the case in the following instance.

Having had occasion to walk through Shoreditch some time since, I saw
a number of persons collected together round a little boy, who, it
appeared, had stolen a brass weight from the shop of a grocer. The
shopman stated that three boys came into the shop for half-an-ounce of
candied horehound, and that while he was getting down the glass which
contained it, one of them contrived to purloin the weight in question.
Having some suspicion of the boys, from the circumstance of having
recently lost a number of brass weights, he kept his eyes on them,
when he saw one put his hand into a box that was on the counter, take
out the largest weight, and then run out of the shop, followed by the
other two. The boy who stole it, slipped the weight into the hand of
one of the others; but the shopman, having observed this manoeuvre,
followed the boy who had the weight, who, being the youngest of the
three, could not run very fast; he, finding himself closely pursued,
threw the weight into the road, and when he was taken, declared that
it was not he who took it. The man wished to take the child back to
the shop, in order that his master might do with him as he thought
proper, but the by-standers, with a charitable _zeal_ which evinced
little _knowledge_, prevented him; one man in particular seemed to
interest himself much in the boy's behalf, stating that he knew the
child very well, and that he had neither father nor mother. The child
immediately took up this plea, and added that he had had no victuals
all day. The individual before mentioned then gave him a penny, and
his example was followed by many more, till I think the boy had
obtained nearly a shilling. I put several questions to him, but was
checked by this fellow, who told me, that as I had given the child
nothing, I had no right to ask so much? and, after a great deal of
abuse, he ended by telling me, that if I did not "take myself off" he