A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Part 24

"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 a.s.sistance 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 ent.i.tled, 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 ent.i.tled 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 ent.i.tled 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 cla.s.ses 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; p.a.w.nbrokers 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 cla.s.ses just mentioned, namely, Public-houses and p.a.w.nbrokers.--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 cla.s.ses 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 circ.u.mstanced, 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 compet.i.tion, 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 p.a.w.nbrokers.--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 ma.s.s 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 a.s.sembled mult.i.tudes 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 cla.s.ses 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 const.i.tutions, 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.ses 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 a.s.sess _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 p.a.w.n-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 inst.i.tutions of _Soup-houses_: but until the funds of the different Parishes can be made _one Common Purse_, and an intelligent management subst.i.tuted 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 a.s.sessed, the rates are double and treble those in the rich Parishes.--It is princ.i.p.ally 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 cla.s.ses, rise up every morning without knowing how, or by what means they are to be supported, during the pa.s.sing 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 cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s 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 inc.u.mbent upon him to follow the example of his master, by learning to _smoke_.--This accomplishment acquired (according to his conception), he is a fit a.s.sociate for those who frequent Public-houses. He resorts at first to those of a lower cla.s.s, 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 p.u.b.erty, and meeting profligate females in those haunts of idleness, his pa.s.sions 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 a.s.sociates 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 circ.u.mstances thus stated, where so many temptations a.s.sail 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 cla.s.s 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]

[Footnote 88: It is to be feared that much evil arises from the want of attention on the part of Masters among the superior cla.s.ses 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 p.u.b.erty when open to seduction, to be at large in this great Town, where he is liable to be a.s.sailed 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 circ.u.mstances; 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 cla.s.s of men a.s.sociate.--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 a.s.sociates 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 dest.i.tute of the means of obtaining situations from the loss of character.--These too, seek for resources in Public-houses, where they soon become the a.s.sociates of Thieves, Pickpockets, Burglars, and Highwaymen; and it is believed to be chiefly from this cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s 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 superst.i.tious 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 cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.s 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d or vulgar Hebrew which has little a.n.a.logy 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 cla.s.ses 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 princ.i.p.al 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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 a.n.a.logy 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 _p.a.w.nbrokers_, 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 cla.s.s 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.