of manhood his friends, in the hope of reformation, placed him in a small farm. The vicious habits of a previously bad life, however, were not to be thrown off in a moment, nor was the monotony of farming calculated to efface the vivid impressions of a dissipated youth. On the contrary, being now his own master, his first consideration was how they could be extended. Accordingly, he is reported at this period to have sunk lower in the paths of depravity, and to have formed an intimacy with persons which gave a permanent and deeper shade to his character. Living in the vicinity of the most extensive salt-works in the kingdom, he with them resolved on the formation of a band of smugglers for the plunder of that article, and the sale of it throughout Cheshire, Lancashire, and North Wales. Under this man's direction and command, they pursued this occupation for a long time without the sufferers being able to detect them; and even when he became suspected by the police and excise, he continued to elude their vigilance till, the duties being removed, it ceased to be an object of contraband commerce.

If, at the age of twenty, he did not return to the paths of rectitude, it might have been expected that maturer years and the influence of a wife and children would have quieted his evil habits; but, these strengthened with time and by long indulgence, he was now as restless as at the moment of their first impulse. With some of the remains of his former associates, therefore, he now commenced plundering of grain,

an article not easily identified if once fairly removed from the premises. This was sometimes carried to his own farm, (which, it is worthy of remark, he still held at the time of his conviction,) and sometimes direct to the market-place. In this nefarious scheme, however, he was soon detected. In an attempt to plunder a neighbouring farmer, his gang were surprised; they fled to the road, where he was in waiting with their horses, and all escaped, except himself and one companion. They were tried and sentenced to death; but

which sentence was ultimately transmuted into transportation for life.

Such are the general features in the history of a man who was distinguished by the familiar nickname of Jack Turpin ; and in contemplating the variety of scenes, and the many singular adventures into which it must have thrown him, it becomes a matter of extreme regret that we are not in possession of the knowledge of many particular acts committed by him. Using his gang as servants to his will, he more frequently directed than acted with them. The disposal of his spoil being his chief concern, he had often distant journeys to perform in order to arrange with the purchasers; so that, though the connexion between them was close and intimate, still it had on his part much mystery attached to it. This he maintained even at the bar of justice, and though, after his conviction, an hundred guineas were offered him for a detail of the adventures of his life, he rejected the bribe with scorn. After sentence of death was pronounced, he was seized with an alarming illness, which continued for five months, and being apparently on the verge of eternity, he still kept the same reserve as to the minute details of his life. On his recovery he was removed to the convict-hulk with the view of being conveyed to New South-Wales, but his age being deemed too advanced for the voyage, he was detained to labour at the public works. Here he was orderly, obedient, and respectful to his superiors; but towards his fellow-prisoners he was, with one exception, reserved, keeping them at an immeasurable distance. In May, 1826, his infirmities increasing on him, he was removed to the hospital-ship. Here, by an unvarying system of kindness, the stateliness of his mind unbent so as to induce him to exercise more familiarity; still, however, with the same guarded avowal as to facts, with the following solitary exceptions :—

1st, That though he had led a lawless life, he had never committed murder.

2dly, That by his wife he had eight children; that he had also a natural son in North Wales, and he had kept several women in different parts, and at different times, up to the period of his apprehension.

To this scanty detail of facts it only remains to add, the manifestations of character he exhibited after he had become familiar with the patients of the hospital.

In the first place, he exhibited a severe sarcastic wit at the expense of those around him. The manners and language of the kind and benevolent clergyman who officiates at the hospital were the frequent subjects of his mimickry.

In the second place, he exhibited a strong attachment to his children. He frequently spoke of them in the most affectionate manner, and made his last moments respectable by directing them to the disposal of his property among them.

In the third place, he possessed a firm disbelief in the existence of a Deity and of a state of future rewards and punishment, and sank into eternity avowing his disbelief.

Chatham, February 14, 1827.

A. R.

To Dr Elliotson.

SIR,—At the meeting of the Rochester Literary Club, the enclosed resolutions were (on the motion of the Rev. Dr Joynes,) unanimously adopted, and, by their direction, I have the honour to forward you the same. Permit me to add the high gratification I feel in being intrusted with the present communication. With great personal esteem,

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your very obedient servant,

Chatham, February 20, 1827.

A. R.

Resolutions passed at a Meeting of the Rochester Literary Club, held on Thursday, February 15, 1827.

the

Mr R. having introduced the subject of Phrenology, by an interesting correspondence between himself and Dr Elliotson, the President of the London Phrenological Society, upon skull of J. L., it was continued by other members till the usual hour of adjournment, when the following resolutions were passed unanimously :—

1st, That the character given of L. by Dr Elliotson, from the inspection of the skull, corresponds so exactly with his history, that it is impossible to consider the coincidence as the effect of chance, but that it is an instance which, if supported by many others, affords a strong foundation for the truth of Phrenology.

2d, That a copy of the above resolution be forwarded to Dr Elliotson, with the thanks of the Club for his communication, and that Mr R. be requested to transmit the same. H. P. Secretary.

ARTICLE VII.

ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SENSE OF EQUILIBRIUM AS A PRIMITIVE MENTAL POWER, DERIVED FROM THE CONSISTENCY WHICH OBTAINS BETWEEN ITS SUPPOSED FUNCTIONS AND THE RECENT PHYSIOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES OF MR CHARLES BELL.

MR CHARLES BELL, some time ago, established by demonstration, that two nerves of distinct functions, viz. motion and feeling, exist in the same sheath, undistinguishable in substance from each other by the most powerful microscopic aid. This fact must have been a little startling to the objectors

who allege, that the mental organs are not distinguishable in the apparently homogeneous mass of the brain; and from this contend that such organs cannot exist to the end of performing distinct functions.* Mr Bell has come forward again, and bestowed on science another boon of a still more direct and not less valuable description, namely, a demonstration, that, accompanying the nerves of motion and feeling, (which are in one sheath), there is a distinct apparatus of nerves, previously confounded with these nerves, whose function it is to inform the brain of the state of the muscular frame, and thereby enable the animal to regulate its muscular contractions or motions in accordance with the mechanical laws.

He announced his discovery in a paper read to the Royal Society of London, on 16th February, 1826;† and it is of some importance to observe, that Drs Gall and Spurzheim had distinguished a special faculty for weight, momentum, consistency, density, hardness, roughness, &c. many years before, although they had only conjectured its organ. Dr Spurzheim in his English work, published in 1815, pointedly concludes, that the perception of these qualities cannot be attributed to the sense of Touch; and repeats the same doctrine in his French work subsequently published. We submitted a paper, on the extension of the function, to the consideration of the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh in April, 1824, and again to that of London in the same month. It is published in the Phrenological Journal, vol. ii., page 412. In that paper we endeavoured to show that no animal could exist without a faculty for the perception of equilibrium, whereby it adapts its motions to the mechanical laws of the

The Edinburgh Review, No 88, makes a sheet-anchor of this luckless objection, then in profound non-information of Mr Bell's discovery. Mr Combe, in his "Letter," mentions the discovery, but in vain; for the objection "of the admitted want of any perceptible organs in the brain" reappears in the postscript reply in No 89, and is held unremoved and unremoveable. The objection itself is fully discussed in Dr A. Combe's answer to Dr Barclay, published in the Phrenological Transactions in 1823.

+Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. of London for 1826, part II. p. 163.