magnificent city, filled with inhabitants of almost every description
and occupation--and such an one indeed as might be pleasing to an
Englishman, delighting in tumult and confusion, and accustomed to
witness scenes of riot and dissipation, as well as those of human
infliction; and for the sake of variety, would be willing to imprison
himself within the walls of a Bedlam, where continual noise would
deafen him, where the unwholesomeness of the air would effect his
lungs, and where the closeness of the surrounding buildings would not
permit him to enjoy the enlivening influence of the sun! There is not
perhaps another city of its size in the whole world, the streets of
which display a greater contrast in the wealth and misery, the honesty
and knavery, of its inhabitants, than the city of London. The eyes of
the passing stranger (unaccustomed to witness such scenes) is at one
moment dazzled by the appearance of pompous wealth, with its splendid
equippage--at the next he is solicited by one apparently of the most
wretched of human beings, to impart a single penny for the relief of
his starving family! Among the latter class, there are many; however,
who so far from being the real objects of charity that they represent
themselves to be, actually possess more wealth than those who sometimes
benevolently bestow it--these vile imposters, by every species of
deception that was ever devised or practiced by man, aim to excite the
pity and compassion, and to extort charity from those unacquainted with
their easy circumstances--they possess the faculty of assuming any
character that may best suit their purpose--sometimes hobbling with a
crutch and exhibiting a wooden leg--at other times “an honourable scar
of a wound, received in Egypt, at Waterloo or at Trafalgar, fighting
for their most gracious sovereign and master King George!”
Independent of these there is another species of beggars (the gypsies)
who form a distinct clan, and will associate with none but those of
their own tribe--they are notorious thieves as well as beggars, and
constantly infest the streets of London to the great annoyance of
strangers and those who have the appearance of being wealthy--they
have no particular home or abiding place, but encamp about in open
fields or under hedges, as occasion requires--they are generally
of a yellow complexion, and converse in a dialect peculiar only to
themselves--their thieving propensities do not unfrequently lead them
to kidnap little children, whenever an opportunity presents; having
first by a dye changed their complexion to one that corresponds with
their own, they represent them as their own offspring, and carry them
about half naked on their backs to excite the pity and compassion
of those of whom they beg charity. An instance of this species of
theft by a party of these unprincipled vagabonds, occurred once in
my neighbourhood while an inhabitant of London--the little girl
kidnapped was the daughter of a Capt. Kellem of Coventry Street--being
sent abroad on some business for her parents, she was met by a gang
of Gypsies, consisting of five men and six women, who seized her,
and forcibly carried her away to their camp, in the country, at a
considerable distance, having first stripped her of her own cloathes,
and in exchange dressed her in some of their rags--thus garbed she
travelled about the country with them for nearly 7 months, and was
treated as the most abject slave, and her life threatened if she
should endeavour to escape or divulged her story;--she stated that
during the time she was with them they entrapped a little boy about
her own age, whom they also stripped and carried with them, but took
particular care he should never converse with her, treating him in the
like savage manner; she said that they generally travelled by cross
roads and private ways, ever keeping a watchful eye that she might not
escape, and that no opportunity offered until when, by some accident,
they were obliged to send her from their camp to a neighbouring farm
house, in order to procure a light, which she took advantage of; and
scrambling over hedges and ditches, as she supposed for the distance
of 8 or 9 miles, reached London worn out with fatigue and hunger, her
support with them being always scanty, and of the worst sort; to which
was added the misery of sleeping under hedges, and exposure to the
inclemency of the weather--it was the intention of the gypsies she said
to have coloured her and the boy when the walnut season approached.
The streets of London and its suburbs are also infested with another
and a still more dreadful species of rogues, denominated Footpads, and
who often murder in the most inhuman manner, for the sake of only
a few shillings, any unfortunate people who happen to fall in their
way--of this I was made acquainted with enumerable instances, while an
inhabitant of London; I shall however mention but two that I have now
recollection of:--
A Mr. Wylde while passing through Marlborough Street, in a chaise,
was stopped by a footpad, who, on demanding his money, received a few
shillings, but being dissatisfied with the little booty he obtained,
still kept a pistol at Mr. Wylde’s head, and on the latter’s attempting
gently to turn it aside, the villain fired, and lodged seven slugs in
his head and breast, which caused instant death--Mr. W. expired in the
arms of his son and grandson without a groan. A few days after as a Mr.
Greenhill was passing through York-Street in a single horse chaise, he
was met and stopped by three footpads, armed with pistols, one of them
seized and held the horse’s head, while the other two most inhumanely
dragged Mr. G. over the back of his chaise, and after robbing him of
his notes, watch and hat gave him two severe cuts on his head and
left him in that deplorable state in the road.--The above are but two
instances of hundreds of a similar nature, which yearly occur in the
most public streets of the city of London. The city is infested with a
still higher order of rogues, denominated pick-pockets or cutpurses,
who to carry on their nefarious practices, garb themselves like
gentlemen, and introduce themselves into the most fashionable circles;
many of them indeed are persons who once sustained respectable
characters, but who, by extravagance and excesses, have reduced
themselves to want and find themselves obliged at last to have recourse
to pilfering and thieving.
Thus have I endeavoured to furnish the reader with the particulars of a
few of the vices peculiar to a large portion of the inhabitants of the
city of London--to these might be added a thousand other misdemeanors
of a less criminal nature, daily practiced by striplings from the age
of six, to the hoary headed of ninety!--this I assure my readers is
a picture correctly delineated and not too highly wrought of a city
famous for its magnificence, and where I was doomed to spend more than
40 years of my life, and in which time pen, ink, and paper would fail,
were I to attempt to record the various instances of misery and want
that attended me and my poor devoted family.
In September 1783, the glorious news of a definitive treaty of Peace
having been signed between the United States and Great-Britain, was
publicly announced in London--while on the minds of those who had been
made rich by the war, the unwelcomed news operated apparently like a
paralytic stroke, a host of those whose views had been inimical to
the cause of America, and had sought refuge in England, attempted to
disguise their disappointment and dejection under a veil of assumed
cheerfulness. As regarded myself, I can only say, that had an event
so long and ardently wished for by me taken place but a few months
before, I should have hailed it as the epoch of my deliverance from a
state of oppression and privation that I had already too long endured.
An opportunity indeed now presented for me to return once more to my
native country, after so long an absence, had I possessed the means;
but much was the high price demanded for a passage, and such had been
my low wages, and the expenses attending the support of even a small
family in London, that I found myself at this time in possession of
funds hardly sufficient to defray the expense of my own passage, and
much less that of my wife and child--hence the only choice left me was
either to desert them, and thereby subject them (far separated from
one) to the frowns of an uncharitable people, or to content myself to
remain with them and partake of a portion of that wretchedness which
even my presence could not avert. When the affairs of the American
Government had become so far regulated as to support a Consul at the
British court, I might indeed have availed myself individually, of
the opportunity which presented of procuring a passage home at the
Government’s expence; but as this was a privilege that could not
be extended to my wife and child, my regard for them prevented my
embracing the only means provided by my country for the return of her
captured soldiers and seamen.
To make the best of my hard fortune, I became as resigned and
reconciled to my situation as circumstances would admit of; flattering
myself that fortune might at some unexpected moment so far decide in
my favour, as to enable me to accomplish my wishes--I indeed bore
my afflictions with a degree of fortitude which I could hardly have
believed myself possessed of--I had become an expert workman at brick
making at which business and at gardening, I continued to work for very
small wages, for three or four years after the Peace--but still found
my prospects of a speedy return to my country, by no ways flattering.
The peace had thrown thousands who had taken an active part in the
war, out of employ; London was thronged with them--who, in preference
to starving, required no other consideration for their labour than a
humble living, which had a lamentable effect in reducing the wages
of the labouring class of people; who, previous to this event were
many of them so extremely poor, as to be scarcely able to procure the
necessaries of life for their impoverished families--among this class I
must rank myself, and from this period ought I to date the commencement
of my greatest miseries, which never failed to attend me in a greater
or less degree until that happy moment, when favoured by providence, I
was permitted once more to visit the peaceful shores of the land of my
nativity.
When I first entered the city of London, I was almost stunned, while
my curiosity was not a little excited by what is termed the “cries of
London”--the streets were thronged by persons of both sexes and of
every age, crying each the various articles which they were exposing
for sale, or for jobs of work at their various occupations;--I little
then thought that this was a mode which I should be obliged myself to
adopt to obtain a scanty pittance for my needy family--but, such indeed
proved to be the case. The great increase of labourers produced by the
cessation of hostilities, had so great an effect in the reduction of
wages, that the trifling consideration now allowed me by my employers
for my services, in the line of business in which I had been several
years engaged, was no longer an object, being insufficient to enable
me to procure a humble sustenance. Having in vain sought for more
profitable business, I was induced to apply to an acquaintance for
instruction in the art of chair bottoming, and which I partially
obtained from him for a trifling consideration.
It was now (which was in the year 1789) that I assumed a line of
business very different from that in which I had ever before been
engaged--fortunately for me, I possessed strong lungs, which I found
very necessary in an employment the success of which depended, in a
great measure, in being enabled to drown the voices of others (engaged
in the same occupation) by my own--“Old Chairs to Mend,” became now
my constant cry through the streets of London, from morning to night;
and although I found my business not so profitable as I could have
wished, yet it yielded a tolerable support for my family some time,
and probably would have continued so to have done, had not the almost
constant illness of my children, rendered the expenses of my family
much greater than they otherwise would have been--thus afflicted by
additional cares and expense, (although I did every thing in my power
to avoid it) I was obliged, to alleviate the sufferings of my family,
to contract some trifling debts which it was not in my power to
discharge.
I now became the victim of additional miseries--I was visited by a
bailiff employed by a creditor, who seizing me with the claws of a
tiger, dragged me from my poor afflicted family and inhumanly thurst
me into prison! indeed no misery that I ever before endured equalled
this--separated from those dependent on me for the necessaries of
life, and placed in a situation in which it was impossible for me
to afford them any relief!--fortunately for me at this melancholly
moment, my wife enjoyed good health, and it was to her praise-worthy
exertions that her poor helpless children, as well as myself, owed
our preservation from a state of starvation!--this good woman had
become acquainted with many who had been my customers, whom she made
acquainted with my situation, and the sufferings of my family, and who
had the humanity to furnish me with work during my confinement--the
chairs were conveyed to and from the prison by my wife--in this way
I was enabled to support myself and to contribute something to
the relief of my afflicted family. I had in vain represented to my
unfeeling creditor my inability to satisfy his demands, and in vain
represented to him the suffering condition of those wholly dependent on
me; unfortunately for me, he proved to be one of those human beasts,
who, having no soul, take pleasure in tormenting that of others, who
never feel but in their own misfortunes, and never rejoice but in the
afflictions of others--of such beings, so disgraceful to human nature,
I assure the reader London contains not an inconsiderable number.
After having for four months languished in a horrid prison, I was
liberated therefrom a mere skeleton; the mind afflicted had tortured
the body; so much is the one in subjection to the other--I returned
sorrowful and dejected to my afflicted family whom I found in very
little better condition. We now from necessity took up our abode in an
obscure situation near Moorfields; where, by my constant application to
business, I succeeded in earning daily a humble pittance for my family,
bearly sufficient however to satisfy the cravings of nature; and to
add to my afflictions, some one of my family were almost constantly
indisposed.
However wretched my situation there were many others at this period,
with whom I was particularly acquainted, whose sufferings were greater
if possible than my own; and whom want and misery drove to the
commission of crimes, that in any other situation they would probably
not have been guilty of. Such was the case of the unfortunate Bellamy,
who was capitally convicted and executed for a crime which distresses
in his family, almost unexampled, had in a moment of despair, compelled
him to commit. He was one who had seen better days, was once a
commissioned officer in the army, but being unfortunate he was obliged
to quit the service to avoid the horrors of a prison, and was thrown on
the world, without a single penny or a single friend. The distresses of
his family were such, that they were obliged to live for a considerable
time deprived of all sustenance except what they could derive from
scanty and precarious meals of potatoes and milk--in this situation
his unfortunate wife was confined in child bed--lodging in an obscure
garret, she was destitute of every species of those conveniences almost
indespensable with females in her condition, being herself without
clothes, and to procure a covering for her new born infant, all their
resources were exhausted. In this situation his wife and children must
inevitably have starved, were it not for the loan of five shillings
which he walked from London to Blackheath to borrow. At his trial he
made a solemn appeal to heaven, as to the truth of every particular
as above stated--and that so far from wishing to exaggerate a single
fact, he had suppressed many more instances of calamity scarcely to be
paralleled--that after the disgrace brought upon himself by this single
transaction, life could not be a boon he would be anxious to solicit,
but that nature pleaded in his breast for a deserving wife and helpless
child--all however was ineffectual, he was condemned and executed
pursuant to his sentence.
I have yet one or two more melancholly instances of the effects of
famine to record, the first of which happened within a mile of my then
miserable habitation--a poor widow woman, who had been left destitute
with five small children, and who had been driven to the most awful
extremities by hunger, overpowered at length by the pitiful cries of
her wretched offspring, for a morsel of bread, in a fit of despair,
rushed into the shop of a baker in the neighbourhood, and seizing a
loaf of bread bore it off to the relief of her starving family, and
while in the act of dividing it among them, the baker (who had pursued
her) entered and charged her with the theft--the charge she did not
deny, but plead the starving condition of her wretched family in
palliation of the crime!--the baker noticing a platter on the table
containing a quantity of roasted meat, he pointed to it as a proof that
she could not have been driven to such an extremity by hunger--but, his
surprise may be better imagined than described, when being requested
by the half distracted mother to approach and inspect more closely
the contents of the platter, to find it to consist of the remains of
a roasted dog! and which she informed him had been her only food, and
that of her poor children, for the three preceding days!--the baker
struck with so shocking a proof of the poverty and distress of the
wretched family, humanely contributed to their relief until they were
admitted into the hospital.
I was not personally acquainted with the family, but I well knew
one who was, and who communicated to me the following melancholly
particulars of its wretched situation; and with which I now present
my readers, as another proof of the deplorable situation of the poor
in England, after the close of the American war:--The minister of a
parish was sent for to attend the funeral of a deceased person in his
neighbourhood, being conducted to the apartment which contained the
corpse (and which was the only one improved by the wretched family)
he found it so low as to be unable to stand upright in it--in a dark
corner of the room stood a three legged stool, which supported a coffin
of rough boards, and which contained the body of the wretched mother,
who had the day previous expired in labour for the want of assistance.
The father was sitting on a little stool over a few coals of fire,
and endeavouring to keep the infant warm in his bosom; five of his
seven children, half naked, were asking their father for a piece of
bread, while another about three years old was standing over the corpse
of his mother, and crying, as he was wont to do, “take me, take me,
mammy!”--“Mammy is asleep,” said one of his sisters with tears in her
eyes, “mammy is asleep, Johnny, don’t cry, the good nurse has gone to
beg you some bread and will soon return!”--In a few minutes after, an
old woman, crooked with age, and clothed in tatters came hobbling into
the room, with a two-penny loaf in her hand, and after heaving a sigh,
calmly set down, and divided the loaf as far as it would go among the
poor half famished children: and which she observed was the only food
they had tasted for the last 24 hours! By the kind interposition of the
worthy divine, a contribution was immediately raised for the relief of
this wretched family.
I might add many more melancholly instances of the extreme poverty
and distress of the wretched poor of London, and with which I was
personally acquainted; but the foregoing it is presumed will be
sufficient to satisfy the poorest class of inhabitants of America,
that, if deprived of the superfluities, so long as they can obtain
the necessaries of life, they ought not to murmur, but have reason
to thank the Almighty that they were born Americans. That one half
the world knows not how the other half lives, is a common and just
observation;--complaints and murmurs are frequent I find among those
of the inhabitants of this highly favoured country, who are not only
blessed with the liberty and means of procuring for themselves and
their families, the necessaries and comforts, but even many of the
luxuries of life!--they complain of poverty, and yet never knew what
it was to be really poor! having never either experienced or witnessed
such scenes of distress and woe as I have described, they even suppose
their imaginary wants and privations equal to those of almost any of
the human race!
Let those of my countrymen who thus imagine themselves miserable amid
plenty, cross the Atlantic and visit the miserable habitations of real
and unaffected woe--if their hearts are not destitute of feeling, they
will return satisfied to their own peaceful and happy shores, and pour
forth the ejaculations of gratitude to that universal parent, who has
given them abundance and exempted them from the thousand ills, under
the pressure of which a great portion of his children drag the load
of life. Permit me to enquire of such unreasonable murmurers, have
you compared your situation and circumstances of which you so much
complain, with that of those of your fellow creatures, who are unable
to earn by their hard labour even a scanty pittance for their starving
families? have you compared your situation and circumstances, with
that of those who have hardly ever seen the sun, but live confined in
lead mines, stone quarries, and coal pits?--before you call yourselves
wretched, take a survey of the gaols in Europe, in which wretched
beings who have been driven to the commissions of crimes by starvation,
or unfortunate and honest debtors (who have been torn from their
impoverished families) are doomed to pine.
So far from uttering unreasonable complaints, the hearts of my highly
favoured countrymen ought rather to be filled with gratitude to that
Being, by whose assistance they have been enabled to avert so many
of the miseries of life, so peculiar to a portion of the oppressed
of Europe at the present day--and who after groaning themselves for
some time under the yoke of foreign tyranny, succeeded in emancipating
themselves from slavery and are now blessed with the sweets of liberty,
and the undisturbed enjoyment of their natural rights. Britain,
imperious Britain, who once boasted the freedom of her government and
the invincible power of her arms--now finds herself reduced to the
humiliating necessity of receiving lessons of liberty from those whom
till late she despised as slaves!--while our own country on the other
hand, like a phoenix from her ashes, having emerged from a long, an
expensive and bloody war, and established a constitution upon the
broad and immovable basis of national equality, now promises to become
the permanent residence of peace, liberty, science, and national
felicity.--But, to return to the tale of my own sufferings--
While hundreds were daily becoming the wretched victims of hunger and
starvation, I was enabled by my industry to obtain a morsel each day
for my family; although this morsel, which was to be divided among
four, would many times have proved insufficient to have satisfied the
hunger of one--I seldom ever failed from morning to night to cry “old
chairs to mend,” through the principal streets of the city, but many
times with very little success--if I obtained four chairs to rebottom
in the course of one day, I considered myself fortunate indeed, but
instances of such good luck were very rare; it was more frequent that
I did not obtain a single one, and after crying the whole day until I
made myself hoarse, I was obliged to return to my poor family at night
empty handed.
So many at one time engaged in the same business, that had I not
resorted to other means my family must inevitably have starved--while
crying “old chairs to mend,” I collected all the old rags, bits of
paper, nails and broken glass which I could find in the streets,
and which I deposited in a bag, which I carried with me for that
purpose--these produced me a trifle, and that trifle when other
resources failed, procured me a morsel of bread, or a few pounds
of potatoes, for my poor wife and children--yet I murmured not as
the dispensation of the supreme Arbiter of allotments, which had
assigned to me so humbled a line of duty; although I could not have
believed once, that I should ever have been brought to such a state of
humiliating distress, as would have required such means to alleviate it.