Sufferings of Lieutenant George Spearing in a Coal Pit. 147 greatest horrors, ftill thinking my felf in the pit; fo that in fact I fuffered as much by imagination as from reality. I continued fix weeks at the miller's, when the roads became too bad for the doctor's to vifit me, fo that I was under the neceffity of being carried in a fedan chair to my lodgings in Glafgow. By this time my right foot was quite well; but in my left foot, where theabove-mentioned black spot appeared, there was a large wound, and it too plainly proved that the os calcis was nearly all decayed; for, the furgeon could put his probe through the centre of it. The flesh too at the bottom of my foot was quite feparated from the bones and tendons, fo that I was forced to fubmit to have it cut off. In this painful ftate I lay feveral months, reduced to a mere fkeleton, taking thirty drops of laudanum every night; and though it fomewhat eafed the pain in my foot, it was generally three or four in the morning before I got any reft. My fituation now be came truly alarming: I had a confultation of furgeons, who advised me to wait with patience for an exfoliation, when they had not the leaft doubt but they fhould foon cure my foot. At the fame time they frankly acknowledged that it was impoffible to afcertain the precife time when that would happen, as it might be fix, or even twelve months, before it came to pafs. In my emaciated condition I was certain that it was not poffible for me to hold out half the time; and, knowing that I must be a very great cripple with the lofs of my heel bone, I came to a determined refolution to have my leg taken off, and ap'pointed the very next day for the operation; but no furgeon came near me. I fincerely, believe they wished to perform a cure; but being, as I thought, the best judge of my own feelings, I was refolved this time to be guided by my own opinion; accordingly, on the 2d of May, 1770, my leg was taken off a little below the knee. Yet, notwithstanding I had fo long endured the rod of affliction, misfortunes ftill fol lowed me. About three hours after the amputation had been performed, and when I was quiet in bed, I found myfelf, nearly fainting with the loss of blood; the ligatures had all given way, and the arteries had bled a con. fiderable time before it was dif covered. By this time the wound was inflamed: nevertheless, I was under the neceffity of once inore fubmitting to the operation of the needle, and the principal artery was fewed up four different times before the blood was ftopped. I fuffered much for two or three days, not daring to take a wink of fleep; for, the moment I fhut my eyes, my ftump, though con ftantly held by the nurfe) would take fuch convulfive motions, that I really think a ftab to the heart could not be attended with greater pain. My blood too was become fo very poor and thin that it abfolutely drained through the wound near a fortnight after my leg was cut off. I lay for 18 days and nights in one pofition, not daring to move, left the li gature fhould again give way; but I could endure it no longer, and ventured to turn myfelf in bed contrary to the advice of my furgeon, which I happily ef fected, and never felt greater pleafure in my life. Six weeks after the amputation, I went out. in a fedan chair for the benefit of the air, being exactly nine months fince the day I fell into the pita Soon Oh! grant I ever may confefs Thy goodnefs fhewn to me; With grateful heart and tongue exprefs The praife that's due to thee, While in the dreary pit I lay My life thou didst sustain ; And, to my comfort I may fay, Thou gav'ft refreshing rain. In this, thy providential care Is to the world made known. Then, fince my life thou didst preserve, So will I yearly, on this day, G. S. For the SPORTING MAGAZINE. The BULLOCK HUNTER. HERE are a defcription of THE men always floating on the furface of active life, that are capable, and not unfrequently guilty of the worst of crimes, but who cautiously avoid endangering their necks, by keeping within certain bounds in the commiffion of those crimes-For inftance, a lawyerwill rob another of his eftate, but then he will do it by fhew of legal means; end though he deferves, yet, by his ingenuity and under colour of his profeffion, will efcape that juft punishment which would await his nefarious conduct. So it is by fwindlers and fharpers; look but to the life of F, alias F -J; that man has, for twenty years, been at the head of a gang of robbers: not the fame men; for many have been hanged, and their places fupplied by fresh recruits; yet Fn, ftill lives, and may fand a chance to die in his bed. But this luck does not always attend the knowing and cautious tribe. They fometimes are caught in their own traps. Two or three inftances of which we will men. tion, in order to introduce the perfon who has given occafion to this article, namely, the Bullock Hunter. Warren, and another of the money-dropping fquad, who had enticed a man with fome property about him, to go into a public-houfe, and lay wagers with them, were both capitally convicted fome months ago at the Old Bailey. Their defence was, we won the money of the gentleman." The profecutor, however, proved that they forcibly took it from him, and which constituted what they did not ap. prehend, a capital felony. 66 Another Law Intelligence. Another artful character has likewife paffed the rubicon, viz. Old Innis, who expiated his crimes by being publicly executed before the debtor's door of Newgate, on the 11th of the prefent month. This man, by making an infurance at the Equit able Society's Office, in Bridgeftreet, and procuring a forged will to furnish him with creden. tials to demand the pretended forfeiture on a life infüred, had nearly carried his point; for on the trial of an action which he brought against the fociety to recover the infurance, he had witneffes ready to fwear to his pur pofe; unluckily, however, for him, one of them faultered, and difclofed the whole fcene of villainy. The refpectable plaintiff then in court, was ordered by Lord Kenyon, to be taken to Newgate. Some efforts were made by two of his relations to fave his life on the trial, at the Old Bailey, which availed nothing to him; and to them little fhort of conviction for the perjury. To fhew that a man may fometimes get his deferts without previously dreaming of fuch a confequence befalling him, we fhall here add the particulars of the cafe of Richard Goodwin, the bullock-hunter, tried at the Old-Bailey, on Wednesday the 4th of June, for ftealing and driving away a bullock value 71. the property of Mr. Edmund Fearnley. The circumftances which came out on the trial were thefe : Fearnley, the profecutor, who lives at Bell Bar, Hertford hire, fent ten bullocks by his drover to Smithfield-market; on their way thither, the prifoner, with fome other perfons, met them, and VOL IV. No. XXI. 149 fingling out one with a bald face, drove him from the reft; the drover purfued, and meeting a patrole, by his affiftance the bullock was reftored to the other nine; but they had not proceeded far before the prifoner came again, and felected out the fame bullock; the drover followed, but was befet by fuch a number of people with sticks, that he was obliged to take fhelter in Old-street Turnpike-house. In about four hours after, they were told were the bullock was, and from that information he was recovered. The defence fet up by the pri foner's counfel was, an attempt to get rid of the greater crime by the admiffion of a leffer; the fact of driving away the bullock was not denied, but then it was con⚫ tended it was not done with an intent to feal, but merely for what is called bullock-hunting; the jury, however, after being out of court a quarter of an hour, brought in their verdict-Guilty. friend and patron of the defendant, who had conftantly accefs to his houfe, and an apartment provided for his accomodation. Lady Cadogan was the daughter of very honourable parents, and maintained an irreproachable character up to the period at which the criminal intercourfe was difcovered. She had been married to his lordship about eighteen years, and the fruits of their marriage were feven children, the eldeft of which was a daughter fixteen years of age. The age of Lady Cadogan was about forty-nine. She had lived upon terms of the greatest felicity with the plaintiff, who had always conducted himself towards her with the utmost tendernefs and affection. was with great regularity, order, and decorum, and that his lordship was a very tender and affectionate husband. The defendant confidered as an intimate friend of his lordship, and at the time the adultrous connection took place, lived in his house. The witneffes examined to prove the criminal intercourfe were domeftic fervants of the plaintiff. They ftated many circumftances, the principal of which were, that in the months of May and June laft, the defendant, between twelve and one o'clock in the morning, went into the bed-room of Lady Cadogan, dreffed only in his bed-gown and flippers; the bed appeared in a condition to induce the witneffes to believe that the defendant had committed adultery with her lady fhip Upon cross-examination, the witneffes faid, that the defendant was fo intimate with the family, as frequently to be permitted to vifit Lady C. in her bed-room while fhe was ill, in the prefence of the plaintiff; and that he had alfo fometimes in her bathing drefs, and even when he was at the cold-bath, and in the water. Mr. Law made a very able fpeech for the defendant, but called no witneffes. The defendant was a clergyman, and the eldeft fon of Sir Grey Cooper. He was about thirty years of age, and married to a young, beautiful, and accomplished lady, who had produced him four pledges of their mutual affection. The crime imputed to the defendant was aggravated by feveral circum-accefs to her when he was attired ftances, inafmuch as it was committed in breach of the laws of hofpitality, confidence, and friendship. The evidence in fupport of the criminal intercourfe would not reft upon any pofitive proofs, but upon feveral Lord Kenyon delivered an excircumstances, which, taken to- cellent address to the jury upon gether, muft afford an irrefiftible the whole of the cafe, which he conclufion, that the defendant confidered to be of the greatest had been guilty of a criminal importance to the parties, and to connexion with Lady Cadogan. the laws of virtue and morality, This was equal to pofitive proof. His lordship faid, it has been his The marriage between the misfortune to try a great number plaintiff and his lady was then of caufes for criminal conversaproved. It was alfo proved that tion; and in all of them he had they had lived together upon laid it down as a principle of terms of the greateft conjugal law, that pregnant circumftances | felicity, and that Lord Cadogan connected together, and afford kept a house governed in generaling to a rational mind an irrefift. On Play and Luck. 151 and the always increafing or di- ible inference of a criminal intercourfe between the parties, was of equal force with pofitive testimony. His lordship then commented upon all the circumftances given in evidence, and faid, if the jury thought the charge was brought home to the defendant, his crime was of a moft aggravated nature. He had not only robbed the noble plaintiff of his peace of mind, difhonoured his wife, and withdrawn his attention and affection from his children, but difgraced the clerical profeffion, and violated the laws of hofpitality and friend-hang them, in God's name, any ship. The jury withdrew for a short time, and returned with a verdict for the plaintiff Damages Two thoufand Pounds. WE On PLAY and LUCK. E ara told by a modern author, that "the principal allurement to play arifes from the pride of believing that we are under the immediate influence of fome fuperior being." From the context of this paffage, it was to be imagined that the author had nothing in his mind but the ordinary and common fport of chance; and, as my fate leads me at times to this kind of fruitless employment, I conceived it to be well worth my pains to purfue the enquiry, that perhaps I might occafionally obtain a moral use from what fo feldom yields me any other. the Now fortune, or luck, is in general a phenomenon, ground and effence whereof is to a great degree inexplicable. We know it, for the most part only, from its effects, and can give no certain account either of its nature, or of its mode of action our where, or no where, in heaven or in hell. By this way of proceeding, we fhould always come to fome certainty; and we fhould, at least, find whither this or that matter tended, and from which fide we were to derive our destiny. On Now, as to what relates in particular to games of hazard, namely, to that part of our for tune which we feek in cards, dice, and the like, we must take natural things into the account; as for inftance, the structure, and the mechanical conftitution of our hand, as having, doubtlefs, a great influence thereon. thefe very often at the impulfion of our nerves, and the circulation of the blood; and these, again, are fet in motion by our humour and inward temper; fo that we at laft no longer know to which of the various circumftances we owe the freaks of 'fortune,, or the obftinacy of fate; and whether a word quite foreign to the game, fome look, or unexpected appearance, may not have given rife to the ravages committed in an evening on the tablets of our fortune. |