PREFACE. THE following pages contain a history of the crimes committed in Yorkshire since 1799. The execution of this task called for much greater research and industry than casual enquirers might imagine. The volume includes, amid an extraordinary variety of matter, the history of the LUDDITES, the trials of HUNT, of MARTIN, and of MARY BATEMAN, with particulars concerning each, derived from peculiar sources; together with an ESSAY on the CRIMI NAL LAWS. This Work was originally intended to form a portion of a much more extensive one; but as the views of the Proprietor are materially changed since the commencement of it, the further extension is, therefore, for the present abandoned. The volume presents the anomaly of an author's name appearing in the title page who had nothing to do with the production of the Work. I originally engaged to |