“After the interview Richard Clarke told me that the young man introduced as a cousin was no relative at all, but a former associate, then living with the old Clarke’s, and named M‘Giverin.
“At the second visit there came both the old Clarkes, O’Neill’s mother, Edward Clarke, the younger sister—a fine-looking child of eleven—and a girl who lived with the Clarkes as Richard’s mistress.
“Old Clarke, not content with bringing M‘Giverin again, also introduced another ‘cousin,’ a well-dressed man of thirty.
“When Richard Clarke, the convict, was asked who these two men were, his father slipped forward and answered for him, repeating the falsehood he had already told, and persisting in it until his son plainly declared the real name and character of the two ‘cousins.’
“When remonstrated with for practising such duplicity at such a time, all that could be obtained from the wretched man was—
“‘Well, sir, I ax your pardon. Sure I did not know the rules of the place.’
“At one moment he appeared oppressed with the bitterest feelings, and the next was chatting with an air of eager satisfaction.
“When his relatives had gone Richard Clarke made the following statement—
“‘My little brother told me this morning that last Saturday night he got £15 in sovereigns at the Bank Top Station, and that yesterday (Monday) he got £5 in Manchester. The two men that came to see me this morning are Thomas M‘Giverin and Henry Kelly. M‘Giverin has been a thief about five years, and has two brothers who are thieves. Kelly is about thirty years old; he has been a thief in all ways about twenty years. He is only just out of Liverpool Gaol, where he got six months for a watch. I think him and M‘Giverin came to see me out of curiosity—to see whether I was hard or no.’
“I have dwelt longer on the history of this family of pickpockets than may seem necessary, but I have done so from a desire to lay open as far as I can what is too little known, the character and proceedings of this portion of la classe dangereuse, to impress upon the public the enormous loss it sustains by their depredations, and to suggest the necessity of resorting to more efficient means for the repression of the evil, which, I believe, to be greatly on the increase.