Feeling, however, a great desire to sift further into the matter, I feigned to withdraw, but kept my eye upon the boy, and followed him for nearly two hours, until I saw him join two other boys, one of whom I had not seen before, and who had a bag with something very heavy in it, which, I have every reason to believe, were weights, or something which they had obtained in a similar manner.  Wishing to ascertain the fact, I approached them, but they no sooner perceived me, than the little fellow who had been the principal actor in the affair, called out “Nose, Nose,”—­a signal-word, no doubt, agreed upon amongst them,—­when they all ran down some obscure alleys.  I followed, but was knocked down, as if by accident, by two ill-looking fellows, who continued to detain me with apologies till the boys had got safely away.  I have little doubt that this was an instance of that organized system of depredation of which I have before spoken, and that the man who took so active a part at the first, was at the bottom of the business; and, in fact, the tutor and employer of the predatory urchins.  His activity in preventing the boy from being taken back to the shop—­his anxiety to promote a subscription for the boy,—­and, lastly, his threat of personal violence if I interfered in the matter, by continuing to question the child,—­all these circumstances confirm me in the opinion.

It is only by the knowledge of this fact—­the association of infant offenders with those of maturer and hardened habits—­that we can account for such cases as the following.—­On the 17th of July, 1823, a child only seven years old, was brought before the magistrate at Lambeth Street office, charged with frequently robbing his mother, and was ordered to be locked up all night in the gaol-room.  In the evening, however, when his mother returned, he forced his way out of the room, and behaved with such violence that the attendants were obliged to iron both his hands and legs!  There can be no doubt that this child had been for a long time under the instruction and evil influence of some old and hardened offender; he must, indeed, have undergone much training before he could have arrived at such a pitch of hardihood, as to make it necessary to handcuff and fetter a child of so tender an age; and to enable him to hold even the magistrates, officers, and his own parent, at defiance.

The following cases afford further proof of the same lamentable truth; the first is extracted from a morning paper of the 20th of September, 1824.  “A little boy, not more than six years of age, was brought before the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, on Saturday, the 18th instant, having been found in a warehouse, where he had secreted himself for the purpose of thieving.  At a late hour on Friday night, a watchman was going his round, when, on trying a warehouse in which there was much valuable property, to see whether it was safe, he heard the little prisoner cry.  The persons who had the care of the warehouse