own confessions, with or without tor- ture, and from the testimony of wit- nesses examined by the fiscal. Sen- tence was finally passed on them, con- demning four gypsies, among whom were Hemperla and the little Gallant, to be broken on the wheel, nine others to be hanged, and thirteen, of whom the greater part were women, to be beheaded. They underwent their doom with great firmness, upon the 14th and 15th November 1726. The volume contains, as I have al- ready mentioned, some rude prints, representing the murders committed by the gypsies, and the manner of their execution. There are also two prints, presenting the portraits of the princi- pal criminals, in which, though the execution be indifferent, the gypsey features may be clearly traced. I have perhaps dwelt longer on these dreadful stories than you or your readers may approve ; yet they con- tain an important illustration of the great doctrines, that cruel and san- guinary laws usually overshoot their own purpose, drive to desperation these against whom they are levelled, and, by making man an object of chace, convert him into a savage beast, of prey. It is impossible to read these anecdotes, without feeling that the in- discriminate application of the brand, the scourge, the boots, and the thumb- screws, against this unfortunate class of beings, merely because they followed the course of their fathers, from which the law made no provision for re- claiming them, must have harden- ed their hearts, and whetted their desire of vengeance. The narrations also place in a new light the gypsey character, and as they shew to what excesses it is capable of being pervert- ed, may serve to stimulate the exer- tions of those humane persons, who have formed the project of rescuing this degraded portion of society from mendicity, ignorance, and guilt. Tweedside, 1st January.
LETTER FROM Z. TO MR LEIGH HUNT.
THE manner in which you have twice addressed me in your newspaper, re- quires, by the rules of common civi- lity, an answer from me in the first person. I lay aside without regret the authoritative plural, in which you and I, and all the periodical writers of the present day, find our advantage ; and I speak to Mr Leigh Hunt, as an individual, with the unfashionable hu- mility of the singular number.
In Blackwood's Magazine for Octo- ber there appeared, as you well know, an article entitled, "On the Cockney School of Poetry, No I." in which I took the liberty of stating a few gene- ral opinions respecting you as a poet, and the founder of a new school of poetry. To be the founder of a good school of poetry, I asserted, that you were unfit, and I maintained, that you have hitherto made a very bad use of the poetical talents, such as they are, with which you are endowed. That the opinion which I then expressed could be at all agreeable to your per- sonal vanity I never expected ; but I confess I gave you credit for tact and experience in the world, sufficient to prevent you from the adoption of those silly and inefficient measures by which you have been pleased to express your resentment.
My opinion with respect to you is the opinion of an individual ; and I never doubted that it was very differ- ent from that of many others. But I did not presume to offer my opinion to the public, without hinting at the same time, that I intended to lay be- fore it the grounds upon which that opinion had been formed. My Octo- ber paper was merely an opening of the case ; I said, as plainly as words could speak it, that the examination of witnesses, and the closing address, would both follow in their season. But you are such a testy person, that you cannot bear to hear the first parar graph of your indictment, without ma- nifesting, by passionate outcries, your indignation at being dragged forward upon such a charge. Such an ebulli- tion of noble rage might perhaps have been better timed at the end of the trial, when the proofs had all been produced, when your accuser had clos- ed his mouth, and the impartial jury of your country were about to form their final opinion, whether you were or were not guilty of the things which had been laid to your account. In your situation, however, such a phren- zied declaration of innocence could never have been considered as the pro- per method of exculpation. You also had it in your power to bring your witnesses into court, and you were at
