showman to "Tom and Jerry." He had however tried many trades,--had been in turn a compositor, bookseller, sporting writer, newspaper reporter, and even secretary to an Irish theatrical manager. The success of "Life in London," which he arrogated to himself, raised up a crop of enemies as well as friends, and he soon afterwards received his _conge_ from the proprietors of the _Dispatch_. Pierce Egan, however, was not a man to be daunted by any such discouragement; he was found equal to the occasion, meeting his employers' _coup d'etat_ by starting a sporting paper of his own, to which he gave the name of his successful book,--_Pierce Egan's Life in London, and Sporting Guide_. This counter movement proved the germ of a great enterprise. Probably his venture was no very great success; it ran only for three years from its commencement on the 1st of February, 1824. On the 28th of October, 1827, _Egan's Life in London_ was sold by auction to a Mr. Bell, and thenceforth assumed its well known and now time honoured title of _Bell's Life in London_. CHARLES MOLLOY WESTMACOTT. Another friend of the artist was Charles Molloy Westmacott, as he called himself, but who is supposed to have been--_filius nullius_ or _filius populi_--the child of Mrs. Molloy, a pretty widow who kept a tavern at Kensington. Westmacott was one of a class of writers who not only existed but thrived in the early part of our century by the levying of literary black-mail. The _modus operandi_ (as given by Mr. William Bates, from whom we derive our information respecting this man) appears to have been as follows: "Sometimes a vague rumour or hint of scandal, accompanied perchance by a suggestive newspaper paragraph, was conveyed to one or more of the parties implicated, with a threat of further inquiry into its truth, and a full exposure of the circumstances which excited the sender's virtuous indignation. This, if the selected victim was a man of nervous, timid temperament, often produced the desired effect; and although possibly entirely innocent of the allegation, he preferred to purchase silence, and escape the suspicion which publicity does not fail to attach to a name. If, on the other hand, no notice was taken of the communication, the screw received some further turns. A narrative was drawn up, and printed off, in the form of a newspaper paragraph, and was transmitted to the parties concerned, with a letter, intimating that it had been 'received from a correspondent,' and that the publisher thought fit, prior to publication, to ascertain whether those whose names were mentioned desired to correct, modify, or cancel any part of the statement. There is no doubt that very large sums have been extorted by these scoundrelly means, and a vast amount of anxiety and misery occasioned."[62] This was "the sort of man" that Charles Molloy Westmacott appears to have been; and I learn on the same authority that by these means he was enabled in one instance alone to