As a detective, Mr. Sidney was unequalled in this country. Vidocq may
have been his superior in dissimulation, but in that alone. He certainly
had not a tithe of Mr. Sidney's genius and strength of mind and moral
power to discern the truth, though never so deeply hidden, and to expose
it to the clear light of day.

"His blood and judgment were so well commingled,"

that his conclusions seemed akin to prophecy.

But it is not as a detective that Mr. Sidney is here presented. This
slight sketch of this remarkable man is given, that the reader may more
willingly believe that he possessed, among other wonderful powers, one
that is not known ever to have been attained to such a degree by any
other individual, namely:--

_The power of discerning, in a single specimen of handwriting, the
character, the occupation, the habits, the temperament, the health,
the age, the sex, the size, the nationality, the benevolence or the
penuriousness, the boldness or the timidity, the morality or the
immorality, the affectation or the hypocrisy, and often the intention of
the writer_.

At the age of thirty-five, the genius of Mr. Sidney as a physiognomist,
expert, and detective, remained wholly undeveloped. He was not
aware, nor were his friends, of his wonderful powers of observation,
dissection, and deduction. Nor had he taken his first lesson by being
brought in contact with the rogues. How, then, did he acquire this
almost miraculous power?