fenders, who frequently mix in a crowd, and watch an opportunity of slipping their hands into the pockets of the unwary. Handkerchiefs are in general the spoils, and Field-Lane has long been noted as the market for receiving them. Through mistaken lenity, these offenders, when detected, are frequently suffered to escape with impunity; sometimes the mob take the law into their own hands, and reward them by a ducking; this, however, makes but little impression, and pickpockets, when they grow up, as our readers may find in the preceding volumes, generally become daring highwaymen or housebreakers. We have had, it is true, adults who have been remarkably expert in this profession. These generally visit assemblies, the playhouses, &c, where they make free with gentlemen's watches, purses, &c. Barrington was accounted the most famous of this description (see vol. 1.); who, it is said, had crooked instruments, purposely made for catching hold and dragging out his spoils. Editor.

PILLORY

Is an engine made of wood, to punish offenders, by exposing them to public view, and rendering them infamous. There is a statute of the pillory 51 Henry III; and by statute it is appointed for bakers, forestallers, and those who use false weights, perjury, forgery, &c. Lords of leets are to have a pillory and tumbrel, or it will be the cause of forfeiture of the leet; and a village may be bound by prescription to provide a pillory, &c.

The name is derived from two Greek words, signifying to look through a door, because one standing on the pillory puts his head, as it were, through a

2 A

door.

door. This punishment is rendered more severe in Ireland, as the board through which the head goes keeps it erect. Editor.

PIRACY AND PIRATES.

Piracy is a felony against the goods of the subject by a robbery committed at sea. It is a capital offence by the civil law, although by act of parlia. ment it may be heard and determined according to the rules of the common law, as if the offence had been committed on land. The mode of trial is regulated by the 28th of Henry VIII, cap. 15; and further by the acts 11 and 12 William III, cap. 7, and 39 George III, cap. 37; which also extend to other offences committed on the high seas.

The class of pirates was generally composed of the most desperate and depraved characters who followed aquatic pursuits. Their attention was principally directed to ships, vessels, and craft, in the night, which appeared to be unprotected; and well authenticated instances of their audacity are recounted, which strongly prove the necessity of a vigorous and energetic police. Among many other nefarious exploits performed by these miscreants, the following may suffice to shew to what extent their daring and impudent conduct carried them.

An American vessel, lying at East-Lane Tier, was boarded in the night, while the captain and crew were asleep, by a gang of river pirates, who actually weighed the ship's anchor, and hoisted it into their boat, with a complete new cable, with which they got clear off. The captain, hearing a noise, came upon deck at the moment the villains had secured their booty, with which they actually rowed away in his presence, impudently telling him

they

they had taken away his anchor and cable, and bidding him good morning. Their resources af-' forded them means of immediate concealment. No police then existed upon the river, and his property was never recovered.

A similar instance of atrocity occurred about the same time, where the bower anchor of a vessel from Guernsey was weighed, and, with the cable, plundered and carried off in the same manner.

Although only these two instances of extraordinary audacity are specified, others, equally bold and daring could be adduced, if the limits of this work would admit of it. When vessels first arrive in the river, particularly those from the West Indies, they are generally very much lumbered. Ships in this situation were considered as the harvest of the river pirates, with whom it was a general practice to cut away bags of cotton, cordage, spars, oars, and other articles, from the quarter of the vessels, and to get clear off, even in the day time as well as in the night. Before a police existed upon the river, all classes of aquatic labourers, having been themselves more or less implicated in the same species of criminality, generally connived at the delinquency of each other; and hence it followed, that few or none were detected while afloat, and the evil became so extensive.

It was frequently the practice of these river pirates to go armed, and in sufficient force to resist, and even to act offensively if they met with opposition. Their depredations were extensive among craft, wherever valuable goods were to be found; but they diminished in number after the commencement of the war, and now, since the establishment of the marine police, they have almost totally disappeared.