The testimony of Mrs. Thompson, however, it must be admitted, must be looked upon with distrust, if not with suspicion—and whether this is the true story of the meeting it is not so easy to determine. It is, however, quite certain that after his marriage or connection with the woman whom he always acknowledged as his wife, that he resumed his old courses.
He professed at this time to be earning a living by hawking spectacles and cutlery, but his ingrained fondness for entering the houses of others and for appropriating goods that did not belong to him had not been eradicated by the prison discipline to which he had been subjected. His unhappy wife soon found out the character of the man with whom she had formed an alliance.
Peace at this time had no possible excuse for committing the numerous robberies with which he is credited. He was well able to maintain himself by an honest calling, and in addition to this he had friends who were both able and willing to assist him in an emergency.
It was not many weeks after her marriage that Mrs. Peace’s eyes were enlightened as to the extra professional avocation of her husband, by a visit of the police to her house. His alliance with this ill-fated woman did not appear to have any influence over him, in the shape of turning him from his evil courses.
It would be a great misfortune if the boldness and fearlessness of this bad man were to blind even the most thoughtless to the utter worthlessness and depravity of his character.
In nothing does his baseness more transparently appear than in the miserable apologies and self-justifications with which his religious experiences are interlarded.
Assuming, as we are anxious to do, that these pious utterances of his later days are not wilfully insincere, they nonetheless betray an utter moral blindness.
He was very willing to call his past life base and wicked in general terms, but for his worst transgressions he had some extenuating plea which destroyed the validity of his assumed penitence.
If he could have been turned loose upon society again, one can hardly venture to hope that his future life would have corresponded with his edifying conduct in gaol.
The curiosity of the public to know all about Peace and his life need not be regarded with too despondent an eye, provided it goes no further than curiosity.