THREE CELEBRITIES.

Fox, Pitt, and Burke were (said the old
lady,*) low London thieves, who were
transported under the names of the three most
celebrated orators and statesmen of their time.
Their offence was picking pockets at a fair,
and their sentences fourteen years. Charles
James Fox was assigned to my husband, and
we employed him in chopping wood, cleaning
the knives, brushing clothes, and carrying
messages in the absence of the orderly. He
was a slight young man of about twenty-four
years of age, and far from ill-looking, when
he first came into our service. For a few
months he conducted himself remarkably
well, but subsequently he became idle, negligent,
and addicted to speaking the most
flagrant untruths; so much so, that the
Major on several occasions had him flogged.
On the last occasion he never returned to us.
He watched his opportunity, and made his
escape from the constable who had him in
charge. He was, of course, gazetted as a
runaway, and a reward of ten pounds offered for
his apprehension. A few days afterwards the
gazette contained the names of William Pitt
and Edmund Burke. They, too (most probably
at the instigation of Charles James
Fox), had run away from their respective
masters. It was rather droll to see those
three great names placarded in all directions,
and the persons who then bore them in the
colony minutely described. Pitt's master was
a Doctor Wylde whom we knew very
intimately. He described Pitt to us as a short,
thick-set, and rather determined character.
Edmund Burke, having been originally a
compositor, was employed in the government
printing-office, which was then superintended
by Mr. George Howe, who was afterwards
permitted to publish a newspaper in Sydney,
subject to the censorship of the Colonial
Secretary. Burke, according to Mr. Howe's
account, was a man of good natural ability,
but of violent and, when excited, ferocious
disposition.
* See our last number, page 537.

The career of these men who took to the
bush (considering that it extended over a
period of eight years), was a very remarkable
one. There was not a road in the
colony, not even a cross-road or bush-road,
upon which they had not stopped and robbed
travellers. And it is a mistake to suppose
that the police was an inefficient body in
those days. It was more efficient than they
are very likely to be again. Some of the
police had been highwaymen, poachers, game-
keepers,—men who had been pardoned for
capturing bushrangers guilty of great crimes,
and who had received their appointments in
consequence of the proofs they had given that
confidence might be placed in them. Their
pay was small, and the rewards for the
apprehension of desperate characters were
large. The pay of the great George Lewis,
the most renowned of all Australian thief-
takers and bushrangers, was only four dollars
(one pound currency) per week, and, as he
kept two horses, and maize was commonly
two dollars a bushel, you may readily imagine
that he had to look to the walls, and not to
his pay, for a livelihood.

"What do you mean by looking to the walls,
my dear madam?" I said.

All runaway convicts and bushrangers,
she replied, were placarded on the walls
and gate-posts, as well as advertised in
the government gazette. I have seen the walls
of the police-office in Sydney literally covered
with these hand-bills, headed £10 Reward!
£25 Reward! £50 Reward! £100 Reward!
The great thief-takers, men of George Lewis's
stamp, and they were all men of prowess,
courage, and sagacity—never hunted in
couples. They always went forth alone. They
were not only too greedy for the gain, but
too jealous of each other, to admit of their
combining, to effect the capture. They
depended upon strategy and individual valour,
rather than upon numbers, to accomplish the
ends they had in view. It was a curious sight
to see a group of these thief-takers
(bloodhounds they were called) coolly spelling a fresh
placard on the walls of the police-office, and
then observe the speculation which was
stamped upon their various countenances. My
husband, of course, knew all these men, and
so did I for that matter; and when Charles
James Fox became such a very distinguished
man in his way, all of them, not in a body,
but separately, came to make certain enquiries
touching his habits and peculiarities. The
Major was from home when Mr. George