The report of a Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1770,
will illustrate this subject from undoubted facts. "Sir John Fielding,
being asked what number of houses have been broken open in and about
the cities of London and Westminster, and whether it is a growing evil,
said, that all robberies, with the circumstances attending them, and
particulars of goods stolen, are registered at his office; and from
that register informations are grounded, and offenders are detected
several years after the offences are committed; and he delivered in
lists of houses broken into, with computation of the goods stolen.
From Michaelmas 1766 to 14 March 1770, in half-yearly periods, by which
it appeared that from Michaelmas 1766 to Lady-day 1767, 13 houses had
been broken open, and goods stolen to the value of 289_l._