t uncommon, though infinitely vile
one, of obtaining Lord Sandwich's patronage, by relieving him of a
connexion of which that notorious profligate, after nine years, might be
weary--all characterise the earlier portion of their intercourse as
destitute of all pretence to honourable feelings. The catastrophe is
merely the work of an assassin. If there may be some slight allowance for
overwhelming passion, for suddenly excited jealousy, or for remediless
despair, yet those impulses act only to the extent of inflicting injury on
ourselves. No love ever seeks the death of its object. It is then mere
ruffianism, brute cruelty, savage fury; and even this becomes more the act
of a ruffian, when the determination to destroy is formed in cold blood.
Hackman carried two loaded pistols with him to the theatre. What other man
carried loaded pistols there? and what could be his purpose but the one
which he effected, to fire them both, one at the wretched woman, and the
other at himself? The clear case is, that he was neither more nor less
than a furious villain, resolved to have the life of a profligate
milliner's apprentice, who preferred Lord Sandwich's house and carriage,
to Mr Hackman's hovel and going on foot. We shall find that all similar
acts originate in similar motives--lucre, licentiousness, and rage--the
three stimulants of the highwayman, the debauchee, and the ruffian; with
only the distinction, that, in the case of those who murder when they
cannot possess, the three criminalities are combined.

Even with the execution of the criminal, the excitement did not cease. The
papers of the day tell us, that when the body was conveyed to the
surgeon's hall, so great a crowd was assembled, and the efforts to obtain
entrance were so violent, that caps, gowns, wigs, were torn and cast away
in all directions. Old and young, men, women, and children, were trampled
in the multitude. In the afternoon, the crowd diminished, and several
persons of the better order made their way in, but with not a less
vexatious result; for, on reaching the staircase leading to the theatre,
they found themselves saluted with a shower from some engine worked under
the staircase. This was rather a rough mode of tranquillizing public
excitement, but seems to have been effectual. It was probably a trick of
some of the young surgeons, and excited great indignation at the time.
Hackman was but four-and-twenty, and rather a striking figure.

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