embracing, in vast variety, a property of immense value, divided from the street by "thin and undefended squares of glass only; and that the lure might prove still more attractive, each article marked at its price, some 25, some 50, 75, 100, and 200 guineas each! A dash and a grab might secure to the depredator possession of wealth; and while such temptations are held out, the surprise is, not that so many street robberies are, but that a great many more are not committed.

The many thousands in London out of employment, and of these perhaps the greatest number unhoused and famishing, would it be much to be wondered at if some of these sons of misery, goaded onwards to crime by the extremity of human suffering, were to attempt the possession of spoil, so carelessly exposed, and apparently so easily obtainable ?{1} 1 Lord Mansfield once presided as Judge, when an unfortunate man was tried for stealing an article of jewellery from a shop-window, exposed by its unguarded state to depredation, and more encouraging than otherwise, the hope of success .-- It proved differently, and the prosecutor seeming determined to proceed against the wretched man, even to capital punishment, Lord Mansfield, indignant at the severity of the owner of the trinket, and compassionating the state of misery and destitution, under the influence of which the poor prisoner at the bar, stimulated too by its careless exposure, had committed the felony, desired the Jury to value the trinket in question at ten pence .-- The prosecutor started up in surprise, and exclaimed, "Tenpence, my Lord! why the very fashion of it cost me ten times the sum!" "That may be," returned his Lordship, "but we must not hang a man for fashion's sake!" ~90~~"Here conies silly Tom and staggering Bob," exclaimed a fellow, as he approached towards our pedestrians.

Tallyho had grasped more firmly his oaken sprig, with the intention of trying the crankness of the observer's pericranium, when Dashall perceived that the obnoxious remark was directed to a simple looking old man, dejectedly leading a horse "done up," and apparently destined for the slaughter-house.
"Where now, Tommy," continued the querist, "with thy decayed bit of blood ?" "Aye, aye," answered Tommy, despondingly, "even to the naggers,{1}--'tis what we must all come to." 1 A Naggerman is a wholesale horse-butcher! his business is frequently so extensive as to enable him to employ a vast many hands, and so lucrative as to ensure him a fortune in a very few years; the carcases are sold to the dealers by whom they are cut up, and sold in quarters to the retailers, and purchased by the street venders; these latter form one of the prominent itinerant avocations, and supply with food all the dogs and cats of the metropolis! "And so thy master has passed the doom of death against his old servant Bob, on whose back he has been safely borne, in the chase, "many a time and oft," as the song says, "o'er hedges, gaps, ditches and gates; and fleet of foot as thou wert," patting the animal with feelings of commiseration," and often as thou hast replenished thy master's purse, thou art now going to the slaughter-house!" "Even so--the faithful servant, now no longer useful, is discarded." "And put to death!--Why man, thy master is a d----d unfeeling, ungrateful scoundrel, else he would have turned this poor nag at large on the green sward, to roam as he list in summer, with a warm stable in winter, and have left him to die the death of nature." An assemblage of passengers had now collected round the doom'd horse and his sympathizing friend, whose vehemence of expression had attracted much attention.

The feelings of his auditory were in full unison with his own, and as the throng increased, with inquisitive curiosity, the advocate in the cause of humanity repeated the following lines: "And hast thou doom'd my death, sweet master, say, And wilt thou kill thy servant, old and poor?
A little longer let me live, I pray; A little longer hobble round thy door!" ~91~~The spectators were evidently affected.

He next sung the stanza of an old song, extemporaneously produced (with the exception of the first two lines) At last having labored, drudg'd early and late, Bow'd down by degrees he draws on to his fate: His blood must the Naggerman's sluicing knife spill; His carcase the Naggerman's slaughter-house fill! Now led to his doom, while with pity we view Poor Bob, may mishap still his master pursue; Who callously spurning humanity's bounds, Now sells his old servant as food for the hounds.
The Squire having occasion to call at a banker's in Fleet Street, the two friends entered at the moment when a countryman with a most rueful expression of countenance, stood transfixed to the floor, like the statue of Despair, incapable either of speech or motion.