addressed to the judge or the syndic; some are orders to a dozen unfortunate wights to present themselves at the Intendenza; while others contain ghostly reproofs from the bishop, or orders to suspend a priest at his reverence's will and pleasure, and rusticate him in some monastery. Every denunciation is received and inquired into. I remember an instance of two men who kept a whole district in inquietude during one winter. Both had received some private offence, and straightway each shrank into a corner and wove his envenomed meshes; charges were devised and letters written to the Intendente, accusing some score of their friends of Carbonarism or constitutionalism; then came the usual dispatches to the judge and other authorities to inquire into the truth of the statements. The judge, it happened, was friendly with the unfortunate denounced, and drew up therefore a favourable report, but had he been less honest or less amicable, these poor fellows might have swelled the number of those who now pine in the prisons of the Vicaria. Indeed, the influence of the Police Spy System (united with other causes), has been such as to convert the whole nation into spies upon each other. As suspicion and want of confidence universally prevail, so there is a deficiency of truthfulness. This cannot be more strongly proved than by the admission of the Italians themselves who, when wishing to conciliate your belief, tell you that they speak "la parola Inglese,”- -on the word of an Englishman. CHIPS. THE INDIVIDUALITY OF LOCOMOTIVES. It is a remarkable truth, and, well applied, it might be profitable to us, in helping us to make fair allowance for the differences between the temperaments of different men-that every Locomotive Engine running on a Railway, has a distinct individuality and character of its own, It is perfectly well known to experienced practical engineers, that if a dozen different Locomotive Engines were made, at the same time, of the same power, for the same purpose, of like materials, in the same Factory-each of those Locomotive Engines would come out with its own peculiar whims and ways, only ascertainable by experience. One engine will take a great meal of coke and water at once; another will not hear of such a thing, but will insist on being coaxed by spades-full and buckets-full, One is disposed to start off, when required, at the top of his speed; another must have a little time to warm at his work, and to get well into it. These peculiarities are so accurately mastered by skilful drivers, that only particular men can persuade particular engines to do their best. It would seem as if some of these "excellent monsters" declared, on being brought out of the stable, "If it's Smith who is to drive me, I won't go. If it's my friend Stokes, I am agreeable to anything!" All Locomotive Engines are low-spirited in damp and foggy weather. They have a great satisfaction in their work when the air is crisp and frosty. At such a time they are very cheerful and brisk; but they strongly object to haze and Scotch mists. These are points of character on which they are all united. It is in their peculiarities and varieties of character that they are most remarkable. The Railway Company who should consign all their Locomotives to one uniform standard of treatment, without any allowance for varying shades of character and opinion, would soon fall as much behind-hand in the world as those greater Governments are, and ever will be, who pursue the same course with the finer piece of work called Man. THE OLDEST INHABITANT OF THE PLACE THE Police Courts of London have often displayed many a curious character, many a strange scene, many an exquisite bit of dialogue; so have the Police Courts in Ireland, especially at the Petty Sessions in Kilrush; but we are not so well aware of how often a scene of rich and peculiar humour occurs in the Police tribuneaux of Paris. We will proceed to give the reader a "taste of their quality." An extremely old woman, all in rags, was continually found begging in the streets, and the Police having goodnaturedly let her off several times, were at last obliged to take her in charge, and bring her into the Court. Several magistrates were sitting. The following dialogue took place between the President and the old woman. President. Now, my good woman, what have you to say for yourself? You have been frequently warned by the Police, but you have persisted in troubling people with begging. Old Woman (in a humble quavering tone). Ah, Monsieur le President, it is not so much trouble to other people as it is to me. I am a very old woman. Pres. Come, come, you must leave off begging, or I shall be obliged to punish you. Old W. But, Monsieur le President, I cannot live without-I must beg-pardon me, Monsieur-I am obliged to beg. Pres. But I say you must not. Can you do no work? Old W. Ah, no, Monsieur; I am too old. Pres. Can't you sell something-little cakes bonbons ? Old W. No, Monsieur, I can't get any little stock to begin with; and, if I could, I should be robbed by the gamins, or the little girls, for I'm not very quick, and can't see well. Pres. Your relations must support you, then. You cannot be allowed to beg. Have you no son-no daughter-no grandchildren} Old W. No, Monsieur; none-none-all my TWO CHAPTERS ON BANK NOTE relations are dead. Pres. Well then, your friends must give you assistance. Old W. Ah, Monsieur, I have no friends; and, indeed, I never had but one, in my life; but he too is gone. Pres. And who was he? Old W. Monsieur de Robespierre-le pauvre cher homme! (The poor, dear man!) Pres. Robespierre-why what did you know of him? Old W. Oh, Monsieur, my mother was one of the tricoteurs (knitting-women) who used to sit round the foot of the guillotine, and I always stood beside her. When Monsieur de Robespierre was passing by, in attending his duties, he used to touch my cheek, and call me (here the old woman shed tears) la belle cher homme ! Marguerite-le pauvre, We must here pause to remind the reader that these women, the tricoteurs, who used to sit round the foot of the guillotine on the mornings when it was at its hideous work, were sometimes called the "Furies;" but only as a grim jest. It is well known, that, although there were occasionally some sanguinary hags amongst them, yet, for the most part, they were merely idle, gossiping women, who came there dressed in neat white caps, and with their knitting materials, out of sheer love of excitement, and to enjoy the spectacle. Pres. Well, Goody; finish your history. Old W. I was married soon after this, and then I used to take my seat as a tricoteur among the others; and on the days when Monsieur de Robespierre passed, he used always to notice me le pauvre cher homme. I used then to be called la belle tricoteuse, but now-now, I am called la vielle radoteuse (the old dotardess). Ah, Monsieur le President, it is what we must all come to! The old woman accompanied this reflection with an inimitable look at the President, which completely involved him in the we, thus presenting him with the prospect of becoming an old dotardess; not in the least meant offensively, but said in the innocence of her aged heart. FORGERIES. In the history of crime, as in all other "Blooms cash At that time the Bank of England note was no better in appearance-had not improved as a work of art since the days of Vaughan, Mathieson, and Old Patch; it was just as easily imitated, and the chances of the successful circulation of counterfeits were increased a thousand-fold. Up to 1793 no notes had been issued even for sums so small as five pounds. Consequently all the Bank paper then in use, passed through the hands and under the eyes of the affluent and educated, who could more readily distinguish the false from the true. Hence, during the fourteen years which preceded the non-golden and smallnote era, there were only three capital concommon and victions for the crime. When, however, the Bank of England notes became " popular," a prodigious quantity-to complete the quotation-was also made "base," and many persons were hanged for concocting them. To a vast number of the humbler orders, "sight." Pres. Ahem !-silence! You seem to have a very tender recollection of Monsieur Robes- Bank Notes were a rarity and a pierre. I suppose you had reason to be grate- Many had never seen such a thing before they were called upon to take one or two ful to him? Old W. No, Monsieur, no reason in par-pound notes in exchange for small merchandise, or their own labour. How were they ticular; for he guillotined my husband. Pres. Certainly this ought to be no reason to judge? How were they to tell a good from a spurious note ?-especially when it for loving his memory. Old W. Ah, Monsieur, but it happened happened that the officers of the Bank themquite by accident. Monsieur de Robespierre selves, were occasionally mistaken, so complete did not intend to guillotine my husband-he and perfect were the imitations then afloat. had him executed by mistake for somebody There cannot be much doubt that where one graphic rascal was found out, ten escaped. else le pauvre cher homme ! Thus leaving it an exquisite matter of They snapped their fingers at the executioner, "and went on enjoying their beefsteaks and doubt, as to whether the "poor dear man referred to her husband, or to Monsieur de porter; their winter treats to the play; their Robespierre; or whether the tender epithet summer excursions to the suburban teagardens; their fashionable lounges at Tunwas equally divided between them. 1 bridge Wells, Bath, Margate, and Ramsgate; end of that year, two-and-thirty individuals doing business with wonderful unconcern had been hanged for Note Forgery. So far and "face" all along their journeys. These from this appalling series of examples having usually expensive, but to them profitable en- any effect in checking the progress of the joyments, were continually coming to light at crime, it is proved that at, and after that the trials of the lesser rogues who undertook very time, base notes were poured into the the issue department; for, from the ease with Bank at the rate of a hundred a day! which close imitation was effected, the manu- The enormous number of undetected forgefacture was more readily completed than the ries afloat, may be estimated by the fact, that uttering. The fraternity and sisterhood of from the 1st of January 1812, to the 10th utterers played many parts, and were banded April 1818, one hundred and thirty-one thouin strict compact with the forgers. Some sand three hundred and thirty-one pieces of were turned loose into fairs and markets, paper were ornamented by the Bank officers in all sorts of appropriate disguises. Farmers, with the word "Forged "-upwards of one who could hardly distinguish a field of hundred and seven thousand of them were standing wheat from a field of barley: one-pound counterfeits. Butchers who never wielded more deadly Intrinsically, it would appear from an Hiweapons than two-prong forks: Country boys bernian view of the case, then, that bad notes with Cockney accents, bought gingerbread, were nearly as good, (except not merely having and treated their so-called sweethearts with been manufactured at the Bank), as good ones. ribbons and muslins, all by the interchange of So thoroughly and completely did some of false "flimseys." The better mannered dis- them resemble the authorised engraving of guised themselves as ladies and gentlemen, the Bank, that it was next to impossible to paid their losings at cards or hazard, or distinguish the false from the true. Countless their tavern bills, their milliners, and coach- instances, showing rather the skill of the makers, in motley money composed of part forger than the want of vigilance in Bank real and part base bank paper. Some went officials, could be brought forward. Respectabout in the cloak of the Samaritan, and able persons were constantly taken into cus generously subscribed to charities where- tody on a charge of uttering forgeries, impriever they saw a chance of changing a bad soned for days and then liberated. A close "five" for three or four good "ones." Ladies scrutiny, proving that the accusations were of sweet disposition went about doing good made upon genuine paper. In September, among the poor; personally inquired into 1818, Mr. A. Burnett, of Portsmouth, had distress, relieved it by sending out a daugh- the satisfaction of having a note which had ter or a son to a neighbouring shop for passed through his hands returned to him change; and left five shillings for present from the Bank of England with the base necessities, walking off with fifteen. So openly mark upon it. Satisfied of its genuineness, -in spite of the gallows-was forgery car- he re-inclosed it to the cashier, and demanded ried on, that whoever chose to turn utterer its payment. By return of post he received found no difficulty in getting a stock-in- the following letter: trade to commence with. Indeed, in the days of highwaymen, no travelling gentleman's pocket or valise was considered properly furnished without a few forged notes wherewith to satisfy the demands of the members of the "High Toby." This offence against the laws of the road, however, soon became too common, and wayfarers who were stopped and rifled had to pledge their sacred words of honour that their notes were the genuine promises of Abraham Newland; and that their watches were not of the factory of Mr. Pinchbeck. "Bank of England, 16 Sept., 1818. "Sir, I have to acknowledge your letter to Mr. Hase, of the 13th inst. inclosing a one pound note, and, in answer thereto, I beg leave to genuine Note of the Bank of England; I therefore, acquaint you, that, on inspection it appears to be a agreeably to your request, inclose you one of the like value, No. 26,276, dated 22nd August, 1818. "I am exceedingly sorry, Sir, that such an unusual oversight should have occurred to give you so much trouble, which I trust your candour will induce you to excuse when I assure you that the unfortunate mistake has arisen entirely out of the hurry and multiplicity of business. "I am, Sir, "Your most obedient servant, "A. BURNETT, ESQ. J. RIPPON." With temptations so strong, it is no wonder that the forgers' trade flourished, with only an occasional check from the strong arm of the law. It followed, therefore, that from the issue of small notes in February 1797, to the end of 1817-twenty years-there were no fewer than eight hundred and seventy prose- A more extraordinary case is on record. cutions connected with Bank Note Forgery, A note was traced to the possession of a in which there were only one hundred and tradesman, which had been pronounced by sixty acquittals, and upwards of three hundred the Bank' Inspectors to have been forged. executions! 1818 was the culminating point The man would not give it up and was taken of the crime. In the first three months there before a magistrate, charged with "having a were no fewer than one hundred and twenty-note in his possession, well knowing it to be eight prosecutions by the Bank; and by the forged." He was committed to prison on 1 ין evidence of the Bank Inspector; but was at Haverfordwest were trembling at the foot afterwards released on bail to appear when of the gallows. It was promptly and cogently called on. He was not called on; and, at the argued that as Mr. Christmas's judgment had expiration of twelvemonths (having kept the failed him in the deliberate examination of note all that time), he brought an action one note, it might also err as to others, and against the Bank for false imprisonment. On the convicts were respited. the trial the note was proved to be genuine! and the plaintiff was awarded damages of one hundred pounds. The converse of this sort of mistake often happened. Bad notes were pronounced to be genuine by the Bank. Early in January, 1818, It is a fact sufficiently dreadful that three a well-dressed woman entered the shop of Mr. hundred and thirty human lives should have James Hammond, of 40, Bishopsgate Street been sacrificed in twenty-one years; but Without, and having purchased three pounds when we relate a circumstance which admits worth of goods, tendered in payment a tenthe merest probability that some-even one pound note. There was something hesitating -of those lives may have been sacrificed in and odd in her manner; and, although Mr. innocence of the offence for which they suffered, Hammond could see nothing the matter the consideration becomes appalling. with the note, yet he was ungallant enough Some time after the frequency of the crime to suspect- from the uncomfortable dehad, in other respects subsided, there was a meanour of his customer-that all was not sort of bloody assize at Haverfordwest, in right. He hoped she was not in a hurry, Wales; several prisoners were tried for for he had no change; he must send forging and uttering, and thirteen were con- to a neighbour for it. He immediately disvicted; chiefly on the evidence of Mr. patched his shopman to the most affluent of Christmas, a Bank Inspector, who swore positively, in one case, that the document named in the indictment "was not an impression from a Bank of England plate; was not printed on the paper with the ink or watermark of the Bank; neither was it in the handwriting of the signing clerk." Upon this testimony the prisoner, together with twelve participators in similar crimes, were condemned to be hanged! all his neighbours-to her of Threadneedle Street. The delay occasioned the lady to remark, "I suppose he is gone to the Bank?" Mr. Hammond having answered in the affirmative, engaged his customer in conversation, and they freely discussed the current topics of the day; till the young man returned with ten one pound Bank of England Notes. Mr. Hammond felt a little remorse at having suspected his patroness; who departed with the The morning after the trial, Mr. Christmas purchases with the utmost despatch. She had was leaving his lodging, when an acquaintance not been gone half an hour before two gentlestepped up and asked him, as a friend, to give men rushed into the shop in a state of grievous his opinion on a note he had that morning chagrin; one was the Bank clerk who had received. It was a bright day; Mr. Christmas changed the note. He begged Mr. Hammond put on his spectacles, and carefully scrutinised would be good enough to give him another the document in a business-like and leisurely for it. Why?" asked the puzzled shopmanner. He pronounced it to be forged. keeper. "Why, Sir," replied the distressed The gentleman, a little chagrined, brought it clerk, "it is forged ! Of course his request away with him to town. It is not a little was not complied with. The clerk declared singular that he happened to know Mr. that his dismissal was highly probable; but Burnett, of Portsmouth, whom he acci- Mr. Hammond was inexorable. dentally met, and to whom he showed the The arguments in favour of death punishMr. Burnett was evidently a capital ments never fail so signally as when brought judge of Bank paper. He said nothing, but to the test of the scaffold and its effect on slipping his hand into one pocket, handed to Bank Forgeries. When these were most the astonished gentleman full change, and numerous, although from twenty to thirty put the note into another. "It cannot be a persons were put to death in one year, the good note," exclaimed the latter, "for my gallows was never deprived of an equal share friend Christmas told me at Haverfordwest of prey during the next. As long as simuthat it is a forgery!" But as Mr. Burnett lated notes could be passed with ease, and had backed his opinion to the amount of detected with difficulty, the Old Bailey had twenty shillings he declined to retract it; and no terrors for clever engravers and dexterous lost no time in writing to Mr. Henry Hase imitators of the hieroglyphic autographs of (Abraham Newland's successor) to test its the Bank of England signers. note. accuracy. At length public alarm at the prevalence It was lucky that he did so; for this little of forgeries, and the difficulty of knowing circumstance saved thirteen lives! them as such, arose to the height of demandMr. Christmas's co-inspectors at the Bank ing some sort of relief. In 1819 a committee of England actually reversed his non-official was appointed by the Government to enquire judgment that the note was a forgery. It into the best means of prevention. One hunwas officially pronounced to be a good note; dred and eighty projects were submitted. yet upon the evidence of Mr. Christmas as re- They mostly consisted of intricate designs gards other notes, the thirteen human beings such as rendered great expense necessary to imitate. But none were adopted, for the the Bank Inspectors, there was one note obvious reason that ever so indifferent and for five hundred pounds, dated 12th March, easily executed imitation of an elaborate note 1848, and numbered 32409. At that note an is quite sufficient to deceive an uneducated inspector suddenly arrested his rapid examieye; as had been abundantly proved in the nation of the pile of which it was one. He instance of the Irish "black note." The Bank scrutinised it for a minute, and pronounced it had not been indifferent or idle on the subject, "altered." On the next day, that same note, for it had spent some hundred thousand with a perfect one for five hundred pounds, pounds in projects for inimitable notes. At is shown to us with an intimation of the fact. last-not long before the Commission was We look at every letter; we trace every line; appointed-they were on the eve of adopting follow every flourish: we hold both up to the an ingenious and costly mechanism for light; we undulate our visuals with the waves printing a note so precisely alike on both of the water-mark. We confess that we sides as to appear as one impression, when cannot pronounce decisively; but we have an one of the Bank printers imitated it exactly opinion derived from a slight "goutiness" in by the simple contrivance of two plates and a the fine stroke of the figure 4 that No. 32409 hinge. This may serve as a sample of the is the forgery! so indeed it was. Yet the other one hundred and seventy-nine projects. Bank Inspector had picked it out from the Neither the gallows, nor expensive and hundred genuine notes as instantaneouslyelaborate works of art, having been found pounced upon it as rapidly, as if it had been effectual in preventing forgery, the true printed with green ink upon card-board. expedient for at least lessening the crime was This then, O gentlemen forgers and sporting adopted in 1821-the issue of small notes note alterers, is the kind of odds which is was wholly discontinued, and sovereigns were against you. A minute investigation of the brought into circulation. The forger's trade note assured us of your exceeding skill and was nearly annihilated. Criminal returns in- ingenuity; but it also convinced us of the form us that during the nine years after the superiority of the detective ordeal which you resumption of gold currency the number of have to blind and to pass. In this instance convictions for offences having reference to you had followed the highwayman's plan, the Bank of England notes were less than and had put with great cunning, the addione hundred, and the executions only eight. tional marks to the 1 in 32109 to make it This clinches the argument against the into a 4. To hide the scraping out of the efficacy of the gallows. In 1830 death top or serif of the figure 1-to make the punishments were repealed for all minor angle from which to draw the fine line of the offences, and, although the cases of Bank 4--you had artfully inserted with a pet Note Forgeries slightly increased for a time, figures "£16 16" as if that sum had been yet there is no reason to suppose that they received from a person bearing a name that are greater now than they were between you had written above. You had with extra1821 and 1830. ordinary neatness cut out the "6" from 1846, and filled up the hole with an 8 abstracted from some note of lesser value. You had fitted it with remarkable precision; only you had not got the 8 quite upright enough to pass the shrewd glance of the Bank Inspector. At present, Bank paper forgeries are not numerous. One of the latest was that of the twenty pound note, of which about sixty specimens found their way into the Bank. It was well executed in Belgium by foreigners, and the impressions were passed among the Change-agents in various towns in France and the Netherlands. The speculation did not succeed; for the notes got into, and were detected at, the Bank, a little too soon to profit the schemers much. the We have seen a one-pound note made up of refuse pieces of a hundred other Bank notes, and pasted on a piece of paper (like a note that had been accidentally torn), so as to present an entire and passable whole. To alter with a pen a 1 into a 4 is an easy | The most considerable frauds now perpe- task-to cut out the numeral from the date in trated are not forgeries; but are done upon one note and insert it into another, needs only the plan of the highwayman mentioned in a tyro in paper-cutting; but to change the our first chapter. In order to give currency special number by which each note is disto stolen or lost notes which have been tinguished, is a feat only second in imposstopped at the Bank (lists of which are sup- sibility to trumping every court-card of every plied to every banker in the country), the suit six times running in a rubber of whist numbers and dates are fraudulently altered. Yet we have seen a note so cleverly altered Some years since, a gentleman, who had been by this expedient, that it was actually paid receiving a large sum of money at the Bank, by the Bank cashiers. If the reader will take was robbed of it in an omnibus. The notes a Bank note out of his purse, and examine gradually came in, but all were altered. its "number," he will at once appreciate the The last was one for five hundred pounds, combination of chances required to find, on dated the 12th March, 1846, and numbered 32109. On the Monday (3rd June) after the last "Derby Day," amid the twenty five thousand pieces of paper that were examined by any other note, any other figure that shall dis place any one of the numerals so as to avoid detection. The "number" of every Bank note is printed twice on one line-first, on the words |