Among the passengers who filled one of our river steamers on a fine summer’s evening, the movements of one in particular were calculated to draw attention. There was something so haggard in his face, there was so continual an air of restlessness in his person, that it was evident his mind was ill at ease. He had chosen a position where scarcely any barricade existed between him and the stream, and casting his eyes rapidly round to see if he were observed, he, almost at the same time that he placed a small phial to his mouth, plunged into the water. An alarm was instantly given, the vessel was stopped, and the passengers saw him, true to the instincts of humanity, struggling and buffetting with the water for life. Assistance being soon rendered, the man was saved; and it was afterwards discovered that, having lost all his property, and not knowing how to maintain an insurance into which he had entered in more prosperous days, he had determined on sacrificing himself for the welfare of those who were dear to him. Believing that his death would be attributed to accident, he had taken some prussic acid at the moment he jumped in, unconscious that the effect of this poison is neutralised by the sudden immersion of the body in water.[32] It is well to be a chemist when one wishes to be a fraudulent suicide. * * * * * As the evening of an autumnal day began to close, four men might have been seen hiring a boat at one of the numerous stairs below Blackfriars bridge. Their appearance was that of the middle order, but the reckless daring which characterised their air and manner, marked them of the class which lives by others’ losses. By the time they had rowed some distance up the river, the only light that guided them was the reflection of the lamps which fringed it; and no sooner were they shrouded by the darkness of night, than, without any apparent cause, the boat was upset, and the four were precipitated into the Thames. They were close to land, and while they buffetted the tide and made their way, they hallooed lustily for help, which, as the shore was now ringing with the noise of boats and boatmen putting off to their assistance, was soon rendered. Of the four who had started, only three landed together, and great was their outcry for their lost companion. The alarm was immediately given; all that skill could do to recover their friend was tried, but the night was too dark to render human aid of much avail. It was pitiable to the bystanders to witness the grief of those who were saved, who, finding nothing more could be done, were obliged to content themselves with offering a reward for the body, coupled with a promise to return early in the morning. They then went away, and the scene resumed its ordinary quiet. A few hours after this, at the dead of night, a second boat, with the same men, pursued its silent and almost solitary course up the river towards the scene of the previous misfortune.