prived of many who might have been useful and happy in the employments for which they were designed, and who become the most contemptible, and at the same time the most wretched vagabonds, that at once injure and disgrace the community.

It may, perhaps, prevent some vain unthinking creatures from increasing the number of these outcasts, to acquaint them that the life of a stroller is less eligible than that of a sifter of cinders at a shilling a day they exist without virtue, and without friendship; their distresses excite not pity, but laughter; and frequently, instead of being treated with tenderness, they are committed to prison.

Those who live by chance are always improvident of casual supplies; so it happens that those people, who are frequently without victuals, are yet frequently drunk. When this happens on a night when their performance is to be exhibited, one of the company is obliged to personify two characters that ought to be on the stage together.

Yet, so many are the graces even in this mimic life, that some of its female votaries have become, in reality, the ladies whom erst, in wellglossed petticoats, tinselled all over, spangled with tin, and daubed with foil, they oft had counterfeited.

When this unfortunate officer, with his wife, had struggled through many miseries, and had strolled as far as Aberdeen, the Scotch took pity on them, and natronised Mrs.

Lee so far as to promote an establishment for her, as governess of a female seminary of education.

Thus settled, for a while they left the stage; but Lee's habits of dissipation and idleness, contracted in the army, led him into many expenses which his income could not support. Happily for his partuer in misery, she died at Aberdeen a year or two after being patronised; and he left the town, to join again the first strolling players he could find.

This unfortunate man could never rise to any perfection in the mimic art; and his failing, in getting neither applause nor money to supply the necessaries of life, soured his temper, and rendered him desperate.

He had last been with the Portsmouth strollers, and from that town came to London, without a penny in his pocket, and actually starving. Too proud to beg, he boldly went to a tavern, where he had formerly spent large sums, and dined. then asked the landlord for the loan of a guinea and a half, and, as security, he deposited with him a forged bill of exchange on the Ordnanceoffice, for which he forfeited his life on the 4th of March, 1784.

He

At the same time John Ash, for personating Mr. T. Eaton, and transferring seven hundred and fifty pounds of his stock at the Bank; Thomas Welch and George Allen, for housebreaking; Thomas Ledger, for shoplifting; and Joseph Clarke, for returning from transportation; shared the same melancholy fate.

AT the Admiralty sessions, held on the 11th of November, 1784, these men were tried for the wilful murder of John M'Nier, one of the mariners belonging to his majesty's

cutter the Nimble, in the service of the Customs.

On the trial it appeared that on the night of the 30th of April last, it being clear moonlight, a vessel

was observed at about two miles distance from Deal, hovering or standing in towards the shore, and supposed to be a smuggler. Lieutenant Bray, commander of the Nimble, being acquainted therewith, manned three boats, and proceeded to speak to her, and, coming within hail, told them his name and business, which was to board and search her; but was answered by many voices with imprecations, bidding him keep off; and a volley was instantly fired into his boat, whereby M'Nier, one of the crew, received a shot in his right breast, near the pap, of which he instantly died. Lieutenant Bray then proceeded to board the vessel, which proved to be the Juliet lugger, of Deal, (laden with about four hundred tubs or

half-ankers of spirits,) but received another volley however, he persisted, and boarded the lugger, when an engagement began, in which some men fell. North leaped overboard, but was taken. Harris was also taken, concealed in the hold, and said he was only a passenger, and had been waiter at the assemblyhouse at Margate, where he was then going; but unluckily had on him a pair of trowsers and a seaman's jacket, in which were found several musket and pistol' balls.

On the morning of the 13th, two days after conviction, they wer taken from the cells of Newgate, put into a cart, and conveyed to the gallows, which was erected on a platform at Execution Dock, and there executed.

THIS man had been long a public character on the dramatic boards; and made his final exit on a stage erected for the purpose-under the gallows.

He was many years the Clown in the pantomime entertainments at Drury Lane; and it would have been well for him had he acted his part in private as well as he often did at the public theatre.

Unlike the major part of his brethren of the sock and buskin, Carpenter saved some part of his salary, with which he went to Portsmouth, took an elegant house, and commenced navy-agent; in which lucrative business he acquired considerable property.

It, however, appears, that like many, who, from hard earnings, suddenly come into easy receipts, Carpenter grew so impatient to become rich as to commit felony of the basest nature-that of forging seamen's wills and powers.

This infamous robbery of poor widows and orphans he had for some time carried on with impunity; but such a course of vice must soon lead to detection.

Carpenter, however, was unconscious of detection when the offcers of justice were in pursuit of him. He was surprised in his own house, which was spacious, and elegantly furnished, and at the very moment when he was regaling with some friends.

So totally unprepared was he in the settlement of his worldly affairs, which every desperate man should certainly keep arranged, that on his conviction the sheriff seized on that valuable property.

The remaining property which this unfortunate man had acquired amounted to upwards of seven thousand pounds.

His execution, which took place at Winchester in the year 1785, attracted a vast number of spectators.

he afterwards became so greatly distinguished-one remarkable in stance deserves to be mentioned as an example of juvenile hypocrisy scarcely to be paralleled. He ripped off some gold lace from a suit of old clothes which his father had hought, and, putting on his elder brother's coat, went to sell it to a Jew. The Jew became a purchaser, and, in the way of trade, most unfortunately afterwards offered it to the father for sale. He instantly knew it, and insisted on the Jew's informing him from whom he received it. The boys coming in at the time, and the Jew recollecting the coat of the elder, immediately declared he was the person from whom he purchased it; in consequence of which he was directly seized and severely flogged, notwithstanding his protestations of innocence: the father was inflexible, while the conscious depredator, with an abominable relish for hypocrisy, witnessed the suffering of his brother, and inwardly rejoiced in the castigation.

By a continued series of tricks and knaveries, practised under the eye of the father, he at length grew tired of his son, and placed him with a hosier in St. James's Street. Here he continued but for a short time, indulging in all the vagaries of his prolific imagination, and exercising himself in all the arts and deceptions of which he eventually made himself master. He robbed his father of an elegant suit of clothes, in whicb having dressed himself, he went in that disguise to the hosier, and bought about ten pounds' worth of the most fashionable and expensive silk stockings, desiring them to be sent home for him in an hour, and assuming the name of Henry Bolingbroke, Esq. The cheat was successful, for his master did not know him; but this

was not enough, for in about half an hour after he appeared in the shop in his usual dress, and was desired to take the goods home, which he actually pretended to do: thus both his father and master were robbed. He was, however, soon discovered and dismissed. From this period

we shall have to consider him at large in society, where he cortinued to practise the most outrageous acts of duplicity for many years.

Soon after this he set off for Holland, under the name of Johnson. Forging a recommendation to a Dutch merchant, he became his clerk, debauched his daughter, and was offered her hand in marriage;robbed his master, and returned to England. Upon his arrival he contrived to get himself engaged in his majesty's small-beer brewery near Gosport. In this situation he conducted himself so well as to gain the confidence of his employer; and was upon the point of forming a matrimonial connexion with his daughter. This match, however, was prevented by an accidental discovery: the Jew, to whom he had formerly sold the gold lace, happened to reside at Portsmouth, and by his means the character of Price was soon disclosed, his schemes frustrated, and he was again thrown upon the world.

His wits, however, were not exhausted, nor did they ever slumber long, though always employed for some deceptive end. He determined upon a trial to establish a new brewery, by obtaining a partner with money; and as a first step towards it, in the year 1775, he issued the following curious advertisement:

is not necessary he should have any knowledge of the business, which the advertiser possesses to its fullest extent; but he must possess a capital of between five hundred and one thousand pounds to purchase materials, with which, to the knowledge of the advertiser, a large fortune must be made in a very short time. Address to P. C. Cardigan Head, Charing Cross.

P. S. None but principals, and those of liberal ideas, will be treated with.'

By means of this advertisement, the famous comedian, Samuel Foote, was brought into the sphere of our hero's depredation. Eager to seize what he conceived to be a golden opportunity, he was induced to advance five hundred pounds for a brewery. This sum did not last long; and, instead of the rapid fortune which the advertiser appeared so certain of, Foote was glad to disengage himself from the concern with the loss of his capital, and retired, wrung with the anguish of disappointment. Notwithstanding which, Price had the impudence, not long afterwards, to apply to him again, under the idea of getting him to embark in the baking trade: the witty comedian, however, by this time kuew his Price, and archly replied, As you have brewed, so you may bake; but I'll be cursed if ever you bake as you have

brewed.'

Price, after this unfortunate business, assumed a new character, and appeared as a Methodist preacher, in which disguise he defrauded several persons of large sums of moDey.

He issued advertisements, offering to procure gentlemen wives, and swindled a person of the name of Wigmore of fifty guineas: this turned out more serious than he expected, for Mr. Wigmore brought

indictment against him; but he

found means to refund a part of the money, and effected his escape. These, and other fraudulent means, were long the objects of his ambition, though they were all the certain roads to infamy.

Still undismayed in his career, he had the astonishing impudence to set up again as a brewer, in Gray's Inn Lane: here, however, after committing a variety of frauds, he became a bankrupt in the year 1776. With ingenuity ever fruitful, he now set out for Germany, and engaged in a smuggling scheme, for which he was thrown into a prison in Holland, after realizing three hundred pounds. From this confinement he had address enough, by an artful de'ence, to extricate himself, and immediately returned to his native country. Here he again engaged himself in a sham brewery at Lambeth, where he was married; still continuing his depredations, till at length he found it necessary to decamp :-he actually went to Copenhagen. After some time he came back to England, where he was doomed to close his days.

His brewing attempts having all failed, he was obliged to study some new mode of plundering society; and, under the pretence of charity, he obtained money, for which he was imprisoned; and, having obtained liberation, he, in the character of a clergyman, succeeded in various depredations, which eventually brought him to the King's Bench, from the walls of which he had dexterity enough to extricate himself.

His next scheme was to try his success among the schemers in the lottery, and made his efforts answer his purpose for a time; but, absconding with a ticket of very considerable value, his attempts in this way were brought to a termination; indeed, his arts and his tricks were