worked for, and they would have had her continued; but, she says, she had taken it into her Head to leave this Employ (which she repents of) not without their Promise of giving her a good Character, if she afterwards should want one to go to Service with: And this, she says, was her Intent, when she left Bethnal-Green . Unhappily for her, however, she afterwards got into bad Company, and Drinking, and so spent what little Money she had got during the Summer Season, and then not knowing well which Way to turn herself, she took to pilfering, and, at last, to do what brought her to her unhappy End.

According to her own Story, had she done as her Friends advised her (few as they were) she might yet have lived by the Labour of her own Hands. But somehow she became infatuate to Idleness, and bad Company, which proved her Ruin; and she effected it, if her Story be true, in a very short Time. For, she says, she left Bethnal-Green but the Saturday before the Robbery on the Child was done, which was on the Tuesday following.

She persisted to the last, that she never had done any thing of this Kind before; and her own Words were, she had been drinking that cursed Liquor, called Gin, and was drunk, or she had never have attempted to use the poor Baby ill; to trepan, and rob it of it's Cloaths. But, upon the whole, that she had been loose, and idle, and too much addicted to drink Gin, and keep bad Company, she did not deny. She said she was very sorry for it, and had often reflected on Ways and Means to get rid of such bad Practices; but not being able to get herself into a regular way of Life, she found the Task too difficult to extricate herself from the Miseries, and ill Consequences, that attended her being exposed to Necessity in a wide World, without any one Friend to assist her in getting into any reputable way of Life. As she was a Woman of Pretty good Breeding, so was she also endued with a tolerable Share of Understanding, for one in such unhappy way of living, as had been her Lot.