Rascals All Lives .of- Remarkable Criminals. Edited by A. L.
Hayward.
Illustrated by contemporary plates. (Routledge. 25s.) " So I went with -them to a music-booth, where they made me almost drunk with gin, and began to talk their flash language, which I did not understand," is the reputed utterance, accord- ing to Borrow, of one Henry Simms who was executed at Tyburn in the eighteenth century: Borrow's comment on this artless :autobiographical fragment is, "I have always looked on this sentence as a masterpiece of the narrative style, . it is so concise and yet so very clear."
The present reviewer has always longed to see more of Henry's literary work, and when Mr. Hayward's book (widen is a reprint of three volumes that were first published in 1735) came into his hands, he turned eagerly to the index ; but, alas ! the name of Henry Simms did not appear there. Yet there are consolations; and a very large choice of them. Here, for example, set forth at large, is the story of one of the heroes of Mid-Victorian youth—Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, to whom Harrison Ainsworth introduces us in his novel of Jack. Sheppard, In the novel Blueskin rather excites admiration— a rough, silent, faithful sort of dog, ardently devoted to his Captain, Sheppard ; but in real life-Mr. Blake, a blackguard of the worst dekription, pans out very differently. So far from Maintaining the principle of honour amongst thieves, Blueskin had not any time the slightest scruple at giving evidence against any of -his pals and ensuring their later attendance at Tyburn Tree. He was really hurt when, after procuring the capital conviction of two of his companions for a murderous assault and robbery iii which he himself took part, he was most unfairly detained afterwards in gaol. Perhaps Blueskin's most meritorious action was an attempt to cut the throat of the famous Jonathan Wild, an attention which Wild singularly enough requited by allowing Blake 3s. Gd. a week during his imprisonment, while he cheered him with the proMise of " a good coffin " when the worst was over.
Thackeray, Fielding, -and Harrison Ainsworth have dealt soh fully with the stars of the eighteenth century criminal stage like Catherine Hakes,. Jonathan Wild, and Jack Sheppard that fulther particulars of their eminent careers need not now be-tOuctled upon. , Let us look rather for a moment at the lesser lights—at those of the name of Smith for instance. There was Bryan, a blackmailer ; John, who - might have e4rneil n'V.G. bid Was in fact a 'murderer; Mary, a whore ; and -Thomas, 8. highwayinan.. Each of these, save Mary, ■kas ." jehu'd out of the world " at Tyburn Fair--surely -the most haunted spot in London where now the traffic roars at the meeting of Oxford Street and Edgware Road. In the pages of this grim volume the lives of all of them are vividly
described; fOr Ghib Street t - be Gt-nh - Street, but it c9ulsl _mite.:- _ _ Women there are in plenty and even highway women, for one Mary Blacket was committed to Newgate and later hanged " for assaulting William Whittle, in the highway, and taking from him a watch value £4, and sixpence in money, on the 6th of August 1726." In the career of Alice Green, " cheat,
thief and housebreaker," it pleases the fancy to trace some part of the adventures of Defoe's Moll Flanders, for both were
transported to the American Colonies and- both returned in good circumstances to England, Alice " still living in as much respect and .esteem as any gentlewoman in the county where she inhabits."
There cannot be the slightest doubt that the materials which went to make this very book—"last_words," broadsheets, " authentic memoirs," and the like—were perfectly familiar to Defoe and needed but little alteration even by his master hand, such is the vividness and _strength of the different narratives. Each of them commonly starts with some moral apophthegm, but soon plunges into relishing details of crime, pausing ever and- anon to warn the young against the " amorous pretences " of the lady dwellers in Drury Lane, " who by degrees bring young men on from one wickedness to another, till at last they end their lives at the gallows." And nearly all do—highwaymen like the Golden Tinman and " Civil John," who was so polite as to " put his hat into the coach, taking what money the occupants thought fit to give him," .pirates in plenty, deer-stealers and horse-stealers, ravishers, &liners, pickpockets, and shoplifters, which last calling was a specialty of the ladies. One notable example of escape from the gibbet was Thomas Anderson; a Scottish thief, who managed to get out to Jamaica, where he picked up " a woman with a tolerable fortune," and in five years " by his. own industry- acquired a very handsome fortune of his own and therewith returned- to .Scotland."
A stern and a stark age was the early eighteenth century. The Life of Captain Jaen, who . murdered. a c.ithin-boy. " by whipping, pickling, kicking, beating, and bruising him," begins : " Though there is not perhaps any sin so, opposite to our nature as cruelty towards our fellow creatures." A few pages back we hear of one Burnworth, who refused to plead at his trial. As he continued obstinate, " his thumbs (as is usual in such cases) were tied and strained with pack-thread." Later he underwent " the sentence of the Press, or as it is stiled in Law, of the Peine Fort et Dare?! The victim of this eighteenth-century torture was nourished with " three morsels of barley-bread in twenty-four hours, a draught of water from the next puddle near the gaol, but not running water." So we see that the eighteenth' century was quite successful at times in concealing its repugnance to " cruelty towards our fellow creatures." If you would . sup off 'horrors, here 'Is a large joint, but 'not one-for a queasy stoma-Ch.
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