hundred was an undiscovered murderer. This gives us all a hope, almost
a certainty, that we may reckon one such person at least among our
acquaintances.(1)

(1) The author was one of three men discussing this subject in a London
club. They were able to name six persons of their various acquaintance
who were, or had been, suspected of being successful murderers.

Derues is remarkable for the extent of his social ambition, the daring
and impudent character of his attempts to gratify it, the skill, the
consummate hypocrisy with which he played on the credulity of honest
folk, and his flagrant employment of that weapon known and recognised
to-day in the most exalted spheres by the expressive name of "bluff."
He is remarkable, too, for his mirth and high spirits, his genial
buffoonery; the merry murderer is a rare bird.

Professor Webster belongs to that order of criminal of which Eugene Aram
and the Rev. John Selby Watson are our English examples, men of culture
and studious habits who suddenly burst on the astonished gaze of
their fellowmen as murderers. The exact process of mind by which these
hitherto harmless citizens are converted into assassins is to a great
extent hidden from us.

Perhaps Webster's case is the clearest of the three. Here we have a
selfish, self-indulgent and spendthrift gentleman who has landed himself
in serious financial embarrassment, seeking by murder to escape from an
importunate and relentless creditor. He has not, apparently, the moral
courage to face the consequences of his own weakness. He forgets the
happiness of his home, the love of those dear to him, in the desire to
free himself from a disgrace insignificent{sic} in comparison with that
entailed by committing the highest of all crimes. One would wish to
believe that Webster's deed was unpremeditated, the result of a sudden
gust of passion caused by his victim's acrimonious pursuit of his
debtor. But there are circumstances in the case which tell powerfully
against such a view. The character of the murderer seems curiously
contradictory; both cunning and simplicity mark his proceedings; he
makes a determined attempt to escape from the horrors of his situation
and shows at the same time a curious insensibility to its real gravity.
Webster was a man of refined tastes and seemingly gentle character,
loved by those near to him, well liked by his friends.

The mystery that surrounds the real character of Eugene Aram is greater,