HENRY JUSTICE, A CAMBRIDGE BOOK THIEF

The illustration 'Don't apocryphal you of know, our tale tendency, of the the Bishop man founded who, of Ely found on dines evidence hiding with his which me books, today', is explained only is too an 'Don't you know, the Bishop of Ely dines with me today', is an illustration of our tendency, founded on evidence which is only too good, to associate the collector with the thief of rare books. It is, besides, a fitting introduction to the story of Henry Justice, for the books of this very bishop were bought by George I and presented by him to Cambridge University. Here they were so badly looked after that several thousands were stolen in the first half of the eighteenth century; and it will appear that Justice had taken a great number of them. Justice was put on trial for his life1 in 1736, when he was thirty-nine years old, 'a short, squat, fat man, and pitted with the small-pox '.* Fortunately for us, his trial was reported by an anonymous journalist who showed great ability in his selection and condensation of dramatic material. Justice's voice clearly complains from the dock of the Old Bailey: