for the sharpers generally game with the countryman till he has lost all his money; and then he has only to execrate his own folly, for suffering himself to be duped by a couple of rascals. In this practice our adventurers were very successful at different places, particularly at Bristol; but in this last place Jones bilked Gardener in such a manner as to prove that there is no truth in the observation of 'honour among thieves ;' for Jones, having defrauded a country gentleman of a gold watch and chain, a suit of laced clothes, and about a hundred guineas, gave no share of the booty to Gardener. This induced the latter to think of revenge; but he disguised his sentiments, and they went together to Bath, where they remained some time, and then proceeded on their journey; but, in the morning on which they set out, Gardener stole an iron pestle from the inn where they lay, and concealed it in his boot, with an intention of murdering his companion when they should come into an unfrequented place. On their journey Gardener generally kept behind Jones, and twice took out the pestle, with an intention to perpetrate the murder; but his resolution failing him, he at length dropped it in the road, unperceived by his companion. In a few days afterwards these companions in iniquity parted; and on the occasion Jones said, Harkye, Gardener, whither are you going?' 'To London,' said he. Why then,' replied Jones, you are going to be hanged.' We find that this was not the first intimation that Gardener received of the fatal consequences that must attend his illicit practices; but it appeared to have no good effect on him; for, soon after he quitted Jones, he broke open a house between Abergavenny and Monmouth; but, finding no money, he took only a gown, with which he rode off. Soon after his arrival in London he robbed a house in Addle Hill, but was not apprehended for it ; but in a short time he broke open the house of Mrs. Roberts, and carried off linen to the amount of twentyfive pounds. In this robbery he was assisted by John Martin; and both the offenders, being soon afterwards taken into custody, were brought to trial, capitally convicted, and received sentence of death; but Martin was afterwards reprieved, on condition of transportation for fourteen years. After sentence of death Gardener became as sincere a penitent as he had been a notorious offender. He resigned himself to his fate with the utmost submission; and before he quitted Newgate, on the day of execution, he dressed himself in a shroud, in which he was executed, refusing to wear any other clothes, though the weather was intensely cold. At the fatal tree he saw some of his old companions, whom he desired to take warning by his calamitous fate, to avoid bad company, and embrace a life of sobriety, as the most certain road to happiness in this world and the next. He was executed at Tyburn on the 3d of February, 1724. The fate of this malefactor shows us the ill consequence of an early attachment to gaming. It unfits both the mind and body for all honest employment; and though it does not, in all instances, lead to the gallows, it is one of the readiest preparatives to it that can be imagined. It is to be hoped that parents in general will be cautious to prevent the spirit of gaming in their children, since nothing more effectually al Roche and his Associates throwing the Master and Mate overboard. PHILIP ROCHE, EXECUTED FOR PIRACY AND MURDER. We have already commented upon the foul crime of piracy. The account now to be given of this atrocious offender will show to what a horrid pitch it has been carried; and happy should we feel ourselves if we could add that this was a singular case. In latter years we find that murder, foul as that committed by Roche, was practised on board of one of our men of war, in which Captain Pigot, her commander, was barbarously killed; and the muti VOL. I. nous crew seized the frigate, and delivered her to the enemy. This detested monster, Philip Roche, was a native of Ireland, and, being brought up to a seafaring life, served for a considerable time on board some coasting vessels, and then sailed to Barbadoes on board a West-Indiaman. Here he endeavoured to procure the place of a clerk to a factor; but, failing in this, he went again to sea, and was advanced to the station of a first mate. 13 He now became acquainted with a fisherman named Neale, who hinted to him large sums of money might be acquired by insuring ships, and then causing them to be sunk, to defraud the insurers. Roche was wicked enough to listen to this horrid idea,and, becoming acquainted with a gentleman who had a ship bound to Cape Breton, he got a station on board, next in command to the captain, who, having a high opinion of him, trusted the ship to his management, directing the seamen to obey his commands. If Roche had entertained any idea of sinking the ship, he seemed now to have abandoned it; but he had brought on board with him five Irishmen, who were concerned in the shocking tragedy that ensued. When they had been only a few days at sea, the plan was executed as follows: One night, when the captain and most of the crew were asleep, Roche gave orders to two of the seamen to furl the sails, which being immediately done, the poor fellows no sooner descended on the deck, than Roche and his hellish associates murdered them, and threw them overboard. At this instant a man and a boy at the yard-arm, observing what passed, and dread ing a similar fate, hurried towards the topmast-head, when one of the Irishmen, named Cullen, followed them, and, seizing the boy, threw him into the sea. The man, thinking to effect at least a present escape, descended to the main deck, where Roche instantly seized, murdered, and then threw him overboard. The noise occasioned by these transactions alarming the sailors below, they hurried up with all possible expedition; but they were severally seized and murdered as fast as they came on deck, and, being first knocked on the head, were thrown into the sea. At length the master and mate came on the quarter-deck, when Roche and his vil lainous companions seized them, and, tying them back to back, committed them to the merciless waves. These execrable murders being perpetrated, the murderers ran. sacked the chests of the deceased; then sat down to regale themselves with liquor; and, while the profligate crew were carousing, they determined to commence pirates, and that Roche should be the captain, as the reward of his superior villainy. They had intended to have sailed np the Gulf of St. Lawrence; but as they were within a few days' sail of the Bristol Channel when the bloody tragedy was acted, and finding themselves short of provisions, they put into Portsmouth, and, giving the vessel a fictitious name, they painted her afresh, and then sailed for Rotterdam. At this city they disposed of their cargo, and took in a fresh one. Here they were unknown, and an English gentleman, named Annesley, shipped considerable property on board, and took his passage with them for the port of London; but the villains threw this unfortunate gentleman overboard, after they had been only one day at sea. When the ship arrived in the river Thames, Mr. Annesley's friends made inquiry after him, in consequence of his having sent letters to England, describing the ship in which he proposed to embark; but Roche denied any knowledge of the gentleman, and even disclaimed his own name. Notwithstanding his confident assertions, it was rightly presumed who he was, and a letter which he sent to his wife being stopped, he was taken into custody. Being carried before the Secretary of State for examination, he averred that he was not Philip Roche; and said that he knew no person of that name. Hereupon the intercepted letter was shown him, on which he instantly confessed his crimes, and was immediately committed to take his trial at the next Admiralty sessions. It was intimated to Roche that he might expect a pardon if he would impeach any three persons who were more culpable than him self, so that they might be prose cuted to conviction; but not being able to do this, he was brought to his trial, and found guilty: judgment of death was awarded against him. After couviction he professed to be of the Roman Catholic faith, but was certainly no bigot to that religion, since he attended the devotions according to the Protestant form. He was hanged at Execu. tion Dock on the 5th of August, 1723; but was so ill at the time, that he could not make any public declaration of the abhorrence of the crime for which he suffered. very memory of the wretches whose crimes gave rise to it. History has not furnished us with any account of what became of the wicked accomplices of Roche; but there can be little doubt of their having dragged on a miserable existence, if they did not end their lives at the gallows. The mind of the guilty must be perpetually racked with torments; and the murderer who is permitted to live does but live in wretchedness and despair. His days must be filled with anxiety, and his nights with torture. From the fate of the miserable subject of this narrative, let our sailors be taught that an honest pursuit of the duties of their station is more likely to ensure happiness to them than the possession of any sum of money unlawfully obtained. Our brave tars are not, from their situation in life, much accustomed to the attendance on religious duties: but it can cost them no tron ble to recollect that to do justice and love mercy' is equally the cha It is impossible to read this shock-racter of the brave man and the ing narrative without execrating the Christian. JOHN STANLEY, EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MRS. MAYCOCK. In our accounts of the primary cause of the misfortunes and unhappy fate of William Burk we have attempted to advise mothers against a too long unrestrained in dulgence to their sons; and we now come to the case of a father, by the same kind of ill-judged fondness, laying the foundation of ruin and disgrace to his son. Mr. Stanley was the son of an of ficer in the army, and born in the year 1690, at Duce Hall, in Essex, a seat that belonged to Mr. Palmer, who was his uncle by his mother's side. Young Stanley being the favorite of his father, he began to teach him the art of fencing when he was no more than five years of and age; other officers likewise practising the same art with him, he became a kind of master of the sword when he was but a mere boy: for, to stimu late his courage, it was common for those who fenced with him to give him wine or other strong liquors. In consequence of this treatment, the boy grew daring and insolent beyond expression, and at length behaved with so uncommon a de gree of audacity, that his father deemed him a singular character of bravery. While he was very young, Mr. Stanley, being ordered to join his regiment in Spain, took his son with him; and in that country he was a spectator of several engagements; but his principal delight was in trampling on the bodies of the deceased, after the battles were ended. From Spain the elder Stanley was ordered to Ireland, whither he took his son, and there procured for him an ensign's commission; but the young gentleman, habituating himself to extravagant company, spent much more money than the produce of his commission, which he soon sold, and then returned to England. The father was greatly mortified at this proceeding, and advised him to make application to General Stanhope, who had been a warm friend to the family; but this advice was lost on the young fellow, who abandoned himself to the most dissolute course of life, borrowed money of all his acquaintance, which he soon squandered at the gamingtables, and procured further supplies from women with whom he made illicit connexions. He was so vain of his acquaintance with the ladies, that he boasted of their favours as an argument in proof of his own accomplishments; though what he might obtain from the weakness of one woman he commonly squandered on others of more abandoned character. One mode which he took to supply his extravagance was to introduce himself into the company of young gentlemen who were but little acquainted with the vices of the age, whom he assisted in wasting their fortunes in every species of scandalous dissipation. At length, after a scene of riot in London, he went with one of his associates to Flanders, and thence to Paris; and Stanley boasted not a little of the favours he received among the French ladies, and of the improvements he had made in the science of fencing. On his return to England, the opinion he conceived of his skill in the use of the sword made him insufferably vain and presuming. He would frequently intrude himself into company at a tavern, and, saying he was come to make himself welcome, would sit down at the table without further ceremony. The company would sometimes bear with his insolence for the sake of peace; but, when this was the case, it was a chance if he did not pretend to have received some affront, and, drawing his sword, walk off while the company was in confusion. It was not always, however, that matters thus ended; for sometimes a gentleman of spirit would take the liberty of kicking our hero out of the house. It will now be proper to mention something of his connexion with Mrs. Maycock, the murder of whom cost him his life. As he was returning from a gaming-house which he frequented in Covent Garden, he met a Mr. Bryan, of Newgate Street, and his sister, Mrs. Maycock, the wife of a mercer on Ludgate Hill. Stanley rudely ran against the man, and embraced the woman, on which a quarrel arose ; but, this subsiding, Stanley insisted on seeing the partics home: this he did, and spent the evening with them; and, from this circumstance, a fatal connexion arose, as will appear in the sequel. Stanley, having made an acquaintance with the family, soon afterwards met Mrs. Maycock at the house of a relation in Red Lion Street, Holborn. In a short time, Mr. Maycock removing into South |