ness. I knew several instances of
prisoners with a first conviction getting a second in consequence of
being told where to get bad money; and I knew many more who will, in
all human probability, meet with the same fate from the same cause.
Another of my fellow prisoners was a singular specimen. I have already
referred to him as being almost the only "highflyer" in the prison, as
being the man who once obtained 150_l._ from a gentleman in Devonshire
under false pretences. This man was not ranked among the "_aristoes_"
in prison society, although he was in many respects their equal or
superior in certain branches of education. And here I may remark that
on parade, where all the prisoners exercised together, they associated
in classes as they would do outside--the "roughs," the "prigs," the
"needy-mizzlers," and the "aristoes," keeping, not always, but pretty
much among themselves. There were only a few of the class termed
"aristoes," and they comprised men who had been clergymen, merchants,
bankers, editors, surgeons, &c. These were usually my associates during
the exercise time. Now the "highflyer" I have referred to did not
belong to this class, but except in his principles and habits and
tastes, his education was quite equal to theirs. He spoke German and
French fluently, knew Latin and Greek, a smattering of Italian, and the
higher branches of mathematics. What first surprised me about him was
his pretended intimacy with some German merchants of the highest
standing I knew in London, and with whom I had done business. To know
such men I afterwards found was part of his profession. He could tell
me not only the names and titles of the nobility and gentry, but the
names of their families, where many of them were educated, to whom they
were married, and many other particulars of their private history. His
sentence was three years, and I believe he got it something in this
way. He had been in the country following his profession, and had
obtained some money, I think thirty pounds, from a gentleman of "his
acquaintance." In the country he was the Reverend Dr. So and So, with a
white neck-tie and all the surroundings of a clergyman. In London he
was a "swell," with a cigar in his mouth.
It so happened that the benevolent gentleman from whom he had obtained
the money came to town and recognized the "Doctor," when cutting the
swell, and had him apprehended and punished. He had been several times
in county prisons, but, as
|