evening, however, when his mother returned, he forced his way out of
the room, and behaved with such violence that the attendants were
obliged to iron both his hands and legs! There can be no doubt that
this child had been for a long time under the instruction and evil
influence of some old and hardened offender; he must, indeed, have
undergone much training before he could have arrived at such a pitch
of hardihood, as to make it necessary to handcuff and fetter a child
of so tender an age; and to enable him to hold even the magistrates,
officers, and his own parent, at defiance.

The following cases afford further proof of the same lamentable truth;
the first is extracted from a morning paper of the 20th of September,
1824. "A little boy, not more than _six years of age_, was brought
before the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, on Saturday, the 18th
instant, having been found in a warehouse, where he had secreted
himself for the purpose of thieving. At a late hour on Friday night,
a watchman was going his round, when, on trying a warehouse in which
there was much valuable property, to see whether it was safe, he heard
the little prisoner cry. The persons who had the care of the warehouse
were roused, and he was taken out. In his fright he acknowledged that
a man had taken him from his mother, and induced him, upon a promise
of reward, to steal into the warehouse; upon a concerted signal, he
was to act as directed by the fellow on the outside; but becoming
terrified at being confined so long in the dark, he had cried out
and discovered himself. His mother came forward, and received a good
character as the wife of a hard-working man. The Lord Mayor gave her
son up to her, with an injunction to act carefully and strictly with
him. There was reason to believe, he said, that several considerable
robberies had been recently committed by means of children like the
prisoner, who stole in and remained concealed until midnight, when