These were the days of such books as "The Life and Extraordinary
Adventures of Samuel Denmore Hayward, denominated the Modern Macheath,
who suffered at the Old Bailey, on Tuesday, November 27, 1821, for the
Crime of Burglary," by Pierce Egan, embellished with a highly-finished
miniature by Mr. Smart, etched by T. R. Cruikshank; and a facsimile of
his handwriting. London, 1822."

It is a poor book, and now has descendants lower in the social scale. It
pretends to give "a most awful but useful lesson to the rising
generation" by an account of the criminal whose appearance as a boy "was
so superior to other boys of his class in life as to have the look of a
gentleman's child." He naturally became a waiter, and "though the
situation did not exactly accord with his ambition, it answered his
purpose, because it afforded him an opportunity of studying _character_,
and being in the company of gentlemen." He was "a generous high-minded
fellow towards the ladies," and became the fancy man of someone else's
mistress, living "in the style of a gentleman _solely_ at the expense of
the beautiful Miss ---." His "unembarrassed and gentlemanly" behaviour
survived even while he was being searched, and he entered the chapel
before execution "with a firm step, accompanied with the most gentlemanly
deportment." The end came nevertheless: "Bowing to the sheriffs and the
few persons around him with all the manners of an accomplished gentleman,
he ascended the drop with a firmness that astonished everyone present;
and resigned his eventful life without scarce a struggle."

The moral was the obvious one. "His talents were his misfortunes." The
biographer pretends to believe that, though the fellow lived in luxury,
he must always have had a harassed mind; the truth being that he himself
would have had a harassed mind if he had played so distinguished a part.
"The chequered life of that young man," he says, "abounding with
incidents and facts almost incredible, and scarcely ever before practised
with so much art and delusion in so short a period, impressively points
out the danger arising from the possession of _great talents_ when
perverted or _misapplied_."

He points out, furthermore, how vice sinks before virtue. "For instance,
view the countenances of thieves, who are regaling themselves on the most
expensive liquors, laughing and singing, how they are changed in an
instant by the appearance of police officers entering a room in se