An intelligent-looking boy, of sixteen years of age, whose dress was
a series of ragged coats, three in number--as if one was to obviate
the deficiency of another, since one would not button, and another was
almost sleeveless--gave me the following statement. He had long and
rather fair hair, and spoke quietly. He said:--
“I’m a native of Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, and am sixteen. My
father was a shoemaker, and my mother died when I was five years old,
and my father married again. I was sent to school, and can read and
write well. My father and step-mother were kind enough to me. I was
apprenticed to a tailor three years ago, but I wasn’t long with him; I
runned away. I think it was three months I was with him when I first
runned away. It was in August--I got as far as Boston in Lincolnshire,
and was away a fortnight. I had 4_s._ 6_d._ of my own money when I
started, and that lasted two or three days. I stopped in lodging-houses
until my money was gone, and then I slept anywhere--under the hedges,
or anywhere. I didn’t see so much of life then, but I’ve seen plenty of
it since. I had to beg my way back from Boston, but was very awkward
at first. I lived on turnips mainly. My reason for running off was
because my master ill-used me so; he beat me, and kept me from my
meals, and made me sit up working late at nights for a punishment:
but it was more to his good than to punish me. I hated to be confined
to a tailor’s shopboard, but I would rather do that sort of work now
then hunger about like this. But you see, sir, God punishes you when
you don’t think of it. When I went back my father was glad to see me,
and he wouldn’t have me go back again to my master, and my indentures
were cancelled. I stayed at home seven months, doing odd jobs, in
driving sheep, or any country work, but I always wanted to be off to
sea. I liked the thoughts of going to sea far better than tailoring.
I determined to go to sea if I could. When a dog’s determined to have
a bone, it’s not easy to hinder him. I didn’t read stories about the
sea then, not even ‘Robinson Crusoe,’--indeed I haven’t read that
still, but I know very well there is such a book. My father had no
books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what
people might think dull, but they never made me dull. I read Wesley’s
and Watts’s hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions.
I had a natural inclination for the sea, and would like to get to it
now. I’ve read a good deal about it since--Clark’s ‘Lives of Pirates,’
‘Tales of Shipwrecks,’ and other things in penny numbers (Clark’s I
got out of a library though). I was what people called a deep boy for
a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful
of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven’t bought many lately. I
did buy one yesterday--the ‘Family Herald’--one I often read when I
can get it. There’s good reading in it; it elevates your mind--anybody
that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it. I never read
‘Jack Sheppard,’--that is, I haven’t read the big book that’s written
about him; but I’ve often heard the boys and men talk about it at the
lodging-houses and other places. When they haven’t their bellies and
money to think about they sometimes talk about books; but for such
books as them--that’s as ‘Jack’--I haven’t a partiality. I’ve read
‘Windsor Castle,’ and ‘The Tower,’--they’re by the same man. I liked
‘Windsor Castle,’ and all about Henry VIII. and Herne the hunter. It’s
a book that’s connected with history, and that’s a good thing in it.
I like adventurous tales. I know very little about theatres, as I was
never in one.
“Well, after that seven months--I was kindly treated all the time--I
runned away again to get to sea; and hearing so much talk about this
big London, I comed to it. I couldn’t settle down to anything but
the sea. I often watched the ships at Wisbeach. I had no particular
motive, but a sort of pleasure in it. I was aboard some ships, too;
just looking about, as lads will. I started without a farthing, but
I couldn’t help it. I felt I must come. I forgot all I suffered
before--at least, the impression had died off my mind. I came up by the
unions when they would take me in. When I started, I didn’t know where
to sleep any more than the dead; I learned it from other travellers on
the road. It was two winters ago, and very cold weather. Sometimes I
slept in barns, and I begged my way as well as I could. I never stole
anything then or since, except turnips; but I’ve been often tempted.
At last I got to London, and was by myself. I travelled sometimes
with others as I came up, but not as mates--not as friends. I came to
London for one purpose just by myself. I was a week in London before
I knew where I was. I didn’t know where to go. I slept on door-steps,
or anywhere. I used often to stand on London-bridge, but I didn’t
know where to go to get to sea, or anything of that kind. I was sadly
hungered, regularly starved; and I saw so many policemen, I durstn’t
beg--and I dare not now, in London. I got crusts, but I can hardly tell
how I lived. One night I was sleeping under a railway-arch, somewhere
about Bishopsgate-street, and a policeman came and asked me what I
was up to? I told him I had no place to go to, so he said I must go
along with him. In the morning he took me and four or five others to
a house in a big street. I don’t know where; and a man--a magistrate,
I suppose he was--heard what the policeman had to say, and he said
there was always a lot of lads there about the arches, young thieves,
that gave him a great deal of trouble, and I was one associated with
them. I declare I didn’t know any of the other boys, nor any boys in
London--not a soul; and I was under the arch by myself, and only that
night. I never saw the policeman himself before that, as I know of. I
got fourteen days of it, and they took me in an omnibus, but I don’t
know to what prison. I was committed for being a rogue and something
else. I didn’t very well hear what other things I was, but ‘rogue’ I
know was one. They were very strict in prison, and I wasn’t allowed
to speak. I was put to oakum some days, and others on a wheel. That’s
the only time I was ever in prison, and I hope it will always be the
only time. Something may turn up--there’s nobody knows. When I was
turned out I hadn’t a farthing given to me. And so I was again in the
streets, without knowing a creature, and without a farthing in my
pocket, and nothing to get one with but my tongue. I set off that day
for the country. I didn’t try to get a ship, because I didn’t know
where to go to ask, and I had got ragged, and they wouldn’t hear me out
if I asked any people about the bridges. I took the first road that
offered, and got to Greenwich. I couldn’t still think of going back
home. I would if I had had clothes, but they were rags, and I had no
shoes but a pair of old slippers. I was sometimes sorry I left home,
but then I began to get used to travelling, and to beg a bit in the
villages. I had no regular mate to travel with, and no sweetheart. I
slept in the unions whenever I could get in--that’s in the country. I
didn’t never sleep in the London workhouses till afterwards. In some
country places there were as many as forty in the casual wards, men,
women, and children; in some, only two or three. There used to be part
boys, like myself, but far more bigger than I was; they were generally
from eighteen to twenty-three: London chaps, chiefly, I believe. They
were a regularly jolly set. They used to sing and dance a part of the
nights and mornings in the wards, and I got to sing and dance with
them. We were all in a mess; there was no better or no worse among us.
We used to sing comic and sentimental songs, both. I used to sing ‘Tom
Elliott,’ that’s a sea song, for I hankered about the sea, and ‘I’m
Afloat.’ I hardly know any but sea-songs. Many used to sing indecent
songs; they’re impudent blackguards. They used to sell these songs
among the others, but I never sold any of them, and I never had any,
though I know some, from hearing them often. We told stories sometimes;
romantic tales, some; others blackguard kind of tales, about bad women;
and others about thieving and roguery; not so much about what they’d
done themselves, as about some big thief that was very clever at
stealing, and could trick anybody. Not stories such as Dick Turpin or
Jack Sheppard, or things that’s in history, but inventions. I used to
say when I was telling a story--for I’ve told one story that I invented
till I learnt it,--
[I give this story to show what are the objects of admiration with
these vagrants.]
“‘You see, mates, there was once upon a time, and a very good time it
was, a young man, and he runned away, and got along with a gang of
thieves, and he went to a gentleman’s house, and got in, because one of
his mates sweethearted the servant, and got her away, and she left the
door open.’ [“But don’t,” he expostulated, “take it all down that way;
it’s foolishness. I’m ashamed of it--it’s just what we say to amuse
ourselves.”] ‘And the door being left open, the young man got in and
robbed the house of a lot of money, 1000_l._, and he took it to their
gang at the cave. Next day there was a reward out to find the robber.
Nobody found him. So the gentleman put out two men and a horse in a
field, and the men were hidden in the field, and the gentleman put
out a notice that anybody that could catch the horse should have him
for his cleverness, and a reward as well; for he thought the man that
got the 1000_l._ was sure to try to catch that there horse, because
he was so bold and clever, and then the two men hid would nab him.
This here Jack (that’s the young man) was watching, and he saw the two
men, and he went and caught two live hares. Then he hid himself behind
a hedge, and let one hare go, and one man said to the other, ‘There
goes a hare,’ and they both run after it, not thinking Jack’s there.
And while they were running he let go the t’other one, and they said,
‘There’s another hare,’ and they ran different ways, and so Jack went
and got the horse, and took it to the man that offered the reward,
and got the reward; it was 100_l._; and the gentleman said ‘D----n
it, Jack’s done me this time.’ The gentleman then wanted to serve out
the parson, and he said to Jack, ‘I’ll give you another 100_l._ if
you’ll do something to the parson as bad as you’ve done to me.’ Jack
said, ‘Well, I will;’ and Jack went to the church and lighted up the
lamps, and rang the bells, and the parson he got up to see what was up.
Jack was standing in one of the pews like an angel, when the parson
got to the church. Jack said, ‘Go and put your plate in a bag; I’m an
angel come to take you up to heaven.’ And the parson did so, and it
was as much as he could drag to church from his house in a bag; for
he was very rich. And when he got to the church Jack put the parson
in one bag, and the money stayed in the other; and he tied them both
together, and put them across his horse, and took them up hills and
through water to the gentleman’s, and then he took the parson out of
the bag, and the parson was wringing wet. Jack fetched the gentleman,
and the gentleman gave the parson a horsewhipping, and the parson cut
away, and Jack got all the parson’s money and the second 100_l._, and
gave it all to the poor. And the parson brought an action against the
gentleman for horsewhipping him, and they both were ruined. That’s the
end of it.’ That’s the sort of story that’s liked best, sir. Sometimes
there was fighting in the casual-wards. Sometimes I was in it, I was
like the rest. We jawed each other often, calling names, and coming to
fight at last. At Romsey a lot of young fellows broke all the windows
they could get at, because they were too late to be admitted. They
broke them from the outside. We couldn’t get at them from inside. I’ve
carried on begging, and going from union to union to sleep, until now.
Once I got work in Northampton with a drover. I kept working when he’d
a job, from August last to the week before Christmas. I always tried
to get a ship in a seaport, but couldn’t. I’ve been to Portsmouth,
Plymouth, Bristol, Southampton, Ipswich, Liverpool, Brighton, Dover,
Shoreham, Hastings, and all through Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire,
Cambridgeshire, and Suffolk--not in Norfolk--they won’t let you go
there. I don’t know why. All this time I used to meet boys like myself,
but mostly bigger and older; plenty of them could read and write, some
were gentlemen’s sons, they said. Some had their young women with them
that they’d taken up with, but I never was much with them. I often
wished I was at home again, and do now, but I can’t think of going
back in these rags; and I don’t know if my father’s dead or alive (his
voice trembled), but I’d like to be there and have it over. I can’t
face meeting them in these rags, and I’ve seldom had better, I make so
little money. I’m unhappy at times, but I get over it better than I
used, as I get accustomed to this life. I never heard anything about
home since I left. I have applied at the Marine Society here, but it’s
no use. If I could only get to sea, I’d be happy; and I’d be happy if I
could get home, and would, but for the reasons I’ve told you.”
The next was a boy with a quiet look, rather better dressed than most
of the vagrant boys, and far more clean in his dress. He made the
following statement:--
“I am now seventeen. My father was a cotton-spinner in Manchester, but
has been dead ten years; and soon after that my mother went into the
workhouse, leaving me with an aunt; and I had work in a cotton factory.
As young as I was, I earned 2_s._ 2_d._ a-week at first. I can read
well, and can write a little. I worked at the factory two years, and
was then earning 7_s._ a-week. I then ran away, for I had always a
roving mind; but I should have stayed if my master hadn’t knocked me
about so. I thought I should make my fortune in London--I’d heard it
was such a grand place. I had read in novels and romances,--halfpenny
and penny books,--about such things, but I’ve met with nothing of the
kind. I started without money, and begged my way from Manchester to
London, saying I was going up to look for work. I wanted to see the
place more than anything else. I suffered very much on the road, having
to be out all night often; and the nights were cold, though it was
summer. When I got to London all my hopes were blighted. I could get
no further. I never tried for work in London, for I believe there are
no cotton factories in it; besides, I wanted to see life. I begged,
and slept in the unions. I got acquainted with plenty of boys like
myself. We met at the casual wards, both in London and the country.
I have now been five years at this life. We were merry enough in the
wards, we boys, singing and telling stories. Songs such as ‘Paul Jones’
was liked, while some sung very blackguard songs; but I never got hold
of such songs, though I have sold lots of songs in Essex. Some told
long stories, very interesting; some were not fit to be heard; but
they made one laugh sometimes. I’ve read ‘Jack Sheppard’ through, in
three volumes; and I used to tell stories out of that sometimes. We all
told in our turns. We generally began,--‘Once upon a time, and a very
good time it was, though it was neither in your time, nor my time, nor
nobody else’s time.’ The best man in the story is always called Jack.”
At my request, this youth told me a long story, and told it very
readily, as if by rote. I give it for its peculiarity, as it is
extravagant enough, without humour.
“A farmer hired Jack, and instructed him over-night. Jack was to do
what he was required, or lose his head. ‘Now, Jack,’ said the farmer,
[I give the conclusion in the boy’s words,] ‘what’s my name?’ ‘Master,
to be sure,’ says Jack. ‘No,’ said he, ‘you must call me Tom Per Cent.’
He showed his bed next, and asked, ‘What’s this, Jack?’ ‘Why, the bed,’
said Jack. ‘No, you must call that, He’s of Degree.’ And so he bid
Jack call his leather breeches ‘forty cracks;’ the cat, ‘white-faced
Simeon;’ the fire, ‘hot coleman;’ the pump, the ‘resurrection;’ and
the haystack, the ‘little cock-a-mountain.’ Jack was to remember these
names or lose his head. At night the cat got under the grate, and
burned herself, and a hot cinder struck her fur, and she ran under the
haystack and set it on fire. Jack ran up-stairs to his master, and
said:--
‘Tom Per Cent, arise out of he’s of degree,
Put on your forty cracks, come down and see;
For the little white-faced Simeon
Has run away with hot coleman
Under the little cock-a-mountain,
And without the aid of the resurrection
We shall be damned and burnt to death.’
So Jack remembered his lesson, and saved his head. That’s the end.
Blackguard stories were often told about women. There was plenty told,
too, about Dick Turpin, Sixteen-string Jack, Oxford Blue, and such as
them; as well as about Jack Sheppard; about Bamfylde Moore Carew, too,
and his disguises. We very often had fighting and quarrelling among
ourselves. Once, at Birmingham, we smashed all the windows, and did
all the damage we could. I can’t tell exactly why it was done, but
we must all take part in it, or we should be marked. I believe some
did it to get into prison, they were so badly off. They piled up the
rugs; there was no straw; and some put their clothes on the rugs, and
then the heap was set fire to. There was no fire, and no light, but
somebody had a box of lucifers. We were all nearly suffocated before
the people of the place could get to us. Seventeen of us had a month
a-piece for it: I was one. The rugs were dirty and filthy, and not fit
for any Christian to sleep under, and so I took part in the burning,
as I thought it would cause something better. I’ve known wild Irishmen
get into the wards with knives and sticks hidden about their persons,
to be ready for a fight. I met two young men in Essex who had been
well off--very well,--but they liked a tramper’s life. Each had his
young woman with him, living as man and wife. They often change their
young women; but I never did travel with one, or keep company with any
more than twelve hours or so. There used to be great numbers of girls
in the casual wards in London. Any young man travelling the country
could get a mate among them, and can get mates--partners they’re
often called,--still. Some of them are very pretty indeed; but among
them are some horrid ugly--the most are ugly; bad expressions and
coarse faces, and lame, and disgusting to the eye. It was disgusting,
too, to hear them in their own company; that is, among such as
themselves;--beggars, you know. Almost every word was an oath, and
every blackguard word was said plain out. I think the pretty ones were
worst. Very few have children. I knew two who had. One was seventeen,
and her child was nine months old; the other was twenty-one, and her
child was eighteen months. They were very good to their children. I’ve
heard of some having children, and saying they couldn’t guess at the
fathers of them, but I never met with any such myself. I didn’t often
hear them quarrel,--I mean the young men and young women that went
out as partners,--in the lodging-houses. Some boys of fifteen have
their young women as partners, but with young boys older women are
generally partners--women about twenty. They always pass as man and
wife. All beggar-girls are bad, I believe. I never heard but of one
that was considered virtuous, and she was always reading a prayer-book
and a testament in her lodging-house. The last time I saw her was at
Cambridge. She is about thirty, and has traces of beauty left. The
boys used to laugh at her, and say, ‘Oh! how virtuous and righteous we
are! but you get your living by it.’ I never knew her to get anything
by it. I don’t see how she could, for she said nothing about her being
righteous when she was begging about, I believe. If it wasn’t for the
casual wards, I couldn’t get about. If two partners goes to the same
union, they have to be parted at night, and join again the morning.
Some of the young women are very dirty, but some’s as clean. A few, I
think, can read and write. Some boasts of their wickedness, and others
tell them in derision it’s wrong to do that, and then a quarrel rages
in the lodging-house. I liked a roving life, at first, being my own
master. I was fond of going to plays, and such-like, when I got money;
but now I’m getting tired of it, and wish for something else. I have
tried for work at cotton factories in Lancashire and Yorkshire, but
never could get any. I’ve been all over the country. I’m sure I could
settle now. I couldn’t have done that two years ago, the roving spirit
was so strong upon me, and the company I kept got a strong hold on me.
Two winters back, there was a regular gang of us boys in London. After
sleeping at a union, we would fix where to meet at night to get into
another union to sleep. There were thirty of us that way, all boys;
besides forty young men, and thirty young women. Sometimes we walked
the streets all night. We didn’t rob, at least I never saw any robbing.
We had pleasure in chaffing the policemen, and some of us got taken
up. I always escaped. We got broken up in time,--some’s dead, some’s
gone to sea, some into the country, some home, and some lagged. Among
them were many lads very expert in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
One young man--he was only twenty-five,--could speak several languages:
he had been to sea. He was then begging, though a strong young man. I
suppose he liked that life: some soon got tired of it. I often have
suffered from cold and hunger. I never made more than 3_d._ a-day in
money, take the year round, by begging; some make more than 6_d._:
but then, I’ve had meat and bread given besides. I say nothing when I
beg, but that I am a poor boy out of work and starving. I never stole
anything in my life. I’ve often been asked to do so by my mates. I
never would. The young women steal the most. I know, least, I did know,
two that kept young men, their partners, going about the country with
them, chiefly by their stealing. Some do so by their prostitution.
Those that go as partners are all prostitutes. There is a great deal of
sickness among the young men and women, but I never was ill these last
seven years. Fevers, colds, and venereal diseases, are very common.”
The last statement I took was that of a boy of thirteen. I can hardly
say that he was clothed at all. He had no shirt, and no waistcoat;
all his neck and a great part of his chest being bare. A ragged cloth
jacket hung about him, and was tied, so as to keep it together, with
bits of tape. What he had wrapped round for trousers did not cover one
of his legs, while one of his thighs was bare. He wore two old shoes;
one tied to his foot with an old ribbon, the other a woman’s old boot.
He had an old cloth cap. His features were distorted somewhat, through
being swollen with the cold. “I was born,” he said, “at a place called
Hadley, in Kent. My father died when I was three days old, I’ve heard
my mother say. He was married to her, I believe, but I don’t know
what he was. She had only me. My mother went about begging, sometimes
taking me with her; at other times she left me at the lodging-house
in Hadley. She went in the country, round about Tunbridge and there,
begging. Sometimes she had a day’s work. We had plenty to eat then,
but I haven’t had much lately. My mother died at Hadley a year ago.
I didn’t know how she was buried. She was ill a long time, and I
was out begging; for she sent me out to beg for myself a good while
before that, and when I got back to the lodging-house they told me
she was dead. I had sixpence in my pocket, but I couldn’t help crying
to think I’d lost my mother. I cry about it still. I didn’t wait to
see her buried, but I started on my own account. I met two navvies
in Bromley, and they paid my first night’s lodging; and there was a
man passing, going to London with potatoes, and the navvies gave the
man a pot of beer to take me up to London in the van, and they went
that way with me. I came to London to beg, thinking I could get more
there than anywhere else, hearing that London was such a good place. I
begged; but sometimes wouldn’t get a farthing in a day; often walking
about the streets all night. I have been begging about all the time
till now. I am very weak--starving to death. I never stole anything: I
always kept my hands to myself. A boy wanted me to go with him to pick
a gentleman’s pocket. We was mates for two days, and then he asked me
to go picking pockets; but I wouldn’t. I know it’s wrong, though I can
neither read nor write. The boy asked me to do it to get into prison,
as that would be better than the streets. He picked pockets to get into
prison. He was starving about the streets like me. I never slept in a
bed since I’ve been in London: I am sure I haven’t: I generally slept
under the dry arches in West-street, where they’re building houses--I
mean the arches for the cellars. I begged chiefly from the Jews about
Petticoat-lane, for they all give away bread that their children
leave--pieces of crust, and such-like. I would do anything to be out of
this misery.”
INCREASE AND DECREASE OF NUMBER OF APPLICANTS TO CASUAL WARDS OF LONDON
WORKHOUSES.
The vagrant applying for shelter is admitted at all times of the day
and night. He applies at the gate, he has his name entered in the
vagrant book, and he is then supplied with six ounces of bread and
one ounce of cheese. As the admission generally takes place in the
evening, no work is required of them until the following morning. At
one time every vagrant was searched and bathed, but in the cold season
of the year the bathing is discontinued; neither are they searched
unless there are grounds for suspecting that they have property
secreted upon them. The males are conducted to the ward allotted to
them, and the females to their ward. These wards consist each of a
large chamber, in which are arranged two large guard-beds, or inclined
boards, similar to those used in soldiers’ guard-rooms; between these
there is a passage from one end of the chamber to the other. The boards
are strewn with straw, so that, on entering the place in the daytime,
it has the appearance of a well-kept stable. All persons are supplied
with two, and in the cold season with three, rugs to cover them. These
rugs are daily placed in a fumigating oven, so as to decompose all
infectious matter. Formerly beds were supplied in place of the straw,
but the habitual vagrants used to amuse themselves with cutting up the
mattresses, and strewing the flock all over the place; the blankets
and rugs they tore into shreds, and wound them round their legs, under
their trousers. The windows of the casual ward are protected on the
inside with a strong guard, similar to those seen in the neighbourhood
of racket-grounds. No lights are allowed in the casual ward, so that
they are expected to retire to rest immediately on their entrance, and
this they invariably are glad to do. In the morning they are let out
at eight in the winter, and seven in the summer. And then another six
ounces of bread and one ounce of cheese is given to them, and they
are discharged. In return for this, three hours’ labour at the hand
corn-mill was formerly exacted; but now the numbers are so few, and
the out-door paupers so numerous, and so different from the class of
vagrants, that the latter are allowed to go on their road immediately
the doors of the casual ward are opened. The labour formerly exacted
was not in any way remunerative. In the three hours that they were at
work, it is supposed that the value of each man’s labour could not be
expressed in any coin of the realm. The work was demanded as a test of
destitution and industry, and not as a matter of compensation. If the
vagrants were very young, they were put to oakum-picking instead of the
hand-mill. The women were very rarely employed at any time, because
there was no suitable place in the union for them to pick oakum, and
the master was unwilling to allow them, on account of their bad and
immoral characters, as well as their filthy habits, to communicate with
the other inmates. The female vagrants generally consist of prostitutes
of the lowest and most miserable kind. They are mostly young girls,
who have sunk into a state of dirt, disease, and almost nudity. There
are few of them above twenty years of age, and they appear to have
commenced their career of vice frequently as early as ten or twelve
years old. They mostly are found in the company of mere boys.
The above descriptions apply rather to the state of the vagrants some
two or three years back, than to things as they exist at present. In
the year 1837, a correspondence took place between the Commissioners
of Police and the Commissioners of the Poor-law, in which the latter
declare that “if a person state that he has no food, and that he is
destitute, or otherwise express or signify that he is in danger of
perishing unless relief be given to him, then any officer charged with
the administration of relief is bound, unless he have presented to
him some reasonable evidence to rebut such statement, to give relief
to such destitute person in the mode prescribed by law.” The Poor-law
Commissioners further declare in the same document, that they will feel
it their duty to make the officers responsible in their situations for
any serious neglect to give prompt and adequate relief in any case of
real destitution and emergency. The consequence of this declaration
was, that Poor-law officers appeared to feel themselves bound to admit
all vagrants upon their mere statement of destitution, whereas before
that time parties were admitted into the casual wards either by tickets
from the ratepayers, or else according to the discretion of the master.
Whether or not the masters imagined that they were compelled to admit
every applicant from that period my informant cannot say, but it is
certain that after the date of that letter vagrancy began to increase
throughout the country; at first gradually, but after a few years
with a most enormous rapidity; so that in 1848, it appeared from the
Poor-law Report on Vagrancy (presented to both Houses of Parliament
in that year) that the number of vagrants had increased to upwards
of 16,000. The rate of increase for the three years previous to that
period is exhibited in the following table:--
I.--Summary of the Number of Vagrants in Unions and Places under Local
Acts, in England and Wales, at different periods, as appears from the
Returns which follow:--
Average number relieved in one night }
in 603 Unions, &c., in the week } 1,791
ending 20th December, 1845 }
Average number relieved in one night }
in 603 Unions, &c., in the week } 2,224
ending 19th December, 1846 }
Average number relieved in one night }
in 596 Unions, &c., in the week } 4,508
ending 18th December, 1847 }
Total number relieved, whether in or }
out of the workhouse in 626 Unions, } 16,086
&c., on the 25th March, 1848 }
Matters had reached this crisis, when the late Mr. C. Buller,
President of the Poor-law Board, issued, in August 1848, a minute,
in which--after stating that the Board had received representations
from every part of England and Wales respecting the continual and
rapid increase of vagrancy--he gives the following instructions to the
officers employed in the administration of the Poor-law:--
“With respect to the applicants that will thus come before him, the
relieving officer will have to exercise his judgment as to the truth
of their assertions of destitution, and to ascertain by searching them
whether they possess any means of supplying their own necessities. He
will not be likely to err in judging from their appearance whether
they are suffering from want of food. He will take care that women and
children, the old and infirm, and those who, without absolutely serious
disease, present an enfeebled or sickly appearance, are supplied with
necessary food and shelter. As a general rule, he would be right in
refusing relief to able-bodied and healthy men; though in inclement
weather he might afford them shelter, if really destitute of the means
of procuring it for themselves. His duties would necessarily make him
acquainted with the persons of the habitual vagrants; and to these
it would be his duty to refuse relief, except in case of evident and
urgent necessity.
“It was found necessary by the late Poor-law Commissioners at one time
to remind the various unions and their officers of the responsibility
which would be incurred by refusing relief where it was required. The
present state of things renders it necessary that this Board should
now impress on them the grievous mischiefs that must arise, and the
responsibilities that may be incurred, by a too ready distribution of
relief to tramps and vagrants not entitled to it. Boards of guardians
and their officers may, in their attempts to restore a more wise
and just system, be subjected to some obloquy from prejudices that
confound poverty with profligacy. They will, however, be supported
by the consciousness of discharging their duty to those whose funds
they have to administer, as well as to the deserving poor, and of
resisting the extension of a most pernicious and formidable abuse.
They may confidently reckon on the support of public opinion, which
the present state of things has aroused and enlightened; and those who
are responsible to the Poor-law Board may feel assured that, while no
instance of neglect or hardship to the poor will be tolerated, they may
look to the Board for a candid construction of their acts and motives,
and for a hearty and steadfast support of those who shall exert
themselves to guard from the grasp of imposture that fund which should
be sacred to the necessities of the poor.”
Thus authorised and instructed to exercise their own discretion,
rather than trust to the mere statements of the vagrants themselves,
the officers immediately proceeded to act upon the suggestions given
in the minute above quoted, and the consequence was, that the number
of vagrants diminished more rapidly even than they had increased
throughout the country. In the case of one union alone--the Wandsworth
and Clapham--the following returns will show both how vagrancy was
fostered under the one system, and how it has declined under the
other:--
The number of vagrants admitted into the casual ward of Wandsworth and
Clapham was,
In 1846 6,759
1847 11,322
1848 14,675
1849 3,900
In the quarter ending June 1848, previously to the issuing of the
minute, the number admitted was 7325, whereas, in the quarter ending
December, after the minute had been issued, the number fell to 1035.
The cost of relief for casuals at the same union in the year 1848 was
94_l._ 2_s._ 9-1/2_d._; in 1849 it was 24_l._ 10_s._ 1-1/2_d._
The decrease throughout all London has been equally striking. From
the returns of the Poor-law Commissioners, as subjoined, I find that
the total number of vagrants relieved in the metropolitan unions in
1847-48 was no less than 310,058, whereas, in the year 1848-49, it had
decreased to the extent of 166,000 and odd, the number relieved for
that year being only 143,064.
During the great prevalence of vagrancy, the cost of the sick was far
greater than the expense of relief. In the quarter ending June 1848,
no less than 322 casuals were under medical treatment, either in the
workhouse of the Wandsworth and Clapham union or at the London Fever
Hospital. The whole cost of curing the casual sick in 1848 was near
upon 300_l._, whereas, during 1849 it is computed not to have exceeded
30_l._
Another curious fact, illustrative of the effect of an alteration in
the administration of the law respecting vagrancy, is to be found in
the proportion of vagrants committed for acts of insubordination in
the workhouses. In the year 1846, when those who broke the law were
committed to Brixton, where the diet was better than that allowed
at the workhouse--the cocoa and soup given at the treadmill being
especial objects of attraction, and indeed the allowance of food being
considerably higher there--the vagrants generally broke the windows, or
tore their clothes, or burnt their beds, or refused to work, in order
to be committed to the treadmill; and this got to such a height in that
year, that no less than 467 persons were charged and convicted with
disorderly conduct in the workhouse. In the year following, however, an
alteration was made in the diet of prisoners sentenced to not more than
fourteen days, and the prison of Kingston, of which they had a greater
terror, was substituted for that of Brixton, and then the number of
committals decreased from 467 to 57; while in 1848, when the number of
vagrants was more than double what it had been in 1846, the committals
again fell to 37; and in 1849, out of 3900 admissions, there were only
10 committed for insubordination.
VAGRANTS, OR TRAMPS, ADMITTED INTO THE WORKHOUSES OF THE METROPOLITAN
DISTRICTS DURING THE YEARS 1847-8 AND 1848-9.
---------------------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
| | First | Second |
| | Quarter, | Quarter, |
| | ending | ending |
WORKHOUSES. |Population.| Christmas. | Lady-day. |
---------------------------+-----------+------+------+------+------+
| | 1847 | 1848 | 1848 | 1849 |
| +------+------+------+------+
Kensington | 26,830 | 3,502| 2,667| 1,369| 1,233|
Chelsea | 40,177 | 2,480| 4,507| 1,985| 4,146|
Fulham | 22,772 | 2,014| 162| 805| 157|
St. George, Hanover-square | 66,453 | 50| ... | 10| ... |
St. Margaret’s, Westminster| 56,481 | 1,514| 2,575| 2,973| 1,809|
St. Martin-in-the-Fields | 25,195 | 3,875| 847| 3,637| 428|
St. James, Westminster | 37,398 | 96| 139| 127| 86|
Marylebone | 138,164 | ... | ...| ... | ...|
Paddington | 25,173 | 48| 1,450| 566| 1,455|
Hampstead | 10,093 | ... | ...| ... | ...|
St. Pancras | 128,479 | 3,762| 7,427| 2,982| 4,439|
Islington | 55,690 | 944| 944| 823| 374|
Hackney | 42,274 | 89| 210| 76| 123|
St. Giles | 54,292 | 106| 174| 106| 132|
Strand | 43,894 | 663| 62| 1,063| 6|
Holborn | 53,045 | 4,309| 1,808| 3,346| 2,234|
Clerkenwell | 56,756 | 115| 43| 42| 5|
St. Luke’s | 49,829 | 691| 575| 841| 1,086|
East London | 39,655 | 1,720| 962| 1,116| 1,390|
West London | 33,629 | 3,915| 2,481| 2,873| 2,279|
London City | 55,967 | 8,703| 5,709| 8,181| 1,476|
Shoreditch | 83,432 | 959| 1,585| 721| 1,274|
Bethnal-green | 74,087 | 291| 441| 315| 227|
Whitechapel | 71,758 | 4,654| 1,074| 4,454| 612|
St. George-in-the-East | 41,351 | 5,228| 31| 4,572| ... |
Stepney | 90,657 | 4,229| 4,801| 4,318| 3,428|
Poplar | 31,091 | 2,838| 835| 3,463| 474|
St. Saviour, Southwark | 32,980 | 30| 7| 7| 8|
St. Olave | 18,427 | ... | ...| ... | ...|
Bermondsey | 34,947 | ... | ...| ... | ...|
St. George, Southwark | 46,622 | 272| 2,673| 1,176| 2,316|
Newington | 54,606 | 2,196| 3,796| 4,022| 1,841|
Lambeth | 115,883 |10,221| 483| 7,530| 674|
Wandsworth | 39,853 | 2,444| 784| 3,374| 1,257|
Camberwell | 39,867 | 907| 768| 706| 463|
Rotherhithe | 13,916 | 375| 445| 161| 439|
Greenwich | 80,811 | 2,977| 283| 2,436| 384|
Lewisham | 23,013 | 13| 2| 4| ... |
+-----------+------+------+------+------+
Total | |76,230|51,700|70,180|35,255|
---------------------------+-----------+------+------+------+------+
+-------------+-------------+---------------
| Third | Fourth |
| Quarter, | Quarter, |
| ending | ending | TOTAL.
| Midsummer. | Michaelmas. |
+------+------+------+------+-------+-------
| 1848 | 1849 | 1848 | 1849 | 1848 | 1849
+------+------+------+------+-------+-------
| 5,580| 7| 4,125| 10| 14,866| 3,917
| 2,604| 5,189| 2,849| 1,357| 9,918| 15,199
| 1,352| 452| 1,137| 246| 5,308| 9,017
| ...| ... | ...| ... | 60| ...
| 2,100| 1,815| 2,339| 1,211| 8,926| 7,410
| 2,718| 536| ... | 12| 10,230| 1,823
| 104| 86| 79| 61| 416| 371
| ... | ...| ... | ... | ... | ...
| 1,438| 1,525| 1,176| 948| 3,228| 5,378
| ... | ...| ... | ... | ... | ...
| 6,097| 3,911| 7,422| 4,082| 20,263| 19,859
| 2,439| 2,518| 1,148| 725| 6,079| 4,561
| 280| 308| 245| 192| 690| 833
| 100| 86| 244| 189| 556| 581
| 3,040| ... | 63| ... | 4,829| 68
| 4,302| 2,708| 3,072| 1,197| 15,029| 7,947
| 115| 26| 25| 14| 297| 88
| 1,258| 1,251| 1,293| 497| 4,083| 3,409
| 1,863| 1,975| 1,176| 585| 5,875| 4,912
| 3,966| 2,914| 3,264| 2,103| 14,018| 9,777
|11,090| 384| 9,732| 256| 36,706| 6,825
| 1,121| 1,954| 1,399| 1,108| 4,200| 5,921
| 454| 538| 501| 415| 1,561| 1,620
| 4,552| 1,123| 3,744| 495| 17,404| 3,304
| 7,977| ... | 5,713| ... | 23,290| 31
| 6,564| 3,984| 6,243| 1,656| 21,354| 12,869
| 5,019| 278| 2,516| 150| 13,836| 1,737
| ... | ...| ... | ... | 37| 15
| ... | ...| ... | ... | ... | ...
| ... | ...| ... | ... | ... | ...
| 1,240| 1,810| 1,484| 919| 4,172| 6,918
| 5,025| 132| 4,217| 206| 15,460| 5,975
| 4,917| 873| 3,358| 486| 26,026| 2,516
| 5,730| 1,344| 1,858| 463| 13,406| 3,848
| 1,625| 793| 1,122| 80| 4,360| 2,104
| 309| 917| 353| 826| 1,288| 2,627
| 4,761| 481| 4,908| 256| 15,082| 1,404
| 18| 7| 43| 3| 78| 12
+------+------+------+------+-------+-------
|99,846|38,325|77,198|20,748|310,058|143,064
+------+------+------+------+-------+-------
Of the character of the vagrants frequenting the unions in the centre
of the metropolis, and the system pursued there, one description will
serve as a type of the whole.
At the Holborn workhouse (St. Andrew’s) there are two casual wards,
established just after the passing of the Poor-law Amendment Act in
1834. The men’s ward will contain 40, and the women’s 20. The wards are
underground, but dry, clean, and comfortable. When there was a “severe
pressure from without,” as a porter described it to me, as many as 106
men and women have been received on one night, but some were disposed
in other parts of the workhouse away from the casual wards.
“Two years and a half ago, ‘a glut of Irish’” (I give the words of my
informant) “came over and besieged the doors incessantly; and when
above a hundred were admitted, as many were remaining outside, and when
locked out they lay in the streets stretched along by the almshouse
close to the workhouse in Gray’s-inn-lane.” I again give the statement
(which afterwards was verified) _verbatim_:--“They lay in camps,” he
said, “in their old cloaks, some having brought blankets and rugs with
them for the purpose of sleeping out; pots, and kettles, and vessels
for cooking when they camp; for in many parts of Ireland they do
nothing--I’ve heard from people that have been there--but wander about;
and these visitors to the workhouse behaved just like gipsies, combing
their hair and dressing themselves. The girls’ heads, some of them,
looked as if they were full of caraway seeds--vermin, sir--shocking! I
had to sit up all night; and the young women from Ireland--fine-looking
young women; some of them finer-looking women than the English, well
made and well formed, but uncultivated--seemed happy enough in the
casual wards, singing songs all night long, but not too loud. Some
would sit up all night washing their clothes, coming to me for water.
They had a cup of tea, if they were poorly. They made themselves at
home, the children did, as soon as they got inside; they ran about like
kittens used to a place. The young women were often full of joke; but I
never heard an indecent word from any of them, nor an oath, and I have
no doubt, not in the least, that they were chaste and modest. Fine
young women, too, sir. I have said, ‘Pity young women like you should
be carrying on this way’ (for I felt for them), and they would say,
‘What can we do? It’s better than starving in Ireland, this workhouse
is.’ I used to ask them how they got over, and they often told me
their passages were paid, chiefly to Bristol, Liverpool, and Newport,
in Monmouthshire. They told me that was done to get rid of them. They
told me that they didn’t know by whom; but some said, they believed the
landlord paid the captain. Some declared they knew it, and that it was
done just to get rid of them. Others told me the captain would bring
them over for any trifle they had; for he would say, ‘I shall have to
take you back again, and I can charge my price then.’ The men were
uncultivated fellows compared to the younger women. We have had old men
with children who could speak English, and the old man and his wife
could not speak a word of it. When asked the age of their children (the
children were the interpreters), they would open the young creatures’
mouths and count their teeth, just as horse-dealers do, and then they
would tell the children in Irish what to answer, and the children would
answer in English. The old people could never tell their own age. The
man would give his name, but his wife would give her maiden name. I
would say to an elderly man, ‘Give me your name.’ ‘Dennis Murphy, your
honour.’ Then to his wife, ‘And your name?’ ‘The widdy Mooney, your
honour.’ ‘But you’re married?’ ‘Sure, then, yes, by Father ----.’
This is the case with them still. Last night we took in a family, and
I asked the mother--there was only a woman and three children--her
name. ‘The widdy Callaghan, indeed, then, sir.’ ‘But your Christian
name?’ ‘The widdy,’ (widow,) was the only answer. It’s shocking, sir,
what ignorance is, and what their sufferings is. My heart used to ache
for the poor creatures, and yet they seemed happy. Habit’s a great
thing--second nature, even when people’s shook. The Irishmen behaved
well among themselves; but the English cadgers were jealous of the
Irish, and chaffed them, as spoiling their trade--that’s what the
cadging fellows did. The Irish were quiet, poor things, but they were
provoked to quarrel, and many a time I’ve had to turn the English rips
out. The Irish were always very thankful for what they had, if it was
only a morsel; the English cadger is never satisfied. I don’t mean the
decent beat-out man, but the regular cadger, that won’t work, and isn’t
a good beggar, and won’t starve, so they steal. Once, now and then,
there was some suspicion about the Irish admitted, that they had money,
but that was never but in those that had families. It was taken from
them, and given back in the morning. They wouldn’t have been admitted
again if they had any amount. It was a kindness to take their money,
or the English rascals would have robbed them. I’m an Englishman, but
I speak the truth of my own countrymen, as I do of the Irish. The
English we had in the casual wards were generally a bad cadging set,
as saucy as could be, particularly men that I knew, from their accent,
came from Nottinghamshire. I’d tell one directly. I’ve heard them, of a
night, brag of their dodges--how they’d done through the day--and the
best places to get money. They would talk of gentlemen in London. I’ve
often heard them say, ----, in Piccadilly, was good; but they seldom
mentioned names, only described the houses, especially club-houses in
St. James’s-street. They would tell just where it was in the street,
and how many windows there was in it, and the best time to go, and
‘you’re sure of grub,’ they’d say. Then they’d tell of gentlemen’s
seats in the country--sure cards. They seldom give names, and, I
believe, don’t know them, but described the houses and the gentlemen.
Some were good for bread and money, some for bread and ale. As to the
decent people, we had but few, and I used to be sorry for them when
they had to mix with the cadgers; but when the cadgers saw a stranger,
they used their slang. I was up to it. I’ve heard it many a night when
I sat up, and they thought I was asleep. I wasn’t to be had like the
likes o’ them. The poor mechanic would sit like a lost man--scared,
sir. There might be one deserving character to thirty cadgers. We have
had gipsies in the casual wards; but they’re not admitted a second
time, they steal so. We haven’t one Scotch person in a month, or a
Welshman, or perhaps two Welshmen, in a month, among the casuals. They
come from all counties in England. I’ve been told by inmates of ‘the
casual,’ that they had got 2_s._ 6_d._ from the relieving officers,
particularly in Essex and Suffolk--different unions--to start them to
London when the ‘straw-yards’ (the asylums for the houseless) were
opened; but there’s a many very decent people. How they suffer before
they come to that! you can’t fancy how much; and so there should be
straw-yards in a Christian land--we’ll call it a Christian land, sir.
There’s far more good people in the straw-yards than the casuals; the
dodgers is less frequent there, considering the numbers. It’s shocking
to think a decent mechanic’s houseless. When he’s beat out, he’s like
a bird out of a cage; he doesn’t know where to go, or how to get a
bit--but don’t the cadgers!” The expense of relieving the people in the
casual ward was twopence per head, and the numbers admitted for the
last twelve months averaged only twelve nightly.
* * * * *
I will now give the statements of some of the inmates of the casual
wards themselves. I chose only those at first who were habitual
vagrants.