A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Part 9

"The occupiers of many thousand acres round London, lose annually in this manner to the amount of much more than 20_s._ an acre.

"A Miller near London being questioned as to small parcels of wheat brought to his mill to be ground, by a suspected person, soon after several barns had been robbed, answered, that any explanation on that head would put his mills in danger of being burnt. Well may the _farmers_ say, 'Their _property is not protected like that of other men_.'"

Mr. Middleton calculates that the depredations committed on the landed interest probably amount to 4_s._ an acre per annum, on all the cultivated lands in England, or to eight millions of pounds sterling per annum: and including the injuries done by game and vermin, he supposes, that the farmers' property suffers to the amount of 10_s._ an acre, or nearly twenty millions annually.

The following curious circ.u.mstances relative to the adulteration of _Milk_ in the Metropolis, ought to be added to the list of petty frauds, which not merely affect the pockets but the health of the inhabitants of London. The number of milch cows kept for the purpose of supplying the Metropolis with this article, is stated by Mr.

_Middleton_, after very diligent inquiry, at 8,500; and each cow is supposed to afford on an average nine quarts of milk per day.--

"When the families of fashion are in London for the winter season, the consumption, and consequent deterioration of milk are at the highest; during the summer months, when such families are for the most part in the country, the milk may probably be of rather a better quality.

"The milk is always given in its genuine state to the retail dealers; and as it is sold to them by the Cow-keepers after the rate of twopence and 1-8th of a penny per quart, and is retailed by them at threepence halfpenny per quart, the profit is surely so large as ought to prevent even the smallest adulteration. But when it is considered how greatly it is reduced _by water_, and impregnated with _worse_ ingredients, it is much to be lamented that no method has yet been devised to put a stop to the many scandalous frauds and impositions in general practice, with regard to this very necessary article of human sustenance.

"It is certainly an object well deserving the particular consideration of the Legislature. It cannot be doubted, that many persons would be glad to make some addition to the price now paid for it (high as that price is) provided they could, for such increased price, procure so useful an article in domestic oeconomy perfectly genuine.[24]

[Footnote 24: Not satisfied with the profit here stated, which, considering the difference of measures, is above 100 per cent. is a common practice with the Retailers of this useful article to carry the milk first home to their own houses, where it is set up for half a day, when the cream is taken from it, at least all that comes up in that time, and it is then sold for new milk. By which means, what is delivered in the morning is no other than the milk of the preceding afternoon, deprived of the cream it throws up by standing during that time. By this means a farther considerable profit accrues to the Retailers, and the milk is greatly reduced in point of strength and quality. This cream, poor as it is, they again mix with flour, chalk, and perhaps other more baneful ingredients, and yet it finds a ready market in the Metropolis. _Middleton._]

"Five or six men only are employed in attending near three hundred cows. As one woman cannot milk above eight or nine cows twice a day, that part of the business would necessarily be attended with considerable expence to the Cow-keeper, were it not that the Retailer agrees for the produce of a certain number of cows, and takes the labour and expence of milking on himself.

"Every Cow-house is provided with a milk-room (where the milk is measured and served out by the Cow-keeper) and this room is mostly furnished with _a pump_, to which the Retail Dealers apply in rotation; not secretly, but openly before any person that may be standing by, from which they pump water into the milk vessels at their discretion. The pump is placed there expressly for that purpose, and indeed is very seldom used for any other. A considerable Cow-keeper in Surrey has a pump of this kind, which goes, by the name of the _Famous Black Cow_ (from the circ.u.mstance of its being painted black) _and is said to yield more than all the rest put together_.

"Where such a pump is not provided for them things are much worse, for in that case the Retailers are not even careful to use _clean_ water.

Some of them have been seen to dip their pails in a common horse-trough. And what is still more disgusting, though equally true, one cow-house happens to stand close to the edge of a stream, into which runs much of the dung, and most of the urine of the cows, and even in this stream, so foully impregnated, they have been observed to dip their milk-pails.

"A Cow-keeper informs me, that the Retail Milk Dealers are for the most part the refuse of other employments, possessing neither character, decency of manners, nor cleanliness.

"No person could possibly drink of the milk, were they fully acquainted with the filthy manners of these dealers in it.

"The same person suggests, _as a remedy for these abuses, that it would be highly proper for every Retail Milk Dealer to be obliged to take out an Annual Licence from the Magistrates_; which licence should be granted only to such as could produce a certificate of good conduct, signed by the Cow-keeper and a certain number of their customers; and also on their being sworn to sell the milk pure and unadulterated."

CHAP. IV.

_General Reflections arising from the perpetration of the higher and more atrocious crimes of Burglary, Highway Robbery, &c.--These crimes more peculiar to England than to Holland and Flanders, &c.--The Reason explained.--A general View of the various cla.s.ses of Criminals engaged in Robberies and Burglaries and of those discharged from Prison and the Hulks.--Their miserable situation as Outcasts of Society, without the means of Support.--The necessity of some Antidote previous to the return of Peace.--The means used at present by Thieves in accomplishing their nefarious Purposes.--Observations on the stealing Cattle, Sheep, Corn, &c.--Receivers of Stolen Goods shewn to be the Nourishers of every description of Thieves.--Remedies suggested, by means of Detection and Prevention._

It is impossible to reflect upon the outrages and acts of violence continually committed, more particularly in and near the Metropolis by lawless ravagers of property, and destroyers of lives, in disturbing the peaceful mansion, _the Castle of every Englishman_, and also in abridging the liberty of travelling upon the Public Highways, without asking--_Why are these enormities suffered in a Country where the Criminal Laws are supposed to have arrived at a greater degree of perfection than any other?_

This is an important inquiry, interesting in the highest degree, to every member of the Body Politic.

If, in pursuing such an inquiry, the situation of Holland, Flanders, and several of the Northern States on the Continent, be examined, it will be found that this terrific evil had (alluding to these States previous to the present war) there scarcely an existence: and, that the precaution of bolting doors and windows during the night, was even seldom used; although, in these Countries, from the opulence of many of the inhabitants, there were great temptations to plunder property.

This security did not proceed from _severer punishments_, for in very few Countries are they more sanguinary than in England.--It is to be attributed to a more correct and energetic system of Police, joined to an early and general attention to the employment, education, and morals of the lower orders of the people; a habit of industry and sobriety is thus acquired, which, universally imbibed in early life, "grows with their growth, and strengthens with their strength."

Idleness is a never-failing road to criminality. It originates generally in the inattention and the bad example of profligate parents.--And when it has unfortunately taken hold of the human mind, unnecessary wants and improper gratifications, not known or thought of by persons in a course of industry, are constantly generated: hence it is, that crimes are resorted to, and every kind of violence, hostile to the laws, and to peace and good order, is perpetrated.

The criminal and unfortunate individuals, who compose the dismal catalogue of Highwaymen, Footpad-Robbers, Burglars, Pick-Pockets, and common Thieves, in and about this Metropolis, may be divided into the three following cla.s.ses:

1. Young men of some education, who having acquired idle habits by abandoning business, or by being bred to no profession, and having been seduced by this idleness to indulge in gambling and scenes of debauchery and dissipation, at length impoverished and unable to purchase their accustomed gratifications, have recourse to the highway to supply immediate wants.

2. Tradesmen and others, who having ruined their fortunes and business by gaming and dissipation, sometimes as a desperate remedy, go upon the road.

But these two cla.s.ses are extremely few in number, and bear no proportion to the lower and more depraved part of the fraternity of thieves, who pursue the trade systematically; who conduct their depredations under such circ.u.mstances of caution, as to render detection extremely difficult; and whose knowledge of all the weak parts of the Criminal Law is generally so complete, as to enable them to elude justice, and obtain acquittals, when detected and put upon their trial:--_Namely_--

3. 1st. Servants, Ostlers, Stable and Post-Boys out of place, who, preferring what they consider as idleness, have studied the profession of Thieving.--2d. Persons who being imprisoned for debts, a.s.saults, or petty offences, have learned habits of idleness and profligacy in gaols.--3d.

Idle and disorderly mechanics and labourers, who having on this account lost the confidence of their masters or employers, resort to thieving, as a means of support; from all whom the notorious and hacknied thieves generally select the most trusty and daring to act as their a.s.sociates.--4th.

Criminals tried and acquitted of offences charged against them, of which cla.s.s a vast number is annually let loose upon Society.--5th. Convicts discharged from prison and the Hulks, after suffering the sentence of the Law: too often instructed by one another in all the arts and devices which attach to the most extreme degree of human depravity, and in the perfect knowledge of the means of perpetrating Crimes, and of eluding Justice.

To form some judgment of the number of persons in this great Metropolis who compose at least a part of the Criminal Phalanx engaged in depredations and acts of violence, it is only necessary to have recourse to the following Statement of the number of prisoners discharged, during a period of four years, from the eight different Gaols in the Metropolis, and within the Bills of Mortality.

1. Discharged by proclamation and gaol-deliveries; having been committed in consequence of being charged with various offences for which bills were not found by the Grand Jury, or where the prosecutors did not appear to maintain and support the charges 5592

2. Discharged by acquittals, in the different Courts; (frequently from having availed themselves of the defects of the Law,--from frauds in keeping back evidence, and other devices) 2962

3. Convicts discharged from the different gaols, after suffering the punishment of imprisonment, &c. inflicted on them for the several offences 2484 ----- Total 11038

The following is a Statement of the number of these discharges from the year 1792 to 1799 inclusive:--

1. Discharged by Proclamations and Gaol-deliveries 8650

2. Discharged by Acquittals 4935

3. Discharged after punishment: or by being bailed or pardoned 6925 ------ Total 20,510 ------

If to this deplorable Catalogue shall be added the Convicts which have been returned on the Public from the Hulks within the same period, namely, from 1792 to 1799 inclusive, either from pardons, escapes, or the expiration of their punishment, the numbers will stand thus:

Enlarged in 1792 303 ---- 1793 435 ---- 1794 62 ---- 1795 67 ---- 1796 38 ---- 1797 39 ---- 1798 93 ---- 1799 346 ---- 1383 ------ Total from Gaols and from the Hulks 21,893

Humanity shudders at the contemplation of this interesting part of the discussion, when it is considered, who these our miserable fellow-mortals are! and what is to be expected from the extreme depravity which attaches to the chief part of them!

And here a prominent feature of the imperfect state of the Police of the Metropolis and the Country is too evident to escape notice.

_Without friends, without character, and without the means of subsistence_, what are these unhappy mortals to do?--They are no sooner known or suspected, than they are avoided.--No person will employ them, even if they were disposed to return to the paths of honesty; unless they make use of fraud and deception, by concealing that they have been the inhabitants of a _Prison_, or of the _Hulks_.

At large upon the world, without food or raiment, and with the constant calls of nature upon them for both, without a home or any asylum to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather, _what is to become of them_?

The Police of the Country has provided no place of industry, in which those who were disposed to reform might find subsistence in return for voluntary labour; which, in their present situation, becomes useless to them, because no person will purchase it by employing them.[25]

Under all these circ.u.mstances it is to be feared, indeed it is known, that many Convicts, from dire necessity, return to their old courses.--And thus, through the medium of these miserable outcasts of Society, crimes are increased and become a regular trade, because many of them can make no other election.

[Footnote 25: That man will deserve a statue to his memory who shall devise and carry into effect a plan for the employment of _Discharged Prisoners and Convicts_, who may be desirous of labouring for their subsistence in an honest way.--It is only necessary for some men of weight and influence to make the attempt, in order to insure the a.s.sistance of the opulent and humane in so good and necessary a Work.

See a future Chapter as to the present state of punishment and the remedies proposed.]

It is indeed true, that during the first three years of the present war, many Convicts and idle and disorderly persons were sent to the Army and Navy: but still a vast number remained behind, who could not be accepted on account of ruptures, fits, or some other disability or infirmity; which, although they incapacitate them from serving his Majesty, do not prevent them from committing crimes.

While it must be evident, that the resource afforded by the present war, gives employment, for a time only, to many depraved characters and mischievous members of the community; how necessary is it to be provided with antidotes, previous to the return of peace; when, to the mult.i.tude of thieves now at large, there will be added numbers of the same cla.s.s, who may be discharged from the Navy and Army?--If some plan of employment is not speedily devised, to which all persons of this description may resort, who cannot otherwise subsist themselves in an honest way; and if the Police of the Metropolis is not greatly improved, by the introduction of more energy, and a greater degree of System and Method in its administration; it is much to be feared, that no existing power will be able to keep them within bounds.

It is in vain to say the Laws are sufficient.--They are indeed abundantly voluminous, and in many respects very excellent, but they require to be revised, consolidated, modernized, and adapted in a greater degree to the prevention of existing evils, with such regulations as would ensure their due execution not only _in every part of the Capital_, but also in all parts of the Kingdom.