THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE ALDERMAN OF LONDON; THE IDLE ONE BROUGHT
BEFORE HIM, AND IMPEACHED BY HIS ACCOMPLICE.
"Thou shalt do no unrighteousness in judgment."--LEVITICUS XIX. 15.
"The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands."--PSALM XIX. 16.
[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, PLATE X.]
He who was an industrious apprentice is now an alderman and a
magistrate; his depraved and atrocious contrast, who was once his
fellow-'prentice, and the last plate exhibited in a night-cellar, is
now brought handcuffed before him, and accused of robbery, aggravated
by murder. Shocked at seeing the companion of his youth in so
degraded a situation, he instinctively covers his eyes. Agitated,
trembling, terrified, self-convicted, and torn by remorse, the
wretched culprit is unable to support his tottering frame. Did he not
lean upon the bar, he would sink to the earth.
His distressed and heart-broken mother intercedes with the swollen
and important constable to use his interest for her unhappy son.
This application the mighty magistrate of the night answers by--"We
that are in power must do justice!" A number of watchmen attend the
examination, and one of them holds up the sword and pistols which
were found on the prisoner. A young woman[165] bribes the swearing
clerk to befriend the one-eyed wretch who has turned evidence against
his accomplice, by suffering him to take the usual oath with his left
hand laid upon the book, instead of his right.[166]
This debased villain was first introduced to us gambling on a
grave-stone; his second appearance was in a night-cellar, where
he divided the evening's plunder with the man he now deliberately
betrays!
The alderman's clerk is making out a warrant of commitment directed
to the turnkey of Newgate.