I followed, but was knocked down, as if by accident, by two ill-looking fellows, who continued to detain me with apologies till the boys had got safely away.

I have little doubt that this was an instance of that organized system of depredation of which I have before spoken, and that the man who took so active a part at the first, was at the bottom of the business; and, in fact, the tutor and employer of the predatory urchins.

His activity in preventing the boy from being taken back to the shop--his anxiety to promote a subscription for the boy,--and, lastly, his threat of personal violence if I interfered in the matter, by continuing to question the child,--all these circumstances confirm me in the opinion.
It is only by the knowledge of this fact--the association of infant offenders with those of maturer and hardened habits--that we can account for such cases as the following .-- On the 17th of July, 1823, a child _only seven years old_, was brought before the magistrate at Lambeth Street office, charged with frequently robbing his mother, and was ordered to be locked up all night in the gaol-room.

In the evening, however, when his mother returned, he forced his way out of the room, and behaved with such violence that the attendants were obliged to iron both his hands and legs! There can be no doubt that this child had been for a long time under the instruction and evil influence of some old and hardened offender; he must, indeed, have undergone much training before he could have arrived at such a pitch of hardihood, as to make it necessary to handcuff and fetter a child of so tender an age; and to enable him to hold even the magistrates, officers, and his own parent, at defiance.
The following cases afford further proof of the same lamentable truth; the first is extracted from a morning paper of the 20th of September, 1824.

"A little boy, not more than _six years of age_, was brought before the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, on Saturday, the 18th instant, having been found in a warehouse, where he had secreted himself for the purpose of thieving.