That the reader may form some idea of the uncontrolable rage of this dreadful passion, Cook states, that a person in a respectable house in the city, frequently came to his sink of filth and iniquity, and stayed several days and nights together; during which time he generally amused himself with eight, ten, and sometimes a dozen different boys and men!—There can be no doubt of the truth of this assertion, for an explanation took place before some of the parties connected with him in business, when Cook sent to the house for a bill that the wretch owed him. It is said that this animal is now in a mad-house; which, in my apprehension, is the natural consequence of transactions which can only be produced by a temporary insanity. In contemplating this calamitous vice, a charitable disposition would lead us to believe that it is the effect of a dreadful malignant malady, that assumes such an irresistible dominion over the faculties, that neither religion, philosophy, or the fear of death, can resist. Before I could give credit to a twentieth part of the account transmitted to me, I waited till Cook was discharged from his imprisonment, and then interrogated him, with all the art and force of reason that I was master of, as to the truth of his relation, more especially the identity of the persons whose names he mentioned; stating to him, that even an insinuation of so foul an imputation against an innocent man, would inevitably consign him to an infinitely worse punishment than that he had already suffered: but his answers were such, as left me no excuse to doubt the truth; and notwithstanding my full conviction upon the subject, I have not ventured to fasten the odium upon any respectable character, leaving a disclosure of that nature to be extorted from the parties themselves in a Court of Justice:—nor would I have sullied the idea of manhood with this history of human depravity upon the bare assertion of any man, or any ten men, who were within the possibility of being induced by some purpose to fabricate such an abominable story; but the statement of Cook cannot be subject to any such misrepresentation, for it is matter of record:—thirty of the parties he describes to be the constant frequenters of the house were apprehended by the Police officers, and that on a Sunday evening; they were all examined by the Magistrates, and their guilt established, though in different degrees: and the dreadful shocking consequences of their conviction ended in the execution of a sentence so disgraceful to humanity, so contrary to the punishment awarded by the laws of England, that the foulest page in the history of savage ferocity must blush at the relation of that ruffianly scene of human degradation; a scene that never could have disgraced the streets of London but in the Sheriffalty of Mr. Matthew Wood; and never can happen again, until Sheriffs and Pillories are made of the same materials.