embryo DUVAL, may be impossible, and not an
infringement, but a wasteful indication of ill-will towards the eighth
commandment; though it may, on the one hand, be asserted that only vain
coxcombs would dare to write on subjects already described by men really
and deservedly eminent; on the other hand, that these subjects have been
described so fully, that nothing more can be said about them; on the
third hand (allowing, for the sake of argument, three hands to one
figure of speech), that the public has heard so much of them, as to
be quite tired of rogues, thieves, cutthroats, and Newgate
altogether;--though all these objections may be urged, and each is
excellent, yet we intend to take a few more pages from the "Old Bailey
Calendar," to bless the public with one more draught from the Stone
Jug:[*]--yet awhile to listen, hurdle-mounted, and riding down the
Oxford Road, to the bland conversation of Jack Ketch, and to hang with
him round the neck of his patient, at the end of our and his history.
We give the reader fair notice, that we shall tickle him with a few such
scenes of villainy, throat-cutting, and bodily suffering in general, as
are not to be found, no, not in--; never mind comparisons, for such are
odious.

* This, as your Ladyship is aware, is the polite name for
Her Majesty's Prison of Newgate.

In the year 1705, then, whether it was that the Queen of England did
feel seriously alarmed at the notion that a French prince should occupy
the Spanish throne; or whether she was tenderly attached to the Emperor
of Germany; or whether she was obliged to fight out the quarrel of
William of Orange, who made us pay and fight for his Dutch provinces;
or whether poor old Louis Quatorze did really frighten her; or whether
Sarah Jennings and her husband wanted to make a fight, knowing how much
they should gain by it;--whatever the reason was, it was evident that
the war was to continue, and there was almost as much soldiering
and recruiting, parading, pike and gun-exercising, flag-flying,
drum-beating, powder-blazing, and military enthusiasm, as we can all
remember in the year 1801, what time the Corsican upstart menaced our
shores. A recruiting-party and captain of Cutts's regiment (which had
been so mangled at Blenheim the year before) were now in Warwickshire;
and having their depot at Warwick, the captain and his attendant, the
corporal, were used to travel through the country, seeking for heroes to
fill up