sent to a genteel lodging, where the associate is waiting, who draws
upon some banker in a distant part of the town for the money; or, if
the check is refused, a country bank-note (the gentleman just being
arrived in town) is offered to be changed, which, although a forgery,
often succeeds: if this should also fail, this mischievous class of
people, from habit and close attention to the means of deception, are
seldom at a loss in finding out some other expedient; and before the
fraud is discovered, the parties are off; and the master transformed
into the livery-servant, to practise in his turn the same trick upon
some other person.
XI. _Cheats who associate systematically together, for the purpose of
finding out and making a prey of every person from the country, or any
ignorant person who is supposed to have money, or who has come to
London for the purpose of selling goods._--It is usual in such cases
for one of them to assume the character of a young 'Squire, just come
to his estate; to appear careless and prodigal, and to shew handfuls
of bank-notes, all of which are false and fabricated for the purpose.
Another personates the guardian of the 'Squire, while a part of the
associates pretend to sit down to play, and having won money of the
young spendthrift, who appears extremely ignorant and profuse, the
stranger's avarice gets the better of his prudence, and he is induced
at length to try his luck,--the result is that he is soon left without
a penny.
XII. _Cheats who prowl about in all the streets and lanes of the
trading part of the Metropolis, where shopmen and boys are carrying
parcels_: These, by means of various stratagems, find out where the
parcels are going, and regulating their measures accordingly, seldom
fail by some trick or other, (such as giving the lad a shilling to run
and call a coach,) to get hold of the property.--Porters and young men
from the country should be particularly cautious never to quit any
property intrusted to their care, until delivered (not at the door)
but within the house to which it is directed.
XIII. _Cheats who attend Inns, at the time that coaches and waggons
are loading or unloading._ These by personating _porters_ with aprons
and knots, or _clerks_ with pens stuck in their wigs or hair, and by
having recourse to a variety of stratagems, according to the peculiar
circumstances of the case, aided by their having previously noticed
the address of several of the parcels, seldom fail of success, in the
general hurry and confusion which prevails at such places. This proves
how necessary it is at all times to have one or two intelligent
officers of justice, who know the faces of thieves, in attendance,
while goods are receiving and delivering.
XIV. _Cheats who go from door to door collecting money; under pretence
of soliciting for a charitable establishment_, for the benefit of poor
children, and other purposes. But the money, instead of being so
applied, is generally spent in eating and drinking; and the most
infamous imposition is thus practised upon the charitable and humane,
who are the dupes of this species of fraud in too many instances.
XV. _Sharpers who are known by the name of Duffers._ These go about
from house to house, and attend public houses, inns, and fairs,
pretending to sell smuggled goods, such as India handkerchiefs,
waistcoat patterns, muslins, &c. By offering their goods for sale,
they are enabled to discover the proper objects, who may be
successfully practised upon in various ways; and if they do not
succeed in promoting some gambling scheme, by which the party is
plundered of his money, they seldom fail passing forged country bank
notes, or base silver and copper in the course of their dealings.
XVI. _Female Sharpers who dress elegantly, personate women of fashion,
attend masquerades, and even go to St. James's._ These, from their
effrontery, actually get into the circle; where their wits and hands
are employed in obtaining diamonds, and whatever other articles of
value, capable of being concealed, are found to be most accessible.
The wife of a well-known sharper, lately upon the town, is said to
have appeared at Court, dressed in a stile of peculiar elegance: while
the sharper himself is supposed to have gone in the dress of a
clergyman.--According to the information of a noted receiver, they
pilfered to the value of L1700. on the King's birth-day (1795,)
without discovery or suspicion.
Houses are kept where female Cheats dress and undress for public
places.--Thirty or forty of these sharpers generally attend all
masquerades, in different characters, where they seldom fail to get
clear off with a considerable booty.
XVII. _Among the classes of Cheats may be ranked a species of Female
Bankers._ These accommodate barrow-women and others, who sell fish,
fruit, vegetables, &c. in the streets, with five shillings a day; (the
usual diurnal stock in trade in such cases;) for the use of which, for
twelve hours, they obtain a premium of _six-pence_, when the money is
returned in the evening, receiving thereby at this rate, about _seven
pounds ten shillings a year_ for every five shillings they lend out!
The Author, in the course of his Magisterial duty, having discovered
this extraordinary species of fraud, attempted to explain to a
barrow-woman on whom it was practised, that by saving up a single
_five shillings_, and not laying any part of it out in gin, but
keeping the whole, she would save L7. 10_s._ a year, which seemed to
astonish her, and to stagger her belief.--It is to be feared, however,
that it had no effect upon her future conduct, since it is evident
that this improvident and dissolute class of females have no other
idea than that of making the day and the way alike long.--Their
profits (which are often considerably augmented by dealing in base
money, as well as fruit, vegetables, &c.) seldom last over the day,
for they never fail to have a luxurious dinner and a hot supper, with
abundance of gin and porter:--looking in general no farther than to
keep whole the original stock, with the _six-pence_ interest, which is
paid over to the female banker in the evening; and a new loan obtained
on the following morning, of the same number of shillings again to go
to market.
In contemplating this curious system of Banking, (trifling as it seems
to be) it is impossible not to be forcibly struck with the immense
profits that arise from it. It is only necessary for one of these
female sharpers to possess a capital of _seventy shillings_, or three
pounds ten shillings, with fourteen steady and regular customers, in
order to realize an income of ONE HUNDRED GUINEAS a year!
XVIII. _Cheats who pretend to tell fortunes._ These impose on the
credulity of the public, by advertisements and cards; pretending a
power, from their knowledge of astrology, to foretell future events,
to discover stolen property, lucky numbers in the Lottery, &c.
The extent to which this mischief goes in the Metropolis is almost
beyond belief; particularly during the drawing of the Lottery.--The
folly and phrenzy which prevail in vulgar life, lead ignorant and
deluded people into the snare of adding to the misfortunes which the
Lottery occasions, by additional advances of money (obtained generally
by pawning goods or apparel) paid to pretended astrologers for
suggesting _lucky numbers_, upon which they are advised to make
insurances; and under the influence of this unaccountable delusion,
they are too often induced to increase their risks, and ruin their
families.
One of these impostors who lived long in the Curtain-Road, Shoreditch,
is said, in conjunction with his associates, to have made near L300. a
year by practising upon the credulity of the lower orders of the
people.--He stiled himself (in his circulating cards) an _Astronomer
and Astrologer_; and stated, _That he gave advice to Gentlemen and
Ladies on business, trade, contracts, removals, journies by land or
water, marriages, children, law-suits, absent friends, &c._ And
further, that _he calculated nativities accurately_,--His fee was
half-a-crown.
An instance of mischievous credulity, occasioned by consulting this
impostor, once fell under the review of the Author. A person having
property stolen from him, went to consult the conjuror respecting the
thief; who having described something like the person of a man whom he
suspected, his credulity and folly so far got the better of his reason
and reflection, as to induce him upon the authority of this impostor
_actually to charge his neighbour with a felony_, and to cause him to
be apprehended. The Magistrate settled the matter by discharging the
prisoner; reprimanding the accuser severely, and ordering the conjuror
to be taken into custody, according to law, _as a Rogue and Vagabond_.
But the delusion with regard to Fortune-tellers is not confined to
vulgar life, since it is known, that ladies of rank, fashion, and
fortune, contribute to the encouragement of this fraudulent profession
in particular, by their visits to a pretended Astrologer of their own
sex in the neighbourhood of Tottenham-Court Road: This woman, to the
disgrace of her votaries, whose education ought to have taught them
the folly and weakness of countenancing such gross impositions, found
the practice of it extremely productive.[33]
[Footnote 33: The encouragement which this impostor received from the
weaker part of the females of rank and fortune in the Metropolis,
raised up others; who had the effrontery to insult the understanding
of the Public, by advertising in the News-papers.]
The act of the 9th George the Second, _cap._ 5, _punishes all persons
pretending skill in any crafty science; or telling fortunes, or where
stolen goods may be found; with a year's imprisonment, and standing
four times in the pillory_ (once every quarter) _during the term of
such imprisonment. The act called the Vagrant Act, made the 17th year
of the same reign, (cap. 5,) declares such persons to be rogues and
vagabonds, and liable to be punished as such._
It is sincerely to be hoped that those at least who are convinced from
having suffered by the gross imposition practised upon the credulity
of the people by these pests of Society, will enable the civil
Magistrate, by proper informations, to suppress so great an evil.
Innumerable almost are the other tricks and devices which are resorted
to by the horde of Cheats, Swindlers, and Sharpers, who infest the
Metropolis.
The great increase of commerce, and the confidence resulting from an
intercourse so wide and extended, frequently lays men of property and
tradesmen open to a variety of frauds; credit is obtained by
subterfuges and devices contrary to the plain rules of common honesty,
against which, however, there is no remedy but by an action of common
law.
If it were possible to look accurately at the different evils arising
from fraudulent and swindling practices, so as to frame a statute that
would generally reach all the cases that occur, whenever the barrier
of common honesty is broken down, it would certainly be productive of
infinite benefit to the community; for, in spite of the laudable
exertions of the Society established for prosecuting swindlers, it is
to be lamented that the evil has not diminished. On the contrary, it
has certainly encreased, and must continue to do so, until the
Legislature, by applicable Laws and an improved System of Police,
either directly or collaterally attaching to these offences, shall
find the means of suppressing them.
CHAP. VI.
_The great anxiety of the Legislature to suppress the evils
of Gaming:--The Misery and Wretchedness entailed on many
respectable Families from this fatal propensity:--Often
arising from the foolish vanity of mixing in what is stiled,
Genteel Company; where Faro is introduced.--Games of Chance,
though stigmatized by the Legislature, encouraged by
high-sounding names, whose houses are opened for purposes
odious and unlawful:--The Civil Magistrate called upon by
his public duty, as well as by the feelings of humanity, to
suppress such mischiefs.--The danger arising from such
seminaries--No probability of any considerations of their
illegality, or inhumanity, operating as a check, without the
efforts of the Magistracy.--The evil tendency of such
examples to servants in fashionable Families, who carry
these vices into vulgar life; and many of whom, as well as
persons of superior education, become Sharpers, Cheats, and
Swindlers, from the habits they acquire.--A particular
Statement of the proceedings of persons who have set up
Gaming Houses as regular Partnership-Concerns; and of the
Evils resulting therefrom.--Of Lottery Insurers of the
Higher Class.--Of Lottery Offices opened for
Insurance--Proposed Remedies.--Three Plans suggested to the
Author by Correspondents._
Gaming is the source from which has sprung up all that race of cheats,
swindlers, and sharpers, some of whose nefarious practices have
already been noticed, and the remainder of which it is the object of
the Author to develope in this chapter.
Such has been the anxiety of the Legislature to suppress this evil,
that so early as the reign of Queen Anne, this abandoned and
mischievous race of men seems to have attracted its notice in a very
particular degree; for the act of the 9th year of that reign (cap. 14.
Sec.Sec. 6, 7,) after reciting, "_that divers lewd and dissolute persons
live at great expences, having no visible estate, profession, or
calling, to maintain themselves; but support these expences by Gaming
only_; Enacts, _that any two Justices may cause to be brought before
them, all persons within their limits whom they shall have just cause
to suspect to have no visible estate, profession, or calling, to
maintain themselves by; but do for the most part support themselves by
Gaming; and if such persons shall not make it appear to such Justices
that the principal part of their expences is not maintained by gaming,
they are to be bound to their good behaviour for a twelve-month; and
in default of sufficient security, to be committed to prison, until
they can find the same; and if security shall be given, it will be
forfeited on their playing or betting at any one time, for more than
the value of twenty shillings_."
If, in conformity to the _spirit_ of this wise statute, sharpers of
every denomination, who support themselves by a variety of cheating
and swindling practices, without having any visible means of living,
were in like manner to be called upon to find security for their good
behaviour, in all cases where they cannot shew they have the means of
subsisting themselves honestly, the number of these Pests of Society,
under a general Police and an active and zealous Magistracy, would
soon be diminished, if not totally annihilated.
By the 12th of George the Second, (cap. 28. Sec. 2, 3,) "_the Games of
Faro, Hazard, &c. are declared to be Lotteries, subjecting the persons
who keep them to a penalty of two hundred pounds, and those who play
to fifty pounds_."--_One_ witness only is necessary to prove the
offence before any Justice of the Peace; _and the Justice forfeits ten
pounds if he neglects to do his duty under the Act_:--and under this
Act, which is connected with the statute 8th of George I. cap. 2, it
seems that "_the keeper of a Faro Table may be prosecuted even for a
penalty of five hundred pounds_."
Notwithstanding these salutary laws, to the reproach of the Police of
the Metropolis, houses have been opened, even under the sanction of
high-sounding names, where an indiscriminate mixture of all ranks was
to be found, from the _finished sharper_ to the _raw inexperienced
youth_. And where all those evils existed in full force, which it was
the object of the Legislature to remove.
Though it is hoped that this iniquitous System of plunder, has of late
been somewhat restrained by the wholesome administration of the Laws,
under the excellent Chief Justice who presides in the High Criminal
Department of the Country, in consequence of the detection of
Criminals, through the meritorious vigilance and attention of the
Magistrates; to which the Author of this work, by bringing the evil so
prominently under the view of the Public, may flatter himself in
having been in some small degree instrumental: Still it is much to be
feared, that the time is not yet arrived which would induce him to
withhold the following narrative.
GAMING, although at all times an object highly deserving attention,
and calling for the exertions of Magistrates, never appeared either to
have assumed so alarming an aspect, or to have been conducted upon the
methodized system of _Partnership-Concerns_, wherein pecuniary
capitals were embarked, till about the years 1777 and 1778, when the
vast licence which was given to those abominable engines of fraud, EO
Tables, and the great length of time which elapsed before a check was
given to them by the Police, afforded a number of dissolute and
abandoned characters, who resorted to these baneful subterfuges for
support, an opportunity of acquiring property: This was afterwards
increased in low Gaming Houses, and by following up the same system at
Newmarket, and other places of fashionable resort, and in the Lottery;
until at length, without any property at the outset, or any visible
means of lawful support, a sum of money, little short of _One Million
Sterling_, is said to have been acquired by a class of individuals
originally (with some few exceptions) of the lowest and most depraved
order of Society. This enormous mass of wealth (acquired no doubt by
entailing misery on many worthy and respectable Families, and driving
the unhappy victims to acts of desperation and suicide,) is said to
have been afterwards engaged as a great and an efficient capital for
carrying on various illegal Establishments; particularly
Gaming-Houses, and Shops for fraudulent Insurances in the Lottery;
together with such objects of dissipation as the Races at Newmarket
and other places of _fashionable_ resort, held out: all which were
employed as the means of increasing and improving the ill-gotten
wealth of the parties engaged in these nefarious pursuits.
A System, grown to such an enormous height, had, of course, its rise
by progressive advances. Several of those who now roll in their gaudy
carriages, and associate with some men of high rank and fashion, may
be found upon the Registers of the Old Bailey; or traced to the
vagrant pursuit of turning, with their own hands, EO Tables in the
open streets; These mischievous Members of Society, through the wealth
obtained by a course of procedure diametrically opposite to Law, are,
by a strange perversion, sheltered from the operation of that Justice,
which every act of their lives has offended: they bask in the
sun-shine of prosperity; while thousands, who owe their distress and
ruin to the horrid designs thus _executed_, _invigorated_ and
_extended_, are pining in misery and want.
Certain it is, that the mischiefs arising from the rapid increase,
and from the vast extent of capital employed in these Systems of ruin
and depravity, have become great and alarming beyond calculation; as
will be evinced by developing the nature of the very dangerous
Confederacy which systematically moves and directs this vast Machine
of destruction--composed in general of men who have been reared and
educated under the influence of every species of depravity which can
debase the human character.
Wherever Interest or resentment suggests to their minds a line of
conduct calculated to gratify any base or illegal propensity; it is
immediately indulged. Some are taken into this iniquitous Partnership
for their dexterity in securing the dice; or in dealing cards at
Faro.--Informers are apprehended and imprisoned upon writs, obtained,
by perjury, to deter others from similar attacks. Witnesses are
suborned--officers of justice are bribed, wherever it can be done, by
large sums of money[34]--ruffians and bludgeon-men are employed to
resist the Civil Power, where pecuniary gratuities fail--and houses
are barricadoed and guarded by armed men: thereby offering defiance to
the common exertions of the Laws, and opposing the regular authority
of Magistrates.
[Footnote 34: An Affidavit, made not very long since in one of the
superior Courts of Justice, illustrates this observation in a very
striking degree. It is in these words--"That it is almost impossible
to convict persons keeping Gaming-Houses before the Magistrates, by
reason of the enormous wealth generally applied to the corruption of
unwilling evidence brought forward to support the charge--That on an
information exhibited against one of the Partners of a Gaming-House,
he got himself discharged by deterring some of the witnesses from
appearing, and by the perjury of another partner who was examined as a
witness, and for which he then stood indicted--That divers of these
Gaming-Houses were kept by practising attornies, who, by threatening
indictments for pretended Conspiracies, and other infamous means, have
deterred persons from prosecuting them."]
It is impossible to contemplate a Confederacy thus circumstanced, so
powerful from its immense pecuniary resources, and so mischievous and
oppressive from the depravity which directs these resources, without
feeling an anxiety to see the strong arm of the Law still further and
unremittingly exerted for the purpose of effectually destroying it.
Whilst one part of the immense property by which this confederacy was
so strongly fortified was employed in the establishment of
_Gaming-Houses_, holding out the most fascinating allurements to giddy
young _men of fortune_, and others, having access to money, by means
of splendid entertainments,[35] and regular suppers, with abundance of
the choicest wines, so as to form a genteel lounge for the dissipated
and unwary; another part of the capital was said to form the stock
which composes the various Faro-Banks which were to be found at the
routes of _Ladies of Fashion_: Thus drawing into this vortex of
iniquity and ruin, not only the _males_, but also the _females_ of the
thoughtless and opulent part of Society; who too easily became a prey
to that idle vanity which frequently overpowers reason and reflection;
and the delusion of which is seldom terminated till it is too late.
[Footnote 35: The expence of entertainments at a Gaming-House of the
highest class, during eight months, has been said to exceed _Six
Thousand Guineas_! What must the profits be to afford such a
profusion?]
Evil example, when thus sanctioned by apparent respectability, and by
the dazzling blandishment of rank and fashion, is so intoxicating to
those who have either suddenly acquired riches, or who are young and
inexperienced, that it almost ceases to be a matter of wonder that the
fatal propensity to Gaming should become universal; extending itself
over all ranks in Society in a degree scarcely to be credited, but by
those who will attentively investigate the subject.
At the commencement of the troubles in France, and before this Country
was visited by the hordes of Emigrants of all descriptions, who fixed
a temporary or permanent residence in this Metropolis, the number of
Gaming-Houses (exclusive of those that are select, and have long been
established by Subscription,) did not exceed above _four_ or _five_:
In the year 1797, not less than _thirty_ were said to be actually
open; where, besides _Faro_ and _Hazard_, the foreign games of
_Roulet_, and _Rouge et Noir_, were introduced, and where there
existed a regular gradation of establishment, accommodating to all
ranks; from the man of fashion, down to the thief, the burglar, and
the pick-pocket--where immense sums of money were played for every
evening, for eight months in the year.[36]