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at length confessed that he alone had perpetrated the horrid deed. He appealed to all that knew him for the irreproachableness of his life before this melancholy event happened, and again declared himself alone guilty of, and privy to, the murder, and that he was not prompted by either malice or interest, and never thought of com

mitting so dreadful a crime until a short time before the perpetration of it.

This wretched man, on being brought to trial, pleaded guilty, and was executed at Tyburn, Feb. 25, 1746: his body was afterwards hung in chains on the Edgeware road.

THIS woman was a native of Bristol, and descended from poor parents, who educated her in the best manner in their power. Get ting a place in the service of a merchant when she was sixteen years of age, she lived with him three years, and then came to London.

Having procured a place in a house where lodgings were let to single gentlemen, and being a girl of an elegant appearance, and fond

VOL. I.

of dress, she was liable to a variety of temptations.

Her vanity being even more than equal to her beauty, she at length conceived that she had made a conquest of one of the gentlemenlodgers, and was foolish enough to think he would marry her.

With a view of keeping alive the passion she thought she had inspired, she sought every pretence of going into his chamber; and he, having

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some designs against her virtue, purchased her some new clothes, in which she went to church on the following Sunday, where she was observed by her mistress.

On their return from church, the mistress strictly inquired how she came to be possessed of such fine clothes; and, having learnt the real state of the case, she was discharged from her service on the Monday morning.

As she still thought the gentleman intended marriage, she wrote to him, desiring he would meet her at a public house; and, on his attending, she wept incessantly, and complained of the treatment she had met with from her mistress, which she attributed to the presents she had received from him.

The seducer advised her to calm her spirits, and go into lodgings, which he would immediately provide for her, and where he could securely visit her till the marriage should take place.

Deluded by this artifice, she went that day to lodge at a house in the Strand, which he said was kept by a lady who was related to him. In this place he visited her on the following, and several successive days; attending her to public places, and making her presents of elegant clothes, which effectually flattered her vanity, and lulled asleep the small remains of her virtue.

It is needless to say that her ruin followed. After a connexion of a few months, she found him less frequent in his visits; and, informing him she was with child, demanded that he would make good his promise of marriage: on which he declared that he had never intended to marry her, and that he would not maintain her any longer; and hinted that she should seek another lodging.

On the following day the mis

tress of the house told her she must not remain there any longer, unless she would pay for her lodgings in advance, which being unable to do, or, perhaps, unwilling to remain in a house where she had been so unworthily treated, she packed up her effects, and removed to another lodging.

When she was brought to bed, the father took away the infant, and left the wretched mother in a very distressed situation. Having subsisted for some time by pawning her clothes, she was at length so reduced as to listen to the advice of a woman of the town, who persuaded her to procure a subsistence by the casual wages of prostitution.

Having embarked in this horrid course of life, she soon became a common street-walker, and experienced all those calamities incident to so deplorable a situation. Being sometimes tempted to pick pockets for a subsistence, she became an occasional visitor at Bridewell, where her mind grew only the more corrupt by the conversation of the abandoned wretches confined in that place.

We now come to speak of the fact, the commission of which forfeited her life to the violated laws of her country.

At the sessions held at the Old Bailey, in the month of January, 1745, she was indicted for robbing William Humphreys of a guinea on the king's highway.

The fact was, that being passing, at midnight, near Northumberland House, in the Strand, she accosted Mr. Humphreys, who declining to hold any correspondence with her, two fellows with whom she was connected came up, and one of them knocking him down, they both ran away; when she robbed him of a guinea, which she concealed in her

mouth; but Mr. Humphreys seizing her, and two persons coming up, she was conducted to the watch house, where the guinea was found in her mouth, as above mentioned, by the constable of the night.

At her trial it was proved that she had called the men, one of whom knocked down the prosecutor; so that there could be no doubt of her being an accomplice with them; whereupon the jury brought her in guilty.

After conviction she appeared to have a proper idea of her former guilt, and the horrors of her present situation. In fact she was a sincere penitent, and lamented that pride of heart which had first seduced her to destruction.

Martha Tracy was hanged at Tyburn, on the 16th of February, 1745, behaving with the greatest decency and propriety to the last moment of her life.

The fate of this woman affords a striking lesson to girls against the taking pride in those personal charms which, the more brilliant they are, will be only the more likely to lead them to destruction. The idea she had formed of making a conquest of a man in a rank of life superior to her own served only to assist towards her ruin; but we cannot help thinking that he who could be base enough to seduce her

under solemn promises of marriage was still more guilty than herself, and in some degree an accessory to all the crimes she afterwards committed.

It seems strangely unnatural that the father should take away the child, and leave the mother to perish, or to subsist only in a most infamous manner, for which she had been qualified by the gratification of his passions!

In the gay hours of festivity men may triumph in the advantages they have gained over women in their ungarded moments; but surely Reflection must come, with all her at. tendant train of horrors. Conscience will assert her rights; and the misery the wicked seducer suffers in this life he ought to consider only as a prelude to the more aggravated torments he has to expect in the next.

If any one of the readers of this narrative has been guilty of the enormous crime we are now reprobating, it will become him to think seriously of the great work of reformation; and to repent, in the most unfeigned manner, while Providence yet permits him the opportunity of repentance. It ought to be remembered, by offenders of every class, that the God of mercy is also a God of justice.

HAVING given the history of the principal offenders who were executed for being concerned in the rebellion in 1715, our readers will naturally expect an account of those who suffered for the share they had in the subsequent insurrection; in which we shall be as particular as the limits of our plan will allow;

and, in our narrative of the unfortunate offenders, endeavour to divest ourselves of party prejudice as much as possible.

Great Britain being at war with France, and having an army in Flanders, the French thought that by making a descent in the north of Scotland, and fomenting a rebel.

lion, the court of London would think it necessary to withdraw the troops from Flanders, which would enable the French to act with more effect against the allied army.

That our government was not apprized of the preparations making to assist the Pretender is evident from the king's speech on the 2d of May, 1745, at the very time they were going on, wherein he informs his parliament, That the posture of affairs abroad had received a very considerable alteration, to the advantage of the common cause, and that thereby the influence of France was much weakened and diminish. ed, and a way opened to restore that strength and power to our ancient and natural allies which would tend greatly to the re-establishment and security of the balance of Europe.' On the 10th, the king, having placed the government of the nation in the hands of John, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and nineteen other privy counsellors, embarked at Harwich, on a visit to Hanover.

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The first notice which the British public had of the proceedings of the Pretender was from a paragraph in the General Evening Post, which said, The Pretender's eldest son put to sea July 14, from France, in an armed ship of sixty guns, provided with a large quantity of warlike stores, together with a frigate of thirty guns, and a number of smaller armed vessels, in order to land in Scotland, where he expected to find twenty thousand men in arms, to make good his father's pretensions to the crown of Great Britain. He was to be joined by five ships of the line from Brest, and four thousand five hundred Spaniards were embarking at Fer

rol.'

The young Pretender, followed by about fifty Scotch and Irish ad

venturers, came incog. through Normandy, and embarked on board a ship of war of eighteen guns, which was joined off Belleisle by the Elizabeth, and other ships. They intended to have sailed northabout, and have landed in Scotland. On the 20th they came up with an English fleet of merchant-vessels, under convoy of the Lion man of war, of fifty-eight guns, commanded by Captain Brett, who immediately bore down upon the French lineof-battle ship, which he engaged within pistol-shot five hours, being constantly annoyed by the smaller ships of the enemy. The rigging of the Lion was cut to pieces; her mizen-mast, mizen-topmast, mainyard, and fore-topsail, were shot away; all her lower masts and top masts shot through in many places, so that she lay muzzled on the sea, and could do nothing with her sails. Thus situated, the French ships sheered off, and the Lion could make no effort to follow them. Capt. Brett had forty-five men killed; himself, all his lieutenants, the master, several midshipmen, and one hundred and seven foremast men, wounded. His principal antagonist, the Elizabeth, with difficulty got back to Brest, quite disabled, and had sixty-four men killed, one hundred and thirty-nine dangerously wounded, and a number more slightly. She had on board four hundred thousand pounds sterling, and arms and ammunition for several thousand

men.

The French court, the expedition thus miscarrying, pretended ignorance of the circumstance.

Meanwhile, the Camerons, the Macdonalds, and many other clans, were in arms, in expectation of their friends from France. They came down into the lowlands in parties, carried off by force many

men to fill their ranks, and committed various other disorders.

The Pretender, having embarked in another ship, again sailed from France, and eluded the English cruisers so as to give him an opportunity of landing, which he effected with his followers on the Isle of Sky, opposite to Lochabar, in the county of Inverness, about the end of the month of July, taking up his residence at the house of a papist priest, with whom he remained three weeks, while his emissaries were raising men for his service. At length, at the head of about two thousand, he began his march, under a standard on which was the motto Tandem triumphans'—'At length triumphant.'

The rebels now marched towards Fort William, where the young Pretender published a manifesto, which his father had signed at Rome, containing abundant promises to such as would adhere to his cause; two of which were, a dissolution of the union between the two kingdoms, and a payment of the national debt.

This circumstance induced many of the ignorant country people to flock to his standard, till at length his undisciplined rabble began to assume the appearance of an army, which struck terror to the wellaffected wherever it came.

These transactions, however, had not passed so secretly, but that the governor of Fort William informed the Lord Justice Clerk of Edinburgh of all he could learn of the affair, on which the latter dispatched an express to the north, ordering the assistance of all officers, civil and military; and this express arrived about the time that the Pretender erected his standard. The governor of Fort William, having received these orders, dispatched two companies of St. Clair's

and Murray's regiments of foot to oppose the rebels. These were attacked by a far superior number of Highlanders, which they contended against until they fired away all their ammunition; after which they were attacked in front, flank, and rear, and near half their number killed before they surrendered. Captain Scott, their brave commander, was wounded; but the rebels gave him and his remaining officers their parole of honour, while the private soldiers were sent to prison.

In the interim the Lord Justice Clerk directed Sir John Cope, commander-in-chief of the forces in the south of Scotland, to march against the rebels; but, in making the circuit of the immense mountains of Argyleshire, the two armies failed to meet; on which Sir John went to Inverness, to refresh his troops after the fatigue of the march.

The armies having thus casually missed each other, the rebels proceeded to Perth, and, having taken possession of that place, the Pre.. tender issued his orders for all persons who were in possession of public money to pay it into the hands of his secretary, whose receipts should be a full acquittal for the same.

The rebel numbers had now greatly increased, and in September the Pretender issued a proclamation. The provost and magistrates left the city, and others were immediately appointed in their room. Here the rebels were joined by a person calling himself the Duke of Perth, Lord George Murray, Lord Nairn, the Hon. William Murray, Messrs. Oliphant, father and son, of Gask, George Kelly, Esq. (who, with the late Bishop of Rochester, was committed to the Tower, and thence escaped), and several other Scotch gentlemen of influence, with