do not recollect to have seen a pantomime myself without _pilfering_
being introduced under every possible form, such as shop lifting,
picking pockets, &c. &c. Can it then be for a moment supposed
improbable that children, after having witnessed these exhibitions,
should endeavour to put the thing into practice, whenever an
opportunity offers, and try whether they cannot take a handkerchief
from a gentleman's pocket with the same ease and dexterity as the
clown in the play did; or, if unsuccessful in this part of the
business, that they should try their prowess in carrying off a
shoulder of mutton from a butcher's shop,--a loaf from a baker,--or
lighter articles from the pastry-cools, fruiterer, or linen-draper?
For, having seen the dexterity of the clown, in these cases, they will
not be at a loss for methods to accomplish, by sleight of hand, their
several purposes. In my humble opinion, children cannot go to a better
place for instruction in these matters, or to a place more calculated
to teach them the art of pilfering to perfection, than to the theatre,
when pantomimes are performed. To say that the persons who write and
introduce these pieces are in want of _sense_, may not be true; but I
must charge them with a want of sufficient thought, right feeling and
principle, in not calculating on their baneful effects on the rising
generation, for whose amusement it appears they are chiefly produced.
Many unfortunate persons, who have heard sentence of death passed upon
them, or who are now suffering under the law, in various ways, have
had to lament that the _first seeds of vice were sown in their minds
while viewing the pilfering tricks of clowns in pantomimes_. Alas!
too little do we calculate on the direful effects of this species of
amusement on the future character of the young. We first permit their
minds to be poisoned, by offering them the draught, and then punish
them by law for taking it. Does not the wide world afford a variety
of materials sufficient for virtuous imitation, without descending to