so long-continued a defiance of civil authority will partly appear in the course of the subjoined narratives. The principal cause, however, was the subdivision of that part of Germany into a number of distinct principalities. The sphere of operations of these hordes extended from the borders of Holland to the Maine, and included a tract of equal dimensions on the west side of the Rhine. Every petty state had its peculiar criminal jurisdiction, the privileges of which it was considered of more importance to respect than to provide for the defence of life and property against the common enemy. Thus the history of the period offers a strange and dreadful picture of lawless violence, systematically exercised, during a long period, in the midst of a highly civilized community, and records a species of impunity afforded to offences of the most odious character and to notorious criminals, by the anomalous institutions referred to.

A state of things so repugnant to every principle of public policy, as well as to the most obvious dictates of justice and humanity, was at length ended by the consolidation of the French rule, soon followed by the establishment of Trial by Jury; though such was the hold on the public mind-retained by these formidable outlaws—that the personal danger attendant upon concurring in

a verdict of guilty was repeatedly made the subject of representation to the Government.

A family named Jacob, resident in 1780 at Winshoot, near Groningen, in Friesland, is regarded as the parent stem of the most renowned and dreaded robber chiefs, from the Zuyderzee to the Danube, and their place of abode was, during many years, the central quarter and directing point of operations for the great Netherland band, and other minor hordes which had emanated therefrom. It has been computed, that of one thousand robberies, accompanied with violence and bloodshed, which occurred before the end of the last century, this family, in the person of one or other of its members, was concerned in not less than nine hundred and fifty; and of these not a few were signalized by acts of murder and cruelty, at which humanity shudders. To give an instance-an attack was made on the house of a wealthy proprietor between Ghent and Brussels, in 1790, which cost the lives of two persons, the proprietor himself, and a young countryman, who rode in pursuit of the murderers. Not many

weeks afterwards a château, between Mechlin and Antwerp, was invaded at midnight, when the same ruffians, with shouts of fiendlike delight, cut off the ears of a girl of tender age, who stretched forth her hands to implore mercy;

and then inflicted a similar barbarity on her mother. At the date of these transactions, the elder Jacobs, the head of the family, was established in business at Courtray, as a forger of French Assignats, of from 28 to 300 francs, which his wife and daughters were employed in circulating. The extent of the "connection," may be judged from the fact that when the French troops entered Courtray, M. Jacob considered it prudent to burn nine large sacks filled with these Assignats.

In the spring of 1795, a party which included several of the Jacobs, broke into a country mansion in the neighbourhood of Ghent, and when the wife of the proprietor, half dead with affright, was somewhat tardy in detaching her finger and ear rings, they threw her on the ground and cut off both ears and fingers. At the same moment one of the gang rushed upon the lady's female attendant, and cut her throat with his dagger.

One cannot hear without astonishment, of the enormous booty obtained in these and similar expeditions. It appeared from the examination of Dinah Jacobs, taken before the Police Director of Tournay, in 1797, that the share of each individual engaged in robberies near Mons, was 200 louis d'or. A few weeks later, an affair in the district of Liege, yielded in gold and diamonds

upwards of 1,500 louis. On this occasion the members selected for the enterprise had their rendezvous at Ghent, and thence travelled post to the neighbourhood of the scene of action.

The life of a bandit, it has been said, is divisible into three periods. In the first he is occupied in laying plans and carrying them into effect: the second is devoted to the enjoyment of his illgotten wealth, which is rapidly dissipated in every species of folly and profligacy: during the third he sits in his dungeon meditating the chances of an escape. The great test of dexterity and courage was the shortness of the interval which elapsed between a capture and the resumption of professional avocations. In this respect, Picard, the leader of the Netherland band, had an unrivalled reputation. Continually in the hands of justice, he as often owed his liberty to his own boldness and address; and it may be said, that the strongest prisons of France, Belgium, and Germany, were anything but fortresses of security, in the case of a man who, up to his final arrest, was never the inmate of any one of them more than a few days. The notorious Picard attained the chiefship of his band at the early age of eighteen ; and its existence as a distinct association may be considered to have terminated with his career.

THE PARSONAGE OF MULHEIM.

If the inhabitants of the larger cities of the Rhine -Cologne, Dusseldorf, and others,—were not safe from the attacks of these robber hordes, one may judge in what degree the open country was exposed to similar visitations. It may be truly said, that the condition of the proprietors in that district, at the period here referred to, was a deplorable one.

Karl Heckmann, since 1794 the captain of a band which had its principal quarters on the right bank of the Rhine, in the territory of Berg, and which, under his leadership, had perpetrated many successful outrages at Tolingen and Elbersfeldt, was a robber chief of unsurpassed courage, ferocity, and address. This man submitted to his confederates an adventure which promised the most brilliant results. He did not disguise the difficulties attendant upon the enterprise, but his picture of the expected booty was so captivating, that the questions-where was the place? and who the party? were immediately vociferated in boisterous concert by the whole troop.

The Lutheran pastor at Mülheim, on the Ruhr, was the appointed sufferer.

The proposition of Heckmann was adopted unanimously, and it was agreed that two deputies should be sent to reconnoitre and report upon the