Jackfon having been admitted an evidence (as above-mentioned) bills of indictment were preferred, at the next feffions at the Old Bailey, against Conway and Richardson, who were thereupon put on their trials for the murders of Mr. Venables and Mr. Rogers. Jackson's evidence against them was full and pofitive; and this being strongly supported by that of the perfon of whom they had purchased the pistols, aided by a variety of collateral circumftances, the jury did not hefitate to convict them; the confequence of which was, that they were condemned to die.

After conviction they were, as usual in such cafes, lodged in the cells of Newgate; and we are forry to say that their penitence did not feem proportioned to the dreadful crime they had committed-a crime of the blackeft dye, and altogether unprovoked by those who fell victims to their inhuman barbarity..

On the Monday following they were conveyed to the place of execution: an incredible number of people attending the folemn proceffion, and preparing to fee the exit of men who had diftinguished themselves by the atrociousness of their crimes, and whofe ftory had excited the public curiofity in a very high degree.

Unprepared as these men appeared to have been for the dreadful fate that awaited them, yet, when they faw how near and how certain it was, they feemed to be fhocked to a degree beyond defcription, and appeared as folemn and fincere in their devotions as others who had fuffered at the fatal. tree.

敷

After execution their bodies were cut down and conveyed to Bow-common, where they were put

in chains, and hung on a gibbet. It is hardly cre

dible to think what immenfe numbers of people went from London, to take a view of these malefactors while hanging in chains: to talk of a thoufand, or ten thousand, would be faying nothing, Perhaps more than fifty thousand vifited the spot within the first five days. On Sunday, particularly, the place refembled a crowded fair; and many people got money by felling liquors and other provifions to the affembled multitude. So great was the crowd, that the banks in the neighbourhood, and even the hedges, were broken down, that the mob might gratify their eager curiofity.

These malefactors fuffered at Tyburn on the 19th of July, 1770.

In the cafe of these men, the consciousness of guilt will appear in its most striking light; for after they had committed the murders, fuch was their terror, that they did not dare to reap the intended fruits of their illegal expedition; for we find that the murdered men were not robbed, but the guilty parties fought their fafety in flight; fo true is that fcriptural expreffion, "the wicked fly, when no "man purfueth."

No account has ever reached us of what became of the accomplice Fox. It was prefumed that he escaped out of the kingdom; but could he efcapefrom his own confcience? from those terrors which must ever haunt the guilty mind? Alas! he could not. The attempt muft have been vain; fince he carried about with him the confciousness of being a murderer, and must have had a perpetual hell within his own breaft.

The story before us will ferve to enforce, in a very emphatic manner, that divine command, "Thou shalt do no murder." May all the readers of this narrative be inftructed in the doctrines of

humanity!

humanity! nor provoke the vengeance of that God, who, though he may be flow to punish, will not fuffer his holy commands to be trampled under foot!

Account of the Cafe of JOHN STRETTON, who
was executed for robbing the Mail; with an
Account of the Circumftance that led to his
Detection.

HIS unhappy man was defcended from refpectable parents, who gave him a liberal education; nor did any circumftance arife to throw blame on his character, till the discovery of the crime which coft him his life.

He was apprenticed to a grocer in London, and ferved his time with a degree of fidelity that would have done credit to any fervant; and he appeared to gain the general good opinion of those who were acquainted with him.

At the expiration of his apprenticeship he went to live as a journeyman to a grocer in Bishopfgateftreet, where he ftill maintained a fair character, and continued in this ftation feveral years, during which he married and had a daughter; but his wife died a confiderable time before the perpetration of the fact which rendered him a fatal victim to the violated laws of his country.

Mr. Stretton, having by his frugality accumulated a fum of money, opened a shop in Bishopfgate-street on his own account, and had every reafonable profpect of fuccefs; for fo regular had

been

been his conduct, and fo irreproachable was his character, that not any perfon in his own way of bufinefs refused to give him credit to any reafonable amount.

Unhappily, however, he had not long embarked in trade before his ruin enfued, from a cause which one would have thought very unlikely to produce it.

Having conceived a defign of advancing himself in life by a fecond marriage, and a butcher in the neighbourhood being reputed worth a confiderable fum of money, he paid his addreffes to his daughter, who was fo well pleafed with him, that the did not hesitate to make a declaration in his favour; but the father, unwilling to part with any money, as a portion for his daughter, refolved not to give his confent, because Mr. Stretton was not in circumstances of independence.

In the mean time the lovers contrived frequent opportunities of seeing each other, and the young woman repeatedly informed Mr. Stretton with the determination of her father. Chagrined by this circumftance, and refolved to remove the objec tion, which feemed to arife from his prefumed poverty, he made the dreadful refolution of rob bing the mail.

He had not, however, for fome time, an opportunity of carrying his intention into execution; for he was seized with a fevere fit of illness, which confined him to his bed for fome weeks, during which time he was frequently vifited by the girl whom he had courted, and alfo by her mother, who was a warm friend to the proposed marriage.

At length he recovered his health in a very confiderable degree; on which he refolved to compleat, if poffible, the plan which had fo long agitated his

mind. In purfuance hereof he took an opportunity when the shopman was in bed one Saturday night to quit the house, and go as far as the Cityroad, between Illington and London, where he awaited the arrival of the Northern mail, which came oppofite Peerless-pool about two o'clock in the morning.

Stretton, obferving the poft-boy coming up, flopped the mail, and took out fuch bags as he thought proper; after which he went into Moor fields, where he examined the contents of the bags, and taking out fuch bills and notes as he thought proper, left the bags behind him, and retired to his own house.

As foon as the robbery was made known at the poft-office, the Poftmafter-general offered by advertisement, as is usual on fuch occafions, a reward of two hundred pounds for the apprehenfion of the robber: but nothing transpired in the courfe of several weeks; and it is probable that the offender might have remained much longer undetected, but for the following circumftance.

Stretton ftill continued to pay his addreffes to the butcher's daughter; but her father, unwilling that the fhould marry a man in low or doubtful circumstances, was continually talking to Stretton on the subject of money matters; till at length the latter was fo imprudent as to fhew him the drafts in his poffeffion, and even to fend a porter to Mr. Boldero's, the banker, for the acceptance of one of them, that no doubt might remain of their being good notes: but the porter had no fooner prefented the bill, than he was detained, and a peace-officer, and other perfons, were fent in fearch of Mr. Stretton, whom they found at his own house.

VOL. V. No. 41.

C

They