robbed him of his money, on threats of instant death.

The carriage driving on, Cook began to search his deceased companion for his money; but some of the neighbours coming up, he retired behind a hedge to listen to their conversation; and, having found that some of them knew the deceased, and intimated that he had been accompanied by Cook, he crossed the fields to London.

Having spent three days in riot and dissipation, he went to his relation in Shoreditch, whom he requested to go to Stratford, to inquire the situation of affairs there. When this person returned he told Cook there were several warrants issued against him, and advised him to go to sea.

This he promised to do, but, instead thereof, he bought a horse, and rode to Brentwood, in Essex, where he heard little conversation but of Cook, the famous highwayman of Stratford; and, on the next day, he followed a coach from the inn where he had put up, and took about thirty pounds from the passengers.

Cook now connected himself with a gang of desperate highwaymen in London, in conjunction with whom he stopped a coach near Bow, in which were some young gentlemen from a boarding-school. A Mr. Cruikshanks riding up at this instant, one of the gang demanded his money; but, as he hesitated to deliver it, another of them knocked him down, and killed him on the spot; after which the robbers went to a public house near Hackney Marsh, and divided the spoils of the evening.

Cook continued but a short time with this gang; and, going to a house at Newington Green, sent for a woman with whom he had cohabited, who threatened to have

him apprehended unless he would give her some money; and, though he had but little in his possession, he gave her a guinea, and promised her a farther sum, lest she should carry her threats into execution.

Oppressed in mind by contemplations on his crimes, and particularly by reflecting on the murder of Mr. Cruikshanks, he went to St. Albans, where he assumed a new name, and worked as a journeyman shoemaker for about three weeks; when, a highwayman being pursued through the town, the terrors of his conscience on the occasion were such that he hastily left the shop, and ran across the country towards Woburn, in Bedfordshire.

In his way thither, however, he robbed a farmer of fifty pounds and his horse, and bade him sue the county. The farmer soon raised the hue and cry; but Cook escaped for the present, and, riding as far as Birmingham, took lodgings at a public house, and disposed of his horse.

Cook had now assumed the name of Stevens; and the landlord of the house where he lodged speaking to him about a shop to be let, he took it, and entered into business as a shoemaker. He also hired one Mrs. Barrett as his housekeeper; but she soon became his more intimate companion, and, accompanying him to horse-races, and other places of public diversion, his little money was soon dissipated.

Thus situated, Cook told his housekeeper that he had an aunt in Hertfordshire, who allowed him a hundred per annum, which he received in quarterly payments, and that he would go to her for his money. Under this pretence he left her, and went to Northampton, and from thence to Dunstable, near which place he robbed a farmer of

At this last place he met with a Manchester dealer, going home from London; and, having spent the evening together, they travelled in company the next day, and dined at Coventry. Cook, having an intention of robbing his fellow-traveller, intimated that it would be proper to conceal their money, as they had a dangerous road to travel; and, putting his own money into his boot, the other put a purse of gold into his side-pocket.

Prosecuting their journey till they came to a cross-road, Cook demanded his companion's money, on pain of immediate death; and, having robbed him of thirty-five guineas, he travelled immediately to Birmingham, Mrs. Barrett imagining he had been supplied by his aunt, agreeably to the story he had told her.

He now carried on trade as usual; but, as often as he was distressed for cash, he used to have recourse to the road, and recruited his pockets by robbing the stages.

At length a London trader, coming to Birmingham, asked Cook how long he had lived there: which terrified him so that he quitted the place and travelled towards London, and near Highgate robbed a gentleman, named Zachary, of his horse and money.

Upon this stolen horse he rode to Epping Forest on the following day, and, having robbed a gentleman, returned to London by the way of Stratford, at which place he spoke to a number of his old acquaintances, but was not imprudent enough to quit his horse.

Going to a house he had frequented at Newington Green, he sent for his relation who lived near Shoreditch, who advised him to

tainly be taken into custody. On this he went to Mims: and his rela tion visiting him, Cook begged he would sell five watches for him; but the other declined it, recommending him to dispose of them himself in London.

On the following evening, when it was almost dark, he rode towards town, and, observing a chaise behind him, permitted it to pass, and followed it to the descent of the hill towards Holloway. There were two gentlemen in the chaise, whose money Cook demanded: but, instead of complying, they drove on the faster; on which he fired, and wounded one of them in the arm; but the report of the pistol bringing some people towards the spot, he galloped off, and went to Mims, his old place of retreat.

Coming to London next day to sell his watches, he was seen in Cheapside by a woman who knew him, and followed him to Norton Falgate, where, observing him to go into a public house, she went and procured a constable, who took him into custody, and found on him five watches, and about nine pounds in money.

On his examination before a magistrate, Mr. Zachary, whom he had robbed near Highgate, swearing to the identity of his person, he was committed to Newgate; but not before he had offered to become evidence against some accomplices he pretended to have had, which offer was rejected.

He now formed a scheme to murder the keepers, and to make his escape; but, being detected, he was confined to the cells, and being brought to his trial at the Old Bailey, was capitally convicted.

After sentence of death Cook for some time affected a gaiety of

behaviour: but, when the warrant for his execution arrived, he was so struck with the idea of his approaching fate, that it occasioned

convulsive fits, and he never afterwards recovered his health. This offender was hanged at Tyburn, Dec. 16, 1741.

OLIVER BODKIN, Esq. was a gentleman who possessed a good estate near Tuam, in Ireland. He had two sons by two wives: the elder son, named John, to whom this narrative chiefly relates, was sent to Dublin, to study the law; and the younger, who was about seven years of age, remained at home with his parents.

The young student lived in a very dissipated manner at Dublin, and, soon quitting his studies, came and resided near his father's place of abode. The father allowed him a certain annual sum for his support; but, as he lived beyond his allowance, he demanded farther assistance; which the father refusing, he began to entertain sentiments of revenge, and included his mother-in-law in his proposed scheme of vengeance, as he imagined that she had induced his father not to encourage his extravagance. He was likewise informed that the father intended to leave his estate to the younger brother, which farther confirmed him in the diabolical plan which he had formed.

Having engaged his cousin, Dominick Bodkin, his father's shepherd, John Hogan, and another ruffian of the name of Burke, to assist bim in the intended murders, they went to the house of Mr. Bodkin, senior, whose family consisted of four men and three women servants, exclusive of Mrs. Bodkin and the younger son; and a gentleman named Lynch was at that time on a visit there.

When the murderers came to the house they found the master, mistress, the child above mentioned, and Mr. Lynch, at supper in the parlour. All these they immediately murdered; and then, going to the kitchen, killed three servantmaids; and, finding the men in different parts of the house, they likewise fell a sacrifice to their brutal and unprovoked rage.

The murder of eleven persons being thus perpetrated, they quitted the fatal spot; and, when some persons from Tuam came the next morning to speak with Mr. Bodkin on business, they found the house open, and beheld the dead body of Mr. Lynch, near which lay that of Mrs. Bodkin, hacked and mangled in a shocking manner; and, at a small distance, her husband, with his throat cut, and the child lying dead across his breast. The throats of the maid-servants in the kitchen were all cut; and the men-servants in another room were like. wise found victims of the inhuman barbarity of the murderers, who had even been so wanton in their cruelties as to kill all the dogs and cats in the house.

The neighbours being alarmed by such asingular instance of barbarity, a suspicion fell on John Bodkin, who, being taken into custody, confessed all the tragical circumstances above mentioned, and impeached his accomplices: on which the other offenders were taken into custody, and all of them committed to the gaol of Tuam.

The shepherd confessed that he had murdered two; but, thinking to preserve the boy, to whom he had been foster-father*, besmeared him with blood, and laid him near his father. Dominick, perceiving him alive, killed him; and he acknowledged to murdering five more. John Bodkin owned that he and Burke killed the remainder; that he had formerly attempted to poison his mother-in-law; and that he was concerned with his first-cousins, John Bodkin, then living, and Frank Bodkin, then lately dead, in strangling Dominick Bodkin, their brother, heir of the late Counsellor John Bodkin, of Carobegg, to an estate of nine hundred pounds a year.

When they were brought to trial John Bodkin (the parricide), Dominick Bodkin, and John Hogan, pleaded guilty; but they were all condemned, and executed at Tuam, on the 26th of March, 1742. The head of the shepherd was fixed on Tuam market-house, and the bodies of the others gibbeted within sight of the house where the murders had been committed.

Upon the confession of John, the cousin of the same name was apprehended for the murder of his elder brother, Dominick Bodkin, and accused of sitting on his mouth and breast until he was suffocated. He was taken in a moss, or turf bog, near Tuam, covered over with straw, and disguised in an old hat and peasant's clothes, for which he had given his own laced coat and hat. Being examined before Lord Athenry, he said that he had fled for fear of being loaded with irons in a gaol, and denied having any hand in his brother Dominick's

death, affirming that he had died of a surfeit, as had been reported. He was present at the execution of his relations, but confessed nothing, and thus for a while (there being no positive proof against him) escaped justice.

Seldom shall we hear of murders so atrocious, so unprovoked, as those above related! A son, because his father will not indulge his extravagance, resolves on the mur der of a parent who had behaved with real generosity to him; and, communicating his plan to three abandoned miscreants, they agree to act their parts in the horrid tragedy, without prospect, and, as far as we can judge, without hope of reward.

It is not for mortals to presume how far the mercy of the Almighty shall be extended; but those who feel themselves capable of committing such horrid crimes have no right to expect the interposition of God in their favour. The sin of murder is of the first magnitude, of the blackest die! The murder of an indulgent parent must be insufferably shocking to every humane mind: but when we consider, as in the present instance, what a variety of unprovoked murders were added to the first, the mind is lost in astonishment at the baseness, the barbarity, the worse than savage degeneracy, of those beings who could perpetrate such horrid deeds!

Let it be the subject of our constant prayer to the great fountain of mercy and benevolence that we may be preserved from the tempta. tion of imbruing our hands in the blood of our fellow-creatures; and that our whole lives may be actuated by the principles of justice, and guided by the laws of kindness!

umezemet, for the person had ta Le Trees care of ; and, while he was a timer. Kamsey suit he would go and order a diamont ring, aut one of plain gold, ANÉ O QUE TERE inmediate v.

He had not been long absent when a jeweller brought the rings, which he said were for a baronet and his lady who were coming to be married. The clergyman asked him to drink the healths of the young couple; and, just at this juncture, Ramsey came in, and told the jeweller that he was instantly wanted at home.