day; and a General, of whom it may be severely argued, whether he
was the meanest miser or the greatest hero in the world; when Mrs.
Masham had not yet put Madam Marlborough's nose out of joint; when
people had their ears cut off for writing very meek political
pamphlets; and very large full-bottomed wigs were just beginning to
be worn with powder; and the face of Louis the Great, as his was
handed in to him behind the bed-curtains, was, when issuing thence,
observed to look longer, older, and more dismal daily. . . .

About the year One thousand seven hundred and five, that is, in the
glorious reign of Queen Anne, there existed certain characters, and
befell a series of adventures, which, since they are strictly in
accordance with the present fashionable style and taste; since they
have been already partly described in the "Newgate Calendar;" since
they are (as shall be seen anon) agreeably low, delightfully
disgusting, and at the same time eminently pleasing and pathetic,
may properly be set down here.

And though it may be said, with some considerable show of reason,
that agreeably low and delightfully disgusting characters have
already been treated, both copiously and ably, by some eminent
writers of the present (and, indeed, of future) ages; though to
tread in the footsteps of the immortal FAGIN requires a genius of
inordinate stride, and to go a-robbing after the late though
deathless TURPIN, the renowned JACK SHEPPARD, or the embryo DUVAL,
may be impossible, and not an infringement, but a wasteful
indication of ill-will towards the eighth commandment; though it
may, on the one hand, be asserted that only vain coxcombs would dare
to write on subjects already described by men really and deservedly
eminent; on the other hand, that these subjects have been described