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Sketches of London Society.

29

both carriages most particularly attentive, wall, and heard the scandal of the livWhen she drove off, I observed to Lady eried tribe. "How does your coat fit Mary, that I thought people of quality you, Sir Jerry?" cried one footman to were not sufficiently cautious of speak- another : "You'll only have to try it ing before their servants, and that they on: I once lived with your mistress, owed to themselves and to polite socie- who was determined that I should not ty more care in this particular: she gave eat the bread of idleness, for I never got a slight toss with her head, and said, a moment's amusement whilst I was in "Oh! they know nothingaboutamours her service: she sacks the card money; and high life, and can't understand our measures out her provisions like a nipconversation." I was, however, quite of cheese purser of a man of war; notes a different opinion, in which I was afterwards still more confirmed.

down every thing in her d-d account book; and if you can make a guinea besides your wages, I'll allow you to eat me roasted : but you'll not be long there, though the old man is a goodnatured fool enough, deaf and drunken, snuffy, but never out of temper." Much

Our Exquisite now came up to the carriage a second time, with some con cert tickets, which he wished my fair friend to take; and he looked just as much as to say, "Thou art a happy dog, old gentleman !" A telegraphic signal more was added; but this was quite

enough for me. Another scoundrel insinuated something concerning a fellow servant of his, and one of high rank, which almost induced me to cane him.

At my return to the carriage, I delicately hinted a part of what I had heard; but it had no effect: neither had the tearing of the lace flounce, nor the want of principle of the young four-in

passed, and he said to me, "I just met Sir Peter Panemar, the nabob, and he swears that there is the most beautiful Spanish woman that ever looked through a veil, just gone into the garden. It is said, by the bye, that she is protected by a certain Peer; but I believe her to be a rich diamond merchant's wife: the whole Park is in a blaze about her." I am a great amateur, I confess. A lovely hand buck: all seemed to pass with her picture is worthy contemplating; and Ladyship as matters of course in high my designs go no further. I also sus- life. And yet she is virtuous, prudent, pected that this was an adroit manœuvre and well principled; but as Mrs. Marto get rid of me for a time. I therefore vellous calls it, she is far gone, and I am requested permission to alight, for the sorry for it. purpose of looking into the garden. This Five o'clock now called us to dress, was cheerfully agreed to; and Lady and a third succession of company arMary promised to wait until I had rived, who all appeared to have dined, feasted my eyes on the fascinating in- and on whose cheeks sat the flush of cognita. The happy swain then offered punch and other strong liquors. to take my place until I returned; and these groups were children drawn by this arrangement seemed to please all dogs, or by their papas, in little chairs, three. Our Exquisite entangled his spur others in arms, fat landladies, tall strapin her Ladyship's falbela; but it did ping wives, and tame submissive husnot discompose her in the least. Irecom- bands-the emblems of domestic drill mended chevaux de frise in future, at and of petticoat subordination. Every which she laughed; her sister looked insect of fashion flew off on fancy's wing insipidly; and the step was let down at the appearance of le tiers etat. for me.

In

And now commenced the pleasures Arrived in the gardens, I sought la and the labours of the toilette, which I bellu senora in vain ; and am now un- leave my fair friend to indulge in, concertain whether I was hoaxed or not, vinced at the same time qu'elle aura des although our Exquisite most solemnly distractions. protested that the Nabob had seen her.

I sat down for a moment on the low

THE HERMIT IN LONDON. [Lit. Gaz. July 1818. 24

The Suicide.

[VOL. 4

SIR,

REFLECTIONS OF A YOUNG MAN IN PRISON.

PROMISED

From the London European Magazine.

I to send you some re- the general course of the dissipated flectious of the unhappy young man life that he had led, I represented to in prison, upon his own review of the him how unworthy of a rational being

vicious course which he had pursued, and which had plunged him into all the horrors of despondency, and driven him to the dreadful act of suicide.

I now transmit the following account of his last moments, during which he lingered between life and death.

I am, Sir, your's respectfully,
June 3, 1818.
L-shire.

such a surrender of his better judgment and purer convictions must appear to him, when he reflected on the deceptious nature of those vicious gratifications which had led him to the brink of destruction, both of body and soul. I pointed out the fatal certainty with which ruin of character and remorse of

W. F. T. conscience the one irretrievable and the other overwhelming, were always found to follow in the footsteps of the rash votary of libertine indulgence;--I brought him to acknowledge the sad truth, that too frequently such an one was left by the treachery of his passions

WHEN I entered the wretched youth's room, I was introduced to him by the worthy man who is the keeper of the prison, and whose character has been

long revered by every one who knows without any possibility of making him, as possessing all those excellent amends to society for the outrages principles which render him an orna- which he had committed upon its prement to society, even in his unenviable scriptive laws and social rights;-I disand, too often, misrepresented office. played to him the irremediable injury I confess myself to have felt a disposi- which he had inflicted upon his ill-retion to think but slightly of the human- quited parents; -I dwelt upon the ity of individuals in his station; but the misery, disgrace, and despondency, into many evidences of the tender con- which he had plunged a woman, who, sideration with which this person ap- whatever might have been the atrocity plied himself, in all cases of human of her acquiescence in his unprincimisery, to alleviate the sufferings of his pled view, certainly did not deserve to prisoners, have induced me to change be rendered for ever wretched by the my opinion, and acknowledge that all man who had been generously made the my prejudices against keepers of pris- participator of her husband's unsusons and jailors, have given way be- pecting confidence, and liberal co-opefore the generous conduct of this good ration to promote his personal advanceman; and 1 perceive that even those ment in commercial profit and imporwhose employment it is to guard the tance;-I bade him reflect, that, not

conscience-stricken culprit, can feel for their depraved and degraded fellowcreature, and are anxious to temper the rigors of confinement with Christian sympathy.

withstanding he had escaped the sentence of death in consequence of the inadequacy of the laws against the enormous crime of duelling to bring the offenders to condign punishment, the stain of blood was upon his hands, and the guilty deed of depriving a fellow-creature of life was recorded against him in

After my first introduction, I visited the young man three or four times before I received the letter which you have inserted in your Miscellany for the judgment of an Omniscient God ;--last Month. At these seasons I was that, in the volume of Retribution, none anxious to bring him to a just estima- of those evasions and sophistries would tion of the moral and religious necessi- be found allowed, by which the corrupty for repentance. tion of the human heart, and the fashion

As I had long been acquainted with of a sinful world, sought to justify the

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Young Man in Prison.

25

selfish principles of a false and murder- ciety or his own-He was for ever deous honour;-1 concluded by implor- prived of all return to reputation and ing him to consider well, in his own un- credit in this world; notwithstanding happy example, the religious truth of which, he had it in his power to seek the following inference: that no man that Divine favour and happy immorcan violate the moral obligations which tality, in which he would discover that he owes to society, without trangress- peace and joy can only bless those who

seek the one in this world through the paths of pious obedience; and the other, in the world to come, through the sure mercies of the Most High.

ing in equal degree those in which he is bound towards God. And, hence, it became him to seek the pardon of his guiltiness at his divine hand; since, as his justice was eternal, so would be his As I felt the desolate misery to which wrath. To the justice of man he had this early victim of ungoverned passions submitted himself; and when the tem- had reduced himself, it was my great porary forfeiture of his personal liberty anxiety, as a Minister of the Word of should be paid, the discharge of the reconciliation, to seize the reflections of penalty exacted would he accomplish- his mind while they were balanced beed; and whether he manifested his tween self-reproach and repentance, penitence or not for the iniquity which and to fix them upon the latter; but I he had done, was not in the contemplation of those laws by which he was punished. It was not so with the justice of God, and the inflictions of his displeasure. The former could only be appeased by a faithful repentance of those trangressions which he had committed; and the latter could no otherwise be averted than by such newness of life, as might prove that repentance to be sincere. I advised him, therefore, to retire from the public eye as soon as the period of his sentence should be completed, in order to avoid that contempt and execration with which all who knew him would, out of regard to their own reputation, reject him from their intercourse. In this retirement he might cultivate that hope, which the mercy of Heaven still held out to him, and which henceforward could be the only consolation and the sole support of his mind.

This I unfolded to him in all its sacred dependencies, and endeavoured to impress him with a Christian trust, that forgiveness might still be obtained through the righteousness of his Redeemer, and this forgiveness might be followed by everlasting blessedness.

By these, and similar reasonings, I probed his wounded conscience; and searched the depths of the wound, by representing to him what he had lost, and what he yet might gain. He no longer possessed the good opinion of soD ATHENEUM, Vol. 4

found his thoughts wretchedly bewildered between the infidel notions which he had imbibed, and those prospects of eternity which his fears, rather than his hopes shadowed to his foreboding soul. Pleasure, in all its most ruinous pursuits, had been his only object; and I clearly perceived that, so vitiated had been his heart, there was still a regret lingering in his bosom, at finding himself, by this last fatal act, cut off at once from all worldly gratification, and doomed to disappointment and disgrace; I, therefore, shewed him the utter unprofitableness of the career which he had so inconsiderately run, as well as the criminal impetuosity with which he had persevered in its course, unrestrained by the admonitions and expostulations of his heart-broken parents, and unchecked by the reproaches of his own conscience.

It was my duty to press these salutary truths upon this poor young man's acknowledgment; and my sympathies were too strongly excited, not to blend with my sense of duty, an earnest desire to call him back from the unhallowed paths in which he had wandered far from the moral and religious purity of Christian principle. When I looked at him, and called to mind that he was once the endeared child of an affectionate mother, and the promising hope of an indulgent father-when I saw him sunk in woe and personal privation

26

Young Man in Prison.

[VOL. 4

I

when I recollected the expectations rific wildness that compelled me, for a which his youthful promise had raised moment, to turn away my eyes. in all his relatives-when, too, the ex- could not bear to contemplate the cellent education which he had receiv- shocking image of suicide. He strug ed, and the talents which it had unfold- gled with the attendants to get his hands ed, occurred to me; and when I con- loose, that he might prevent the surtemplated the sad and piteous reverse geon from sewing up the wounded of all this which he now exhibited, I parts: this caused the blood to gush could not avoid regarding him as a afresh; at length, however, he sunk dreadful example of that subjugation fainting into that gentleman's arins, to evil, by which a youth, who discards who requested me to withdraw for a all restraints of pious and moral in- few moments, until he should adminisstruction, and opposes the perverseness ter the miserable patient a composing of his will to the advice of the wise, is medicine, if he should be able to receive induced to unite himself to the libertine it, upon his coming out of the fit, association of the wicked and the vile : I withdrew accordingly. When he at first, perhaps, without intending to recovered from this state of insensibility, go all lengths with them; but, at last, he made signs that he wished to write; compelled to do so, by an influence the materials were brought him; and which he cannot resist; and to which, he wrote the following words in a by the destructive habit of continued hurried and scarcely legible character. intercourse, he willingly surrenders all "For God's sake do not let Mr.

his better prospects, and happier hopes. go away-I want him-I must see I had attended him as an old ac-him-bring him back-I will be, I quaintance of his family; and, I trust, am more composed." The surgeon's I may add, as the friend of his soul- assistant came for me, and telling me and I was the more disposed to use my that he feared the wound was too large most anxious exertions to reclaim him and deep to be effectually sewa up, from his guilty course, because I fear- recommended me to be prompt in whated, that in his then distracted state of ever I wished to say or do, as he had mind, despair might lay hold of him, little doubt of his going off in the next and precipitate him into a lower deep attack of faintness.

of misery, in which he would find "no I re-entered the room; the blood place for repentance, none for pardon had ceased to flow, and his countenance left." My fears were too soon realized. appeared more calm and settled. He The letter addressed to me, informed pointed to a chair at the head of the me of the fatal fact. I scarcely stopped bed, and clasping his hands in an attito read it through, and instantly has- tude of prayer, seemed to implore me tened to the prison; I cannot describe with great 'earnestness, to supplicate the horror of the scene that presented the Throne of Grace in his behalf. I itself. Upon a bed, in the apartment complied with his desire. I had finishappropriated to the purposes of an hos- ed, and had seated myself upon the bed pital, lay the ill-fated votary of this nearly overcome with oppression of world's false delight. The bed-clothes heart, when turning towards him, I were covered with his blood, which, in saw his eyes lifted upwards, and fixed in spite of all the efforts of the surgeon to a trance of fervor, in which he seemed staunch it, still oozed from the wound to be wholly absorbed. His lips moved with which the poor wretch had pierced as he lay engaged in mental prayer, but his throat. He had nearly divided the no articulate sound proceeded from windpipe, and all power of speech was them. I watched him for some minutes, completely destroyed. When I ap- when, suddenly discovering that I had proached him, he looked up, and shook ceased to pray, he lifted his head from his head. Never shall I forget the the pillow, and seeing me seated by ghastly countenance, in which the ago- him, he caught hold of my hand, and nies of despondence, remorse, and des- grasped it convulsively. The pain which peration, were all combined in a ter- the motion of his head had occasioned

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forced him to resume his former pos- he shed tears. As they rolled down his ture, but he still retained his hold of cheeks, the surgeon carefully wiped them me, as if he dreaded to let go lest he off, that the dressings might not be should sink for ever. It was with dif- disturbed by his own effort to do it. ficulty that I could command myself; I took this opportunity of rising from when, with a faultering voice, I entreat- the bed to depart, when, taking a diced him to be tranquil-" I will come tionary, which he requested in writing again to you in a few hours," said I, might be handed to him, he turned "when I hope in God you will be better over the leaves to find the principal abie to attend to me." He lifted up words by which he might convey his his left hand and spread it upon his meaning to me. By the means of this breast, by which I concluded that he expedient, the following communicameant to convey a grateful acquies- tion took place between us:cence in my design. I then gradually "Can I be forgiven ? Is there any attempted to withdraw my hand from hope for such a sinner as myself? O his; but as I moved it, he pressed it speak! you are a minister of GOD! more closely; and when I had succeeded Dare you bid me hope ?"

in disengaging it, he raised his own "Yes, I dare bid you trust in the and let it fall immediately, unable to Divine Mercy, if your repentance be support its weight.

sincere."

I left him with very little expectation of seeing him alive at the hour tance will be accepted?"

"How can I know that my repen

when I proposed to return.

"You have the warrant of your Saviour's words to justify your hope that it will be- I am come to seck and to save those that are lost.'

The time arrived, and to my great astonishment I found him sitting up in his bed, supported by pillows. The surgeon still continued with him, under "I fear I am lost for ever!" the apprehension that a hemorrhage "Not so! Gop is the judge! He would come on. As soon as the young looks upon the heart; and as he alone man saw me, he beckoned to me to can judge of the sincerity of your penicome near him; and writing upon a tence, he alone can give you hope of piece of paper, gave it me :- "O my forgiveness."

"O my kind friend! could I die in this hope, I have no desire to live." "Do not mistrust the Power and Will of your God and Saviour. Even

dear sir! My worthy friend! Comforter of my soul! do not-O do not, I be seech you, let my rash action be ever imparted to my afflicted mother, should she regain her senses." I promised it now he has touched your soul with conshould be kept from her knowledge. He viction that you require his forgiveness. would have bowed his head to thank Meditate upon this conviction until I me, but the stiffness of the wound see you to-morrow, and in the mean checked him. He then again made while I commend you to his Grace and signs for me to pray with him, and pre- Mercy."

pared himself to join me, by putting He then closed the book, and signihis hands together. When my voice fied to the attendants that he would lie ceased, he closed his eyes, and remained down again. I bade him adieu, which perfectly still for near a quarter of an he answered with a look of assent. hour; and then opening them again On the morrow I repaired to him full upon me, I was rejoiced to see that again. I found by the report of the their frantic stare was changed for a surgeon that he had slept for three mild and complacent gaze-a smile of hours, and had awaked much refreshed, grateful respect reposed upon his lips; but that from the appearance of the and he again took my hand, but with wound there was great cause to apless force than before. His pressure prehend that mortification had taken was gentle, and repeated at intervals. place. I learnt also that he had emHe laid his other hand upon it, and for ployed nearly two hours in writing the first time since the dreadful deed a letter to me. When I went to him