admire Conrad the Corsair, they will not go to sea, and hoist the black
flag for him. By words only, and not by deeds, they testify their
admiration, and deluge the periodicals and music-shops of the land with
verses describing pirates' and bandits' brides, and robber adventures of
every kind.

But it is the playwright who does most harm; and Byron has fewer sins of
this nature to answer for than Gay or Schiller. With the aid of scenery,
fine dresses and music, and the very false notions they convey, they
vitiate the public taste, not knowing,

"Vulgaires rimeurs!
Quelle force ont les arts pour demolir les moeurs."

In the penny theatres that abound in the poor and populous districts of
London, and which are chiefly frequented by striplings of idle and
dissolute habits, tales of thieves and murderers are more admired, and
draw more crowded audiences, than any other species of representation.
There the footpad, the burglar, and the highwayman are portrayed in their
natural colours, and give pleasant lessons in crime to their delighted
listeners. There the deepest tragedy and the broadest farce are
represented in the career of the murderer and the thief, and are applauded
in proportion to their depth and their breadth. There, whenever a crime of
unusual atrocity is committed, it is brought out afresh, with all its
disgusting incidents copied from the life, for the amusement of those who
will one day become its imitators.

With the mere reader the case is widely different; and most people have a
partiality for knowing the adventures of noted rogues. Even in fiction
they are delightful: witness the eventful story of Gil Blas de Santillane,
and of that great rascal Don Guzman d'Alfarache. Here there is no fear of
imitation. Poets, too, without doing mischief, may sing of such heroes
when they please, wakening our sympathies for the sad fate of Jemmy
Dawson, or Gilderoy, or Macpherson the Dauntless; or celebrating in
undying verse the wrongs and the revenge of the great thief of Scotland,
Rob Roy. If, by the music of their sweet rhymes, they can convince the
world that such heroes are but mistaken philosophers, born a few ages too
late, and having both a theoretical and practical love for

"The good old rule, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
That they should keep who can;"

the world may perhaps become wiser, and consent to some better
distrib