om
the world suspected to be of her husband's employment.

FOOTNOTES:

[97] i.e., bailiffs, informers and spies.

[98] The Pretender, whose name was only to be mentioned with
baited breath.

[99] See page 533.

[100] Passengers robbed on the highway between sunrise and
sunset, could sue the county for the amount of their loss, it
being the duty of the officials to keep the roads safe.

The Life of JOHN YOUNG, a Highwayman

I have more than once remarked in the course of these memoirs that of
all crimes, cruelty makes men the most generally hated, and that from
this reasonable cause, that they seem to have taken up an aversion to
their own kind. This was remarkably the case of the unhappy man of whom
we are now speaking.

He was, it seems, the son of very honest and industrious parents, his
father being a gardener at Kensington. From him he received as good an
education as it was in his power to give him, and was treated with all
the indulgence that could be expected from a tender parent; and it seems
that after five years' stay at school, he was qualified for any business
whatsoever. So after consulting his own inclinations he was put out
apprentice to a coach-maker in Long Acre, where he stayed not long; but
finding all work disagreeable to him, he therefore resolved to be gone,
let the consequence be what it would. When this resolve was once taken,
it was but a very short time before it was put into execution. Living
now at large, and not knowing how to gain money enough to support
himself, and therefore being in very great straits, he complied with the
solicitations of some hackney-coachmen, who advised him to learn their
trade. They took some pains to instruct him, employed him often, and in
about six months time he became perfect master of his business, and
drove for Mr. Blunt, in Piccadilly. His behaviour here was so honest
that Mr. Blunt gave him a good character, and he thereby obtained the
place of a gentleman's coachmen. In a short time he saved money and
began to have some relish for an honest life; and continuing
industriously to hoard up what he received either in wages or vales
[tips] at last by these methods he drew together a very considerable sum
of money.

And then it came into his head to settle himself in an honest way of
life, in which design his father gave him all the encouragement that was
in his power, telling him in order to do it, he shoul