t I determined on going on the 'cross.' I
commenced, and committed seventeen burglaries right off, in various
parts of the country. The first was in my own town, and the moment I
got the 'wedge'[18] 'planted'[19], I went to the police-office and asked
for a bed for the night, as I had no money. Next day, early, there was
a great hubbub about my job. One of the police came to the office and
swore it must have been done by me; but when the superintendent told
him that I had slept in the station-house all night, and that it could
not have been me, he never said any more about it. The next place I
robbed was a church; but all the rest were shops. I was tried for the
church and two of the other jobs; but I got off the former, as the
clergyman prosecuted me, when it ought to have been some other official
connected with it. I pleaded guilty to the second charge against me;
and it's that I'm now here for. When I was in prison, waiting for
trial, I called myself a Roman Catholic, and was visited by the priest.
One day I confessed to him that I had robbed a church, and that I was
very sorry for it--and so I was, upon my word. That's the only crime I
ever committed which gave me any trouble. Well, the priest was
thunderstruck, and looked daggers at me; but when I told him it was a
Protestant church, he gave me absolution, and said the crime was not so
bad as he at first thought."

[18] Silver-plate.

[19] Hidden.

"What religion do you profess now?" I enquired.

"Well, I'm down in the books now as a Protestant, or Church of England
man; but I do not believe all that churchmen believe. I think there's a
good deal of humbug about what is called Christianity altogether. I
have tried several creeds, and there's none of them squares exactly
with my ideas."

"Which of them have you tried?"

"I was eighteen months a Mormon. My uncle is an elder in their church;
but I got enough of them one night at a meeting. After the business was
concluded, one of the members proposed that the lights should be put
out during the remainder of the proceedings.--My Crikey! that night was
enough for me.... I was in earnest at first though; and when I was
baptised and anointed, I intended to have gone out to the settlement in
America."

"What do you object to in the Church of England?"

"Oh! I don't pay much attention to these matters. I like a good man, no
matter what church he belongs to. For instance, the Presbyterian
minister at '