iron, in the collection of metals, rags, and other articles
purloined and stolen in the Country; which are conveyed to
town by means of _single-horse carts_, kept by itinerant
Jews, and other doubtful characters; who travel to
Portsmouth, Chatham, Woolwich, Deptford, and places in the
vicinity of London, for the purpose of purchasing metals
from persons who are in the habit of embezzling the King's
stores, or from dealers on the spot, who are the first
receivers; from them, _copper-bolts, nails, spikes, iron,
brass, lead, pewter_, and other ship articles of
considerable value are procured.--These single-horse carts
have increased greatly of late years, and have become very
profitable to the proprietors.
"That some of these dealers in old metals, notoriously keep
men employed in knocking the broad Arrow, or King's mark,
out of the copper-bolts, nails, and bar iron, whereon it is
impressed, and also in cutting such bar iron into portable
lengths, after which it is sold to the great dealers, who
supply the Public Boards; and who are in some instances
supposed by this means to sell the same Article to these
boards even _two_ or _three_ times over.
"That the trade thus carried on, is exceedingly productive
both to the retail and wholesale dealers; many of whom are
become extremely opulent, and carry on business to the
extent of from ten to thirty, and in some few instances,
fifty thousand a year in old metals alone.
"That the quantity of new nails, taken from the public
repositories, and from private workshops, and disposed of at
the old iron shops exceeds all credibility.
"And finally, that the retail dealers in old iron, with some
exceptions, are the principal purchasers of the pewter pots
stolen from the Publicans, which they instantly melt down
(if not previously done) to elude detection."
Thus are the lower ranks of Society assailed on all hands; and in a
manner allured to be dishonest, by the ready means of disposing of
property, unlawfully acquired, to satisfy _imaginary_ and too
frequently _criminal_ wants, excited by the temptations which the
amusements and dissipations of a great Capital, and the delusion of
the Lottery, hold out.
The rapid growth of this Evil within the last twenty years, and the
effect it has upon the morals of menial servants and others, who must
in the nature of things have a certain trust committed to them, is a
strong reason why some effectual remedy should be administered as
speedily as possible.
It seems, under all circumstances, that the regulation of these
Iron-shops, by licence, and by other restrictions connected with the
public security, has become a matter of immediate necessity; for it is
a dreadful thing to reflect that there should exist and grow up, in so
short a period of time, such a body of criminal dealers, who are
permitted to exercise all the mischievous part of the functions of
Pawnbrokers; enjoying equal benefits, without any of the restrictions
which have already been extended to this last class of dealers; who
themselves also require further regulations, which will be hereafter
discussed.
But beside the dealers in _old iron_, it will be necessary to extend
the regulation proposed, to dealers in _second-hand wearing apparel_,
whether _stationary_ or _itinerant_; for through this medium also, a
vast quantity of bed and table linen, sheets, wearing apparel, and
other articles, pilfered in private families, is disposed of; and
money is obtained, without asking questions, with the same facility as
at the iron shops.
To prevent metals from being melted by Receivers of stolen Goods, and
other persons keeping crucibles and melting vessels, by which means
the most infamous frauds are committed, to the evasion of justice, by
immediately melting plate, pewter pots, and every kind of metal that
can be identified; it may be also necessary to regulate, by licence,
all _Founders of metal_, and also the horse and truck carts used for
the purpose of conveying old metals from place to place: so as, upon
the whole, to establish a _mild, but complete System of Prevention_;
by limiting the dealers in old metals and second-hand wearing apparel,
to the honest and fair part of their trade, and by restraining them
with regard to that which is fraudulent and mischievous.
At present these respective dealers may truly be said to be complete
pests of Society.--They are not, like Pawnbrokers, restrained, as to
the hours of receiving or delivering goods.--Their dealings are often
in the night time, by which means they enjoy every opportunity of
encouraging fraud and dishonesty.
It is impossible to contemplate the consequences arising from the
seduction of so many individuals, young and old, who must be
implicated in the crimes which these abominable receptacles encourage,
without wishing to see so complicate and growing a mischief engage
the immediate attention of the Legislature, that a remedy may be
applied as early as possible.[21]
[Footnote 21: This remedy as it respects Receivers of stolen Goods, is
specifically explained at the close of a subsequent Chapter which
relates entirely to that subject, and to which the Reader is
particularly referred.]
This System of petty thievery and general depredation is, however, by
no means confined to the precincts of the Metropolis: it is extended
in a peculiar manner through the different Counties in its
Vicinity.--The following particulars, extracted from Mr. _Middleton's_
View of the Agriculture of _Middlesex_, will enable the Reader to form
some judgment of the extent of the mischief, and the causes from which
it originates; producing and increasing that band of plunderers, of
which the Metropolis itself has ultimately been at once the Nurse and
the Victim.
"The funds raised for supporting the _Idle Poor of this country_ (says
this intelligent writer) are so numerous, efficient, and comfortable,
as to operate against the general industry of the _Labouring Poor_.
"Lodging and diet in the workhouses, in every instance, are superior
to what the industrious labourer can provide for his family. It is
obvious that this must have an influence over their minds, and become
most injurious to the interests of society; it holds out encouragement
to prefer the workhouse to labour; and, by filling the poor houses
with improper inhabitants, it reduces the amount of industry."
The annual expence of each pauper is calculated by the same Writer at
about _Fifteen Guineas_; a stout healthy labourer in husbandry, with a
wife and three children, earns only Thirty for the support of five
persons.
"The want of prudence is increased, and general industry lessened, on
the part of the poor, by the facility with which voluntary
contributions are raised during every temporary inconvenience, such as
a few weeks' frost, or an extraordinary advance in the price of
provisions.[22] And also by the constantly cloathing upwards of ten
thousand children of the labouring Poor in this Country.
[Footnote 22: This observation can only apply to such voluntary
contributions as are liable to abuses, and where the poor are
permitted to dispose of the benevolence of the opulent in their own
way.--The _Soup-Charities_ established in different parts of the
Metropolis are a peculiar exception, inasmuch as they contribute only
to the relief of those that are really objects of distress, while no
Public Charity heretofore instituted has been found to be liable to
fewer abuses. In a great Metropolis like London, it has been clearly
established, that in spite of every regard to prudence and oeconomy,
decent families will be suddenly broke down, while the habits of life
peculiar to the lower orders, and their want of the knowledge of
frugal cookery have proved a source of much real calamity; for where
nothing is laid up, every pressure arising from sickness, child-birth,
or death throws many hundreds upon the Public, who have no legal
parochial Settlement, and who but for some relief must absolutely
perish;--While the Soup-Charities hold out immediate and constant
relief to many families, who might otherwise perish with
hunger;--while this species of relief may be said to be accessible to
every indigent family in the Metropolis, no lure is held out to the
idle or profligate. It cannot be disposed of, as bread, meat, and
coals, for gin and other articles. There is therefore scarcely any
risque of deception, more especially as the applicants pay down half
the original cost on receiving it--Thus establishing the means of
discrimination between _real_ and _pretended distress_. About 10,000
families, composed chiefly of persons who had not the means of
obtaining sufficient food to support nature, consisting of 50,000 men,
women, and children, were relieved by the daily distribution of Soups
at _Spital-Fields_, _Clerkenwell_, _St. George's Fields_, and
_Westminster_, during the last winter, at an expence to the
Subscribers not exceeding One Guinea for every 504 meals of rich
nourishing Soup, which those poor people received. But this is not the
only advantage which attends these Institutions, since there is every
reason to believe, that while the poor are thus frugally fed, they are
taught by example, and by circulating among them printed friendly
advices, what they never knew before--_The means of making a little go
far_, by introducing the same beneficial mode of dressing food in
their own houses. And from a minute attention to this object, the
Author has great satisfaction in stating, that from the eagerness
shewn to obtain the Soup, and the thankfulness almost universally
expressed for the benefits it conferred, there is every reason to
hope, that more good has arisen to the industrious poor from these
establishments (which are now extending themselves in the Villages and
Manufacturing Towns) than by any plan which has ever been resorted to
for relieving distress. Among the various classes of benevolent
individuals, to whom the Public have been indebted for their pecuniary
and personal aid in promoting this design the Society of _The Friends_
is peculiarly prominent. To the zeal and perseverance they have
manifested, and the valuable time they have bestowed, in giving effect
and utility to the System, is owing much of its success.]
"Every institution which tends to make the poor depend on any other
support than their own industry does them great disservice, and is
highly injurious to society, by diminishing the quantity of labour
which annually produces consumable goods, the only wealth of a
nation."
Although these suggestions may appear harsh, and some of them may
admit of more extended discussion, yet they certainly deserve very
serious consideration; as do also the following observations on the
Commons and Waste Lands with which this kingdom still abounds; and on
the general character of Servants and Labourers; the latter of which
afford but too melancholy a confirmation of many opinions which the
author of this treatise has thought it his duty to bring forward to
the Public eye.
"On estimating the value of the Commons in Middlesex, including every
advantage that can be derived from them in pasturage, locality of
situation, and the barbarous custom of turbary, it appears that _they
do not produce to the Community, in their present state, more than
four shillings per Acre_! On the other hand, they are, in many
instances, of real injury to the Public, by holding out a lure to the
poor man; by affording him materials wherewith to build his cottage,
and ground to erect it upon; together with firing, and the run of his
poultry and pigs for nothing. This is, of course, temptation
sufficient to induce a great number of poor persons to settle upon the
borders of such Commons. But the mischief does not end here; for
having gained these trifling advantages, through the neglect or
connivance of the Lord of the Manor, it unfortunately gives their
minds an improper bias, and inculcates a desire to live, from that
time forward, without labour, or at least with as little as possible.
"The animals kept by this description of persons, it is soon
discovered by their owners, are not likely to afford them much
revenue, without better feed than the scanty herbage on a Common;
hence they are tempted to pilfer corn, &c. towards their support; and
as they are still dependant on such a deceptious supply, to answer the
demands of their consumption, they are in some measure constrained to
resort to various dishonest means, so as to make up the deficiency.
"It is a notorious fact, that in all cases cottages not having any
ground belonging to them promote thieving to a great extent; as their
inhabitants constantly rob the neighbouring farms and gardens of root
and pulse sufficient for their own consumption, and which they would
have no temptation to do, if they had the same articles growing of
their own." Hence Mr. Middleton suggests the evil admits of an easy
remedy, namely, the allotting to each cottager a piece of ground.
"Another very serious evil which the Public suffers from these Commons
is, that they are the constant rendezvous of Gypsies, Strollers, and
other loose persons, living under tents which they carry with them
from place to place, according to their conveniency. Most of these
persons have asses, many of them horses, nay, some of them have even
covered carts, which answer the double purpose of a caravan for
concealing and carrying off the property they have stolen, and also of
a house for sleeping in at night. They usually stay a week or two at a
place; and the cattle which they keep serve to transport their few
articles of furniture from one place to another. These, during the
stay of their owners, are turned adrift to procure what food they can
find in the neighbourhood of their tents, and the deficiency is made
up from the adjacent hay-stacks, barns and granaries. They are known
never to buy any hay or corn, and yet their cattle are supplied with
these articles of good quality. The women and children beg and pilfer,
and the men commit greater acts of dishonesty. _In short, the Commons
of this Country are well known to be the constant resort of footpads
and highwaymen, and are literally and proverbially a public
nuisance._"----
"_The Labourers of this country are ruined in morals and constitution
by the public houses._ It is a general rule, that the higher their
wages, the less they carry home, and consequently the greater is the
wretchedness of themselves and their families. Comforts in a cottage
are mostly found where the man's wages are low, at least so low as to
require him to labour six days a week. For instance, a good workman at
nine shillings per week, if advanced to twelve will spend a day in the
week at the alehouse, which reduces his labour to five days, or ten
shillings; and as he will spend two shillings in the public house, it
leaves but eight for his family, which is one less than they had when
he earned only nine shillings.
"If by any means he be put into a situation of earning eighteen
shillings in six days, he will get drunk Sunday and Monday, and go to
his work stupid on Tuesday; and should he be a mechanical journeyman
of some genius, who by constant labour could earn twenty-four
shillings or thirty shillings per week, as some of them can, he will
be drunk half the week, insolent to his employer, and to every person
about him.
"If his master has business in hand that requires particular dispatch,
he will then, more than at any other time, be absent from his work,
and his wife and children will experience the extreme of hunger, rags
and cold.
"The low _Inns on the road sides_ are, in general, receiving houses
for the corn, hay, straw, poultry, eggs, &c. which the farmers' men
pilfer from their masters.
"_Gentlemen's Servants_ are mostly a bad set, and the great number
kept in this county, is the means of the rural labourers acquiring a
degree of idleness and insolence unknown in places more remote from
the Metropolis.
"The poor children who are brought up on the borders of commons and
copses, are accustomed to little labour, but too much idleness and
pilfering. Having grown up, and these latter qualities having become a
part of their nature, they are then introduced to the farmers as
servants or labourers; and very bad ones they make.
"The children of small farmers, on the contrary, have the picture of
industry, hard labour, and honesty, hourly before them, in the
persons of their _parents_, and daily hear the complaints which _they_
make against idle and pilfering servants, and comparisons drawn highly
in favour of honesty. In this manner honesty and industry become, as
it were, a part of the nature of such young folks. The father's
property is small, and his means few; he is therefore unable to hire
and stock a farm for each of his children; they consequently become
servants on large farms, or in gentlemen's families, and in either
situation are the most faithful part of such establishments."----
"One great hindrance to comfort in a life of agriculture, and which
drives liberal minded men, who are always the best friends to
improvement, out of the profession, is the want of laws to put a total
stop to the Receivers of stolen goods. These are the wretches who
encourage servants in agriculture, and others to pilfer, by holding
out the lure of buying every article, which such servants can bring
without asking them any questions. Most things which are usually
produced on a farm, from so small an article as an egg, to hay, straw
and grain of all sorts are daily stolen,[23] and sold on the sides of
every principal road in this county. Among the Receivers are to be
reckoned Millers, Cornchandlers, Dealers in eggs, butter and poultry,
and the Keepers of Chandlers' shops.
[Footnote 23: These thefts are committed by degrees in a small way,
seldom exceeding a truss of hay or a bushel of corn by one man at one
time; and are generally of smaller articles. In some places the
stealing of gate-hooks and iron-fastnings is so common as to compel
the farmer both to hang and fasten his gates with wood. _Middleton._]
"The Drivers of Gentlemen's carriages are intrusted to buy hay, straw,
and corn, for their horses; in the doing which, they generally cheat
their masters of 5_s._ in each load of hay, of 2_s._ 6_d._ in each
load of straw, and 1_s._ in every quarter of corn. This gives them an
interest in the consumption, makes them extremely wasteful, and brings
on habits of dishonesty.
"The Ostlers at the Inns on the sides of the roads, purchase stolen
hay, straw, corn, eggs, and poultry. A person who kept a horse several
weeks at one of these inns, in attending occasionally to see the
animal, discovered him to be fed with wheat, barley and oats mixed
together, which could only happen by the farmers' servants robbing
their Master, and selling the corn to the Ostler."----
"The fields near London are never free from men strolling about in
pilfering pursuits by day, and committing great crimes by night. The
depredations every Sunday are astonishingly great. There are not many
gardens within five miles of London, that escape being visited in a
marauding way, very early on a Sunday morning, and the farmers' fields
are plundered all day long of fruit, roots, cabbages, pulse and corn.
Even the ears of wheat are cut from the sheaves, and carried away in
the most daring manner in open day, in various ways, but mostly in
bags containing about half a bushel each. It has been moderately
estimated, that 20,000 bushels of all the various sorts are thus
carried off every Sunday morning, and 10,000 more during the other six
days of the week; or one million and a half of bushels in a year,
which, if valued at so small a sum as sixpence each, would amount to
L37,500.
"The occupiers of many thousand acres round London, lose annually in
this manner to the amount of much more than 20_s._ an acre.
"A Miller near London being questioned as to small parcels of wheat
brought to his mill to be ground, by a suspected person, soon after
several barns had been robbed, answered, that any explanation on that
head would put his mills in danger of being burnt. Well may the
_farmers_ say, 'Their _property is not protected like that of other
men_.'"
Mr. Middleton calculates that the depredations committed on the landed
interest probably amount to 4_s._ an acre per annum, on all the
cultivated lands in England, or to eight millions of pounds sterling
per annum: and including the injuries done by game and vermin, he
supposes, that the farmers' property suffers to the amount of 10_s._
an acre, or nearly twenty millions annually.
The following curious circumstances relative to the adulteration of
_Milk_ in the Metropolis, ought to be added to the list of petty
frauds, which not merely affect the pockets but the health of the
inhabitants of London. The number of milch cows kept for the purpose
of supplying the Metropolis with this article, is stated by Mr.
_Middleton_, after very diligent inquiry, at 8,500; and each cow is
supposed to afford on an average nine quarts of milk per day.--
"When the families of fashion are in London for the winter season, the
consumption, and consequent deterioration of milk are at the highest;
during the summer months, when such families are for the most part in
the country, the milk may probably be of rather a better quality.
"The milk is always given in its genuine state to the retail dealers;
and as it is sold to them by the Cow-keepers after the rate of
twopence and 1-8th of a penny per quart, and is retailed by them at
threepence halfpenny per quart, the profit is surely so large as ought
to prevent even the smallest adulteration. But when it is considered
how greatly it is reduced _by water_, and impregnated with _worse_
ingredients, it is much to be lamented that no method has yet been
devised to put a stop to the many scandalous frauds and impositions in
general practice, with regard to this very necessary article of human
sustenance.
"It is certainly an object well deserving the particular consideration
of the Legislature. It cannot be doubted, that many persons would be
glad to make some addition to the price now paid for it (high as that
price is) provided they could, for such increased price, procure so
useful an article in domestic oeconomy perfectly genuine.[24]
[Footnote 24: Not satisfied with the profit here stated, which,
considering the difference of measures, is above 100 per cent. is a
common practice with the Retailers of this useful article to carry the
milk first home to their own houses, where it is set up for half a
day, when the cream is taken from it, at least all that comes up in
that time, and it is then sold for new milk. By which means, what is
delivered in the morning is no other than the milk of the preceding
afternoon, deprived of the cream it throws up by standing during that
time. By this means a farther considerable profit accrues to the
Retailers, and the milk is greatly reduced in point of strength and
quality. This cream, poor as it is, they again mix with flour, chalk,
and perhaps other more baneful ingredients, and yet it finds a ready
market in the Metropolis. _Middleton._]
"Five or six men only are employed in attending near three hundred
cows. As one woman cannot milk above eight or nine cows twice a day,
that part of the business would necessarily be attended with
considerable expence to the Cow-keeper, were it not that the Retailer
agrees for the produce of a certain number of cows, and takes the
labour and expence of milking on himself.
"Every Cow-house is provided with a milk-room (where the milk is
measured and served out by the Cow-keeper) and this room is mostly
furnished with _a pump_, to which the Retail Dealers apply in
rotation; not secretly, but openly before any person that may be
standing by, from which they pump water into the milk vessels at their
discretion. The pump is placed there expressly for that purpose, and
indeed is very seldom used for any other. A considerable Cow-keeper
in Surrey has a pump of this kind, which goes, by the name of the
_Famous Black Cow_ (from the circumstance of its being painted black)
_and is said to yield more than all the rest put together_.