would say, did we not acknowledge in our very best manner the ser vices he has rendered us, and the many obligations we are under to him.

Mr. Gregory has held the situation of steward of Clement's Inn, for many years, and has performed such duties as appertain to the office in a manner to elicit the esteem and approbation of all. He is the most gentlemanly creature alive, and his conduct is proverbially kind and considerate. It is true, he is an attorney, but then he stands "himself alone;" like his ancestral milk-pails, he is without parallel :

great, glorious, and free,

The first boy at his Înn, and the last for a feo,

THE CONFESSIONS OF EDWARD WILLIAMS,

(Continued from No. 15.)

Our little boy, now in his fifth year, grew extremely engaging. and was intelligent far beyond his years. I have since thought, that I sinfully loved that child, for upon him was concentrated every soft and endearing feeling of my nature. Profligate, and heedless as I was; and hardened as my heart has since been towards all mankind, it never lost its love for my boy; and one simple smile, or even a casual glance from his bright sunny eye, would fill my breast with joy, and soften me even to tears! Children, at his age, are generally selfish, and often wanton and cruel; but Edward was as gentle as a dove, and full of love and affection for every living ereature ; flowers, too, were his delight; and he was contemplative to a degree that was often painful. I have seen him gaze with tears on the setting sun, and watch its gradual descent with visible emotion; and he would repeat his little prayers with an emphasis and feeling, which, in one so young, were touching in the extreme. Yet, with all this he was extremely playful, and I often thought he was running through his life too fast, and that he would never live to be a man; too, too true, alas! was my foreboding! I had been to Messrs. publishers of the

and

the proprietors and Magazine, and received twenty guineas for some contributions; and, as Mary and I had not been recently to the theatre, I resolved to take her that evening. On my return home to dinner, I paid a few small bills, and purchased a trifling present for my wife and our boy, and I even now recollect how bright was

the glimpse of happiness, which beamed upon our humble home on that memorable evening. We had just dined, and I was sitting by the fire, with Edward prattling on my knee, and Mary was looking over the new book I had bought her, when a knock at the door startled me. I listened, when I heard my name inquired for in a strange voice, and at the same time two men entered the parlour. Is your name Williams, Sir?" asked the most respectable looking one of the two. I answered in the affirmative, when he continued, "Then, I have got a writ against you."

Against me I gasped-" At whose suit?"

Captain Clare's," answered the man, coolly.

I uttered an exclamation of surprise, and indignation; but being well aware of the inutility of remonstrance, I prepared to follow the bailiffs to a lock-up house, and giving Mary a note to Captain Clare, requested her to see him in the morning, and endeavour to make some satisfactory arrangement with him. Kissing her, and folding my boy in my arms, I followed the officers to a spunging-house in the neighbourhood, where I was safely lodged for the night. I was extremely puzzled to account for this strange conduct on the part of Captain Clare; but something whispered to me, that my cousin, Edwin, was at the bottom of it: I waited, however, anxiously till the morning, for the result of Mary's interview with him.

The morning came, and found me, after a restless night, lying on a dirty sofa, in a dirtier room, without a fire. A ragged girl, with slip-shod shoes, thrust herself into the apartment, and asked if I wanted any breakfast? I told her I did not, and she retired, grumbling. I thought the time insufferably long before Mary made her appearance; but she came at last, and brought me, glad tidings of release and freedom. With the Captain, however, she was utterly unsuccessful, as he would not even see her; but referred her to his solicitors, Messrs. Bunce and Butterfee, in Gray's Inn Square. Thither she accordingly went, and they informed her, that nothing but good and responsible bail, for the debt and costs, amounting altogether to nearly £40, (the original sum being under £20!) would liberate me from my present confinement. Knowing but little of the nature of bail, and still less of the means of procuring it, she, with a woman's intuitive readiness, proceeded at once to Mr. Jones, and laid the whole case plainly and openly before him. So powerfully did she plead my cause, that Mr. Jones returned with her to Messrs. Bunce and Butterfee, and became himself answerable for any claim against me. He, then, sent a clerk to get the bail-bond executed, and having paid pretty handsomely for the "accommodations" at the lock-up house, I accompanied Mary home-like a man just awoke from a troublous and distempered dream.

I lost no time in seeking Captain Clare, and demanding from him an explanation, which he candidly gave me. He said, that being one evening at the billiard room, my name was introduced, with reference to my skill in the game, and his friend, Edwin Villars, who

happened to be present, took an opportunity of speaking to him. about me. He ascertained that I owed the Captain a small debt; and, then informed him, that if he did not immediately proceed against me, he would lose every sixpence, as I was on the eve of embarking clandestinely for America! The Captain took the advice, and acted upon it, as I have related. This was the Captain's tale; but I afterwards discovered, that from the very beginning, he was hired by Edwin,-first to urge me to play, and then, having become my creditor, to have me arrested for the amount of his claim. In fact, Captain Clare was a creature of my cousin, who contributed largely to his finances, but not gratuitously: Edwin received an ample equivalent in the villainy of his obsequious friend.

Philosophers and philanthropists have condemned the brutal practice of imprisonment for debt; but they have done so on the plea that it interferes with the liberty and rights of the subject. Their reasoning is theoretical ;—and, while seated luxuriously in their well furnished libraries, they have, like the subtle weaver of fiction, conjured up imaginary cases of outraged freedom-and denounced, on political grounds alone, so barbarous a system. But had they experienced-actually and bitterly experienced-the moral and personal tortures of this atrocious system; had they been compelled to associate with some of the most abandoned of their species; and had they, above all other indignities, been exposed to the foul blot, and irradicable stain of a prison-all their enlarged notions of the political influence of imprisonment for debt, would sink down, at once, into the painful and oppressive conviction of their own personal degradation.

Misfortunes seldom come singly; with me they never did, but, on the contrary, have ever come fast and thick, in quick and oppressive succession. In less than a month from my arrest at Captain Clare's suit, proceedings were commenced against me by a creditor, whom I have since learnt was not only instigated thus to persecute me, but was absolutely supplied with money by my cousin for that purpose! The result placed me in the King's Bench, without any hope of speedy extrication. You, Sir, in the happy enjoyment of ease and competence, cannot be supposed to know much of the debasing misery of a prison-house. True, you may have seen soine of this misery in your official intercourse with the miserable inmates of this wretched dwelling: but, in your own person, you cannot have endured any portion of the bitter agony of compulsory incarceration. Six months, Sir, was I exposed to all the low and degrading horrors of "The Bench ;" and, at the expiration of that period, I was released, by the same kind means which freed me from that home before.—Mr. Jones again came forward to liberate me.

I do not know whether it has ever been your lot to experience, in your varied intercourse with mankind, and, more especially, in your constant exposure to the operations of mortality, the mevitable

effect of that curious state of excitement, denominated by the Scotch, Fey. I mean, that, when you have experienced an extraordinary flow of spirits, something bad, evil and calamitous, has assuredly ensued. This I have often felt-and have survived! But

you shall hear.

A close application to my pen had enabled me to accumulate about £20, exclusive of every claim upon me. This gave me great joy, because I had been, of late, greatly harassed by duns, and Mary's health was suffering from the circumstance. I had been into the City to receive from Messrs. some fifty pounds, and was proudly taking home to my affectionate wife the clear balance, highly excited, and in better spirits than I had been for a long time. The devil envied me, Sir, and caught me! I was passing joyously along the Strand, when I unexpectedly met my fellowclerk and quondam antagonist at the billiard table. I had made a vow never to play again,-but I was in a state of excitement, of all others the best calculated to induce a man of my temperament to violate his resolutions at any hazard in a word, I accompanied him to a billiard room, in the neighbourhood, and, in less than an hour, won of him about ten pounds,-to me, at that time, no inconsiderable addition to my means. He declined any further play, paid me

the money, and we parted.

:

It was a beautiful summer's evening; and even London, with all its smoke, and din, and uproar, reposed calmly in the bosom of that holy tranquility. I sought the most crowded streets, for, I was full of joy, and, gladness filled my veins. I pictured to myself my dear Mary's pleasure, when, after so much suffering, she saw me once more, comparatively happy. Abruptly turning the corner of a street, I came suddenly in view of our lodgings, and perceived a turaultuous crowd congregated opposite the house. My heart sank, and a presentiment of evil came over me. I thought that, perchance, the dwelling was on fire, but I looked upwards, and found the smoke ascending to the blue sky, in a steady column of spiral gracefulness. I rushed forward pantingly, and heard the mingled voices of angry and bewailing men.

He did it on purpose," said one. He could not help it !" exclaimed another. 'Don't tell me," said a third-" Did'nt I see him run his horse at the child?"

I felt sick, and staggered,-and, then, making my way through the crowd, I entered the house and hastened up stairs.

Would that I had perished, ere I did so! My boy! my beautiful and innocent boy-lay lifeless on the sofa-his lovely features battered into a shapeless mass of bruised and bloody flesh, and not one feature visible! I gazed in dumb and almost breathless horror on the scene-and, at last, gasped fiercely :-" Who did this?" My wife pointed to a card on the table, and I read the hated name of Edwin Villars! I fell on my knees; and, grasping the cold, dead, passive hand of my poor child, swore, that blood should be paid by blood,

and life by life. I vowed a hot and desperate vow, that Edwin Villars should pay the forfeit of his own life,-for depriving my innocent child of his.-Well have I been revenged,-but how? I will tell you.

I had been engaged to report the speeches of a public meeting in your Town Hall, and had left home early in the morning for that purpose. My remuneration was to be five guineas,-a large sum to me at that time, for I had quitted my home, leaving it desolate— destitute-cheerless : my poor wife in bed, ill-dying-while I myself had not tasted food for nearly two days. At this meeting no one distingnished himself more ably, than Edwin Villars. made a powerful effort, and succeeded to admiration. Before the meeting was over, I missed him from his place, and, as the principal business was over, I left the Hall, and, having delivered in my notes, and obtained my hire, I hurried homewards.

He

I lodged, at the time, in the second floor of a Close, leading out of Mardol; and, as I slowly ascended the stairs to my room, for I was fatigued almost to fainting, I thought I heard a man's voice in my apartment. I listened more attentively, and was convinced that I was right: but who could the man be? I knew nobody in Shrewsbury-nor wished to know anybody. Who then could this intruder be? The doctor I had just parted from, in the street, on his return homewards-so that I was somewhat startled. I listened, therefore, and the bland and musical tones of my cousin's voice fell, like burnning sand, upon my ear.

" Consider your poverty-Mary---your utter, irremediable wretchedness: look at your present state of sorrow and of suffering,—and think of his inability ever to relieve you! While I offer you comforts -health-and happiness!"

Mr. Villars!" said my wife, calmly, but very resolutely-" You have tempted me often before-but I have shielded you from the just, but awful vengeance of my husband. Leave me, Sir, and leave me instantly: even my forbearance may be exhausted."

"Pretty moralist!" replied the sensualist, "you preach heroically: but I do not mind you. At all events, while your magnanimous fool of a husband is wearing out his brains to obtain for you a mere subsistence, permit me to take advantage of his absence, and, at least impress a simple kiss on your cheek.'

I heard no more, but rushed into the room, and, in an instant, I had Villars on the floor, with my foot upon his neck.

So, Sir!" I exclaimed, "I have found you out-at last! You wretch ! mean, pitiful, cowardly wretch ! But this moment is your last, for, fool that you are, you have thrown yourself prematurely into my hands."

I felt him tremble beneath the forcible pressure of my foot; his whole frame quivered with fear, and as I pressed my foot more firmly on his neck, his face grew dark and tumid, and his breathing, hard