stone on the Barnet road, at half-were positive in regard both to the horse and to the man, whose face they had closely seen by the light of the moon, as his crape had fallen off when he first stopped the chariot, and the coachman had picked it up when he unharnessed one of the coach-horses to pursue the robber, by his master's permission. The prisoner was called upon to make his defence, when Mr. Brecknock addressed the Court in these words: My Lords and Gentlemen of the Jury, I have not the least doubt of the innocence of the unhappy person at the bar, though he stands here under very disagreeable circumstances, inasmuch as, although he was in bed in his own lodgings at the very time the robbery is said to have been committed, yet he can prove that fact by no other testimony than that of his wife (and I know how little regard is usually paid to a wife witnessing for her husband), and of a child five years old, who is too young to be admitted to an oath. I do not seek to impeach the veracity of the gentleman who is the prosecutor, his character is too well esta past eleven o'clock at night: that he stopped the carriage, and robbed him of 137 guineas and some silver, but refused his watch, as he did not choose to deal in discoverable articles that presently after he found himself pursued by the coachman on one of the coach-horses, and rode down a lane out of the high-road; but finding the lane close at the bottom, he leaped his horse over some pales, and quitted him, took to his heels across the fields, and reached town in safety: that the coach-horse not being able to leap, his own horse escaped, and came home of itself next morning. Thus he thought himself quite secure as to this affair; but shortly after, the coachman met him on the same horse in Whitechapel, had him seized and carried before a justice, where his person was identified by the gentleman, the coachman, and the footman, who knew him by the bright moonlight; and on this evidence he was fully committed for trial. "This is rather an ugly affair," said Brecknock: "how-blished: I have not the least doubt he ever, don't fear, I'll bring you off. I shall not attempt to prove you elsewhere at the precise time of the robbery, for an alibi is a very dangerous defence, unless it can be well supported; and I don't care to trust your life to a set of rascally witnesses, who may be sifted by a close crossexamination, or have their characters inquired into: no, no, I shall act otherwise; you have only to make your heart easy, and plead guilty." Not At the next sessions the trial came on, and the gentleman, the coachman, and the footman deposed to every circumstance of the robbery as above related; adding, that they was robbed in the manner he has sworn. that a horse seen in the dark cannot be easily known in the light, at a distance of five weeks. There is scarcely a horse so singularly marked that there should not be others similarly marked; and as a proof, there are now four horses in the courtyard standing together with the prisoner's horse, which Mr. Sheriff has been so kind as to suffer to be brought hither; and if the three witnesses agree in selecting, separately, the prisoner's horse, of which they are so very certain, from the rest, I will acquiesce in the prisoner's guilt. But, my lords and gentlemen of the jury, I have still more to urge in re spect to the alleged identity of the horse. The prosecutor is doubtless impelled by a love of justice, but that love sometimes carries a man to an extreme of zeal. The coachman may have a love of justice; but when it is remembered that the con viction of the prisoner will entitle him to a reward of 401. the Court may be inclined to think him interested in the verdict which you, gentlemen of the jury, may bring in. The footman, having heard some particulars sworn by his master and his fellow-servant, may believe them true, as being the same story. The three witnesses have all declared that they recollected the prisoner's face, from having seen it clearly at the time of the robbery by the strong light of the moon. Now I have one witness that will undoubtedly set aside this concurrence of evidence. It is indeed an uninterested witness, a silent witness, yet one that can speak home to the conviction of the whole Court. It is Ryder's Almanac; and if your lordships and the gentlemen of the jury will take the trouble to look into it, you will find it utterly impossible that the witnesses could have seen the prisoner's face by the light of the moon: for you see, on the night of the robbery, that the moon did not rise till sixteen minutes after three in the morning; consequently it could not give any light at halfpast eleven o'clock, near three hours before it rose; and if the witnesses are thus proved to be mistaken in the capital point of their evidence, no part of it can affect the prisoner. Having said this, he handed an almanac up to the Bench, in which it appeared plainly that the moon rose on that particular night as Brecknock had said. The Court and jury being satisfied as to that point, the and discharged out of court on payprisoner was immediately acquitted, ing his fees. Mr. Brecknock prided himself on his ingenuity in deceiving the Court, which, as he afterwards boasted, he effected in this manner: He employed the money he had received from the highwayman in getting printed a new edition of Ryder's Almanac, exactly similar to the genuine edition, except that the lunations for the whole year had been changed, so as to make it appear that on the night of the robbery there was no moon. He had only half-a-dozen copies struck off, one of which he presented to the Bench, and lodged the other five in different hands in the court, to be produced in case any doubts had arisen, and another almanac had been called for. Recorder discovered the fraud some days afterwards, but it was then too late, as the prisoner had been acquitted, and the solicitor was not responsible for the error in the almanac which he produced, and which could not then be identified. The IN LISBON AND THE PORTUGUESE. (Continued from p. 49.) Dec. 1821. I must now give you some idea of the population. The number of the inhabitants is computed at from two hundred to two hundred and fifty In my last letter I touched upon all the public buildings of this capital which deserve to be mentioned: na too are mostly of the lower class, and and chiefly engaged in horticulture. There is no scarcity of English, French, and Germans, the latter principally from the Hanse towns and Bohemia. From other quarters of the world you meet with Negroes, Mulattoes, and natives of Morocco; and the Portuguese Indiamen frequently bring with them Chinese or individuals belonging to other Oriental nations. The Jews are again beginning to settle at Lisbon; but in consequence of the prohibition of the importation of corn, the Greeks and Turks have almost wholly disappeared. Of the Portuguese themselves, a considerable and indeed the more opulent part come from the provinces. Natives of Lisbon are held upon the whole in little estimation, and not without reason; for if a provincial, There is not perhaps a city in Europe that contains, in proportion to its size, a greater number of strangers from all quarters: here indeed may be seen a mixture of all the tions of the globe. The majority of them consists of Gallicians of the lower class, who may safely be estimated at from ten to fifteen thousand. These perform almost exclusively all sorts of menial offices, act-through commerce and industry, acing as porters, water-carriers, domestic servants, &c. In the most busy part of the city they may be seen standing at the corner of every street, ready to engage at the first summons in any capacity. The Portuguese are too proud to hire themselves for these offices: it was not till lately that they enrolled themselves in regularly organized companies, which occasioned the Gallician war, as it is termed, because the Portuguese attempted to drive away the Gallicians by force. This war, however, was excited by persons of higher The numerous beggars in the streets consequence, and eighty of the ring-present a disgusting spectacle. There leaders are still in confinement. The exists not, I believe, as yet, any poterm Gallego (Gallician) is synony-lice regulation against mendicity: mous with porter, for which class of labourers they have no other name. Next to the Gallicians, the Genoese compose a more numerous body than any other foreigners: these quires wealth in the capital, it is very rarely that his son is seen to tread in his father's steps. The former is ashamed of the profession which enriched the latter; he prefers indulging in the delicious far niente, and squanders away his fortune. Upon the whole, this shame of, and aversion to, business are prominent traits in Lisbon: persons of every class wish to be thought a few steps higher than they really are, and therefore would not mind starving at home in order to cut a figure abroad. hence it is impossible to enter any coffee-house or tavern, or to pass through any frequented street, without being pestered by cripples, blind and lame, and people making a pa rade of real or feigned infirmities. || (Pardon, brother!); for it is not veTo-day it is in the name of San An- ry common to bestow charity in the tonio, to-morrow in that of the Bless-streets, and I cannot conceive how ed Virgin, that they bespeak the pi- persons of this class subsist, and ty of passengers, frequently with the much less how they can save any most ludicrous expressions. Some thing. sit in the streets with their whole families, father, mother, and half a dozen naked children of their own or hired for the purpose, and sing forth their claims upon your charity in most harmonious strains. Others, by means of a certain herb, produce swellings and sores upon their bodies their bodies and limbs, which they exhibit, and which are so disgusting, that you are glad to throw them a trifle to get rid of them. But there are also among them speculative beggars, who solicit alms in a mantle composed of a hundred patches, which they strip off at night, to enjoy themselves in taverns, and who are enabled to save sufficient to give handsome portions to their children. There is no want of hospitals and poor-houses in Lisbon, but the police is supine, and mendicants like begging better than work. Notwithstanding the impudence with which beggars annoy passengers, send trained children after them for a whole street's length, and even abuse such as are not to be moved by their pitiful tales, as I know myself from experience, still the Portuguese shews them a politeness which can only be attributed to the false notions he has imbibed from infancy, that a sort of religious character is attached to the mendicant profession. If a beggar appears before a shop in which half a dozen loungers are gaping about them, they involuntarily move their hats, and one of them dismisses him with the words, " Perdoa irmao," Vol. III. No. XIV. || It is curious to see the cripples, and the blind in particular, who cry newspapers, pamphlets, fugitive pieces, and proclamations for sale. Early one morning, I was passing a shop for novelties of this kind, and saw a dozen blind men, to each of whom was counted out a certain number of copies: it was the account of General Madeira's victory over the Brasilians at Bahia-and he was told what to cry. One cannot frequently forbear laughing at the titles which they give to their papers; and sometimes they disfigure them in such a manner, that it is impossible to guess what they have to sell. On one occasion all foreigners were required to give in their names to the police, and this order was cried by a blind man by the title of Hostilities against Foreigners! When the patriots from Oporto disseminated their proclamation, another was issued by the Regency here, for the purpose of keeping the nation faithful to the king. These proclamations were also sold by blind men: a wag desired to have one of the latter, pretended to take it out from among the rest, and meanwhile exchanged the whole lot for the Oporto proclamation. The hawker, without knowing the reason, soon disposed of all his copies. As in all the cities of the south of Europe, so here many things are done in the street, which in the north are done only within doors: to say nothing of cooking, you here see romantic groups lovingly hunting, the M vermin in one another's hair. It is rather remarkable that there are yet no hackney-coaches in Lisbon, considering that the Portuguese are not fond of walking. Most of the private carriages and those let for hire are two-wheeled, and resemble a cabriolet; and on account of the wretched state of the pavement, mules are preferred to horses, and are also much dearer than the latter. There are very few elegant equipages: the nobility alone drive four horses or mules; but their carriages are oldfashioned, and the horses so emaciated as to afford undeniable evidence of their scanty fare. They are, nevertheless, sure to be attended by numerous servants in grotesque old-fashioned liveries. When a gentleman rides out on horseback, he is followed by a valet, whose horse is harnessed as for a carriage: the reason of this practice I am not acquainted with. The trappings of a Portuguese saddle-horse have still much of the Moorish character, and especially the stirrups, which form a wooden case for the foot. 1 || men de capote, a man with a mantle," and homen de gravata lavada, " a man with a washed cravat," are, in the colloquial style, the appellations of a gentleman, and of one who has no claim to that character. The shops are totally destitute of elegance; but in those of the jewellers, in the street called del Oro, stones and trinkets of great value are exhibited. The coffee-houses are set off with much greater taste, and in the better sort of them customers are served entirely off silver. Since the liberty of the press has occasioned the publication of a variety of newspapers, these houses are much frequented, and the politicians discuss the state of the country over their punch. Debates of this kind also take place in many of the shops; and a custom, unknown in the north, is for loungers to saunter from shop to shop, in the hope of meeting with acquaintances,and learning from them the news of the day. In other places, indeed, the shopkeepers deprecate such visits, which certainly tend to obstruct business; but no where in the world do you find less anxiety to sell, or less willingness to shew an article that is inquired for, than here. If you go away without purchasing, you must expect a sour look; if you ask for any thing that is not to be had in the shop, you are drily an Owing to the great number of strangers from all parts in Lisbon, the people of this city are very tolerant towards remarkable costumes and manners; though the foreigner himself is surprised at many of the national dresses which he observes. Thus the women of the lower class-swered, "Nao ha," (I have it not); es wear, even in summer, a large woollen cloak, like that of the men, which completely covers the whole person, excepting the head, and that is enveloped in a white handkerchief. The artisans and others of the inferior classes also throw a mantle carelessly over their shoulders, and this is the mark of distinction between them and the higher ranks. A ho and if you inquire where it is to be met with, the usual reply is, "Nao sci," (I don't know). I mean not to assert that this is the case in every shop: in some you find more civility, but in the greater part there prevails a decided disinclination to take goods down from the shelves and to shew them, which forms an extraordinary contrast with the attention paid to |