“Though Preston is not yet of sufficient magnitude and importance to maintain a body of resident pickpockets, it seems to repay the trouble of frequent visits from members of the Manchester, Liverpool, and Sheffield corps. The great majority of cases tried at the sessions, in which it was thought necessary to inflict transportation, have been professional thieves whose head-quarters were at Manchester.
“At certain periods of his life Peace made that town his head-quarters also.
“I have had repeated conversations with many of these professionals, and I shall need no apology for entering into details.
“The first case to which my special notice became attracted was that of three young men, two of them only boys, and a girl apprehended for a shop robbery at Preston—an offence seldom ventured upon by thieves of their class because considered “dangerous”—i.e., involving greater risk of detection than their ordinary practice, and a severe sentence in the event of a conviction.
“The names of the culprits were John O’Neill, Richard Clarke, Thomas O’Gar, and Ellen O’Neill.
“On committal their true characters were at once apparent.
“On their trial numerous previous convictions at Manchester, Liverpool, and Wakefield, &c., were proved, and being once more found guilty, sentences were passed upon them to secure the public for some years from their depredations.
“These unhappy convicts who, previous to their trial, were cautious and reserved, underwent a change afterwards.
“Individual separation, and the consequent working of memory and reflection upon minds too young to be quite hardened, produced the usual result.
“One after another, and each ignorant of what their associates had done or purposed, they gladly availed themselves of the opportunities to unburden their memories, if not their consciences.