Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/54

38 or any light, natural or artificial, for the greater number of times. The reader is requested not to follow the example, seeing that this gentleman, in addition to much personal courage, was withal reckless of life; and that the well-known havidge called "Haggerstone" lies but a short distance from the path, Of this place it is a sufficient character to tell, that the constables dare not enter it, to execute a warrant, in the usual way by two or three, but are compelled to augment their numbers, in order to overcome a stout repulse; and yet the place cannot muster above forty men; about a third of whom may deserve a middling good character.

Notwithstanding this anecdote, which we know to be fact, it is not to be denied, that numerous offences of these latter descriptions take place all round London, which are never made public, for various reasons. Of these, the chiefest are the dislike people have to be considered keepers of late hours; add to this the trouble and anxiety of prosecutions, the incipient proceedings upon which are by no means rendered palatable to the prosecutor's taste; the desire in most people to keep out of public notice (though sought after by so many others), and we have accounted for the impunity a great number of offenders enjoy.