Amongst the convicts every grade of society was represented, from King Jorgensen to the beggar.  One Governor had a convict private secretary.  Officers of the army and navy, merchants, doctors, and clergymen consorted with costermongers, poachers, and pickpockets.  The law, it is sad to relate, had even sent out lawyers, who practised their profession under a cloud, and sometimes pleaded by permission of the court.  But their ancient pride had been trodden in the dust; the aureole which once encircled their wigs was gone, and they were often snubbed and silenced by ignorant justices.  The punishment for being found out is life-long and terrible.  Their clients paid the fees partly in small change and partly in rum.

The defence of the seamen accused of murdering Captain Blogg was undertaken by Mr. Nicholas.  He had formerly been employed by the firm of eminent solicitors in London who conducted the defence of Queen Caroline, when the “first gentleman in Europe” tried to get rid of her, and he told me that his misfortunes (forgeries) had deprived him of the honour of sharing with Lord Brougham the credit of her acquittal.

Many years had passed since that celebrated trial when I made the acquaintance of Nicholas.  He had by this time lost all social distinction.  He had grown old and very shabby, and was so mean that even his old friends, the convicts who had crossed the straits, looked down on him with contempt.  He came to me for an elector’s right, as a vote in our electorate—­the Four Counties—­was sometimes worth as much as forty shillings, besides unlimited grog.  We were Conservatives then, true patriots, and we imitated—­feebly, it is true, but earnestly—­the time-honoured customs of old England.

Mr. Nicholas had been a man of many employments, and of many religions.  He was never troubled with scruples of conscience, but guided his conduct wholly by enlightened self-interest.  He was a Broad Churchman, very broad.  As tutor in various families, he had instructed his pupils in the tenets of the Church of England, of the Catholics, of the Presbyterians, and of the Baptists.  He always professed the religion of his employer for the time being, and he found that four religions were sufficient for his spiritual and temporal wants.  There were many other sects, but the labour of learning all their peculiar views would not pay, so he neglected them.  The Wesleyans were at one time all-powerful in our road district, and Nicholas, foreseeing a chance of filling an office of profit under the Board, threw away all his sins, and obtained grace and a billet as toll-collector or pikeman.  In England the pike-man was always a surly brute, who collected his fees with the help of a bludgeon and a bulldog, but Nicholas performed his duties in the disguise of a saint.  He waited for passengers in his little wooden office, sitting at a table, with a huge Bible before him, absorbed in spiritual reading.  He wore spectacles on