s: my poor aunt is
very bad, and begs you will be so very obliging as to give her
a little Eau de Cologne.--Oh! she is dying!--I have got a
light.' The door was opened; and scarcely had Madame Hazard
presented herself, when two powerful gend'armes seized on her,
and fastened a napkin over her mouth to prevent her crying out.
At the same instant, with more rapidity than the lion when
darting on his prey, I threw myself upon Fossard; who,
stupified by what was doing, and already fast bound and
confined in his bed, was my prisoner before he could make a
single movement, or utter a single word. So great was his
amazement, that it was nearly an hour before he could
articulate even a few words. When a light was brought, and he
saw my black face and garb of a coalman, he experienced such an
increase of terror, that I really believe he imagined himself
in the devil's clutches. On coming to himself, he thought of
his arms,--his pistols and dagger,--which were upon the table;
and, turning his eyes towards them, he made a struggle, but
that was all; for, reduced to the impossibility of doing any
mischief, he was passive."

From the above extracts, a tolerably correct idea may be formed of
thieves and police-officers;--men who co-exist in every civilized
community, but who lead lives requiring the cunning and personal bravery
of savages. The thief exults in the success of a daring exploit, and
prides himself on his skill in avoiding the meshes of magistrates and
lawyers: the police-officer is no less vain of his skill, in detecting
and dragging to justice the man who boasts of his superiority in
artifice, while he almost defies the arm of vengeance. In order that the
number of such characters may be reduced, all reasonable attempts should
be made to reclaim juvenile delinquents; prisons should be not only
places of terror, but places where the spread of corruption is
effectually prevented, by the prohibition of intercourse amongst the
inmates; and, above all, education, founded on a moral and religious
basis, should be extended throughout society. Facts bear us out in
asserting, that crimes of the greatest magnitude, such as murder,
burglary, and arson, considerably diminish with the spread of
civilization, which operates, like the circle formed by the pebble
thrown into water, in extending its influence in proportion to its
circumferen