in that case the Retailers are not even careful to use _clean_ water.
Some of them have been seen to dip their pails in a common
horse-trough. And what is still more disgusting, though equally true,
one cow-house happens to stand close to the edge of a stream, into
which runs much of the dung, and most of the urine of the cows, and
even in this stream, so foully impregnated, they have been observed to
dip their milk-pails.
"A Cow-keeper informs me, that the Retail Milk Dealers are for the
most part the refuse of other employments, possessing neither
character, decency of manners, nor cleanliness.
"No person could possibly drink of the milk, were they fully
acquainted with the filthy manners of these dealers in it.
"The same person suggests, _as a remedy for these abuses, that it
would be highly proper for every Retail Milk Dealer to be obliged to
take out an Annual Licence from the Magistrates_; which licence should
be granted only to such as could produce a certificate of good
conduct, signed by the Cow-keeper and a certain number of their
customers; and also on their being sworn to sell the milk pure and
unadulterated."
CHAP. IV.
_General Reflections arising from the perpetration of the
higher and more atrocious crimes of Burglary, Highway
Robbery, &c.--These crimes more peculiar to England than to
Holland and Flanders, &c.--The Reason explained.--A general
View of the various classes of Criminals engaged in
Robberies and Burglaries and of those discharged from Prison
and the Hulks.--Their miserable situation as Outcasts of
Society, without the means of Support.--The necessity of
some Antidote previous to the return of Peace.--The means
used at present by Thieves in accomplishing their nefarious
Purposes.--Observations on the stealing Cattle, Sheep, Corn,
&c.--Receivers of Stolen Goods shewn to be the Nourishers of
every description of Thieves.--Remedies suggested, by means
of Detection and Prevention._
It is impossible to reflect upon the outrages and acts of violence
continually committed, more particularly in and near the Metropolis by
lawless ravagers of property, and destroyers of lives, in disturbing
the peaceful mansion, _the Castle of every Englishman_, and also in
abridging the liberty of travelling upon the Public Highways, without
asking--_Why are these enormities suffered in a Country where the
Criminal Laws are supposed to have arrived at a greater degree of
perfection than any other?_
This is an important inquiry, interesting in the highest degree, to
every member of the Body Politic.
If, in pursuing such an inquiry, the situation of Holland, Flanders,
and several of the Northern States on the Continent, be examined, it
will be found that this terrific evil had (alluding to these States
previous to the present war) there scarcely an existence: and, that
the precaution of bolting doors and windows during the night, was even
seldom used; although, in these Countries, from the opulence of many
of the inhabitants, there were great temptations to plunder property.
This security did not proceed from _severer punishments_, for in very
few Countries are they more sanguinary than in England.--It is to be
attributed to a more correct and energetic system of Police, joined to
an early and general attention to the employment, education, and
morals of the lower orders of the people; a habit of industry and
sobriety is thus acquired, which, universally imbibed in early life,
"grows with their growth, and strengthens with their strength."
Idleness is a never-failing road to criminality. It originates
generally in the inattention and the bad example of profligate
parents.--And when it has unfortunately taken hold of the human mind,
unnecessary wants and improper gratifications, not known or thought
of by persons in a course of industry, are constantly generated: hence
it is, that crimes are resorted to, and every kind of violence,
hostile to the laws, and to peace and good order, is perpetrated.
The criminal and unfortunate individuals, who compose the dismal
catalogue of Highwaymen, Footpad-Robbers, Burglars, Pick-Pockets, and
common Thieves, in and about this Metropolis, may be divided into the
three following classes:
1. Young men of some education, who having acquired idle
habits by abandoning business, or by being bred to no
profession, and having been seduced by this idleness to
indulge in gambling and scenes of debauchery and
dissipation, at length impoverished and unable to purchase
their accustomed gratifications, have recourse to the
highway to supply immediate wants.
2. Tradesmen and others, who having ruined their fortunes
and business by gaming and dissipation, sometimes as a
desperate remedy, go upon the road.
But these two classes are extremely few in number, and bear no
proportion to the lower and more depraved part of the fraternity of
thieves, who pursue the trade systematically; who conduct their
depredations under such circumstances of caution, as to render
detection extremely difficult; and whose knowledge of all the weak
parts of the Criminal Law is generally so complete, as to enable them
to elude justice, and obtain acquittals, when detected and put upon
their trial:--_Namely_--
3. 1st. Servants, Ostlers, Stable and Post-Boys out of
place, who, preferring what they consider as idleness, have
studied the profession of Thieving.--2d. Persons who being
imprisoned for debts, assaults, or petty offences, have
learned habits of idleness and profligacy in gaols.--3d.
Idle and disorderly mechanics and labourers, who having on
this account lost the confidence of their masters or
employers, resort to thieving, as a means of support; from
all whom the notorious and hacknied thieves generally select
the most trusty and daring to act as their associates.--4th.
Criminals tried and acquitted of offences charged against
them, of which class a vast number is annually let loose
upon Society.--5th. Convicts discharged from prison and the
Hulks, after suffering the sentence of the Law: too often
instructed by one another in all the arts and devices which
attach to the most extreme degree of human depravity, and in
the perfect knowledge of the means of perpetrating Crimes,
and of eluding Justice.
To form some judgment of the number of persons in this great
Metropolis who compose at least a part of the Criminal Phalanx engaged
in depredations and acts of violence, it is only necessary to have
recourse to the following Statement of the number of prisoners
discharged, during a period of four years, from the eight different
Gaols in the Metropolis, and within the Bills of Mortality.
1. Discharged by proclamation and gaol-deliveries;
having been committed in consequence of being
charged with various offences for which bills
were not found by the Grand Jury, or where
the prosecutors did not appear to maintain and
support the charges 5592
2. Discharged by acquittals, in the different Courts;
(frequently from having availed themselves of
the defects of the Law,--from frauds in keeping
back evidence, and other devices) 2962
3. Convicts discharged from the different gaols,
after suffering the punishment of imprisonment,
&c. inflicted on them for the several
offences 2484
-----
Total 11038
The following is a Statement of the number of these discharges from
the year 1792 to 1799 inclusive:--
1. Discharged by Proclamations and Gaol-deliveries 8650
2. Discharged by Acquittals 4935
3. Discharged after punishment: or by
being bailed or pardoned 6925
------
Total 20,510
------
If to this deplorable Catalogue shall be added the Convicts which have
been returned on the Public from the Hulks within the same period,
namely, from 1792 to 1799 inclusive, either from pardons, escapes, or
the expiration of their punishment, the numbers will stand thus:
Enlarged in 1792 303
---- 1793 435
---- 1794 62
---- 1795 67
---- 1796 38
---- 1797 39
---- 1798 93
---- 1799 346
----
1383
------
Total from Gaols and from the Hulks 21,893
Humanity shudders at the contemplation of this interesting part of the
discussion, when it is considered, who these our miserable
fellow-mortals are! and what is to be expected from the extreme
depravity which attaches to the chief part of them!
And here a prominent feature of the imperfect state of the Police of
the Metropolis and the Country is too evident to escape notice.
_Without friends, without character, and without the means of
subsistence_, what are these unhappy mortals to do?--They are no
sooner known or suspected, than they are avoided.--No person will
employ them, even if they were disposed to return to the paths of
honesty; unless they make use of fraud and deception, by concealing
that they have been the inhabitants of a _Prison_, or of the _Hulks_.
At large upon the world, without food or raiment, and with the
constant calls of nature upon them for both, without a home or any
asylum to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather, _what is to
become of them_?
The Police of the Country has provided no place of industry, in which
those who were disposed to reform might find subsistence in return for
voluntary labour; which, in their present situation, becomes useless
to them, because no person will purchase it by employing them.[25]
Under all these circumstances it is to be feared, indeed it is known,
that many Convicts, from dire necessity, return to their old
courses.--And thus, through the medium of these miserable outcasts of
Society, crimes are increased and become a regular trade, because many
of them can make no other election.
[Footnote 25: That man will deserve a statue to his memory who shall
devise and carry into effect a plan for the employment of _Discharged
Prisoners and Convicts_, who may be desirous of labouring for their
subsistence in an honest way.--It is only necessary for some men of
weight and influence to make the attempt, in order to insure the
assistance of the opulent and humane in so good and necessary a Work.
See a future Chapter as to the present state of punishment and the
remedies proposed.]
It is indeed true, that during the first three years of the present
war, many Convicts and idle and disorderly persons were sent to the
Army and Navy: but still a vast number remained behind, who could not
be accepted on account of ruptures, fits, or some other disability or
infirmity; which, although they incapacitate them from serving his
Majesty, do not prevent them from committing crimes.
While it must be evident, that the resource afforded by the present
war, gives employment, for a time only, to many depraved characters
and mischievous members of the community; how necessary is it to be
provided with antidotes, previous to the return of peace; when, to the
multitude of thieves now at large, there will be added numbers of the
same class, who may be discharged from the Navy and Army?--If some
plan of employment is not speedily devised, to which all persons of
this description may resort, who cannot otherwise subsist themselves
in an honest way; and if the Police of the Metropolis is not greatly
improved, by the introduction of more energy, and a greater degree of
System and Method in its administration; it is much to be feared, that
no existing power will be able to keep them within bounds.
It is in vain to say the Laws are sufficient.--They are indeed
abundantly voluminous, and in many respects very excellent, but they
require to be revised, consolidated, modernized, and adapted in a
greater degree to the prevention of existing evils, with such
regulations as would ensure their due execution not only _in every
part of the Capital_, but also in all parts of the Kingdom.
The means these depredators at present use in accomplishing their
nefarious purposes are complicated and various; and of late years have
become as much diversified as it is possible for the ingenuity of men
to devise, who frequently join good natural abilities to all the
artifices of the finished villain.
It is no uncommon thing for the more daring and strong-minded to form
themselves into gangs or societies; to the exclusion of those of their
fraternity whose hearts are likely to fail them, and who are supposed
not to be sufficiently firm, so as to secure their accomplices against
the hazard of discovery in case of detection.
Robbery and theft, as well in houses as on the roads, have long been
reduced to a regular System. Opportunities are watched, and
intelligence procured, with a degree of vigilance similar to that
which marks the conduct of a skilful General, eager to obtain an
advantage over an enemy.
Houses, intended to be entered during the night, are previously
reconnoitred and examined for days preceding. If one or more of the
servants are not already associated with the gang, the most artful
means are used to obtain their assistance; and when every previous
arrangement is made, the mere operation of robbing a house becomes a
matter of little difficulty.
By the connivance and assistance of immediate, or former servants,
they are led to the places where the most valuable, as well as the
most portable, articles are deposited, and the object is speedily
attained.
In this manner do the principal Burglars and House-breakers proceed:
and let this information serve as a caution to every person in the
choice both of their male and female servants; since the latter as
well as the former are not seldom accomplices in very atrocious
robberies.
The same _generalship_ is manifested in the nocturnal expeditions of
those criminal associates upon the highways.
A perfect knowledge is obtained every evening of the different routes
and situations of the patroles:--they are narrowly watched, and their
vigilance (wherever they are vigilant) is in too many instances
defeated.
Infinite pains are bestowed in procuring intelligence of persons
travelling upon the road with money, bank-notes, or other valuable
effects; and when discovered, the most masterly pains are concerted to
waylay and rob them of their property: Nor have the measures pursued
by those atrocious villains, the Footpads, exhibited less skill in the
plans adopted; while their outrages are too often marked with those
acts of cruelty and barbarity which justly render them objects of
peculiar terror.
The same adroitness also marks the conduct of those who turn their
attention chiefly to picking of pockets, and other smaller robberies.
It would almost fill a volume to detail the various artifices which
are resorted to, in carrying on this species of thieving; by which
even the most cautious, and those who are generally upon their guard,
are not exempted from the ravages of these inferior pests of Society.
In addition to the injuries or losses arising from burglaries,
highway-robberies and lesser thefts, it is to be lamented that
extensive and increasing depredations are made upon horses, cattle and
sheep, and also upon flour, corn, potatoes, provender, and poultry;
stolen from the drovers, millers, corn-factors, and farmers in the
vicinity of the Metropolis. These have been stated more at large in a
preceding Chapter.
It cannot be too often repeated that the great facility experienced,
in the immediate disposal of every article obtained by dishonesty, is
one of the chief encouragements to all the acts of outrage and
depredation enumerated in the course of this Work.
It frequently happens that the Burglars, the Highwaymen, and Footpad
robbers, make their contracts with the Receivers, on the evening
before the plunder is obtained; so as to secure a ready admittance
immediately afterwards, and before day-break, for the purpose of
effectual concealment by melting plate, obliterating marks, and
securing all other articles so as to place them out of the reach of
discovery. This has long been reduced to a regular system which is
understood and followed as a trade.
Nor do those Thieves who steal horses,[26] cattle and sheep
experience more difficulty in finding purchasers immediately for
whatever they can obtain:--they too, generally, make a previous
bargain with the Receivers, who are ready at an appointed hour to
conceal the animals, to kill them immediately, and to destroy the
skins for the purpose of eluding detection.
[Footnote 26: The frauds and felonies committed in the course of a
year with respect to horses exceed all credibility. Above thirty
thousand of these useful animals are said to be flayed and boiled in
the Metropolis, at the Seventeen Licensed Houses, annually, of which
about one-fourth are brought there alive, supposed chiefly to be
stolen horses. These Establishments require many additional
regulations to enforce and insure that purity of conduct, which the
Legislature had in view when the Act of the 26 Geo. 3, cap. 71, was
passed for licensing persons to slaughter horses. In the operation of
this Act is strongly evinced the inefficacy of the best laws, when
measures are not pursued to insure an accurate and chaste execution.
Wherever the vigilance of a General Police does not extend its
influence in carrying into effect all regulations of a preventive
nature, it is in vain to hope that the evil in the view of the
Legislature will be diminished.]
It sometimes happens also, that the persons who perpetrate these
robberies are journeymen-butchers, by trade; who kill whatever they
steal, and often afterwards sell their plunder in the Public Markets.
If, by wise regulations, it were possible to embarrass and disturb the
extensive trade carried on by all the _concealed Receivers_, who are
the particular class having connection with the professed thieves, a
very great check would be given to public depredations.
In suggesting Remedies, this of all other appears, at first view, to
be the most difficult; because of the apparent impossibility of
regulating any class of Dealers who have no shop, or visible trade,
and who transact all their business under concealment:--but still the
object is to be obtained by a combination of different legislative
regulations, carried into execution by a consolidated, vigilant and
well-regulated Police.
The detail, however, of the means of detecting Receivers will, of
course, be discussed hereafter, in a subsequent Chapter; at present
the following Hints will suffice.
A register of lodging-houses and lodgers in every parish, liberty,
hamlet, and precinct, where the rent does not exceed a certain sum
(suppose ten shillings) weekly, would prove one great means of
embarrassment to Thieves of every class; and of course would tend,
with other regulations, to the prevention of Crimes.
Night-Coaches also promote, in an eminent degree, the perpetration of
burglaries and other felonies: Bribed by a high reward, many hackney
coachmen eagerly enter into the pay of nocturnal depredators, and wait
in the neighbourhood until the robbery is completed, and then draw up,
at the moment the watchmen are going their rounds, or off their
stands, for the purpose of conveying the plunder to the house of the
Receiver, who is generally waiting the issue of the enterprise. Above
one half of the present Hackney Coachmen, in London, are said to be
(in the cant phrase) _Flashmen_ designed to assist thieves.
It being certain that a vast deal of mischief is done which could not
be effected, were it not for the assistance which night coaches afford
to Thieves of every description, it would seem, upon the whole,
advantageous to the Public, that no Hackney Coaches should be
permitted to take fares after twelve o'clock at night; or, if this is
impracticable, that the coach-hire for night service should be
advanced, on condition that all coachmen going upon the stands after
twelve o'clock, should be licensed by a Board of Police. By this means
the night-coachmen, by being more select, would not be so open to
improper influence; and they might even become useful to Public
Justice in giving informations, and also in detecting Burglars, and
other Thieves.
Watchmen and Patroles, instead of being, as now, comparatively of
little use, from their _age, infirmity, inability, inattention_, or
_corrupt practices_, might almost at the present expence, by a proper
selection, and a more correct mode of discipline, by means of a
general superintendance over the whole to regulate their conduct, and
keep them to their duty, be rendered of great utility in preventing
Crimes, and in detecting Offenders.[27]
[Footnote 27: The depredations which are committed almost every
evening in Cheapside, and the adjacent streets leading into it,
affords strong proofs of the necessity of an improved system with
regard to watchmen and patroles.
Allured to that particular part of the Metropolis, from the extensive
and valuable property in _piece goods_ and other portable articles
which are constantly removing to and from the different shops and
warehouses:--a multitude of thieves and pickpockets, exhibiting often
in their dress and exterior, the appearance of gentlemen and men of
business, assemble every evening in gangs, watching at the corners of
every street, ready to _bustle_ and _rob_, or to _trip up the heels_
of the _warehouse-porters and the servants of shopkeepers carrying
goods_; or at the doors of warehouses, at dusk and at the time they
are locked, to be ready to seize loose parcels when unperceived; by
all which means, aided by a number of other tricks and fraudulent
pretences, they are but too successful in obtaining considerable
booty. In short, there is no device or artifice to which these
vigilant plunderers do not resort: of which an example appeared in an
instance, where almost in the twinkling of an eye, while the servants
of an eminent silk-dyer had crossed a narrow street, his horse and
cart, containing raw silk to the value of _twelve hundred pounds_,
were driven clear off. Many of these atrocious villains, are also
constantly in waiting at the inns, disguised in different ways,
personating _travellers, coach-office clerks, porters and coachmen_,
for the purpose of plundering every thing that is portable; which,
with the assistance of two or three associates if necessary, is
carried to a coach called for the purpose, and immediately conveyed to
the receiver.
The most adroit thieves in this line are generally _convicts from the
hulks, or returned transports_, who under pretence of having some
ostensible business, (while they carry on the trade of thieving)
generally open a _chandler's shop_, set up a _green-stall_, or get
into a _public-house_: some of these old offenders are known also to
keep livery-stables for thieves, and horses for the use of highwaymen;
thereby forming a connected chain by which these criminal people
extend and facilitate their trade; _nourishing_, _accommodating_, and
supporting one another.]
At present the System of the nightly watch is without energy,
disjointed, and governed by almost as many different Acts of
Parliament, as there are Parishes, Hamlets, Liberties, and Precincts
within the Bills of Mortality; and where the payment is as various,
running from 8-1/2_d._ up to 2_s._ a night.
The Act of the 14th of George IIId. (_cap._ 90.) entituled, _An Act
for the better regulation of the Nightly Watch within the City and
Liberty of Westminster, and parts adjacent_, contains many excellent
Regulations, but they do not extend to the eastern part of the
Metropolis; and for want of an active and superintending agency,
superior to beadles, it is believed and felt that they are not, (even
within the district included in the Act,) correctly carried into
execution: and that no small portion of those very men who are paid
for protecting the public, are not only instruments of oppression in
many instances, by extorting money most unwarrantably; but are
frequently accessaries in aiding, abetting or concealing the
commission of crimes, which it is their duty to detect and suppress.