The man was no sooner gone than Ramsey, taking up the diamond ring, said that a wrong one had been brought, and that he would go back and rectify the mistake. In the interim the jeweller, finding that he had not been wanted at home, began to suspect that some undue artifice had been used; on which he hurried to the tavern, and thought himself happy to find that the parson had not decamped. Having privately directed the waiter to procure a constable, he accused the clergyman of defrauding him of the rings. The other was naturally astonished at such a charge, but the jeweller insisted on taking him before a magistrate; where he related a tale that, some days before, those rings had been ordered by a man whom he supposed to be an accomplice of the person now charged: but the clergyman, being a man of fair character, sent for some reputable people to bail him; while the jeweller returned home, cursing his ill fortune for the trick that had been put on him. London being an unsafe place for Ramsey longer to reside in, he went to Chester, where he assumed the character of an Irish gentleman, who had been to study physic in Holland, and was now going back to his native country. During his residence at Chester he stated that he was in possession of a specific cure for the gout. The landlord of the inn he put up at, being ill of that disorder, took the medicine; and his fit leaving him in a few days, he ascribed the cure to the supposed nostrum. Ramsey, having gone by the name of Johnson in this city, now dressed himself as a physician; and, having printed and dispersed hand-bills, giving an account of many patients whose disorders had yielded to his A young lady who was troubled with an asthma became one of his patients; and Ramsey, presuming that she possessed a good fortune, insinuated himself so far into her good graces that she would have married him, but that her uncle, in whose hands her money was, happened to come to Chester at that juncture. The young lady acquainted the uncle with the proposed marriage; on which the old gentleman observed that it would be imprudent to marry a man with whose circumstances and character she was wholly unacquainted; on which she consented that the necessary inquiries should be made, but reluctantly enough, being entirely devoted to her lover. Hereupon Ramsey put into her uncle's hands copies of several letters which he said he had written to some people of distinction, who would answer for his character. By this finesse he hoped to get time to prevail on the lady to marry him privately, which indeed she would readily have done, but through fear of offending her uncle. During this situation of affairs, while Ramsey was walking without the city, he happened to see the clergyman above mentioned, `whom he had so much injured in London; on which he hastily retired to a public house in Chester; and sent a person to Park Gate to inquire when any ship would sail for Ireland; and the answer brought was, that a vessel would sail that very night. On receiving this intelligence, Ramsey went and drank tea with the young lady; and, taking the opportunity of her absence from the room, he opened a drawer, The intent of this plan was to effect his escape while she was confined; and, having got on board the ship the same evening, he sent her a letter, of which the following is a copy : Dear Madam,-I doubt not but you will be extremely surprised at the sudden disappearance of your lover: but, when you begin to consider what a dreadful precipice you have escaped, you will bless your stars. By the time this comes to hand I shall be pretty near London; and, as for the trifle I borrowed of you, I hope you will excuse it, as you know I might have taken the whole if I would; but you see there is still some conscience among us doctors. The ring I intend to keep for your sake, unless the hazard-table disappoints me; and, if ever fortune puts it in my power, I will make you a suitable return; but, till then, take this advice-never let a strange doctor possess your affections any more. "I had almost forgotten to ask pardon for making you my prisoner; but I doubt not that old Starch-face, your uncle, would detain me a little longer, if he could Adieu. R. JOHNSON.' find me. This letter he committed to the care of a person who was to go to Chester in a few days; and in the interim Ramsey reached Dublin, where, having dissipated his money in extravagance, he embarked in a ship bound to Bristol, and travelled thence to London. On his arrival in the metropolis he found his younger brother, who had likewise supported himself by acts of dishonesty, and these two agreed to act in concert. His brother was a snuff-box maker, and they now went out to gether, genteelly dressed, early in the morning, in order to commit their depredations. When they found the door of a genteel house open, and while the servant-woman was washing the steps, or gone on a short errand, leaving the door ajar, one of them would slip in and seize the plate on the sideboard, or whatever he could lay his hands on, while the other remained to prevent surprise; and then he would receive and run off with the prize, while the actual robber, with apparent unconcern, walked off another way. They committed a variety of robberies in this manner, confining their depredations chiefly to the stealing of plate; but we proceed to the narrative of that for which Ramsey suffered the extremest rigour of the law. Having taken a previous survey of Mr. Glyn's house, at the corner of Hatton Garden, the brothers broke into it in the night, and carried off a quantity of plate; but, hand-bills being immediately circulated, they were taken into custody while offering the plate for sale to a Jew in Duke's Place. The lord mayor, on examining the prisoners, admitted the younger brother an evidence against the elder. At the next sessions at the Old Bailey it was an affecting scene to behold the one brother giving evidence against the other, who was capitally convicted, and received sentence of death. That such a transgressor should be brought to condign punishment was doubtless just; but who can avoid feeling disgust at the means through which that end was effected? After conviction Ramsey seemed to entertain a proper idea of the enormity of the offences of which he had been guilty; and in several letters to persons whom he had robbed he confessed his crimes, and entreated their prayers. He did not flatter himself with the least hope of pardon, sensible that his numerous offences must necessarily preclude him from such favour. A letter which he wrote to a friend at Bristol contains the following pathetic expressions: '0 blame me not! I am now, by the just judgment of God and man, under sentence of death. Whatever injuries I have committed, with tears in my poor eyes I ask forgiveness! Oh! my friend, could you but guess or think what agonies I feel, I am sure you would pity me: may my Father which is in heaven pity me likewise! Ramsey was executed at Tyburn on the 13th of January, 1742, after having made an affecting address to the surrounding multitude, entreating the younger part of the audience to avoid gaming, as what would infallibly lead to destruction. After the customary devotions on such melancholy occasions he was turned off, and the body, having hung the usual time, was conveyed in a hearse to Giltspur Street, whence it was taken, and decently interred by his friends, at One of a class of cheats, of the society of Jews, who are to be found in every street, lane, and alley, in and near the metropolis, under the pretence of purchasing old clothes and metals of different sorts Their chief business, really, is to prowl about the houses and stables of men of rank and fortune, for the purpose of holding out temptations to the servants to pilfer and steal small articles, not likely to be missed, which these Jews purchase at about one-third of the real value. It is supposed that upwards of fifteen hundred of these depraved people are employed in diurnal journeys of this kind; by which, through the medium of bad money and other fraudulent dealings, many of them acquire property, and then set up shops, and become receivers of stolen goods. It is estimated that there are from fifteen to twenty thousand Jews in the city of London, besides, perhaps, about five or six thousand more in the great provincial and seaport towns, where there are at least twenty synagogues, besides six in the metropolis. Most of the lower classes of those distinguished by the name of German or Dutch Jews live chiefly by their wits, and establish a system of mischievous intercourse all over the country, the better to carry on their fraudulent designs in the circulation of base money, the sale of stolen goods, and in the purchase of metals of various kinds; as well as other - articles, pilfered from the dock-yards, and stolen in the provincial towns, which they bring to the metropolis to elude detection-and vice versa. Educated in idleness from their earliest infancy, these men acquire every debauched and vicious habit which can fit them for the most complicated arts of fraud and deception; to which they seldom fail to add the crime of perjury, whenever it can be of use in shielding themselves or their associates from the punishment of the law. From the orange boy, and the retailer of seals, razors, glass, and other wares, in the public streets, to the shopkeeper, dealer in wearing apparel, or in silver and gold, the same principles of conduct too generally prevail. The itinerants utter base money, to enable them, by selling cheap, to dispose of their goods; while those that are stationary, with very few exceptions, receive and purchase, at an under price, whatever is brought them, without asking questions. the expiration of two days from the der himself only as a beast of prey, time of his execution. In the case of the above mentioned malefactor we learn that superior skill in tricks and contrivances is but a readier way to death and destruction, Gaming ought to be avoided by young people as stea. dily as they would avoid walking blindfold to the edge of a precipice. Nothing leads so certainly to ruin. The gamester must, at the best, live a life of perpetual anxiety; and, if he thinks at all, can consi who is to be supported by the destruction of his fellow-creatures. On the same gallows with Ramsey were also executed James Bo. quois and Joseph Allen, for highway robberies; Mary Page, for stealing goods; William Quaite, a drummer in the Guards, for a rob bery committed in St. James's Park; and John Glew Guilliford, for returning before the expiration of his sentence from transportation. THOMAS LYELL AND LAWRENCE SYDNEY, PILLORIED FOR FRAUD. In April, 1740, these pests to society were committed to Newgate, charged, on the oaths of several gentlemen of distinction, with cheating and defrauding them, by the use of false and loaded dice, at a masque. rade, on Thursday morning, about three o'clock, to the amount of four hundred pounds. It also appeared on their examination, which lasted from six o'clock in the morning till three in the afternoon, that they had cheated a number of other gentlemen of upwards of four thousand pounds more. Nine pair of dice were found upon the sharpers, and, on being cut asunder, they were all, except one, loaded; that is, a piece of lead introduced in such a direction into the die, as, when it is thrown, will generally turn a number suited to the owner's game.* They were brought to the bar of the Old Bailey for these infamous practices; and, after a long trial, in which scenes of iniquity were discovered to have been committed by sharpers of this description which astonished the Court and jury, Lyell and Sydney were found guilty, and sentenced to be im A cause was tried before Lord Chief-Justice Kenyon, in 1796, on the statute against gaming, in which it was stated that every person who was three times successful paid the defendant a silver medal, which he purchased from him, on entering the house, at eight for a guinea, and he received seven or eight of these in the course of an hour for the box hands, as it was called. Sometimes 201. or 301. depended on a single throw of the dice. One morning a gentleman came in very much in liquor, who seemed to have a great deal of money about him. The defendant said he had not intended to play, but now he would set to with this fellow. He then scraped a little wax with his finger off one of the candles, and put the dice together, so that they came seven every way. After doing this, he dropped them into the box and threw them out, and afterwards drew all the money away, saying he had won it. A person has been seen to pawn his watch and ring in several instances; and once a man pawned his coat, and went away without it. After the gaming-table was broken by the Bow Street officers, the defendant said it was too good a thing to be given up, and instantly got another table, large enough for twenty or thirty people. The frequenters of this house used to play till daylight; and on oneor two occasions they played all the next day. This is what the defendant called 'sticking to it rarely!' The guests were furnished with wine and suppers gratis. The witness has seen more than forty people there on a Sunday. The table not being sufficient for the whole, half-a-crown used on such occasions to be given for a seat, and those behind looked over the backs of the others and betted. |