cipate a change. The highwaymen, we fear, like their Irish brothers,
the Rapparees, went out with the Tories. They were averse to reform, and
eschewed emancipation.

Lest any one should think we have overrated the pleasures of the
highwayman's existence, they shall hear what "the right villainous" Jack
Hall, a celebrated tobyman of his day, has got to say on the subject.
"His life--the highwayman's--has, generally, the most mirth and the
least care in it of any man's breathing, and all he deals for is clear
profit: he has that point of good conscience, that he always sells as
he buys, a good pennyworth, which is something rare, since he trades
with so small a stock. The _fence_[27] and he are like the devil and the
doctor, they live by one another; and, like traitors, 'tis best to keep
each other's counsel. He has this point of honesty, that he never robs
the house he frequents"--Turpin had the same scruples respecting the
Hall of Rookwood in Sir Piers's lifetime--; "and perhaps pays his debts
better than some others, for he holds it below the dignity of his
employment to commit so ungenteel a crime as insolvency, and loves to
pay nobly. He has another quality, not much amiss, that he takes no more
than he has occasion for"--Jack, we think, was a little mistaken here--;
"which he verifies this way: he craves no more while that lasts. He is a
less nuisance in a commonwealth than a miser, because the money he
engrosses all circulates again, which the other hoards as though 'twere
only to be found again at the day of judgment. He is the tithe-pig of
his family, which the gallows, instead of the parson, claims as its due.
He has reason enough to be bold in his undertakings, for, though all the
world threaten him, he stands in fear of but one man in it, and that's
the hangman; and with him, too, he is generally in fee: however, I
cannot affirm he is so valiant that he dares look any man in the face,
for in that point he is now and then, a little modest. Newgate may be
said to be his country-house, where he frequently lives so many months
in the year; and he is not so much concerned to be carried thither for a
small matter, if 'twere only for the benefit of renewing his
acquaintance there. He holds a petit larceny as light as a nun does
auricular confession, though the priest has a more compassionate
character than the hangman. Every man in this community is esteemed
according to his particular quality, of which there are seve