Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/247

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JOHNSON, AND POWER, PARDONED.
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so richly deserved, and had taken so much pains to obtain! and were disappointed. The cry of the blood of immolated victims was before the judgment seat; but so much of state policy and of feverish management, and overweening care, hath marked the two administrations of Lord Sidmouth, from the time of Despard and the Tinman of Plymouth, to that of the Derby row and William Hone, that we should not wonder the least to see the last four named "hellish scoundrels"[1] for they are qualified, advanced to some Post or office in the gift of the state.

Mr. Vaughan received his appointment to office a year ago, as inner turnkey of a yard in Cold Bath fields prison, and the pardon of Brock, Pelham, and Power, and of Ben Johnson and Donnelly, was known sixmonths before their liberation took place. And when did it take place, think you, gentle reader? I will tell you: at a time the most mal apropos for a thinking mind to reflect upon, that the darkest, revolting, solicitude could have chosen; namely, the very moment that the warrants for hanging Kelly and Spicer arrived at Newgate, saw also come to hand the order to

  1. Mr. Tierney's words.