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The boys generally cleared from five to seven shillings a day by this fraudulent business; which they almost uniformly spent, during the evening, in riot and debauchery; returning penny less in the morning to their old trade.

Thus the frauds upon the public multiply beyond all possible conception; while the tradesman, who, unwarily at least, if not improperly, sells his counterfeit shillings to Jew boys at threepence each, little suspects that it is for the purpose of being returned upon him again at the rate of twelvepence, or three hundred per cent. profit to the purchasers and utterers.

But these are not the only criminal devices to which the coiners and dealers, as well as the utterers of base money, have had recourse, for answering their iniquitous purposes. Previous to the act of the 37th Geo. III. cap. 126, counterfeit French crowns, half-crowns, and shillings, of excellent workmanship, were introduced, with a view to elude the punishment of the then de. ficient laws relative to foreign coin. Fraudulent die-sinkers are to be found, both in the metropolis and in Birmingham, who are excellent artists, able and willing to copy the exact similitude of any coin from the British guinea to the sequin of Turkey, or to the star pagoda of Arcot. The delinquents have there fore every opportunity and assistance they can wish for; while their accurate knowledge of the deficiency of the laws (particularly relative to British coin, and where the point of danger lies), joined to the extreme difficulty of detection, operates as a great encouragement to this species of treason, felony, and fraud, and affords the most forcible reason why these pests of Society still continue to afflict the honest part of the community.

An opinion prevailed, founded

on information obtained through the medium of the most intelligent of these coiners and dealers, that, of the counterfeit money lately in circulation, not above one-third part was of the species of flats or composition money, which has been mentioned as the most intrinsi cally valuable of counterfeit silver, and contained from one-fourth to one-third silver; the remainder being blanched copper. The other two-thirds of the counterfeit money being cast or washed, and intrinsically worth little or nothing, the imposition upon the public was obvious. Taking the whole upon an average, the amount of the injury may be fairly calculated at within ten per cent. of a total loss upon the mass of the base silver then in circulation; which, if a conclusion may be drawn from what passed under the review of any person who had occasion to receive silver in exchange, must considerably exceed one million sterling!

Of the copper coinage, the quan. tity of counterfeits at one time in circulation might be truly said to equal three-fourth parts of the whole; and nothing is more certain than that a very great proportion of the actual counterfeits passed as mint halfpence, from their size and appearance, although they yielded the coiners a vast profit.

Since the old coin has been withdrawn from circulation, however, the quantity of base money has been comparatively trifling, al though it is still much greater than many persons are aware of.

In the month of May, 1721, Barbara Spencer, Alice Hall, and Elizabeth Bray, were indicted at the Old Bailey, for high treason, in counterfeiting the current coin of the kingdom; when Hall and Bray were acquitted, as being only agents to the other, and Spencer,

being found guilty, was sentenced to be burnt.*

Barbara Spencer was born in the parish of St. Giles without Cripplegate, and, when young, proved to be of a violent temper. At length, her mother, finding her quite unmanageable at home, put her apprentice to a mantua-maker, who, having known her, from a child, treated her with great kindness.

Barbara had served about two years, when, on a dispute with her mistress, she went home to her mother, with whom she had not long resided before she insisted on having a maid kept, to which the old woman consented. A quarrel soon happening between Barbara and the maid, the mother interposed; on which the daughter left her for a time, but soon returned again.

Not long after this, it happened that some malefactors were to be executed at Tyburn, and Barbara insisted on going to see the execution. This was prudently opposed by her mother, who, struggling to keep her at home, struck her; but the daughter, getting out of the house, went to a female acquaintance, who accompanied her to Tyburn, and thence to a house near St. Giles's Pound, where Barbara made a vow that she would never again return to her mother.

In this fatal resolution she was encouraged by the company present, who persuaded her to believe that she might live in an easy manner, if she would but follow their way of life. To this she readily agreed; and, as they were coiners, they employed her in uttering counterfeit money, for which she was detected, tried, fined, and imprisoned.

-Not taking warning by what had happened, she returned to her old connexions, commenced coiner herself, and was at length apprehended for the crime for which she suffered.

While under sentence of death, she behaved in the most indecent and turbulent manner; nor could she be convinced that she had been guilty of any crime in making a few shillings. She was for some time very impatient under the idea of her approaching dissolution, and was particularly shocked at the thought of being burnt; but, at the place of execution, she seemed willing to exercise herself in devotion, but was much interrupted by the mob throwing stones and dirt at her.

She was strangled and burnt at Tyburn on the 5th of July, 1721.†

The unhappy fate of this woman seems to have been occasioned by the violence of her temper, and a want of duty to her mother. Hence let all young people learn to keep their passions in subjection, and to remember the injunction in the fifth commandment; 'Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee:' for surely no crime is more likely to lead to destruction than that of disobedience to parents. It is the inlet to every other vice, and the source of a thousand calamities.

Let children that would fear the Lord
Hear what their teachers say ;
With rev'rence meet their parents' word,
And with delight obey.

For those who worship God, and give
Their parents honour due,
Here on this earth they long shall live,
And live hereafter too.

* Women convicted of high or petit treason are always thus sentenced; but they are first tied to a stake, and strangled before they are burnt.

It

+ This, as well as the torture to such as would not plead, is now dispensed with. is surprising that this punishment should so long have disgraced the country. In the case of Catherine Hayes, hereafter given, we shall have occasion to adduce a shocking instance of her having been, from mismanagement, actually burnt alive.

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nab MATTHEW CLARKE, un bien
EXECUTED FOR MURDER. olas no bas noitesign

To all ad
Tuis offender was the son of
poor persons at St. Albans, and
brought up as a plough-boy; but,
being too idle to follow his busi-
ness, he sauntered about the country,
and committed frequent robberies,
spending among women the money
he obtained in this illegal manner.

Clarke had art enough to engage
the affections of a number of young
women, to some of whom he pro-
mised marriage; and he seems to
have intended to have kept his word
with one of them, and went with
her to London to tie the nuptial
knot; but, going into a goldsmith's
shop to buy the ring, he said he had
forgot tosupply himself with money,
but would go into the country and
fetch it.

The young woman staid in town while he went to Wilsden Green, with a view to commit a robbery,

VOL. I.

that he might replenish his pocket. As it was now the season of haymaking, he met a man, who, wondering that he should he idle, gave him employment. Besides the business of farming, his employer kept a public house, and had a servant maid, whom Clarke had formerly courted.

The villain, leaving his fellowlabourers in the field, went to the house, and, finding only the girl at home, conversed with her some time; but, having determined to rob his employer, he thought he could not do it securely without murdering her; and, while she was gone to draw him some beer, he pulled out his knife for this horrid purpose; and, when she entered the room, he got up to kiss her, thinkingto have then perpetrated the deed, but his conscience pre

9

vented him on this he sat down, and talked with her some time longer; when he got up, and, again kissing her, cut her throat in the same instant.

Hereupon she fell down, and attempted to crawl to the door, while the blood streamed from her throat; on which the villain cut her neck to the bone, and, robbing the house of a small sum, ran off towards London, under all the agonizing tortures of a wounded conscience.

Tyburn being in his way to town, he was so terrified at the sight of the gallows, that he went back a considerable distance, till, meeting a waggon, he offered his service in driving, thinking that his being in employment might prevent his being suspected in case of a pursuit. But he had not gone far before some persons rode up, and asked him if he had seen a man who might be suspected of a murder. He seemed so terrified by the question that the parties could not help noticing his agitation, and, on a close inspection, they found some congealed blood on his clothes, to account for which he said he had quarrelled and fought with a soldier on the road.

Being taken into custody, he soon acknowledged his crime, and,

being carried before a magistrate, he was committed to Newgate; and, when brought to trial, he pleaded guilty: in consequence of which he was executed at Tyburn on the 28th of July, 1721, and then hung in chains near the spot where he committed the murder.

There is something dreadfully enormous in the crime for which this man suffered. When under sentence of death he was one of the most miserable wretches that ever

endured a situation so calamitous. Nor is this to be wondered at; for the murder he committed was one of the most unprovoked imaginable. It is probable, from the affection the poor girl had for him, that she would have lent him a greater sum than he obtained by cutting her throat.

His terrors at the sight of the gallows should teach those who are prompted to iniquity to avoid all crimes that may lead to a fatal end. The wicked can never be happy; and it is only by a life of integrity, virtue, and piety, that we can hope for the blessing of God, the applause of a good conscience, and that peace of mind which passeth all understanding.'

THOMAS BUTLER,

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EXECUTED FOR HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

IDLENESS, the step-mother of dissipation, hath driven many, gentlemen by education, to commit depredations on the public. This observation is fully verified in the life of Mr. Butler. He was a native of Ireland, his father being an officer in the army of King James II.; but King William having defeated that prince at the battle of the Boyne, young Butler and his father went with James to France; but, when the rebellion broke out

in Scotland, the young gentleman was employed as a spy in the family of the Duke of Ormond, for which he was allowed 201. a year; but he hereby lost the favour of his friends and relations, who espoused a dif. ferent interest. From Paris he went to Holland, where he soon spent most of the money in his possession, and then embarked for England.

Ön his arrival in this country, being idle and extravagant, he com

menced highwayman, and went out frequently in company with a man whom he called Jack, and who occasionally acted as his servant; and they jointly committed a great number of robberies near London, particularly in Kent and Essex.

When they were in London, and sometimes in a country town, they had the genteelest lodging, and then Jack wore a livery, while the squire was dressed in a most elegant manner, and had all the appearance of a man of fortune.

By this style of living they continued their depredations on the highway for many years; but Butler, being at length apprehended, was brought to his trial at the Old Bailey, in January, 1720, when he was indicted for robbing Sir Justinian Isham and another gentleman on the highway of a gold watch, a silk night-gown, six Holland shirts, and other valuable articles, and was convicted on the clearest evidence.

The circumstance that led to his detection was, that offering some of the effects for sale to a jeweller, he refused to purchase them unless he knew Butler's place of residence, which the latter readily told him; and, when his lodgings searched, Sir Justinian's gown was found, and was produced in court. Butler's companion, or servant, was in Ireland at the time of his detection, by which he escaped the fate he deserved.

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While Mr. Butler lay under sentence of death, he behaved in a very penitent manner. Being a Roman Catholic, he received the sacrament from a priest of his own persuasion. It had been reported that he had eight wives; but this he solemnly denied, declaring that he was legally married to only one woman.

This malefactor was executed at Tyburn on the 8th of February, 1720, at the age of forty-two years.

There are few highwaymen who have lived in such a style of elegance as Butler; and by this mode of proceeding he eluded justice for a considerable time, as he used to dress in black velvet, laced ruffles, and all the other apparatus of a gentleman. Yet justice at last found him out, and detected him while in the full career of his wickedness.

Hence let those who are tempted to the commission of acts of ille gality learn that the steps of justice, though they may be slow, are sure; that it is almost impossible for guilt to escape detection; and that vengeance is the more terrible the longer it is dreaded, and the longer it is delayed.

Amidst all those gaieties of life that may be procured by fraudulent means, the heart must be perpetually corroded by grief, and agitated by fear.

The life of honesty is the only life of peace or safety. Let us never forget to Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.'

WILLIAM SPIGGOT AND THOMAS PHILLIPS,

HANGED FOR ROBBING ON THE HIGHWAY.

AT the sessions held at the Old Bailey in the month of January, 1720, William Spiggot and Thomas Phillips were indicted for commit. ting several robberies on the highway; but they refused to plead unless the effects taken from them

when they were apprehended were returned: but, this being directly contrary to an act of the 4th and 5th year of king William and queen Mary, entitled An Act for encouraging the Apprehending of Highwaymen,' the Court informed

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