of attention on the part of Masters among the superior classes of
Tradesmen with respect to their apprentices, who too seldom consider
the morals of their apprentices as a matter in which they have any
concern.--It is even the practice to allow apprentices a certain sum
of money weekly, for the purpose of enabling them to provide
themselves out of doors, and to prevent the trouble of boarding them
in the house. If it were possible for a Master, after exerting all his
ingenuity, to invent one mode more likely than another to ruin his
apprentices, it is by adopting this plan. If he means to subject
himself to great risques with respect to the security of his property,
he will permit his apprentice, at the age of puberty when open to
seduction, to be at large in this great Town, where he is liable to be
assailed by swindlers, cheats, and sharpers, who, availing themselves
of the inexperience of youth, may corrupt the mind, and give it a
wrong bias. The dangers arising from allowing apprentices to victual
out of doors, extend much farther than masters are generally aware of:
and they who suffer it do great injury to themselves, and even great
injustice to their apprentices, whose morals they are virtually, at
least, bound to preserve pure. This is not to be expected where
apprentices are not under the eye of the master at Meal-times. Their
Sundays, in such cases, are their own, which they waste in idleness,
not seldom in water-parties on the River, where they are introduced
into low and bad company, which gives frequently a taint to their
manners of the most injurious nature. The result is, that their
master, without reflecting that he himself was the cause of their
idleness, withdraws his confidence, and turns them adrift after their
time expires, if not before; and in the end ruin, as might well be
expected, inevitably ensues.]
_Another cause_ of the increase of crimes, arises from the number of
individuals in various occupations among the lower and middling ranks
of life, (and which must naturally be expected in a large Metropolis)
who, from their own mismanagement and want of industry, or attention
to their business, are suddenly broke down, and in some degree
excluded from the regular intercourse with Society. Unable to find
employment, from want of character, or want of friends, with constant
demands upon them for the means of subsistence to themselves and
families, they resort to Public-houses, under the influence of
despondency, or to kill time which hangs heavy upon them.
In these haunts of depravity they meet persons who perhaps have been
in the like circumstances; but who have resorted to illegal Lottery
Insurances, and other swindling devices for subsistence, under whose
banners they inlist; and thus strengthen the phalanx of low gamblers,
swindlers, and cheats, whose various pursuits have been developed in
this Work.--From one vice to another the transition is easy when the
mind becomes depraved, and the pursuits which are ultimately followed,
depend in a considerable degree on the persons with whom this class of
men associate.--If at the low gaming-houses, to which from idle habits
they are led to resort, they meet with highwaymen and footpads, they
are easily persuaded to become associates in their iniquitous
pursuits; or if in the wide range of their acquaintance, by living
chiefly in Public-houses, they become acquainted with venders of base
money, they enter with equal facility into their views, as a means of
supplying their pecuniary wants.
In cases where they have been bred to ingenious mechanical
employments, they embrace, wherever a proper opportunity offers, such
propositions as may be made them, to become forgers of Bank Bills and
Notes, and Coiners of Counterfeit Money.
Such is the lamentable progress of vice in the human mind, that by
degrees it embraces eagerly what could not have been indured at the
commencement of the career.
_Another cause_ of the increase of Crimes in the Metropolis and its
environs, may be traced to the situation of idle and profligate menial
servants out of place, and destitute of the means of obtaining
situations from the loss of character.--These too, seek for resources
in Public-houses, where they soon become the associates of Thieves,
Pickpockets, Burglars, and Highwaymen; and it is believed to be
chiefly from this class, particularly _Riding Footmen_, and
_Postillions_, that the corps of Highway Robbers is constantly
recruited.--While others less skilled in horsemanship become Footpads,
Burglars, and Pickpockets.
With the major part of this class the transition is easy--depravity
had previously taken hold of their minds--every other resource has
failed them, and to this they resort, as soon as they can find means,
to enlist in any gang that will receive them, where, to those who
confine themselves chiefly to burglaries, their knowledge of the
interior of the houses of their former masters, and their probable
acquaintance with some of the female servants, will be a considerable
recommendation, and even a ground of seduction.
_Another Cause_, and no inconsiderable one, of the progress and
increase of crimes may be developed, by contemplating the deplorable
state and condition of the lower order of the Jews in the Metropolis,
who are of the Society of the Dutch Synagogue.[89]--Totally without
education, and very seldom trained to any trade or occupation by which
they can earn their livelihood by manual labour:--their youths
excluded from becoming apprentices, and their females from hiring
themselves generally as servants, on account of the superstitious
adherence to the mere ceremonial of their persuasion, as it respects
meat not killed by Jews, nothing can exceed their melancholy
condition, both with regard to themselves and Society. Thus excluded
from these resources, which other classes of the Community possess,
they seem to have no alternative but to resort to those tricks and
devices, which ingenuity suggests, to enable persons without an honest
means of subsistence to live in idleness.
[Footnote 89: Another class of Jews which belong to the Portuguese
Synagogue are generally opulent and respectable, and hold no community
with the others; they use a different Liturgy and their language is
even different; their number does not exceed three thousand; they
never intermarry with the Jews of the Dutch Synagogue.--They generally
pride themselves on their Ancestry, and give their Children the best
education which can be obtained in the countries where they
reside.--While the Dutch Jews (or rather _the German Dutch Jews_) get
no education at all. Even the most affluent of them are said to be
generally unable either to read or write the language of the country
which gave them birth.--They confine themselves to a Bastard or vulgar
Hebrew which has little analogy to the original. The Portuguese
Synagogue has been established in England ever since the
Usurpation.--Their place of worship is in Bevis Marks.--The Members of
it being mostly wealthy are extremely attentive to their poor, among
whom there is said not to be a single beggar or itinerant.--The
Brokers upon the Exchange of the Jewish Persuasion, are all or chiefly
of the Portuguese Synagogue. Their number is limited to _Twelve_ by a
particular Act of Parliament.--Originally this privilege was given
gratis by the Lord Mayor, but afterwards 100_l._ was required, which
has gradually increased to _One Thousand Guineas for each Broker_.
The schism between the two classes of Jews prevail all over the world,
though the rational Jews treat the distinction as absurd.
The German Dutch Jews, who may amount to from twelve to fifteen
thousand have Six Synagogues, the principal of which are in _Duke's
Place, Leadenhall Street_, and _Church Row, Fenchurch Street_. They
observe the particular ritual of the German Synagogue, and also
include the _Polish_, _Russian_, and _Turkish Jews_, established in
London.--With the exception of three or four wealthy Individuals, and
as many Families who are in trade on the Royal Exchange, they are in
general a very indigent class of people, through whose medium crimes
are generated to a considerable extent.--Their Community is too poor
to afford them adequate relief, whence they have resorted to the
expedient of lending them small sums of money at interest to trade
upon, which is required to be repaid monthly or weekly, as the case
may be. Otherwise they forfeit all claim to this aid.--The reproach
arising from their evil practices and idleness, is said to have
engaged the attention of the respectable part of both Synagogues with
a view to a remedy, but all their attempts have been heretofore
unsuccessful.]
The habits they thus acquire are the most mischievous and noxious to
the Community that can be conceived.--Having connexions wherever the
Dock-yards are situated, as well as in several other large trading
towns in the Kingdom, they become in many respects the medium through
which stolen goods are conveyed to and from the Metropolis; and as
their existence depends on this nefarious traffick, they keep alive a
System of Fraud and Depredation which, perhaps, is generated in a
greater degree by their peculiar situation in respect to Society, than
by any actual disposition on their parts to pursue these nefarious
practices.
Even the system of supporting the poor of this Community, by lending
them small sums of money by which they may support themselves by a
species of petty traffick, contributes in no small degree to the
commission of crimes; since in order to render it productive to an
extent equal to the wants of families who do not acquire any material
aid by manual labour, they are induced to resort to unlawful means by
dealing in stolen goods and in counterfeit money, by which they become
public nuisances in the Countries where they receive an asylum.
As there appears in reality to be no distinction made by the rational
part of the Jewish persuasion, between the Portuguese and the Dutch
Synagogues, it is earnestly to be hoped that the opulent and
respectable of the former Community will lend a helping hand in
devising some means of rescuing this part of the Nation of the Jews
who reside in England, from the reproach, which it is to be feared,
has been too justly cast upon them. Policy dictates the measure, while
humanity ardently pleads for it.--In so good a work every man of
feeling, be his religious persuasion what it may, will join in
promoting and carrying into effect a measure so beneficial to the
Community at large, by devising some means to render their labour
productive; since it is clear to demonstration that to the idle habits
of this numerous class of people, is to be ascribed a considerable
proportion of the petty crimes, as well as some of the more atrocious
offences by which the Metropolis and the Country is afflicted.
_Another cause_ of the increase and multiplication of crimes has
arisen from the depraved morals of the Aquatic labourers and others,
employed on the wharfs and quays, and in ships, vessels, and craft,
upon the River Thames; and from the want, _until lately_, of an
appropriate Preventive System to check these depredations.
The analogy between actual pillage and smuggling in the conception of
nautical labourers, and the uncontrolled habit of plunder which too
long existed, trained up myriads of delinquents who affixed in their
minds no degree of moral turpitude to the offence; which of course
extended itself both with respect to Commercial and Public Property
beyond all bounds, until a remedy was imperiously called for, and at
length applied by means of an experimental System of Police applicable
to that object.
_Another cause, and certainly none of the least_, which has tended to
facilitate the commission of crimes, has been the want of a proper
control over persons of loose conduct and dishonest habits, who have
opened shops for the purchase and sale of _Old iron_, and _other
metals--Old stores--Rags--Old furniture--Old building materials, and
second-hand wearing apparel, and other goods_;--and _also
cart-keepers_ for the collection and removal of these articles from
place to place.
The easy and concealed mode of disposing of pilfered articles, through
the medium of these receptacles, has tended more to the corruption of
the morals of youth, and to the multiplication of crimes, than it is
possible to conceive; nor has the mode of Licensing _Pawnbrokers_,
without a due regard to character and a more effectual control, been
in many respects less mischievous to the Community.--To the reputable
part of this class of dealers it is degrading and even cruel that the
reproach and stigma, arising from the nefarious practices of the
fraudulent, should unavoidably in the public mind, attach upon those
that are blameless, and fair in their dealings.--While the law admits
of no power of discrimination, and no means of excluding improper
characters exist, the evil must continue; and while it remains on the
present footing, it must also be considered as no inconsiderable
medium, by which both petty and more atrocious crimes are produced.
_But perhaps the greatest source of delinquency and crimes is to be
ascribed to ill-regulated Public Houses_, conducted by men of loose
conduct and depraved morals--Since it is in these receptacles that the
corruption of morals originates.--It is here that the minds of youth
are contaminated, and the conspiracies for the purpose of committing
frauds and depredations on the Public formed and facilitated.
A disorderly and ill-regulated Public-house, therefore, is one of the
greatest nuisances that can exist in civil Society.--Innumerable are
the temptations which are to be found in these haunts of idleness to
seduce the innocent, and to increase the resources of the
evil-disposed to do mischief.
Whatever tends to promote vice and dissipation, whether arising from
low gaming, by means of cards, dice, dominos, shuffleboard, and other
sedentary games; or fraudulent insurances in the lottery, calculated
to fascinate and seduce the unwary, and to poison the minds of all
ranks in the humble walks of vulgar life, is here to be found; in
spite of every laudable precaution, exercised by Magistrates, under
the present System of Police applicable to this object.--Even
Prostitutes of the lowest cast are not seldom introduced, where the
gains of the landlord are thereby to be promoted.
It is in these receptacles that Thieves and Robbers of every
description hold their orgies, and concert and mature their plans of
depredation on the peaceful Subject; and here too it not unfrequently
happens, that their booty is deposited and concealed.
It is here also that markets are held for the sale of Base Money,
where every facility is afforded for the purpose of concealment, and
assistance in escaping justice.
In fact, there is scarce any moral evil by which _Society is
afflicted--the mind debauched--the virtuous parent_ and _master
distressed_, and the _ruin of families and individuals affected_,
which is not generated in Public-houses.
At present, in the Metropolis and its environs, there are at least
five thousand of these receptacles, of which it is computed that about
one thousand change tenants from once to three times a year.--Hence it
follows that not less than two thousand individuals are in a floating
state, either from one Public-house to another, or perhaps, more
frequently, from the Alehouse to a Gaol.
When a depraved character loses his licence in one division of the
Metropolis, he generally finds means to obtain admission in another
where he is not known. The separation of jurisdictions without a
centre point, and the numerous changes which are constantly taking
place, preclude the possibility of detection; while the facility, with
which the worst characters obtain the certificates required by law,
(which are too often signed, without the least previous inquiry, by
the Clergyman and Parish Officers as a matter of course,) enable them
to effect their purpose; and such houses being generally of the
inferior class in point of trade, every species of disorder is
permitted for the purpose of obtaining custom. This is soon discovered
by those who have criminal objects in view; and to such houses they
generally resort, where it has sometimes been discovered that the
Landlord himself belongs to the gang; _and_ that he has become a
Publican the better to facilitate its designs. That the Ale-houses are
yet by far too numerous, is incontestibly proved by the frequent
changes which take place in so large a proportion in the course of a
year, while the irregularities which prevail render it equally clear
that a more general control is necessary to prevent the mischiefs
which have been detailed.
It is chiefly in houses where the trade is inadequate to the support
of the establishment that the greatest disorders prevail, as in such
cases every lure is held out to invite customers, and to entice them
to expend money.--And in return for this, where the Landlord is not
himself of the fraternity of Thieves or Receivers, he is induced at
least to afford them his assistance, as a medium of concealment.
If a plan could be devised, with equal advantage to the Revenue, by
the introduction of more innocent and less noxious gratifications,
whereby the lower ranks of the people could be gradually led into
better habits, much benefit would arise to the State, both with
respect to health and morals.
The quantity of Beer, Porter, Gin, and Compounds, which is sold in
Public-houses in the Metropolis and its environs, has been estimated,
after bestowing considerable pains in forming a calculation, at nearly
3,300,000_l._ a year.[90]
[Footnote 90: In a Tract entitled 'Observations and Facts relative to
Public-Houses,' by the Author of this Work, the mode of conducting
Ale-houses in the Metropolis, and the evils arising from this source
of iniquity and idleness is very fully explained. By this publication
it is discovered, after much investigation, that there is consumed and
sold in the 5000 Public-houses in and round the Metropolis:
158,400,530 pots of Porter, Ale, and Twopenny L.2,311,466 15 10
Gin and Compounds from the Distillers and
Rectifiers 975,000 0 0
-----------------
3,236,466 15 10
To which add Pipes, Tobacco, &c. at least 113,533 4 2
-----------------
Total L.3,310,000 0 0]
This immense sum, equal to double the Revenue of some of the Kingdoms
and States of Europe, independent of other evil consequences in
producing indigence and promoting crimes, must in a certain degree
debilitate manhood--in lessening the powers of animal life, and in
shortening its duration long before the period arrives, when an adult
ceases to contribute by his labours to the resources of the State. In
this point of view, independent of considerations of a moral tendency,
and of all the other train of evils which have been detailed, it would
seem of importance, as a political measure, to check the growing
propensity to consume a greater quantity of Porter, Beer, and ardent
Spirits, than is necessary to health.--To the State, indeed, it
creates a Revenue; but it is a Revenue too dearly purchased if it
wastes the human species--if it deprives the nation, prematurely, of
the benefit of their labour, and occasions infinitely greater
pecuniary pressures in the support of an indigent and helpless
offspring, who must be reared again to manhood at the expence of the
Public; not to speak of the grain, labour, fuel, &c. unnecessarily
consumed in creating this poison to the health, the morals, and
comforts of the poor.[91]--However unpopular it may appear in the
view of those who have not fully considered the subject, it may be
clearly demonstrated that a triple duty on Malt Spirits, and a much
higher duty on Strong Beer and Porter would be an act of the greatest
humanity on the part of the Legislature.--The present Revenue might
thus be secured, while that which is even of more importance to a
State than any other consideration would be preserved--_the health and
morals of the labouring people_. It is a mistaken notion, that a very
large quantity of Malt Liquor is necessary to support labourers of any
description.--After a certain moderate quantity is drank, it enervates
the body, and stupefies the senses.--A Coal-heaver who drinks from 12
to 16 pots of Porter in the course of a day, would receive more real
nourishment, and perform his labour with more ease and a greater
portion of athletic strength, if only one-third of the quantity were
consumed. He would also enjoy better health, and be fitter for his
labour the following day. On a supposition that the excesses in which
perhaps 200,000 of the labouring people in the Metropolis _indulge_,
shortens the natural period of their existence only five years each on
an average, the labour of one million of years is lost in the lives
of this class of men, after the expence is incurred in rearing them to
maturity, which, during a period of 36 years of adult labour, at
25_l._ a year, establishes a deficiency to the Community of
_Twenty-five Millions sterling_: independent of the numerous other
train of evils, which arise to a nation from idle, dissolute and
immoral habits, by which the rising generation is contaminated, and
great inconvenience imposed on the innocent and peaceful subject, from
the increase of crimes which are generated through this medium.
[Footnote 91: It is a curious and important fact, that during the
period when Distilleries were stopped in 1796 and 1797, although
Bread, and every necessary of life was considerably higher than during
the preceding year, the Poor in that quarter of the Town where the
chief part reside were apparently more comfortable, paid their rents
more regularly, and were better fed than at any period for some years
before;--even although they had not the benefit of the extensive
charities which were distributed in 1795. This can only be accounted
for by their being denied the indulgence of Gin, which had become in a
great measure inaccessible from its very high price. It may fairly be
concluded, that the money formerly spent in this imprudent manner had
been applied in the purchase of provisions and other necessaries to
the amount of some hundred thousand pounds.--The effects of their
being deprived of this baneful Liquor was also evident in their more
orderly conduct.--Quarrels and assaults were less frequent, and they
resorted seldomer to the Pawnbrokers' shops: and yet during the chief
part of this period Bread was 15_d._ the Quartern Loaf, and Meat
higher than the preceding year, particularly Pork, which arose in part
from the stoppage of the Distilleries; but chiefly from the scarcity
of Grain.]
It is to be lamented, that in pursuing this subject, new sources
giving origin and progress to crimes press upon the mind in the course
of the inquiry. To the catalogue already detailed may be added,
_Gaming-Houses_ of every description, particularly _houses of the
lower cast_; but as this subject has been very fully handled in a
preceding Chapter, it will be unnecessary to do more than place it in
the general list of causes, which have contributed exceedingly to the
evils, which have afflicted Society in this Metropolis, and which can
only be remedied by a _Responsible Police_, attaching particularly
upon this baneful propensity by appropriate regulations.
Next to Gaming, Illicit Trade or Smuggling may be mentioned as a very
productive source of criminality. The vast extent of the Trade and
Revenues of the Country; its insular situation, and the temptations
arising from the magnitude of the duties, contribute exceedingly to
the corruption of morals, not only of these engaged in illicit
pursuits, but it is to be lamented also of the inferior officers
themselves, whose duty it is to prevent this evil.
Severe and pointed as the laws unquestionably are with an immediate
view to the prevention of this evil, experience proves how ineffectual
they have been, since every idle and profligate character becomes a
smuggler. But it is not merely the offence of smuggling as it relates
to the revenue, which is to be deplored as a grievance to the Public,
since those on the Sea Coasts of the kingdom, concerned in such
pursuits, are generally of ferocious habits, which produce such
excesses and depredations upon the unfortunate, when suffering the
calamity of shipwreck, as would disgrace the rudest savages.
With contaminated minds, depraved hearts, men given up to such warfare
upon helpless humanity, become fit instruments for every species of
criminality.--_Vagabonds by trade_, the transition from one offence to
another is easy, and hence through this medium many culprits are added
to the general catalogue of delinquency, which nothing can check or
prevent but a System of Police, attaching responsibility _some-where
instead of no-where as at present_.
Crimes are also generated in no inconsiderable degree, by the evil
examples exhibited in _Prisons_, and by the length of time persons
charged with offences are suffered to remain in gaols previous to
their trial, particularly in the counties adjoining the Metropolis,
where they frequently are in confinement five and six months before
the assizes.--If they were novices in villainy before, the education
they receive in these seminaries, in the event of their escaping
justice, returns them upon society, completely proselyted and
instructed in the arts of mischief and depredation.