Smith and the blind judge, Mr. Mansfield, are the most effectively drawn and carefully balanced characters in the novel. Smith is motivated by the need to survive; he is a clever and quick pickpocket but has a sense of compassion that leads him to offer a helping hand to old Mr. Mansfield.

Smith has no scruples about his pickpocketing and even aspires to be a highwayman like Lord Tom for the excitement and treasure that such a life will bring—even if it also brings a death by hanging. His sisters call him "Smut," and at first he appears as little more than a grimy scrap of a boy. On the other hand, Mr. Mansfield—large in build, rich, and possessing the power and status of a judge—has only a rigid, abstract sense of justice to cling to in his...