deprived us. We have pledged ourselves to the good old cause of moral rectitude and we have redeemed the pledge :-we have pledged ourselves to entire fairness and impartiality :— and this pledge too we have redeemed. In all, that we have written, we defy any man to put his hand upon a single page, a single sentence, a single expression, in which we have wilfully left the path of honour, or neglected the interests of virtue :-in which we have betrayed a suspicious compliance with the views and wishes of a faction-a servile obedience to men in power, or men in opposition-to the friends of unconstitutional restraints-or to the champions and leaders of democracy-in which we have either advocated intolerance, or failed to advocate religion. Yet we have not wavered nor halted between two opinions-neither have we been in any case ashamed or afraid to avow our sentiments-or careless and lukewarm in defending what we imagined to be rightor reprobating what we felt to be wrong. "Strenuè, sed temperatè❞—has been, and will continue to be, our motto:to unite earnestness with moderation has been, and will continue to be, our principle.

Gentlemen, this is not idle boasting. It is the performance of a duty, which we owe to ourselves. I am more than justified in asserting our perfect independence; because I use it as a demonstration, that we shall hereafter exercise the same independence upon a more extensive scale. I refer to the past, as a guarantee for what is to come. To us all persons have been alike. I am therefore justified in saying, by a slight alteration of Shakespeare.

Put Tories in one hand, and Whigs in the other,

And we will look on both indifferently:

For may the Gods so speed us, as we love

The name of honour more than we fear them!

Gentlemen, in regard to our future projects, I most unhesitatingly assert, that, if any argument can be drawn from what we have done to what we may do hereafter, it rests only with 'ourselves both to command success, and to deserve it. Offers of assistance and co-operation are showered down upon us from various quarters; and more persons are desirous of a connec