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They never spoke of things by their right names; and, therefore, those things never seemed so bad as they really were to swindle a gentleman, did not sound a crime, when it was called 'macing a swell' nor transportation a punishment, when it was termed, with a laugh, 'lagging a cove. Thus, insensibly, my ideas of right and wrong, always obscure, became perfectly confused: and the habit of treating all crimes as subjects of jest in familiar conversation, soon made me regard them as matters of very trifling importance.
They never spoke of things by their right names; and, therefore, those things never seemed so bad as they really were to swindle a gentleman, did not sound a crime, when it was called 'macing a swell' nor transportation a punishment, when it was termed, with a laugh, 'lagging a cove. Thus, insensibly, my ideas of right and wrong, always obscure, became perfectly confused: and the habit of treating all crimes as subjects of jest in familiar conversation, soon made me regard them as matters of very trifling importance.
On another occasion I accordingly asked him the meaning of a number of these terms which I had thus heard bandied about from time to time amongst them. On asking him about 'macing' he replied "Macing means taking an office, getting goods sent to it, and then 'bolting' with them; or getting goods sent to your lodgings and then removing.
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