Your correspondent D. asks whether the word ale-draper was ever in "good use." The only place in which I can find it is Bailey's Dictionary, where it occurs thus:
"Ale-draper (a humorous name), a seller of malt liquors; an alehouse-keeper or victualler."
The humour, I suppose, consists in applying to one kind of occupation that which was commonly given to another; in taking draper from the service of cloth, and pressing it by force into that of ale. That it was ever considered as a word of respectable standing, can hardly be imagined. In such writers as Tom Brown it is most likely to occur.
1. With reference to Eugene Aram, D.'s remark about the over-ingeniousness of his defence has been anticipated by Paley, who was present at the trial, and said that Aram would not have been hanged had he less studiously defended himself. That laboured address to the jury must have employed his thoughts for years. I should like very much to know whether anyone has ever attempted to verify the references which he gives to the cases in which he says that bones have been found. The style of the speech has been much praised, but is surely not very surprising when it is considered that Johnson had previously written the Rambler. The composition wants ease.
2. Ever since I began to read about Eugene Aram, and that is some years ago, I have had a settled opinion that his attainments, and perhaps his abilities, had been greatly overrated. He was doubtless a man of considerable mental powers; but we cannot but suspect that had he acquired all the learning which is attributed to him, he would have attracted more notice than it was his fortune to obtain.
3. Mr. Scatchard's attempts, and all other attempts, to clear him from "blood-guilty stain," must be equally futile, for he himself confessed his guilt while he was in prison.
Some time ago, a dozen years or more, there appeared in the Literary Gazette, as a communication from a correspondent, an anecdote concerning Aram, which well deserves to be repeated. During the time that he was in the school of Lynn, it was the custom for the head-master, at the termination of every half-year, to invite the parents of the boys to an entertainment, and all
who accepted the invitation were expected to bring with them the money due on account of their sons, which, postquam exempta fames epulis, they paid into the head-master's hands. The master would thus retire to rest with a considerable sum in his possession. On one of these occasions, after he had gone to his chamber and supposed that all the family were in bed, he heard a noise in a passage not far distant, and, going out to see what was the cause of it, found Aram groping about in the dark, who, on being asked what he wanted, said that he had been obliged to leave his room on a necessary occasion, and had missed his way to the place which he sought. The passage was not one into which he was likely to wander by mistake, but the master accepted his excuse, and thought no more of the matter till Aram was arrested for the robbery and murder of Clarke, when he immediately recollected the circumstance, and suspected that he had intended on that night to commit another robbery or murder. I have not the number of the Literary Gazette in which this statement was given to refer to, but I am sure that I have repeated the substance of it correctly, and remember that it was inserted as being worthy of credit. It is another illustration of the fact that the nature of a man is unchangeable.
Bulwer's novel, which elevates Aram from a school-assistant into a private gentleman, may have pleased those, if there were such, who knew nothing of Arum's acts before they began to read it. But all who knew what Aram was, must be disgusted at the threshold. I regarded the book, at the time of its appearance, as one of the most presumptuous falsifications of biography that had ever been attempted. It is not easy to see why Bulwer might not have made an equally interesting story, if he had kept Aram in his proper station.
J. S. W.