A COLLIERY—1802 398 BRITISH SAILOR—1805 404 BRITISH SOLDIER—1805 414 SOLDIERS—1806 414 DRESSING PIG-TAILS IN THE OPEN AIR—1801 414 HON. ARTILLERY COMPANY—1803 415 VOLUNTEER RIFLE CORPS—1803 415 BLOOMSBURY AND INNS OF COURT VOLUNTEER—1803 416 MRS. CLARKE 428 MRS. CLARKE’S LEVÉE 429 MILITARY LEAP FROG; OR, HINTS TO YOUNG GENTLEMEN 430 THE PRODIGAL SON’S RESIGNATION 431 WATCHMEN GOING ON DUTY—1808 436 WATCH-HOUSE. MARYLEBONE—1808 437 CONSTABLES—1805 438 PILLORY. CHARING CROSS 441 THE PILLORY 442 THE CONDEMNED SERMON. NEWGATE 447 THE LAST DYING SPEECH AND CONFESSION 448 INTERIOR OF FLEET PRISON 454 HOUSE OF CORRECTION. COLD BATH FIELDS 456 BOW STREET POLICE OFFICE 458 [Illustration] [Illustration] THE DAWN OF THE XIX^[TH] CENTURY IN ENGLAND. _A SOCIAL SKETCH OF THE TIMES._ CHAPTER I. 1799-1800. Retrospect of Eighteenth Century—Napoleon’s letter to George III.—Lord Grenville’s reply—French prisoners of war in England—Scarcity of provisions—Gloomy financial outlook—Loan from the Bank of England—Settlement of the Union with Ireland. THE old Eighteenth Century lay a-dying, after a comparatively calm and prosperous life. In its infancy, William of Orange brought peace to the land, besides delivering it from popery, brass money, and wooden shoes; and, under the Georges, civil war was annihilated, and the prosperity, which we have afterwards enjoyed, was laid down on a broad, and solid basis. But in its last years, it fell upon comparatively evil days, and, although it was saved from the flood of revolution which swept over France, yet, out of that revolution came a war which embittered its closing days, and was left as a legacy to the young Nineteenth Century, which, as we know, has grappled with and overcome all difficulties, and has shone pre-eminent over all its predecessors.