CRIMINAL EMIGRANTS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 9660, 13 June 1882, Page 3

CRIMINAL EMIGRANTS.

«- Writers of fiction, says the Home News, are not always sufficiently alive to their respcms-ibili'ies. Tboy bxercise an influence f r goo<l or evil, lou often the latter, for the novel that is didxclic is generally v>ted dull, and the writer who can describe graphically actions thu reverse of virtuous is the more certain of readers. It is a wellauthentio ited fact that Ainswortu tempted many weekly-balanced minds to imitate Jack Shepparu, while it is more than possible that Mr J?agm's academy for young gentlemen in<iy have fired the ambition of honest lads to tura piok-pocketg aud iniitute the skill of Charley Bales or ihe Artful Dodger. A more recent and more authentic case has just occurred, in which the coleuica are to some extent interested. This time it is Gapt.Mayne Reid who is responsible, and if it is gratifying to that veteran novelist to note the effect he can produce he must feel, rather guilty at haviDg driven a hitherto well-behaved furm servant into evil ways. It appears that a Lancashire lad who was a voracious reader of Indian novels was seized with a longing to follow in the.footstepdiof some of.Cupt. MaynG Ueid's heroes. It was his ambition to transport himself to the Far West and there adopt the jovial Jlife ot[ a buccaneer. He choose Canada as the scene of his iulure exyloUs, and in order to provide himself witu f'le necessiry xunds for the voyage began ha new liae of lifo by laying uands ou his master's mnney-box. With the seventy puunds thus obtained he made his way to Liverpool, secured a passage to Quebec in the steamship Parisian, and then laid in a stock of arms necessary for hrn proposed profession. By this time the police were on his track, and he was presently arrested fo, the theft from his master, .But when the police took him he was found to be in possession of a couple of revolvers, a dagger, two bowie knives, and a stiletto. 'Ihe account does not go on to say whether ho had a false beard, a slouch hat, and other necessary properties for the stage buccaneer. Probably his career would hare been promptly cut short, but it is quite clear that emigrants of this class are not wanted in Canada.