appear to be, have not been in any degree effectual, is clearly
manifested by the unquestionable increase of the evil, even to an
extent beyond all calculation.
Under such circumstances, where the Receiver is in reality the
greatest offender, and even the source from whence most of the
burglaries and highway robberies have their origin, the Thief being
not seldom his pupil--_Why should not the Receipt of Stolen Goods be
made an original offence?[79]--Why should not the rewards for
detection, and the punishment on conviction, be the same, in the case
both of the Receiver and the Thief?_
[Footnote 79: The general rule of the ancient Law is this;--that
Accessaries shall suffer the same punishment as Principals. If one be
liable to death, the other is also liable. BLACKSTONE.
In France, (before the Revolution) the offence of receiving stolen
goods was punished with death.]
In contemplating the best means of preventing depredations upon the
public, the simplest and perhaps the most effectual mode would be to
_make a stand at this particular point_; by bending the attention
_wholly_ to the means of destroying effectually _the trade of
Receiving stolen goods_; under the fullest conviction that by
accomplishing so valuable a purpose, thieving and swindling in all its
branches would also be, in a great measure, destroyed.
It is believed, that this object (difficult as it may appear) is
attainable, by well digested applicable laws, containing and enforcing
such regulations as would ensure a full and energetic execution.
The importance of a measure of this kind is so immense, that if even a
considerable part of one Session of Parliament were employed in
devising and legalizing a proper System, it would be time well and
usefully spent for the benefit of the Country.
The obvious means of remedy seem to lie within a narrow compass. The
first point to be obtained is the _Licensing_ all those dealers (some
of them already particularized in pages 292, 293), whose various
branches of trade are friendly to the encouragement of depredations;
and the putting them under the control of the _Central Board of
Police_, in the manner stated more fully in the concluding part of
this Work.--
The next step must be to consolidate and improve the Laws now in
being, relative to _Receivers of stolen goods_; by an arrangement
which shall render the whole _clear_ and _explicit_, and applicable to
all the evils which have been felt to exist.
And lastly to make the following additions to these Laws:
"1. To make the receiving stolen goods an _original
offence_; punishable in the same manner, in all cases, as
the principal felony is punishable by Law.
"2. The offence of receiving _money, bank notes, horses,
cattle, poultry_, or _any matter_ or thing whatsoever, to be
the same as receiving goods and chattels.
"3. The persons committing any felony or larceny to be
competent to give evidence against the Receiver, and _vice
versa_; Provided that the testimony and evidence of such
Principal Felon against the Receiver, or the evidence of the
Receiver against the Principal Felon, shall not be of itself
sufficient to convict, without other concurrent evidence:
and that the offenders so giving evidence shall be entitled
to his Majesty's pardon, and also to a reward of from 10_l._
to 50_l._ as hereafter mentioned; unless they shall be found
guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury.--_By this means the
Thief will be set against the Receiver, and the Receiver
against the Thief._
"4. That rewards be paid for the detection and apprehension
of Receivers as well as Thieves, in all cases whatsoever,
according to the discretion of the Judge; _whether there
shall be a conviction or not_; which reward shall not be
less than _ten_ and may extend to _fifty pounds_.
"5. That the various classes of dealers to be licensed shall
enter into recognizance for their good behaviour: and that
no licences be granted to persons having been convicted of
felony or perjury, nor to any but such as can obtain and
produce a certificate of good character.
"6. That all such licensed dealers, as also _Publicans_,
_Pawnbrokers_, &c. shall be subject to a penalty for
concealing any stolen goods which may come into their
possession, after the same are advertised;--or punished with
transportation, if it can be made appear that such goods
were purchased at an under value, being known to be stolen.
"7. That all drivers of Hackney-Coaches, employed to take
fares after twelve o'clock at night, shall be licensed by
the Magistrates of the division; and shall enter into
recognizance for their good behaviour, themselves and one
surety in 50_l._ at least; and that every such coachman
shall be obliged, whenever he carries any goods or
valuables, to make a report of the same, on the following
morning, to the Magistrate of his district, if no suspicion
arises as to any improper or felonious intention; but in all
cases where a felonious intention shall appear, the coachman
to be authorized and required to call the assistance of the
watchmen and patroles, and to seize and apprehend the
parties, and lodge them and the goods in the nearest
watch-house; there to be kept until brought before a
justice, at the Public-Office of the district, on the
following morning: And although it may ultimately appear
that the coachman was mistaken and the parties innocent, yet
where it shall be manifest to the Justice that he hath acted
_bona fide_, he shall not be liable to any prosecution:[80]
and if it shall appear that the goods so conveyed _were_
stolen property, then the coachman shall be entitled,
whether a conviction shall follow or not, to a reward of
_two guineas_; and in all cases where a prosecution shall
follow, he shall be entitled to such further reward as the
Court shall think proper.
[Footnote 80: Vide Act 30 Geo. II. cap. 24.]
"8. That all watchmen or patroles who shall appear upon
proper proof to connive at the commission of felonies[81] in
the night time, or while they are on duty; or shall
knowingly conceal any felonious removal of stolen goods, or
goods suspected to be stolen, and conveying to Receivers'
houses, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable
to be _imprisoned_, _whipt_, or _put in the pillory_.--And
in _all cases_ where such watchmen or patroles shall observe
any goods or other articles conveyed in Hackney-coaches, or
in any other manner, while they are upon duty, from one
place to another, they shall report the same to the Justices
at the nearest Public Office, in the morning: But if they
shall have good grounds to suspect a felonious intention,
and that the property is stolen, the goods and all the
parties concerned shall be conveyed to the nearest
watch-house, for the purpose of being brought before a
Magistrate; and such watchmen (acting _bona fide_) shall not
be liable to any prosecution in case of a mistake; and if a
felony shall have been actually committed, they shall each
be entitled to one guinea, besides their proportion of any
future reward which may be ordered by the Court who shall
try the offenders.[82]"
[Footnote 81: An Officer of Police who was watching the
house of a noted Receiver, in St. James's parish, being
taken for a Thief by the watchmen, the latter entered into
conversation with him, and naming the Receiver, he told the
Officer that he being very liberal and kind to them, they
did not disturb any person going to his house; and if he had
any thing to carry there, he would step out of sight, so as
to be able to say he had seen nothing.]
[Footnote 82: Vide Act 30 Geo. II. cap. 24.]
In the formation of such a System, it is absolutely necessary that
care should be taken to secure a _regular_ and perfect _execution_, by
means of a proper superintendance and inspection:--without this, the
best laws will remain a _dead letter_.--Such has, in fact, been the
case in a great measure with respect to several of the very excellent
Statutes, now in force, relative to Receivers of stolen Goods; and
such also would be the case with regard to the laws relative to the
_Revenue_, if a System had not been established to secure their
execution.
If it be allowed that the prevention of crimes is at least of as much
importance to Society, as any consideration connected with partial
revenue:--if experience has shewn that, after the skill and ingenuity
of the ablest lawyers and the most profound thinkers have been
exhausted in framing laws to meet offences, which are daily committed;
these offences are progressively increasing:--Is it not clear to
demonstration, that some _active principle_ is wanting, which does not
at present exist, for the purpose of rendering these laws effectual?
This principle of activity is, (it is humbly apprehended,) only to be
established by the introduction of such a System of _regulation_, as
shall attach to all classes of dealers, who, in their intercourse
with Society, are in the train of encouraging either directly or
collaterally, transactions of _an immoral_, _a fraudulent_, or a
_mischievous nature_.
The idea is not new in the System of jurisprudence of the
country;--Publicans have long been under regulations prescribed by
Magistrates; Pawnbrokers also have been of late years regulated to a
certain extent by Statute.--Let the same principle be extended to the
other dealers alluded to; and let the Legislature, profiting by that
experience which has manifested the cause of the inefficacy of a vast
number of penal Statutes, establish such a system of _regulation_,
_inspection_, and _superintendance_, as will insure to the Public the
full benefits arising from good laws, administered with activity,
purity, and discretion.
Nothing can evince in a greater degree the necessity of _inspecting_
the execution of all _laws of regulation_ where the well-being of
Society is concerned, than the abuses which occur with regard to the
two classes just mentioned, namely, Public-houses and Pawnbrokers.--Many
excellent rules are established by the Legislature, and the
Magistrates; but while it is seldom the interest of the depraved or
dishonest part of these two classes to adhere to such rules, by what
means is the execution to be insured, so as to operate as a complete
protection to the Public?--surely not by the operation of the law
through the medium of common informers; since independent of the
invidious nature of the office, experience has shewn that the public
good rarely enters into the consideration of persons of this
description; who look merely to their own emolument, frequently
holding up the penalties as a rod by which money is privately
extorted, and the parties laid under contribution, for the purpose of
allowing them to continue in the practice of those abuses, which the
engine used for this nefarious purpose was meant to prevent.
The System of Inspection, thus strongly and repeatedly recommended,
while it remedied these corrupt practices, by preventing the existence
of the evil, could only be disagreeable to _Fraudulent Dealers_.
The honest and fair Tradesmen, as things are at present circumstanced,
are by no means on an equal footing with men who carry on business by
fraudulent devices.--Such fair traders who have nothing to dread,
would therefore rejoice at the System of inspection which is proposed,
and would submit to it cheerfully; as having an immediate tendency to
shield them from fraudulent competition, and to protect the Public
against knavery and dishonesty.
CHAP. XI.
_The prominent Causes of the increase of Crimes reviewed and
considered:--Imputable in the first instance to deficient
Laws and an ill-regulated Police:--To the unfortunate habits
of the lower orders of the People in feeding their families
in Ale-houses.--To the bad and immoral Education of
Apprentices.--To the number of individuals broke down by
misfortunes arising from want of Industry.--To idle and
profligate Menial Servants out of place.--To the deplorable
state of the lower orders of the Jews of the Dutch and
German Synagogue.--To the depraved morals of Aquatic
Labourers.--To the Dealers in old Metals--Second-hand Ships'
Stores--Rags--Old Furniture--Old Building Materials--Old
Apparel: and Cart-keepers for removing these articles.--To
disreputable Pawnbrokers.--And finally to ill-regulated
Public-houses, and to the Superabundance of these
receptacles of idleness and vice.--Concluding Reflections on
the evils to the State and the Individual, which arise from
the excesses of the Labouring People._
In contemplating the mass of turpitude which is developed in the
preceding Chapters, and which exhibit afflicted Society, groaning
under a pressure of evils and Public wrongs, which, but for the
different views which have been taken of the subject, could not have
been conceived to exist; it may be truly affirmed in the first
instance, that much is to be imputed to deficient and ill-executed
Laws, arising chiefly from the want of a proper System of Police.
Offences of every description have their origin in the vicious and
immoral habits of the people, and in the facilities which the state of
manners and society, particularly in vulgar life, afford in generating
vicious and bad habits.
In tracing the progress of those habits which are peculiar to the
lower orders of the Community in this great Metropolis, from infancy
to the adult state, the cause will be at once discovered, why that
_almost universal_ profligacy prevails, which, by being productive of
so much evil to the unfortunate Individuals as well as the Community
at large, cannot be sufficiently deplored.
Before a child is perhaps able to lisp a sentence, it is carried by
its ill-fated mother to the tap-room of an ale-house;[83] in which are
assembled multitudes of low company, many of whom have been perhaps
reared in the same manner. The vilest and most profane and polluted
language, accompanied by oaths and imprecations, is uttered in these
haunts of idleness and dissipation.--Children follow their parents
during their progress to maturity, and are almost the constant
witnesses of their besotted courses.--Reduced, from their unfortunate
habits, to the necessity of occupying a miserable half furnished
lodging from week to week, there is no comfort at home.--No knowledge
of frugal cookery exists, by which a nourishing and palatable meal can
be provided, and frequently a sufficiency of fuel for that purpose is
not accessible.--A succedaneum is found in the ale-house at three
times the expence.--A common fire is provided for the guests,
calculated to convey that warmth which could not be obtained at home;
and food[84] and liquor is furnished at an expence which too seldom
leaves any part of the weekly earning for cloathing, and none at all
for education.--In this manner is a large proportion of what may be
denominated the lowest classes of the people reared in the
Metropolis;[85] and the result is, that while many of the adults are
lost to the state by premature death, from sottishness and
irregularity, not a few of their offspring are never raised to
manhood: But this is not all:--when by means of strong constitutions,
they survive the shocks which nature has sustained in its progress to
maturity under the influence of habits so exceedingly depraved, they
are restrained by no principle of morality or religion,[86] (for they
know nothing of either,) and only wait for opportunities, to plunge
into every excess and every crime.
[Footnote 83: It is even a practice with not a few of the labouring
families in the Eastern part of the Town, to take lodgings in
Ale-houses.]
[Footnote 84: Such is the thoughtless improvidence of this class of
the labouring people, that they are generally the first who indulge
themselves by eating Oysters, Lobsters, and Pickled Salmon, &c. when
first in Season, and long before these luxuries are considered as
accessible to the middle ranks of the Community; whose manners are
generally as virtuous as the others are depraved.]
[Footnote 85: It is not to be inferred from this statement, that there
are not to be found even among the lower classes of the labouring
People in the Metropolis, many instances of honest and virtuous Poor,
whose distresses are to be attributed to the calamity of a failure of
employment, bad health, death of Parents or Children, and other causes
which human prudence cannot prevent; and particularly where the want
of opulent Inhabitants in several of the Eastern Parishes, renders it
necessary to assess _Indigence_ for the support of _Poverty_.--To
these Parishes and Hamlets the Poor resort, both from the nature of
their employments, and the impossibility of finding habitations any
where else.--They have perhaps no legal settlement where they reside,
or the funds of the Parish can afford but a very scanty and inadequate
relief. Depressed with sickness, and broke down and dispirited by
extreme poverty, the little furniture and apparel of Man, Woman, and
Child, is carried to the Pawn-broker's to obtain a scanty pittance for
the immediate support of life, until at length there does not remain
what is sufficient to cover nakedness.--In these miserable mansions
the Author has himself frequently witnessed scenes of distress, which
would rend the heart of the most unfeeling of the human species.--A
temporary and partial expedient has through the benevolence of the
Publick, been administered in the excellent institutions of
_Soup-houses_: but until the funds of the different Parishes can be
made _one Common Purse_, and an intelligent management substituted in
the place of an ignorant and incompetent superintendance, the evil
will not diminish.--To the opulent part of the Community the burden
would never be felt.--At present, where the most indigent are
assessed, the rates are double and treble those in the rich
Parishes.--It is principally to this cause, that Poverty is no where
to be found in so great a degree, cloathed in the garb of the
extremest misery and wretchedness, as in the Metropolis.--And it is to
this cause also, joined to various others explained in this Chapter,
_that above Twenty Thousand miserable Individuals of various classes,
rise up every morning without knowing how, or by what means they are
to be supported, during the passing day; or where, in many instances,
they are to lodge on the succeeding night_.]
[Footnote 86: The Author has often had occasion to witness the extreme
ignorance of the younger part of this class, when called upon to give
evidence in judicial proceedings.--Of the nature of an oath they had
not the least conception,--nor even of the existence of a Supreme
Being.]
Profligate and depraved as the lower orders of the People appear to
have been for several centuries in this great Metropolis, it would
seem that the practice of married females resorting to Public-houses,
and mixing generally in tap-rooms with the idle and dissolute, is an
evil habit of a very modern date; for the period is not even too
remote to be recollected, since it was considered as disgraceful for
Females who pretended to any degree of modesty to be seen in a
Public-house.--It is however now to be lamented that the obloquy of
thus exposing themselves has as little influence, as the rude and
obscene language they uniformly hear uttered.
_Another cause_ of the increase of crimes, may be traced to the bad
and immoral education of Apprentices to Mechanical employments.
Although many of their Masters may not be, and certainly are not,
composed of the class whose manners have just been depicted, yet their
habits lead them too generally to Public-houses, where no
inconsiderable proportion of their earnings are expended;--where low
gaming is introduced, producing ruin and distress to many families
even among the inferior ranks, who might otherwise have moved through
life with credit and reputation.
The force of such an example on young minds is obvious.--No sooner
does an apprentice advance towards the last year of his time than he
thinks it incumbent upon him to follow the example of his master, by
learning to _smoke_.--This accomplishment acquired (according to his
conception), he is a fit associate for those who frequent
Public-houses. He resorts at first to those of a lower class, to avoid
his master or his relations.--There he meets with depraved company;
while he conceives he is following only the example of those whose
manners and habits he has been taught, by example, to imitate, he is
insensibly ensnared.--Having arrived at the age of puberty, and
meeting profligate females in those haunts of idleness, his passions
become inflamed.--The force of evil example overpowers him.--He too
becomes depraved.--Money must be procured to administer to the new
wants which are generated by depravity.--Aided by the facilities held
out by Old Iron Shops, he pilfers from his master to supply those
wants, or associates himself with Thieves, whose acquaintance he made
in progress of his seduction.[87]
[Footnote 87: In the course of the Author's investigations, in his
official situation as a Magistrate, he actually discovered that clubs
of apprentice-boys were harboured in Public-houses, for the purpose of
supporting their fellow-apprentices who ran away from their masters.
The means of thus indulging themselves in lewdness and debauchery was
obtained by pilfering from their Masters, and disposing of the
property at Old Iron Shops.]
Under the circumstances thus stated, where so many temptations assail
the young and inexperienced, the transition from innocence to guilt is
easy to be conceived.--And in a Metropolis where there are seldom
fewer than 150,000 apprentices bound to mechanical employments, the
crimes which spring from this source must be very extensive.--That
there are, however, many good and virtuous young men among the class
of apprentices, who, from a better education, or being under the
control of reputable masters, and attentive parents, escape the snare,
or resist these temptations, is _certain_; and fortunate too for the
best interests of Society. It is to be lamented, however, that the
major part, and particularly parish apprentices, have not always these
advantages; and hence it is that so many become disorderly, and
require the interference of legal authority and punishment for the
purpose of compelling obedience and good conduct.[88]