PREFACE.
POLICE in this Country may be considered as a new Science; the properties of which consist not in the Judicial Powers which lead to Punishment, and which belong to Magistrates alone; but in the Prevention and Detection of Crimes, and in those other Functions which relate to internal Regulations for the well ordering and comfort of Civil Society.
The Police of the Metropolis, in every point of view, is a subject of great importance to be known and understood; since every innocent and useful Member of the Community has a particular interest in the correct administration of whatever relates to the Morals of the People, and to the protection of the Public against Fraud and Depredation.
Under the present circumstances of insecurity, with respect to property and even life itself, this is a subject which cannot fail to force itself upon the attention of all:—All are equally concerned in the Information which this Work conveys; the chief part of the details in which are entirely novel, not to be found in books, and never laid before the Public through the medium of the Press, previous to the first Publication of this Treatise.
It may naturally be imagined, that such an accumulation of delinquency systematically detailed, and placed in so prominent a point of view, must excite a considerable degree of astonishment in the minds of those Readers who have not been familiar with subjects of this nature; and hence a desire may be excited to investigate how far the amazing extent of the Depredations upon the Public here related, can be reconciled to reason and possibility.
Four years have, however, elapsed, since these details have been before the Public, and they still stand on their original ground, without any attempt which has come to the Author's knowledge, to question the magnitude or the extent of the evil.—On the contrary, new sources of Fraud and Depredation have been brought forward, tending greatly to increase the general mass of Delinquency.[1]
In revising the present Edition, the Author felt a strong impulse to reduce his estimates; but after an attentive review of the whole, excepting in the instances of the Depredations on Commercial Property, (which have been greatly diminished by the establishment of a Marine Police, applicable to that particular object,) he was unable to perceive any ground for materially altering his original calculations.—If some classes of Theft, Robbery, and Depredation, have been reduced, others have been augmented; still leaving the aggregate nearly as before.
The causes of these extensive and accumulated wrongs being fully explained, and accounted for, in various parts of the Work; a very short recapitulation of them is, therefore, all that is necessary in this Preface.
The enlarged state of Society, the vast extent of moving property, and the unexampled wealth of the Metropolis, joined to the depraved habits and loose conduct of a great proportion of the lower classes of the people; and above all, the want of an appropriate Police applicable to the object of prevention, will, after a careful perusal of this work, reconcile the attentive mind to a belief of the actual existence of evils which could not otherwise have been credited.—Let it be remembered also, that this Metropolis is unquestionably not only the greatest Manufacturing and Commercial City in the world, but also the general receptacle for the idle and depraved of almost every country; particularly from every quarter of the dominions of the Crown—Where the temptations and resources for criminal pleasures—Gambling, Fraud and Depredation almost exceed imagination; since besides being the seat of Government it is the centre of fashion, amusements, dissipation and folly.
Under such peculiar circumstances, while immorality, licentiousness and crimes are known to advance in proportion to the excessive accumulation of wealth, it cannot fail to be a matter of deep regret, that in the progressive increase of the latter the means of checking the rapid strides of the former have not been sooner discovered and effectually applied.
It is, however, earnestly to be hoped that it is not yet too late.—Patriots and Philanthropists who love their country, and glory in its prosperity, will rejoice with the Author in the prospect, that the great leading features of improvement suggested and matured in the present Edition of this Work will ultimately receive the sanction of the Legislature.
May the Author be allowed to express his conviction that the former Editions of this book tended in no small degree, to remove various misconceptions on the subject of Police: and at the same time evidently excited in the public mind a desire to see such remedies applied as should contribute to the improvement of the Morals of the People, and to the removal of the danger and insecurity which were universally felt to exist?
An impression it is to be hoped is generally felt from the example of the Roman Government, when enveloped in riches and luxury, that National prosperity must be of short duration when public Morals are too long neglected, and no effectual measures adopted for the purpose either of checking the alarming growth of depravity, or of guarding the rising generation against evil examples.
It is by the general influence of good Laws, aided by the regulations of an energetic Police, that the blessings of true Liberty, and the undisturbed enjoyment of Property are secured.
The sole object of the Author in pointing out the accumulated wrongs which have tended in so great a degree to abridge this Liberty, is to pave the way for the adoption of those practical remedies which he has suggested, in conformity with the spirit of the Laws, and the Constitution of the Country, for the purpose of bettering the state of Society, and improving the condition of human life.
If in the accomplishment of this object the Morals of the People shall undergo a favourable change, and that species of comfort and security be extended to the inhabitants of this great Metropolis, which has not heretofore been experienced, while many evils are prevented, which in their consequences threaten to be productive of the most serious mischief, the Author of this Work will feel himself amply rewarded in the benefits which the System he has proposed shall be found to confer upon the Capital of the British Dominions, and on the Nation at large.
Preparing for the Press, by the Author of this Work.
A TREATISE
ON
THE COMMERCE AND POLICE
OF
THE RIVER THAMES:
CONTAINING
AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF
THE TRADE OF THE PORT OF LONDON;
THE DEPREDATIONS COMMITTED
ON ALL PROPERTY IMPORTED AND EXPORTED THERE;
THE REMEDIES HITHERTO APPLIED;
AND THE MEANS OF FUTURE PREVENTION,
BY A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF
RIVER-POLICE;
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE VARIOUS MAGISTRATES AND OTHERS
EXERCISING OR CLAIMING JURISDICTION ON THE RIVER;
AND OF THE
PENAL STATUTES AGAINST MARITIME OFFENCES
OF EVERY DESCRIPTION.
[The above will be published in the course of the Spring, by
Jos. Mawman, in the Poultry.]
CONTENTS.
GENERAL VIEW OF EXISTING EVILS.
| PAGE | |
| Ineffective System of Criminal Jurisprudence.—Facility of eluding Justice.—Severity and inequality of Punishments.—Necessity of revising our Penal Code.—Certain dangerous Offences not punishable.—Receivers of Stolen Property.—Extent of Plunder in the Metropolis, &c.—Proposed Restrictions on Receivers.—Coiners and Utterers of Base Money; the extent of their crimes.—Defects in the mode of prosecuting Offenders.—Pardons.—Periodical Discharges of Prisoners.—Summary of the causes of the present inefficacy of the Police, under nine different heads. | [1] |
ON THE SYSTEM OF PUNISHMENTS:
THEORETICALLY CONSIDERED.
| The mode of ascertaining the Degrees of Punishment.—The object to be considered in inflicting Punishments—Amendment, Example, and Retribution.—In order to render Criminal Laws perfect, prevention ought to be the great object of the Legislature.—General Rules suggested for attaining this object.—Reflections on the Punishments authorised by the English Laws, and their disproportion.—The necessity of enforcing the observance of religious and moral Virtue.—The leading Offences made Capital by the Laws of England considered, with the Punishments allotted to each; compared with, and illustrated by, the Custom of other Countries; with Reflections.—The Code of the Emperor Joseph the Second, shortly detailed.—Reflections thereon. | [29] |
THE CAUSE AND PROGRESS OF SMALL THEFTS.
| The numerous Receivers of Stolen Goods, under the denomination of Dealers in Rags, Old Iron, and other Metals.—The great Increase of these Dealers of late years.—Their evil tendency, and the absolute necessity of restraining them by Law.—Petty Thefts in the Country round the Metropolis.—Workhouses the causes of Idleness.—Commons.—Cottagers.—Gypsies.—Labourers and Servants.—Thefts in Fields and Gardens.—Frauds in the Sale and Adulteration of Milk. | [74] |
ON BURGLARIES AND HIGHWAY ROBBERIES.
| These Crimes more peculiar to England than to Holland and Flanders, &c.—A General View of the various classes of Criminals engaged in these pursuits, and with those discharged from Prisons and the Hulks, without the means of support.—The necessity of some antidote previous to the return of Peace.—Observations on the stealing Cattle, Sheep, Corn, &c.—Receivers of Stolen Goods, the nourishers of every description of Thieves.—Remedies suggested, by means of detection and prevention. | [93] |
ON CHEATS AND SWINDLERS.
| A considerable check already given to the higher class of Forgeries, by shutting out all hopes of Royal Mercy.—Petty Forgeries have, however, encreased.—The qualifications of a Cheat, Swindler and Gambler.—The Common and Statute Law applicable to Offences of this nature, explained.—Eighteen different classes of Cheats and Swindlers, and the various tricks and devices they pursue.—Remedies proposed. | [110] |
ON GAMING AND THE LOTTERY.
| The great anxiety of the Legislature to suppress these Evils, which are however encouraged by high sounding names, whose houses are opened for purposes odious and unlawful.—The civil Magistrate called upon to suppress such mischiefs.—The danger arising from such Seminaries.—The evil tendency of such examples to Servants and others.—A particular statement of the proceedings of a confederacy of Persons who have set up Gaming-Houses as regular Partnership-Concerns, and of the Evils resulting therefrom.—Of Lottery Insurers of the higher class.—Of Lottery Offices opened for Insurance.—Proposed Remedies.—Three Plans for drawing the Lottery so as to prevent all Insurance. | [133] |
ON THE COINAGE OF COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
| The Causes of the enormous increase of this Evil of late years.—The different kinds of false coin detailed.—The process in fabricating each Species.—The immense profits arising therefrom.—The extensive Trade in sending base Coin to the Country.—Its universal circulation in the Metropolis.—The great grievance arising from it to Brewers, Distillers, Grocers, and all Retail Dealers, as well as to the Labouring Poor.—Counterfeit Foreign Money extremely productive to the Dealers.—A summary View of the Causes of the Mischief.—The Defects in the present Laws explained:—And a Detail of the Remedies proposed to be provided by the Legislature. | [171] |
ON RIVER PLUNDER.
| The magnitude of the Plunder of Merchandize and Naval Stores on the River Thames.—The wonderful extent and value of the Floating Property, laden and unladen, in the Port of London in the course of a year.—The modes heretofore pursued in committing depredations through the medium of various classes of Criminals, denominated River Pirates:—Night Plunderers:—Light Horsemen:—Heavy Horsemen:—Game Watermen:—Game Lightermen:—Mudlarks:—Game Officers of the Revenue:—And Copemen, or Receivers of Stolen Property.—The effects of the Marine Police Institution in checking these Depredations.—The advantages which have already resulted to Trade and the Revenue from this system partially tried.—The further benefits to be expected from Legislative Regulations, extending the System to the whole Trade of the River. | [213] |
ON PLUNDER IN THE DOCK-YARDS, &C.
| Reflections on the causes of this Evil.—Summary view of the means employed in its perpetration.—Estimate of the Public Property exposed to Hazard.—A Statement of the Laws at present in force for its protection:—Proofs adduced of their deficiency.—Remedies proposed and detailed, viz:—1st. A Central Board of Police.—2d. A Local Police for the Dock-yards.—3d. Legislative Regulations in aid thereof.—4th. Regulations respecting the sale of Old Stores.—5th. The Abolition of the Perquisite of Chips.—6th. The Abolition of Fees and Perquisites, and liberal Salaries in lieu thereof.—7th. An improved Mode of keeping Accounts.—8th. An annual Inventory of Stores in hand.—Concluding Observations. | [249] |
ON THE RECEIVERS OF STOLEN GOODS.
| Receivers more mischievous than Thieves.—The increase of their number to be attributed to the imperfection of the Laws, and to the disjointed state of the Police of the Metropolis.—Thieves in many instances, settle with Receivers before they commit Robberies—Receivers always benefit more than Thieves:—Their profit immense:—They are divided into two Classes:—The immediate Receivers connected with Thieves, and those who keep shops and purchase from Pilferers in the way of Trade:—The latter are extremely numerous.—The Laws are insufficient effectually to reach either class.—The existing statutes against Receivers examined and briefly detailed, with Observations thereon.—Amendments and Improvements suggested with means to ensure their due execution. | [288] |
ON THE ORIGIN OF CRIMINAL OFFENCES.
| The increase of Crimes imputed to deficient Laws and an ill-regulated Police:—To the habits of the Lower Orders in feeding their families in Alehouses:—To the bad Education of Apprentices:—To the want of Industry:—To idle and profligate menial Servants out of Place:—To the Lower Orders of the Jews, of the Dutch and German Synagogues; To the depraved Morals of aquatic Labourers:—To the Dealers in Old Metals, Furniture, Clothes, &c.—To disreputable Pawnbrokers:—And finally, to ill-regulated Public Houses.—Concluding Reflections. | [310] |
THE ORIGIN OF CRIMES CONTINUED:
FEMALE PROSTITUTION.
| The pitiable condition of the unhappy Females, who support themselves by Prostitution:—The progress from Innocence to Profligacy.—The morals of Youth corrupted by the multitude of Prostitutes in the streets.—The impossibility of preventing the existence of Prostitution in a great Metropolis.—The Propriety of lessening the Evil, by stripping it of its Indecency and much of its immoral tendency.—The advantages of the measure in reducing the mass of Turpitude.—Reasons offered why the interests of Morality and Religion will thus be promoted.—The example of Holland, Italy, and the East-Indies quoted.—Strictures on the offensive manners of the Company who frequent Public Tea Gardens:—These places under a proper Police might be rendered beneficial to the State.—Ballad-Singers—Immoral Books and Songs—Necessity of Responsibility for the execution of the Laws attaching somewhere. | [334] |
THE ORIGIN OF CRIMES CONTINUED:
STATE OF THE POOR.
| The System with respect to the Casual Poor erroneous.—The effect of Indigence on the Offspring of the Sufferers.—Estimate of the private and public Benevolence amounting to 850,000l. a year.—The deplorable state of the Lower Ranks, attributed to the present System of the Poor Laws.—An Institution to inquire into the cause of Mendicity in the Metropolis explained.—A new System of Relief proposed with respect to Casual Poor, and Vagrants in the Metropolis.—The distinction between Poverty and Indigence.—The Poor divided into five classes, with suggestions applicable to each.—The evil Examples in Work-Houses.—The stat. of 43 Eliz. considered.—The defective system of Execution exposed.—A Public Institution recommended in the nature of a Pauper Police, under the direction of three Commissioners:—Their Functions.—A proposition for raising a fund of 5230l. from the Parishes for the support of the Institution, and to relieve them from the Casual Poor.—Reasons why the experiment should be tried.—Assistance which might be obtained from Gentlemen who have considered this subject fully. | [351] |
ON THE DETECTION OF OFFENDERS.
| The present state of the Police on this subject explained.—The necessity of having recourse to known Receivers.—The great utility of Officers of Justice.—The advantages of rendering them respectable in the opinion of the Public.—Their powers by the common and statute Law.—Rewards granted to Officers in certain cases of Conviction.—The Statutes quoted, applicable to such rewards.—The utility of parochial Constables, under a well-organized Police.—A Fund for this purpose might arise from the reduction of the expences of the Police, by the diminution of Crimes.—The necessity of a competent Fund.—A new System for prevention and detection of Crimes proposed.—The functions of the different classes of Officers.—Salaries necessary to all.—Improvements in the system of Rewards suggested.—1040 Peace-Officers in the Metropolis and its vicinity, of whom only 90 are stipendiary Constables.—Defects and abuses in the system of the Watch explained.—A general Plan of Superintendance suggested.—A view of the Magistracy of the Metropolis.—The inconvenience of the present System. | [381] |
ON THE PROSECUTION OF OFFENDERS.
| The prevailing Practice when Offenders are brought before Magistrates.—The duty of Magistrates in such cases.—Professed Thieves seldom intimidated when put upon their Trial, from the many chances they have of escaping.—These Chances shortly detailed.—Reflections on false Humanity towards Prisoners.—The delays and expences of Prosecutions a great discouragement to Prosecutors.—An account of the different Courts of Justice, for the trial of Offences committed in the Metropolis.—Five inferior and two superior Courts.—A statement of Prisoners convicted and discharged in one year.—Reflections thereon.—The advantage which would arise from the appointment of a Public Prosecutor, in remedying Abuses in the Trial of Offenders.—From 2500 to 3000 Persons committed for trial, by Magistrates, in the course of a year.—The chief part afterwards returned upon Society. | [422] |
ON THE SYSTEM OF PUNISHMENTS:
CONSIDERED PRACTICALLY.
| The mode authorised by the Ancient Laws.—The period when Transportation commenced.—The principal Crimes enumerated which are punishable with Death.—Those punishable by Transportation and Imprisonment.—Number of Persons tried compared with those discharged.—The system of Pardons examined; and Regulations suggested.—An historical Account of the rise and progress of Transportation.—The system of the Hulks; and the Laws as to provincial and national Penitentiary Houses.—Number of the Convicts confined in the Hulks for twenty-two years.—The enormous expence of maintenance and inadequate produce of their Labour.—The impolicy of the System.—The system of Transportation to New South Wales examined, and Improvements suggested.—Erection of National Penitentiary Houses recommended.—The National Penitentiary House (according to the Proposal of Jeremy Bentham, Esq.) considered:—Its peculiar advantages with respect to Health, productive Labour, and Reformation of Convicts.—General Reflections on the means of rendering Imprisonment useful. | [435] |
CRIMINAL POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS.
| The Police of the Metropolis examined, and its Organization explained.—The utility of the system, established in 1792 examined and explained.—Its great deficiency from the want of Funds to reward Officers for the detection and punishment of Offenders.—Suggestions relative to stipendiary Justices, and the benefits likely to result from their exertions in assisting the City Magistrates.—The vast labour and weight of duty attached to the chief Magistrate and Aldermen in London.—The benefits to result from Established Police Magistrates exemplified by the System already adopted under the Act of 1792.—The advantages which would arise from the various remedies proposed in the course of this Work, only of a partial nature, for want of a centre-point and superintending Establishment.—The ideas of Foreigners on the Police of the Metropolis.—Observations on the Old Police of Paris, elucidated by Anecdotes of the Emperor Joseph II. and Mons. de Sartine.—A Central Board of Commissioners for managing the Police, peculiarly necessary on the return of Peace.—This measure recommended by the Finance Committee. | [501] |
PROPOSED SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL POLICE.
| A Proposition to consolidate the two Boards of Hawkers and Pedlars, and Hackney Coaches, into a Board of Police Revenue.—The whole Revenue of Police from Fees, Penalties, and Licence Duties, to make a common Fund.—Accounts to be audited.—Magistrates to distribute small Rewards.—A power to the Board to make Bye Laws.—A concurrent Jurisdiction recommended.—The Penitentiary House for reforming Convicts.—Measures proposed after the Board is established—namely, A Public Prosecutor for the Crown:—A Register of Lodging Houses—The Establishment of a Police Gazette—Two leading Objects: the prevention of Crimes; and raising a Revenue for Police purposes.—The enumeration of the Dealers, who are proposed to be licenced.—A general View of the annual Expence of the present and proposed Police System.—Suggestions respecting a chain of connections with Magistrates in the Country.—The Functions of the proposed Central Board of Police.—Specification of the Trades to be regulated and licenced.—The advantages likely to result from the adoption of the Plan. | [536] |
MUNICIPAL POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS.
| Extent and Opulence of the City of London, its Streets, Lanes, Allies, Courts and Squares estimated at 8000.—Churches, &c. 400.—Seminaries for Education 4000.—The various Institutions and Societies for Learning, for the fine Arts, and for charitable and humane Purposes.—The Courts of Law.—The Prisons—Suggestions as to improving the System of Imprisonment for Debt, particularly as relates to Small Debts: and as to dividing the judicial and ministerial Labours among more Officers.—The internal or municipal Regulations established in the Metropolis by several Statutes; respecting Paving—Watching—Sewers—Hackney Coaches—Carts—Watermen—and Buildings.—Necessity of rendering these Laws uniform and coextensive, so as to consolidate the System of Municipal Police.—Expence calculated at 1,000,000l. a year.—Suggestions for reducing it.—The present Epoch calls for Improvements. | [567] |
CONCLUSION.
| A summary View of the Evils detailed in the preceding Chapters.—Arguments in favour of a more energetic Police as the only means of remedying these Evils.—A general View of the estimated Depredations annually in the Metropolis and its Vicinity; amounting in all to Two Millions sterling.—A View of the Remedies proposed—1st. With respect to the Corruption of Morals.—2d. The means of preventing Crimes in general.—3d. Offences committed on the River Thames.—4th. Offences in the Public Arsenals and Ships of War.—5th. Counterfeiting Money and fabricating Bank Notes.—6th. Punishments.—7th. Further advantages of an improved System of Police.—Concluding Reflections. | [602] |
A
TREATISE, &c.
CHAPTER I.
A general view of the Evils existing in the Metropolis, and the causes from which they arise.—Necessity of a well-regulated Police.—Ineffective system of Criminal Jurisprudence.—Facility of eluding Justice. Severity and inequality of Punishments.—Necessity of revising our Penal Code.—Certain dangerous Offences not punishable.—Receivers of stolen property.—Extent of plunder in the Metropolis, &c.—Proposed restrictions on Receivers.—Coiners and Utterers of Counterfeit Money; the extent of their crimes.—Defects in the mode of prosecuting Offenders.—Pardons.—Periodical discharges of Prisoners.—Summary of the causes of the present inefficacy of the Police, under nine different heads.
NEXT to the blessings which a Nation derives from an excellent Constitution and System of general Laws, are those advantages which result from a well-regulated and energetic plan of Police, conducted and enforced with purity, activity, vigilance, and discretion.
Upon this depends, in so great a degree, the comfort, the happiness, and the true liberty and security of the People, that too much labour and attention cannot possibly be bestowed in rendering complete the domestic administration of Justice in all cases of criminal delinquency.
That much remains to be done in this respect no person will deny; all ranks must bear testimony to the dangers which both life and property are at present subjected to by the number of criminal people, who, from various causes (which it is the object of the Writer of these pages to explain), are suffered with impunity to repeat acts of licentiousness and mischief, and to commit depredations upon individuals and the Public.
In vain do we boast of those liberties which are our birthright, if the vilest and most depraved part of the Community are suffered to deprive us of the privilege of travelling upon the highways, or of approaching the Capital in any direction after dark, without risk of being assaulted, and robbed; and perhaps wounded or murdered.
In vain may we boast of the security which our Laws afford us, if we cannot lie down to rest in our habitations, without the dread of a burglary being committed, our property invaded, and our lives exposed to imminent danger before the approach of morning.
Imperfect must be either the plan or the execution, or both, of our Criminal Code, if crimes are found to increase; if the moral principle ceases to be a check upon a vast proportion of the lower ranks of the People; and if small thefts are known to prevail in such a degree, as to affect almost all ranks of the Community who have any property to lose, as often as opportunities occur, whereby pilfering in a little way can be effected without detection.
If, in addition to this, the peace of Society can, on every specious pretence, be disturbed by the licentious clamours or turbulent effusions arising from the ill-regulated passions of vulgar life, surely it becomes an interesting inquiry, worthy the attention of every intelligent member of the Community, from what source spring these numerous inconveniences; and where is a remedy to be found for so many accumulated evils?
In developing the causes which have produced that want of security, which it is believed prevails in no other civilised country in so great a degree as in England, it will be necessary to examine how far the System of Criminal Jurisprudence has been, hitherto, applicable to the prevention of crimes.
If we look back to the measures pursued by our ancestors two centuries ago, and before that period, we shall find that many wholesome laws were made with a view to prevention, and to secure the good behaviour of persons likely to commit offences. Since that æra in our history, a different plan has been pursued. Few regulations have been established to restrain vice, or to render difficult the commission of crimes; while the Statute Books have been filled with numerous Laws, in many instances doubtfully expressed, and whose leading feature has generally been severe punishment. These circumstances, aided by the false mercy of Juries in cases of slight offences, have tended to let loose upon Society a body of criminal individuals, who under a better Police—an improved system of Legislation, and milder punishments,—might, after a correction in Penitentiary Houses, or employment in out-door labour, under proper restraints, have been restored to Society as useful members.
As the Laws are at present administered, it is a melancholy truth not to be contradicted, that the major part of the criminals who infest this Metropolis, although committed by magistrates for trial on very satisfactory proof, are returned upon the Public in vast numbers year after year; encouraged to renew their former practices, by the facility they experience in evading justice.
But this is not all:—The adroit Thief and Receiver, availing themselves of their pecuniary resources, often escape, from their knowledge of the tricks and devices which are practised, through the medium of disreputable practitioners of the Law; while the novices in delinquency generally suffer the punishment attached to conviction. If, as is the case in some other countries, evidence were allowed to be received of the general character of persons, put upon their trial for offences, and the means by which they obtain their subsistence, so as to distinguish the old reputed Thief and Receiver from the novice in crimes, the minds of Jurymen would be often enlightened, to the furtherance of substantial justice; and a humane and proper distinction might be made between the young pupil of depravity, and the finished villain; as well in the measure of punishment, as in the distribution of mercy.
The severity of the punishment, which at present attaches to crimes regarded by mankind as of an inferior nature, and which affect property in a trivial manner, is also deserving the most serious attention. It is only necessary to be acquainted with the modern history of the criminal prosecutions, trials, acquittals, and pardons in this country, in order to be completely convinced that the progressive increase of delinquents, and the evils experienced by Society from the multitude of petty crimes, result in a great measure from this single circumstance.
It will scarcely be credited by those, whose habits of life do not permit them to enter into discussions of this sort, that by the Laws of England, there are above one hundred and sixty different offences which subject the parties who are found guilty, to death without benefit of Clergy. This multiplicity of capital punishments must, in the nature of things, defeat those ends, the attainment of which ought to be the object of all Law, namely, The Prevention of Crimes.
In consequence of this severity, (to use the words of an admired Writer,) "The injured, through compassion, will often forbear to prosecute: Juries, through compassion, will sometimes forget their oaths, and either acquit the guilty or mitigate the nature of the offence: and Judges, through compassion, will respite one half the convicts, and recommend them to Royal Mercy."[2]
The Roman Empire never flourished so much as during the æra of the Portian Law, which abrogated the punishment of death for all offences whatsoever. When severe punishments and an incorrect Police were afterwards revived, the Empire fell.
It is not meant, however, to be insinuated that this would be, altogether, a proper system of Criminal Jurisprudence to be adopted in modern times.
In the present state of society it becomes indispensably necessary, that offences, which in their nature are highly injurious to the Public, and where no mode of prevention can be established, should be punished by the forfeiture of life; but these dreadful examples should be exhibited as seldom as possible: for while on the one hand, such punishments often defeat the ends of Justice, by their not being carried into execution; so on the other, by being often repeated, they lose their effect upon the minds of the People.[3]
However much we glory (and we ought to glory) in the general excellence of our Criminal Law, yet there is no truth more clear and obvious than this:—"That this code exhibits too much the appearance of a heterogeneous mass, concocted too often on the spur of the occasion (as Lord Bacon expresses it):—and frequently without that degree of accuracy which is the result of able and minute discussion, or a due attention to the revision of the existing laws; or how far their provisions bear upon new and accumulated statutes introduced into Parliament; often without either consideration or knowledge, and without those precautions which are always necessary, when laws are to be made which may affect the property, the liberty, and perhaps even the lives of thousands."
Some steps have indeed, been taken in Parliament, since this work first appeared, towards a general revision of our Statute Law;[4] and which, it is hoped, will ere long be adopted. Whenever the time shall arrive that the existing laws, which form the present Criminal Code, shall be referred to able and intelligent men effectually to revise, consolidate, and adjust the whole, in a manner best suited to the present state of Society and Manners, the investigation will unquestionably excite no little wonder and astonishment.
Penal laws, which are either obsolete or absurd, or which have arisen from an adherence to rules of Common Law when the reasons have ceased upon which these rules are founded; and in short, all Laws which appear not to be consonant to the dictates of truth and justice, the feelings of Humanity, and the indelible rights of Mankind should be abrogated and repealed.[5]
But the deficiency of the Criminal Code does not arise solely from an erroneous and undigested scale of penalties and punishments. While on the one hand, we have to lament the number of these applicable to certain offences of a slight nature; we have equally to regret, that there exist crimes of considerable enormity, for the punishment of which the Law has made no provision.
Among the most prominent of these crimes, may be ranked the receiving Cash or Specie, Bank-Notes or Bills, knowing them to be stolen.
To this very high offence, in its nature so productive of mischief in a Commercial Country, no punishment at all attaches; inasmuch as Specie, Notes and Bills, are not considered for this purpose to be Goods and Chattels; and the law only makes it a crime to receive property so described.
If therefore a notorious Receiver of stolen goods shall be convicted of purchasing a glass bottle or a pewter pot, he is liable to be punished severely; but if he receives ten or twenty thousand pounds in Cash, Bank Notes, or Bills, he escapes with impunity![6]
Innumerable almost are the other instances which could be collected from Reporters of Criminal Cases, shewing the deficiency of the Criminal Code; and in how many instances substantial justice is defeated, and public wrongs are suffered to go unpunished, through the objections and quibbles constantly raised in Courts of Justice; and which are allowed to prevail, principally, for want of that revision of our laws and those amendments which the present state of Society and Commerce requires.
One of the chief nurseries of Crimes is to be traced to the Receivers of Stolen Property.
Without that easy encouragement which these Receivers hold out, by administering immediately to the wants of criminals, and concealing what they purloin, a Thief, a Robber, or a Burglar, could not in fact, carry on his trade.
And yet, conclusive and obvious, as this remark must be, it is a sorrowful truth, that in the Metropolis alone there are at present supposed to be upwards of Three Thousand Receivers of various kinds of stolen Goods; and an equal proportion all over the Country, who keep open shop for the purpose of purchasing at an under-price—often for a mere trifle,—every kind of property brought to them; from a nail, or a glass bottle, up to the most valuable article either new or old; and this without asking a single question.
It is supposed that the property, purloined and pilfered in a little way, from almost every family, and from every house, stable, shop, warehouse, workshop, foundery, and other repository, in and about the Metropolis, may amount to about £.700,000 in one year, exclusive of depredations on ships in the River Thames, which, before the establishment of the Marine Police System in June 1798, were estimated at half a million more, including the stores and materials!—When to this is also added the Pillage of his Majesty's stores, in ships of war, Dock-yards, and other public repositories, the aggregate will be found in point of extent, almost to exceed credibility!
It is a melancholy reflection to consider how many individuals, young and old, who are not of the class or description of common or even repeated thieves, are implicated in this system of depredation; who would probably have remained honest and industrious, had it not been for the easy mode of raising money, which these numerous Receivers of stolen goods hold out in every bye-street and lane in the Metropolis: In their houses, although a beggarly appearance of old iron, old rags, or second-hand clothes, is only exhibited, the back apartments are often filled with the most valuable articles of ship-stores, copper-bolts and nails, brass and other valuable metals, West-India produce, household goods and wearing apparel; purchased from artificers, labourers in the docks, lumpers, and others employed on the River Thames, menial servants, apprentices, journeymen, porters, chimney-sweepers, itinerant Jews, and others; who, thus encouraged and protected, go on with impunity, and without the least dread of detection, from the easiness of access, which their various employments give them, plundering every article not likely to be missed, in the houses or stables of men of property; or in the shops, ware-houses, founderies, or work-shops of manufacturers; or from new buildings; from ships in the river; nay even from his Majesty's stores, and other repositories, so that in some instances, the same articles are said to be sold to the Public Boards three or four times over.
Thus the moral principle is totally destroyed among a vast body of the lower ranks of the People; for wherever prodigality, dissipation, or gaming, whether in the Lottery or otherwise, occasions a want of money, every opportunity is sought to purloin public or private property; recourse is then had to all those tricks and devices, by which even children are enticed to steal before they know that it is a crime; and to raise money at the pawnbrokers, or the old iron or rag shops, to supply the unlawful desires of profligate parents.
Hence also, Servants, Apprentices, Journeymen, and in short all classes of labourers and domestics, are led astray by the temptations to spend money, which occur in this Metropolis; and by the facility afforded through the numerous Receivers of stolen Goods, who administer to their pecuniary wants, on every occasion, when they can furnish them with any article of their ill-gotten plunder.
The necessity of adopting some effectual regulations respecting the numerous class of Dealers in old metal, stores, and wearing apparel, is too obvious to require illustration; and the progressive accumulation of these pests of Society is proved, by their having increased, from about 300 to 3000, in the course of the last twenty years, in the Metropolis alone!
Similar regulations should also be extended to all the more latent Receivers, who do not keep open shop; but secretly support the professed Robbers and Burglars, by purchasing their plunder the moment it is acquired: of which latter class there are some who are said to be extremely opulent.
It would by no means be difficult to form such a plan of Police as should establish many useful restrictions, for the purpose of checking and embarrassing these criminal people; so as to render it extremely difficult, if not impracticable for them, in many instances, to carry on their business without the greatest hazard of detection.
But laws for this purpose must not be placed upon the Statute-Book as a kind of dead letter, only to be brought into action when accident may lead to the detection, perhaps of one in a thousand. If the evil is to be cured at all, it must be by the promotion and encouragement of an active principle, under proper superintendance, calculated to prevent every class of dealers, who are known to live partly or wholly by fraud, from pursuing those illegal practices; which nothing but a watchful Police, aided by a correct system of restraints, can possibly effect.
Nor ought it to be argued, that the restraints, which may hereafter be proposed, will affect the liberty of the Subject. They will assist and protect the honest and fair dealer; and it is perfectly consistent with the spirit of our ancient laws, to restrain persons from doing evil, who are likely to commit offences; the restrictions can affect only a very few, comparatively speaking; and those too whose criminal conduct has been the principal, if not the sole cause, of abridging the general liberty; while it subjected the great mass of the people to the risk of their life and property.
Whenever Dealers, of any description, are known to encourage or to support crimes, or criminal or fraudulent persons, it becomes the indispensable interest of the State, and the duty of the Legislators to prevent them from pursuing, at least, the mischievous part of their trade; and that provisions should be made for carrying the laws strictly and regularly into execution.
While restraints of a much severer nature than those which are hereafter proposed, attach to all trades upon which a revenue is collected; can it be considered as any infringement of freedom, to extend a milder system to those who not only destroy liberty but invade property?
The present state of Society and Manners calls aloud for the adoption of this principle of regulation, as the only practicable means of preserving the morals of a vast body of the Community; and of preventing those numerous and increasing crimes and misdemeanors, which are ultimately attended with as much evil to the perpetrators as to the sufferers.
If such a principle were once established, under circumstances which would insure a correct and regular execution; and if, added to this, certain other practicable arrangements should take place, (which will be discussed in their regular order in these pages,) we might soon congratulate ourselves on the immediate and obvious reduction of the number of Thieves, Robbers, Burglars, and other criminals in this Metropolis, being no longer able to exist, or to escape detection. Without the aid, the concealment, and the opportunities, afforded at present by the multitude of Receivers spread all over the Capital, they would be compelled to abandon their evil pursuits, as no less unprofitable and hazardous, than they are destructive to the best interests of Society.
This indeed is very different from what is said to have once prevailed in the Capital, when criminals were permitted to proceed from the first stage of depravity until they were worth forty pounds.—This is not the System which subjected the Public to the intermediate depredations of every villain from his first starting, till he could be clearly convicted of a capital offence.—Neither is it the System which encouraged public houses of rendezvous for Thieves, for the purpose of knowing where to apprehend them, when they became ripe for the punishment of death.
The System now suggested, is calculated to prevent, if possible, the seeds of villainy from being sown; or, if sown, to check their growth in the bud, and never permit them to ripen at all.
It is proposed to extend this system of prevention to the Coiners, Dealers, and Utterers of base Money; and to every species of theft, robbery, fraud, and depredation.
The vast increase, and the extensive circulation of counterfeit Money, particularly of late years, is too obvious not to have attracted the notice of all ranks. It has become an enormous evil in the melancholy catalogue of Crimes which the Laws of the Country are called upon to assist the Police in suppressing.—Its extent almost exceeds credibility; and the dexterity and ingenuity of these counterfeiters have, (after considerable practice,) enabled them to finish the different kinds of base Money in so masterly a manner, that it has become extremely difficult for the common observer to distinguish their spurious manufacture from the worn-out Silver of the Mint.—So systematic, indeed, has this nefarious traffic become of late, that the great dealers, who, in most instances are the employers of the Coiners, execute orders for the Town and Country, with the same regularity as manufacturers in fair branches of trade.
Scarcely a waggon or coach departs from the Metropolis, which does not carry boxes and parcels of base Coin to the camps, sea-ports, and manufacturing towns. In London, regular markets, in various public and private houses, are held by the principal Dealers; where Hawkers, Pedlars, fraudulent Horse-Dealers, Unlicensed Lottery-Office-Keepers, Gamblers at Fairs, Itinerant Jews, Irish Labourers, Servants of Toll-Gatherers, and Hackney-Coach Owners, fraudulent Publicans, Market-Women, Rabbit-Sellers, Fish-Cryers, Barrow-Women, and many who would not be suspected, are regularly supplied with counterfeit Copper and Silver, with the advantage of nearly £.100 per cent. in their favour; and thus it happens, that through these various channels, the country is deluged with immense quantities of base Money, which get into circulation; while an evident diminution of the Mint Coinage is apparent to every common observer.
It is impossible to reflect on the necessity to which all persons are thus reduced, of receiving and again uttering, Money which is known to be false and counterfeit, without lamenting, that by thus familiarizing the mind to fraud and deception, the same laxity of conduct may be introduced into other transactions of life:—The barrier being broken down in one part, the principle of common honesty is infringed upon, and infinite mischief to the very best interests of Society, is the result, in cases at first unthought of.
To permit, therefore, the existence of an adulterated, and ill-regulated Silver and Copper Coinage, is in fact to tolerate general fraud and deception, to the ultimate loss of many individuals; for the evil must terminate at some period, and then thousands must suffer; with this aggravation, that the longer it continues the greater will be the loss of property.
Nor has the mischief been confined to the counterfeiting the Coin of the Realm. The avarice and ingenuity of man is constantly finding out new sources of fraud; insomuch, that in London, and in Birmingham, and its neighbourhood, Louis d'Ors, Half Johannas, French Half Crowns and Shillings, as well as several coins of Flanders and Germany, and Dollars of excellent workmanship, in exact imitation of the Spanish Dollars issued from the Bank, in 1797, have been from time to time counterfeited apparently without suspicion, that under the act of the 14th of Elizabeth, (cap. 3,) the offenders were guilty of misprision of High Treason.
These ingenious miscreants have also extended their iniquitous manufacture to the coins of India; and a Coinage of the Star Pagoda of Arcot was established in London for years by one person.—These counterfeits, being made wholly of blanched copper, tempered in such a manner as to exhibit, when stamped, the cracks in the edges, which are always to be found on the real Pagoda, cost the maker only Three Half-pence each, after being double gilt.—When finished, they are generally sold to Jews at Five Shillings a dozen, who disposed of them afterwards at 2s. 3s. or even 5s. each; and through this medium, they have been introduced by a variety of channels into India, where they were mixed with the real Pagodas of the country, and passed at their full denominated value of Eight Shillings sterling.
The Sequins of Turkey, another Gold Coin, worth about five or six shillings, have in like manner been counterfeited in London;—Thus the national character is wounded, and the disgrace of the British name proclaimed in Asia, and even in the most distant regions of India. Nor can it be sufficiently lamented that persons who consider themselves as ranking in superior stations of life, with some pretensions to honour and integrity, have suffered their avarice so far to get the better of their honesty, as to be concerned in this iniquitous traffic.
It has been recently discovered that there are at least 120 persons in the Metropolis and the Country, employed principally in coining and selling base Money; and this, independent of the numerous horde of Utterers, who chiefly support themselves by passing it at its full value.
It will scarcely be credited, that of Criminals of this latter class who have either been detected, prosecuted, or convicted, within the last seven years, there stand upon the Register of the Solicitor to the Mint, more than 650 names!—And yet the mischief is not diminished. When the Reader is informed, that two persons can finish from £.200 to £.300 (nominal value,) in base silver in six days; and that three people, within the same period, will stamp the like amount in Copper, and takes into the calculation the number of known Coiners, the aggregate amount in the course of a year will be found to be immense.
The causes of this enormous evil are, however, easily developed.—The principal laws relative to Counterfeit Coin having been made a Century ago, the tricks and devices of modern times are not sufficiently provided against;[7] when it is considered also, that the offence of dealing in base Money, (which is the main spring of the evil,) is only punishable by a slight imprisonment; that several offences of a similar nature are not punishable at all, by any existing statute; and that the detection of actual Coiners, so as to obtain the proof necessary for conviction, required by Law, is, in many instances, impracticable; it is not to be wondered at, where the profit is so immense, with so many chances of escaping punishment, that the coinage of, and traffic in, counterfeit Money has attracted the attention of so many unprincipled and avaricious persons.
Having thus stated many prominent abuses which appear to arise from the imperfections in our Criminal Code, as well as the benefits which an improved system would extend to the country; it now remains to elucidate the further evils arising to Society, from the abuses practised in carrying the existing statutes into execution.—As the laws now stand, little or no energy enters into the system of detection, so as to give vigor and effect to that branch of Police which relates to the apprehension of persons charged with offences; and no sooner does a Magistrate commit a hacknied Thief or Receiver of stolen Goods, a Coiner, or Dealer in base Money, or a Criminal charged with any other fraud or offence punishable by law, than recourse is immediately had to some disreputable Attorney, whose mind is made up and prepared to practise every trick and device which can defeat the ends of substantial justice. Depraved persons, frequently accomplices, are hired to swear an alibi; witnesses are cajoled, threatened, or bribed either to mutilate their evidence, or to speak doubtfully on the trial, although they swore positively before the committing Magistrate.
If bribes and persuasions will not do, the prosecutors are either intimidated by the expence,[8] or softened down by appeals to their humanity; and under such circumstances, they neither employ counsel nor take the necessary steps to bring forward evidence: the result is, that the Bill is either returned ignoramus by the Grand Jury; or, if a trial takes place, under all the disadvantages of a deficient evidence, without a counsel for the prosecution, an advocate is heard for the prisoner, availing himself of every trifling inaccuracy which may screen his client from the punishment of the Law, the hardened villain is acquitted and escapes justice: while, as we before noticed, the novice in crimes, unskilled in the deficiencies of the Law, and unable, from the want of criminal connections, or that support which the professed thief receives from the Buyers of stolen goods, to procure the aid of counsel to defend him, is often convicted!
The Registers of the Old Bailey afford a lamentable proof of the evils arising from the present mode of trying criminals without a public Prosecutor for the Crown.—In the course of seven years, previous to the Police Establishment, no less than 4262 prisoners, who had been actually put upon their trial by the Grand Jury, were let loose upon the Public by acquittals.
Since that period no material diminution has taken place, except what may be easily accounted for by the war; and when to this dreadful Catalogue of Human Depravity, is to be added, the vast number of criminals who are periodically discharged from the different gaols by proclamation, and of cheats, swindlers, gamblers, and others, who have never yet been discovered or known, we may state with certainty that there are at this time many thousand individuals, male and female, prowling about in this Metropolis, who principally support themselves by various depredations on the Public.
Nor does the evil rest here; for even convicted felons, in too many instances, find means to escape without punishment; and to join that phalanx of villains, who are constantly engaged in objects of depredation and mischief.
No sooner does the punishment of the law attach on a criminal, than false humanity becomes his friend. Pardons are applied for; and it is known that his Majesty's great goodness and love of mercy has been frequently abused by the tricks, devices, and frauds, too commonly resorted to, by convicts and agents equally depraved as themselves; who while they have recourse to every species of falsehood and forgery, for the purpose of attaining the object in view, at the same time plunder the friends and relatives of the prisoner, of their last guinea, as the wages of villainy and misrepresentation.
By such nefarious practices, it is much to be feared, that many a hardened villain has eluded the punishment of the Law, without any previous reference to the committing Magistrates, who may be supposed to have accurately examined into his character and connections; and what is still worse, without extending to the Community those benefits which might arise from important discoveries useful to Public Justice; such as convicted felons are always capable of making, and which, in conjunction with transportation, it should seem, ought to be one indispensable condition, upon which pardons should be granted to capital convicts.
Instead of these precautions which appear to be absolutely requisite, it is to be lamented, that without reflecting that a common thief can seldom be restrained by military discipline, many of the worst class of convicts have received his Majesty's gracious pardon, on the simple condition of going into the Army or Navy: This has been no sooner granted, than the Royal Mercy has been abused, either by desertion, or by obtaining a discharge, in consequence of some real or pretended incapacity, which was previously concealed. Relieved in so easy a manner, from the heavy load of a capital punishment, the culprits return again to their old practices; and by this means, punishment not only ceases to operate as a prevention of crimes, by example, but becomes even an encouragement; while the labour of detection, and the expence of trial and conviction, are fruitlessly thrown on an injured individual, and their effect is wholly lost to the Public.
In addition to the enormous evil arising from the periodical discharge of so many criminals by proclamations, acquittals, and pardons; the Hulks also send forth, at stated times, a certain number of convicts; who having no asylum, no home, no character, and no means of subsistence, seem to have only the alternative of starving, or joining their companions in iniquity; thus adding strength to the body of criminals, by the accession of men, who, polluted and depraved by every human vice, rendered familiar to their minds in those seminaries of profligacy and wickedness from whence they have come, employ themselves constantly in planning and executing acts of violence, and depredation upon the Public; and some of them, rendered desperate from an additional degree of depravity, feel no compunction in adding the crimes of murder to that of robbery, as has been too clearly manifested by many late instances.
From what has been thus stated, is it not fair to conclude, that the want of security which the Public experiences with regard to life and property, and the inefficacy of the Police in preventing crimes, are to be attributed principally to the following causes?
1. The imperfections in the Criminal Code; and in many instances, its deficiency, with respect to the mode of punishment; as well as to the want of many other regulations, provisions, and restraints, applicable to the present of Society, for the purpose of preventing crimes.
2. The want of an active principle, calculated to concentrate and connect the whole Police of the Metropolis and the Nation; and to reduce the general management to system and method, by the interposition of a superintending agency, composed of able, intelligent, and indefatigable men, acting under the direction and controul of his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department.—On these persons, it is proposed, should devolve the subordinate care and direction of the general Police of the Metropolis; so as to obtain, by the introduction of order and arrangement, and by efforts of labour and exertion, a complete History of the connections, and pursuits of all or most of the criminal and fraudulent persons who resort to the Metropolis; (either natives or foreigners;) forming, from such materials, a Register of all known offenders, and thereby establishing a clue for their detection, as often as they are charged with committing depredations on the Public—with power to reward Officers of Justice, and all other persons whose services are found to be useful in the discovery or detection of delinquents of every description.—To keep an Account of property stolen, or procured by swindling or fraudulent transactions in the Metropolis, as well as in other parts of Great-Britain:—To establish a Correspondence with the Magistrates in Town and Country, so as to be able more effectually to watch the motions of all suspected persons; with a view to quick and immediate detection; and to interpose such embarrassments in the way of every class of offenders, as may diminish crimes by increasing the risk of detection: All this, under circumstances where a centre-point would be formed, and the general affairs of the Police conducted with method and regularity:—where Magistrates would find assistance and information; where the greater offences, such as the Coinage of base Money, and Lottery Insurances, would be traced to their source; the care and disposal of convicts, according to their different sentences, be minutely attended to; and the whole System conducted with that intelligence and benefit to the Country, which must arise from the attention of men of business being directed solely to these objects, distinct from all other affairs of State; and their exertions being confined principally to the preservation of the morals of the People, and the prevention of crimes.
3. The want of an Institution of Police Magistrates in the Dock Yards, and in all great Commercial and Manufacturing Towns, where there are no Corporations or Funds for the administration of Public Justice.
4. The want of a Public Prosecutor for the Crown, in all criminal cases, for the purpose of preventing fraud, delay and expence in the administration of Justice.
5. The want of a more correct and regular System, for the purpose of obtaining the fullest and most authentic information, to avoid deceptions in the obtaining of pardons.
6. The deficiency of the System of the Hulks.
7. The want of an improved System with regard to the arrangements and disposal of Convicts—destined for hard labour or for transportation.
8. The want of national Penitentiary Houses, for the punishment and reformation of certain classes of Convicts.
9. The want of a more solemn mode of conducting Executions; whenever such dreadful examples are necessary for the furtherance of Public Justice.
Having thus explained the general features of the actually existing Crimes, and their probable causes, we shall in the next place proceed to some considerations on the present principles of Punishment in this Country, as compared with those in other Nations and ages. It will then be requisite to enter into particular and minute details on both these subjects; and to offer some suggestions for the introduction of new and applicable laws to be administered with purity under a correct and energetic System of Police; which may be, in some degree, effectual in guarding the Public against those increasing and multifarious injuries and dangers, which are universally felt and lamented.
CHAP. II.
Of Punishments in general.—The mode of ascertaining the degrees of Punishment.—The objects to be considered in inflicting Punishments—namely, Amendment—Example—and Retribution.—The Punishment of Death has little effect on hardened Offenders.—Examples of convicts exhibited in servile employments would make a greater impression.—Towards the rendering criminal laws perfect, Prevention ought to be the great object of the Legislature.—General Rules suggested for attaining this object, with illustrations.—The severity of our laws with respect to Punishments—not reconcileable to the principles of morality, and a free government—calculated in their operation to debase the human character.—General Reflections on the Punishments authorised by the English Law.—The disproportion of Punishments, exemplified in the case of an assault, opposed to a larceny.—In seduction and adultery, which are not punishable as criminal offences.—The laws severe in the extreme in political offences, while they are lax and defective with regard to moral Crimes.—The necessity of enforcing the observance of religious and moral Virtue by lesser Punishments.—General Reflections applicable to public and private Crimes.—The dangers arising from the progress of immorality to the safety of the State.—The leading offences made capital by the laws of England considered, with the Punishment allotted to each; compared with, and illustrated by, the custom of other countries, in similar cases, both ancient and modern: namely, High Treason—Petit Treason:—Felonies against Life, viz. Murder, Manslaughter, Misadventure, and Self-defence:—against the Body, comprehending Sodomy, Rape, Forcible Marriage, Polygamy, and Mayhem.—Against Goods or Property, comprehending Simple Larceny, Mixt Larceny, and Piracy,—and against the Habitation, comprehending Arson and Burglary.—Concluding Reflections relative to the severity of the Laws, and their imperfections with regard to Punishment—The new Code of the Emperor Joseph the Second, shortly detailed.—Reflections thereon.
PUNISHMENT, (says a learned and respectable author) is an evil which a delinquent suffers, unwillingly, by the order of a Judge or Magistrate; on account of some act done which the Law prohibits, or something omitted which the Law enjoins.
All Punishment should be proportioned to the nature of the offence committed; and the Legislature, in adjusting Punishment with a view to the public good, ought, according to the dictates of sound reason, to act on a comparison of the Crime under consideration, with other offences injurious to Society: and thus by comparing one offence with another, to form a scale, or gradation, of Punishments, as nearly as possible consistent with the strict rules of distributive justice.[9]
It is the triumph of Liberty, says the great Montesquieu, when the criminal laws proportion punishments to the particular nature of each offence.—It may be further added, that when this is the case, it is also the triumph of Reason.
In order to ascertain in what degree the Public is injured or endangered by any crime, it is necessary to weigh well and dispassionately the nature of the offence, as it affects the Community.—It is through this medium, that Treason and Rebellion are discovered to be higher and more dangerous offences than breaches of the peace by riotous assemblies; as such riotous meetings are in like manner considered as more criminal than a private assault.
In punishing delinquents, two objects ought to be invariably kept in view.—
1. The Amendment of the Delinquent.
2. The Example afforded to others.
To which may be added, in certain cases,
3. Retribution to the party injured.
If we attend to Reason, the Mistress of all Law, she will convince us that it is both unjust and injurious to Society to inflict Death, except for the highest offences, and in cases where the offender appears to be incorrigible.
Wherever the amendment of a delinquent is in view, it is clear that his punishment cannot extend to death: If expiating an offence by the loss of life is to be (as it certainly is at present) justified by the necessity of making examples for the purpose of preventing crimes, it is evident that the present System has not had that effect, since they are by no means diminished; and since even the dread of this Punishment, has, under present circumstances, so little effect upon guilty associates, that it is no uncommon thing for these hardened offenders to be engaged in new acts of theft, at the very moment their companions in iniquity are launching in their very presence into eternity.
The minds of offenders, long inured to the practice of criminal pursuits, are by no means beneficially affected by the punishment of Death, which they are taught to consider as nothing but a momentary paroxysm which ends all their distress at once; nay even as a relief, which many of them, grown desperate, look upon with a species of indifference, bordering on a desire to meet that fate, which puts an end to the various distresses and anxieties attendant on a life of criminality.
The effect of capital punishments, in the manner they are now conducted, therefore, as relates to example, appears to be much less than has been generally imagined.
Examples would probably have much greater force, even on those who at present appear dead to shame and the stigma of infamy, were convicts exhibited day after day, to their companions, occupied in mean and servile employments in Penitentiary Houses, or on the highways, canals, mines, or public works.—It is in this way only that there is the least chance of making retribution to the parties whom they have injured; or of reimbursing the State, for the unavoidable expence which their evil pursuits have occasioned.
Towards accomplishing the desirable object of perfection in a criminal code, every wise Legislature will have it in contemplation rather to prevent than to punish crimes; that in the chastisement given, the delinquent may be restored to Society as an useful member.
This purpose may possibly be best effected by the adoption of the following general rules.
1. That the Statute-Laws should accurately explain the enormity of the offence forbidden: and that its provisions should be clear and explicit, resulting from a perfect knowledge of the subject; so that, justice may not be defeated in the execution.
2. That the Punishments should be proportioned and adapted, as nearly as possible, to the different degrees of offences; with a proper attention also to the various shades of enormity which may attach to certain crimes.
3. That persons prosecuting, or compelled so to do, should not only be indemnified from expence; but also that reparation should be made, for losses sustained by the injured party, in all cases where it can be obtained from the labour, or property of the delinquent.
4. That satisfaction should be made to the State for the injury done to the Community; by disturbing the peace, and violating the purity of Society.
Political laws, which are repugnant to the Law of nature and reason, ought not to be adopted. The objects above-mentioned seem to include all that can be necessary for the attention of Law-givers.
If on examination of the frame and tendency of our criminal Laws, both with respect to the principles of reason and State Policy, the Author might be allowed to indulge a hope, that what he brings under the Public Eye on this important subject, would be of use in promoting the good of Mankind, he should consider his labours as very amply rewarded.
The severity of the criminal Laws is not only an object of horror, but the disproportion of the punishments, as will be shewn in the course of this Work, breathes too much the spirit of Draco,[10] who boasted that he punished all crimes with death; because small crimes deserved it, and he could find no higher punishment for the greatest.
Though the ruling principle of our Government is unquestionably, Liberty, it is much to be feared that the rigour which the Laws indiscriminately inflict on slight as well as more atrocious offences, can be ill reconciled to the true distinctions of Morality, and strict notions of Justice, which form the peculiar excellence of those States which are to be characterised as free.
By punishing smaller offences with extraordinary severity, is there not a risque of inuring men to baseness; and of plunging them into the sink of infamy and despair, from whence they seldom fail to rise capital criminals; often to the destruction of their fellow-creatures, and always to their own inevitable perdition?
To suffer the lower orders of the people to be ill educated—to be totally inattentive to those wise regulations of State Policy which might serve to guard and improve their morals; and then to punish them for crimes which have originated in bad habits, has the appearance of a cruelty not less severe than any which is exercised under the most despotic Governments.
There are two Circumstances which ought also to be minutely considered in apportioning the measure of Punishment—the immorality of the action; and its evil tendency.
Nothing contributes in a greater degree to deprave the minds of the people, than the little regard which Laws pay to Morality; by inflicting more severe punishments on offenders who commit, what may be termed, Political Crimes, and crimes against property, than on those who violate religion and virtue.
When we are taught, for instance, by the measure of punishment that it is considered by the Law as a greater crime to coin a sixpence than to kill our father or mother, nature and reason revolt against the proposition.
In offences which are considered by the Legislature as merely personal, and not in the class of public wrongs, the disproportionate punishment is extremely shocking.
If, for example, a personal assault is committed of the most cruel, aggravated, and violent nature, the offender is seldom punished in any other manner than by fine and imprisonment: but if a delinquent steals from his neighbour secretly more than the value of twelve-pence, the Law dooms him to death. And he can suffer no greater punishment (except the ignominy exercised on his dead body,) if he robs and murders a whole family. Some private wrongs of a flagrant nature are even passed over with impunity: the seduction of a married woman—the destruction of the peace and happiness of families, resulting from alienating a wife's affections, and defiling her person, is not an offence punishable by the Criminal Law; while it is death to rob the person, who has suffered this extensive injury, of a trifle exceeding a shilling.
The Crime of Adultery was punished with great severity both by the Grecian and the Roman Laws.—In England this offence is not to be found in the Criminal Code.—It may indeed be punished with fine and penance by the Spiritual Law; or indirectly in the Courts of Common Law, by an action for damages, at the suit of the party injured. The former may now (perhaps fortunately) be considered as a dead letter; while the other remedy, being merely of a pecuniary nature, has little effect in restraining this species of delinquency.
Like unskilful artists, we seem to have begun at the wrong end; since it is clear that the distinction, which has been made in the punishments between public and private crimes, is subversive of the very foundation it would establish.
Private Offences being the source of public crimes, the best method of guarding Society against the latter is, to make proper provisions for checking the former.—A man of pure morals always makes the best Subject of every State; and few have suffered punishment as public delinquents, who have not long remained unpunished as private offenders. The only means, therefore, of securing the peace of Society, and of preventing more atrocious crimes, is, to enforce by lesser punishments, the observance of religious and moral duties: Without this, Laws are but weak Guardians either of the State, or the persons or property of the Subject.
The People are to the Legislature what a child is to a parent:—As the first care of the latter is to teach the love of virtue, and a dread of punishment; so ought it to be the duty of the former, to frame Laws with an immediate view to the general improvement of morals.
"That Kingdom is happiest where there is most virtue," says an elegant writer.—It follows, of course, that those Laws are the best which are most calculated to promote Religion and Morality; the operation of which in every State, is to produce a conduct intentionally directed towards the Public Good.
It seems that by punishing what are called public Crimes, with peculiar severity, we only provide against present and temporary mischiefs. That we direct the vengeance of the Law against effects, which might have been prevented by obviating their causes:—And this may be assigned in part as the cause of Civil Wars and Revolutions.—The Laws are armed against the powers of Rebellion, but are not calculated to oppose its principle.
Few civil wars have been waged from considerations of Public Virtue, or even for the security of Public Liberty. These desperate undertakings are generally promoted and carried on by abandoned characters, who seek to better their fortunes in the general havoc and devastation of their country.—Those men are easily seduced from their Loyalty who are apostates from private virtue.
To be secure therefore against those public calamities which, almost inevitably, lead to anarchy and confusion, it is far better to improve and confirm a nation in the true principles of natural justice, than to perplex them by political refinements.
Having thus taken a general view of the principles applicable to Punishments in general, it may be necessary, for the purpose of more fully illustrating these reflections, briefly to consider the various leading Offences, and their corresponding Punishments according to the present state of our Criminal Law; and to examine how far they are proportioned to each other.
High Treason is the highest civil Crime which can be committed by any member of the Community.—After various alterations and amendments made and repealed in subsequent reigns, the definition of this offence was settled as it originally stood, by the Act of the 25th of Edward III. stat. 5, cap. 2. and may be divided into seven different heads:
1. Compassing or imagining the Death of the King, Queen, or Heir Apparent.
2. Levying War against the King, in his realm.
3. Adhering to the King's enemies, and giving them aid, in the realm or elsewhere.[11]
4. Slaying the King's Chancellor or Judge in the execution of their offices.
5. Violating the Queen, the eldest daughter of the King, or the wife of the Heir Apparent, or eldest Son.
6. Counterfeiting the King's Great Seal, or Privy Seal.
7. Counterfeiting the King's Money, or bringing false Money into the kingdom.
This detail shews how much the dignity and security of the King's person is confounded with that of his officers, and even with his effigies imprest on his Coin.—To assassinate the servant, or to counterfeit the type, is held as criminal as to destroy the Sovereign.
This indiscriminate blending of crimes, so different and disproportionate in their nature, under one common head, is certainly liable to great objections; seeing that the judgment in this offence is so extremely severe and terrible, viz. That the offender be drawn to the gallows on the ground or pavement: That he be hanged by the neck, and then cut down alive: That his entrails be taken out and burned while he is yet alive: That his head be cut off: That his body be divided into four parts: And that his head and quarters be at the King's disposal.—Women, however, are only to be drawn and hanged:—though in all cases of treason, they were heretofore sentenced to be burned: a cruel punishment, which, after being alleviated by the custom of previous strangulation, was at length repealed, by the Act 30 Geo. III. c. 48.
There are indeed some shades of difference with regard to coining money; where the offender is only drawn and hanged; and that part of the punishment which relates to being drawn and quartered is, to the honour of humanity, never practised. But even in cases of the most atrocious criminality, the execution of so horrid a sentence seems to answer no good political purpose.—Nature shudders at the thought of imbruing our hands in blood, and mangling the smoaking entrails of our fellow-creatures.
In most Countries and in all ages, however, Treason has been punished capitally.—Under the Roman Laws, by the Cornelia Lex, of which Sylla, the Dictator, was the author, this Offence was created.—It was also made a capital Crime when the Persian Monarchy became despotic.
By the Laws of China, Treason and Rebellion are punished with a rigour even beyond the severity of our judgment, for the criminals are ordained to be cut in ten thousand pieces.
There is another species of Treason, called Petty Treason, described by the Statute of the 25th of Edward the III. to be the offence of a Servant killing his Master, a Wife killing her Husband, or a Secular or Religious slaying his Prelate.—The Punishment is somewhat more ignominious than in other capital offences, inasmuch as a hurdle is used instead of a cart.—Here again occurs a very strong instance of the inequality of Punishments; for although the principle and essence of this Crime is breach of duty and obedience due to a superior slain, yet if a child murder his parents (unless he serve them for wages) he is not within the Statute; although it must seem evident to the meanest understanding that Parricide is certainly a more atrocious and aggravated offence, than either of those specified in the Statute.
By the Lex Pompeia of the Romans, Parricides were ordained to be sown in a sack with a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and thrown into the sea, thus to perish by the most cruel of all tortures.
The ancient Laws of all civilized nations punished the crime of Parricide by examples of the utmost severity.—The Egyptians put the delinquents to death by the most cruel of all tortures—mangling the body and limbs, and afterwards laying it upon thorns to be burnt alive.
By the Jewish Law it was death for children to curse, or strike their parents; and in China, this crime was considered as next in atrocity to Treason and Rebellion, and in like manner punished by cutting the delinquent in one thousand pieces.
The Laws of England however make no distinction between this crime and common Murder; while it is to be lamented that offences far less heinous, either morally or politically considered, are punished with the same degree of severity; and it is much to be feared, that this singular inequality is ill calculated to inspire that filial awe and reverence, to parents, which all human Laws ought to inculcate.
The offences next in enormity to Treason, are by the Laws of England, denominated Felonies, and these may be considered as of two kinds, public and private.
Under the head of Public Felonies we shall class the following: having peculiar relation to the State.
- 1. Felonies relative to the Coin of the Realm.
- 2. —————— to the King and his Counsellors, &c.
- 3. —————— to Soldiers and Marines.
- 4. —————— to embezzling Public Property.
- 5. —————— to Riot and Sedition.
- 6. —————— to Escape from Prison.
- 7. —————— to Revenue and Trade, &c.
We consider as comprehended under Private Felonies the following crimes committed, 1. Against the Life, 2. the Body, 3. The Goods, 4. The Habitation of the Subject.
| Against Life. | 1. By Murder. 2. By Man-slaughter. 3. By Misadventure. 4. By Necessity. |
| Against the Body. | 1. Sodomy. 2. Rape. 3. Forcible Marriage. 4. Polygamy. 5. Mayhem. |
| Against Goods. | 1. Simple Larceny. 2. Mixt Larceny. 3. Piracy. |
| Against the Dwelling or Habitation. | 1. Arson. 2. Burglary. |
Those Crimes which we have denominated Public Felonies being merely of a political nature, it would seem that the ends of justice would be far better answered, than at present, and convictions oftener obtained, by different degrees of Punishment short of Death.
With regard to Private Felonies, it may be necessary to make some specific observations——
The first, in point of enormity, is Murder, which may be committed in two Ways:—first, upon one's self, in which case the offender is denominated Felo de se or a Self-murderer;—secondly, by killing another person.
The Athenian Law ordained, that persons guilty of Self-murder should have the hand cut off which did the murder, and buried in a place separate from the body; but this seems of little consequence.—When such a calamity happens, it is a deplorable misfortune; and there seems to be a great cruelty in adding to the distress of the wife, children, or nearest kin of the deceased, by the forfeiture of his whole property; which is at present confiscated by Law.
By the Law of England, the judgment in case of Murder is, that the person convicted shall suffer death and that his body shall be dissected.
The Laws of most civilized nations, both ancient and modern, have justly punished this atrocious offence with death. It was so by the Laws of Athens, and also by the Jewish and Roman Laws.—By the Persian Law Murderers were pressed to death between two stones; and in China, persons guilty of this offence are beheaded, except where a person kills his adversary in a duel, in which case he is strangled.—Decapitation, by the Laws of China, is considered the most dishonourable mode of execution.
In the ruder ages of the world, and before the manners of mankind were softened by the arts of peace and civilization, Murder was not a capital crime: Hence it is that the barbarous nations which over-ran the Western Empire, either expiated this crime by private revenge, or by a pecuniary composition.—Our Saxon ancestors punished this high offence with a fine; and they too countenanced the exercise of that horrid principle of revenge, by which they added blood to blood.—But in the progress of civilization and Society, the nature of this crime became better understood; private revenge was submitted to the power of the Law; and the good King Alfred first made Murder a capital offence in England.
In this case, as in that of Self-murder, the property of the murderer goes to the State; without any regard to the unhappy circumstances of the families either of the murdered or the guilty person, who may be completely ruined by this fatal accident.—A provision which seems not well to accord with either the justice or mildness of our Laws.
Man-slaughter is defined to be The killing another without malice, either express or implied: which may be either, voluntarily, upon a sudden heat; or involuntarily, but in the commission of some unlawful Act. And the Punishment is, that the person convicted shall be burnt in the hand, and his goods forfeited.—And offenders are usually detained in prison for a time not exceeding one year, under the Statutes regulating the Benefit of Clergy.
Homicide by Misadventure is, when one is doing a lawful act, without intent to hurt another, and death ensues.—For this offence a pardon is allowed of course; but in strictness of Law the property of the person convicted is forfeited; the rigour of which, however, is obviated by a Writ of Restitution of his goods, to which the party is now, by long usage, entitled of right; only paying for suing out the same.
Homicide by necessity or in Self-defence, is another shade of Murder, upon which no punishment is inflicted: and in this is included what the Law expresses by the word Chance-medley: which is properly applied to such killing as happens in self-defence upon a sudden rencounter. Yet, still by strictness of Law, the goods and chattels of the person charged and convicted are forfeited to the Crown; contrary, as it seems to many, to the principles of Reason and Justice.
It should be recollected that in all cases where the Homicide does not amount to Murder or Man-slaughter, the Judges permit, nay even direct, a verdict of acquittal.—But it appears more consonant with the sound principles of Justice, that the Law itself should be precise, than that the property of a man should, in cases of Misadventure, Chance-medley, and Self-defence depend upon the construction of a Judge, or the lenity of a Jury: Some alteration therefore, in the existing Laws, seems called for in this particular.
Having thus briefly discussed what has occurred relative to the punishment of offences against life, we come next to make some observations on what we have denominated Private Felonies against the Body of the Subject.
By the Grecian, Roman, and Jewish Laws, the abominable crime of Sodomy was punished with death.—In France, under the Monarchy, the offenders suffered death by burning.
The Lombards were said to have brought this detestable vice into England, in the reign of Edward the Third.—In ancient times the men were hanged, and the women drowned: At length by the Act 25th of Henry the Eighth, cap. 6, it was made Felony without Benefit of Clergy.—
It has been doubted, however, whether the severity of the punishment of a crime so unnatural, as even to appear incredible, does not defeat the object of destroying it, by rendering it difficult to convict an offender.
The same objection has been made with respect to the crime of committing a Rape. A proper tenderness for life makes the Law require a strong evidence, and of course the proof is nice and difficult; whereas, were the punishment more mild, it might be more efficacious in preventing the violation of chastity.
By the Law of Egypt, Rapes were punished by cutting off the offending parts;—The Athenian Laws compelled the ravisher of a virgin to marry her. It was long before this offence was punished capitally by the Roman Law: but at length the Lex Julia inflicted the pains of death on the Ravisher.—The Jewish Law also punished this crime with death; but if a virgin was deflowered without force, the offender was obliged to pay a fine, and marry the woman.
By the 18th of Elizabeth, cap. 7, this offence was made Felony without Benefit of Clergy.
It is certainly of a very heinous nature, and, if tolerated, would be subversive of all order and morality; yet it may still be questioned, how far it is either useful or politic to punish it with death; and is worth considering, whether, well knowing that it originates in the irregular and inordinate gratification of unruly appetite, the injury to Society may not be repaired without destroying the offender.
In most cases, this injury might be repaired by compelling (where it could be done with propriety,) the criminal to marry the injured party; and it would be well for Society, if the same rule extended not only to all forcible violations of chastity, but even to instances of premeditated and systematic Seduction.
In cases, however, where marriage could not take place, on account of legal disability, or refusal on the part of the woman, the criminal ought to be severely punished, by pecuniary damages to the party injured, and by hard labour and confinement, or transportation for life.
The offence considered as next in point of enormity to Rape, is Forcible Marriage, or Defilement of Women: but it is somewhat remarkable, that by confining the punishment to offences against women of estate only, the moral principles are made to yield to political considerations; and the security of property in this instance, is deemed more essential, than the preservation of female chastity.
In short, the property of the woman is the measure of the crime; the statutes of the 3d of Henry the Seventh, cap. 2. and the 39th of Elizabeth, cap. 9, making it Felony without Benefit of Clergy, to take away, for lucre, any woman having lands or goods, or being an heir apparent to an estate, by force, or against her will, and to marry or to defile her. The forcible marriage and defilement of a woman without an estate is not punished at all; although, according to every principle of morality and reason, it is as criminal as the other. It is indeed an offence not so likely to be committed.
However, it seems in every point of view, impolitic to punish such offences with death; it might be enough, to expiate the crime by alienating the estate from the husband—vesting it in the wife alone, and confining him to hard labour; or by punishing the delinquent, in very atrocious cases, by transportation.
Polygamy stands next as an offence against the person:—It was first declared Felony by the statute of James the first, cap. 11, but not excluded from the Benefit of Clergy, and therefore not subject to the punishment of death.
Though, in one view, the having a plurality of wives or husbands, appears only a political offence, yet it is undeniably a breach of religious and moral virtue, in a very high degree.—It is true, indeed, that in the early ages of the world, Polygamy was tolerated both in Greece and Rome, even after the People had arrived at a high pitch of refinement.—But since the institution of Matrimony under the present form, Polygamy must be considered as highly criminal, since marriage is an engagement which cannot be violated without the greatest injury to Society. The Public Interest, therefore, requires that it should be punished; and the Act 35th George III. cap. 67, which punishes this offence with transportation, is certainly not too severe.
Mayhem, or Maiming, is the last in the Catalogue of Offences against the Person. It was first made Single Felony by the 5th of Henry the Fourth, cap. 5.—It is defined to be maiming, cutting the tongue, or putting out the eyes of any of the King's liege people. The statute of the 22d and 23d of Charles the Second, cap. 1. extends the description of this offence to slitting the nose, cutting off a nose or lip, or cutting off or disabling any limb or member, by malice forethought, and by lying in wait with an intention to maim and disfigure:—And this statute made the offence Felony, without Benefit of Clergy.
To prove malice in this crime, it is sufficient that the act was voluntary, and of set purpose, though done on a sudden.
Mayhem, as explained in the above statutes, is certainly a very atrocious offence; and as the punishment is not followed by corruption of blood, or the forfeiture of the property of the offender, it is, according to the present system, perhaps not too severe.
One particular sort of Mayhem by cutting off the ear, is punishable by an Act 37 Hen. VIII. cap. 6. which directs that the offender shall forfeit treble damages to the party grieved, to be recovered by action of trespass; and £.10 by way of fine to the King.
We next come to examine Private Felonies against the Goods or Property of the Individual, viz. Simple Larceny, Mixt Larceny, and Piracy.
Simple Larceny is divided into two sorts;—1st, Grand Larceny, and 2d, Petit Larceny.—The first is defined to be the felonious taking and carrying away the mere personal property or goods of another, above the value of twelve pence.—This offence is capital, and punished with death, and the forfeiture of property.
Petit Larceny is where the goods, taken in the above manner, are under the value of twelve pence; in which case, the punishment (according to the circumstances of atrocity attending the offence,) is imprisonment, whipping, or transportation, with forfeiture of goods and chattels.
Thus it appears, that by the rigour of the Law, stealing the least trifle above 12d. subjects the offender to the loss of life; a punishment apparently repugnant to reason, policy, or justice: more especially when it is considered, that at the time this Anglo Saxon Law was made, in the reign of Athelstan, 860 years ago, one shilling was of more value, according to the price of labour, than seventy-five shillings are at the present period: the life of man therefore may be justly said to be seventy-five times cheaper than it was when this mode of punishment was first established.
By the Athenian Laws, the crime of Theft was punished, by paying double the value of what was stolen, to the party robbed; and as much more to the public.—Solon introduced a law, enjoining every person to state in writing, by what means he gained his livelihood; and if false information was given, or he gained his living in an unlawful way, he was punished with death.—A similar law prevailed among the Egyptians.
The Lex Julia of the Romans made Theft punishable at discretion; and it was forbidden, that any person should suffer death, or even the loss of a member, for this crime.—The greatest punishment which appears to have been inflicted for this offence, in its most aggravated circumstances, was four-fold restitution.
By the Jewish Law, Theft was punished in the same manner: with the addition of a fine according to the nature of the offence; excepting in cases where men were stolen, which was punished with death.
In China, Theft is punished by the bastinadoe, excepting in cases of a very atrocious nature, and then the culprit is condemned to the knoutage—a contrivance not unlike the pillory in this country.
The ancient Laws of this kingdom punished the crime of Theft differently.—Our Saxon ancestors did not at first punish it capitally.—The Laws of King Ina[12] inflicted the punishment of death, but allowed the thief to redeem his life, Capitis estimatione, which was sixty shillings; but in case of an old offender, who had been often accused, the hand or foot was to be cut off.
After various changes which took place under different Princes, in the rude and early periods of our history, it was at length settled in the 9th of Henry the First, (A.D. 1108,) that for theft and robbery, offenders should be hanged; this has continued to be the law of the land ever since, excepting in the county palatine of Chester; where the ancient custom of beheading felons was practised some time after the Law of Henry the First; and the Justices of the Peace of that county, received one shilling from the King, for every head that was cut off.
Montesquieu seems to be of opinion that as thieves are generally unable to make restitution, it may be just to make theft a capital crime.—But would not the offence be atoned for in a more rational manner, by compelling the delinquent to labour, first for the benefit of the party aggrieved, till recompence is made, and then for the State?[13]
According to the present system the offender loses his life, and they whom he has injured lose their property; while the State also suffers in being deprived of a member, whose labour, under proper controul, might have been made useful and productive.
Observations have already been made on one consequence of the severity of the punishment for this offence; that persons of tender feelings conscientiously scruple to prosecute delinquents for inconsiderable Thefts. From this circumstance it is believed, that not one depredation in a hundred, of those actually committed, comes to the knowledge of Magistrates.
Mixed or compound Larceny has a greater degree of guilt in it than simple Larceny; and may be committed either by taking from a man, or from his house. If a person is previously put in fear or assaulted, the crime is denominated Robbery.
When a Larceny is committed which does not put the party robbed in fear; it is done privately and without his knowledge, by picking his pocket, or cutting the purse, and stealing from thence above the value of twelve pence; or publicly, with the knowledge of the party, by stealing a hat or wig, and running away.
With respect to Dwelling Houses the Common Law has been altered by various acts of Parliament; the multiplicity of which is apt to create confusion; but upon comparing them diligently, we may collect that the following domestic aggravations of Larceny are punishable with death, without Benefit of Clergy.
First, Larcenies above the value of twelve pence; committed—1st. In a church or chapel, with or without violence or breaking the same; 23 Henry VIII. cap. 1: 1 Edward VI. cap. 12.—2d. In a booth or tent, in a market or fair, in the day time or in the night, by violence or breaking the same; the owner or some of his family, being therein; 5 and 6 Edward VI. cap. 9.—3d. By robbing a dwelling house in the day time, (which robbing implies a breaking,) any person being therein: 3 and 4 William and Mary, cap. 9.—4th. By the same Act, (and see the Act 23 Henry VIII. cap. 1.) in a dwelling house, by day or by night; without breaking the same, any person being therein, and put in fear: which amounts in law to a Robbery; and in both these last cases the Accessary before the fact is also excluded from the benefit of Clergy.
Secondly; Larcenies to the value of five shillings; committed—1st. By breaking any dwelling house, or any outhouse, shop, or warehouse thereunto belonging, in the day time; although no person be therein, which also now extends to aiders, abettors, and accessaries before the fact: 39 Elizabeth, cap. 15; see also 3 and 4 William and Mary, cap. 9.—2d. By privately stealing goods, wares, or merchandise in any shop, warehouse, coach-houses, or stable, by day or night: though the same be not broken open, and though no person be therein: which likewise extends to such as assist, hire, or command the offence to be committed: 10 and 11 William III. cap. 23.
Lastly; Larcenies to the value of forty shillings from a dwelling house, or its outhouses, although the same be not broken, and whether any person be therein or not; unless committed against their masters, by apprentices, under age of fifteen; 12 Anne, stat. 1. cap. 7.
Piracy is felony against the goods of the Subject by a robbery committed at sea.—It is a capital offence by the civil law, although by Act of Parliament, it may be heard and determined, according to the rules of the common law, as if the offence had been committed on land. The mode of trial is regulated by the 28th of Henry VIII. cap. 15; and further by the Acts 11 and 12 William III. cap. 7. and 39 George III. cap. 37; which also extend to other offences committed on the High Seas.
Felonies against the Dwelling or Habitation of a man are of two kinds; and are denounced Arson and Burglary.
Arson or Arsonry is a very atrocious offence—it is defined to be the malicious burning of the House of another either by night or by day. It is in this case a capital offence; but if a man burns his own house, without injuring any other, it is only a misdemeanor, punishable by fine, imprisonment, or the pillory.
By the 23d of Henry the Eighth, cap. 1. the capital part of the offence is extended to persons, (whether principals or accessaries,) burning dwelling houses; or barns wherein corn is deposited; and by the 43d of Elizabeth, cap. 13, burning barns or stacks of corn in the four northern counties, is also made Felony without Benefit of Clergy.
By the 22d and 23d of Car. II. cap. 7, it is made felony to set fire to any stack of corn, hay, or grain; or other outbuildings, or kilns, maliciously in the night time; punished with transportation for seven years.
By the 1st George I. cap. 48, it is also made single felony to set fire to any wood, underwood, or coppice.
Other burnings are made punishable with death, without Benefit of Clergy; viz. Setting fire to any house, barn, or outhouse, or to any hovel, cock, mow, or stack of corn, straw, hay, or wood: or the rescuing any such offender: 9 George I. cap. 22.—Setting fire to a coal-mine: 10 George II. cap. 32.—Burning, or setting fire to any wind-mill, water-mill, or other mill: (as also pulling down the same:) 9 George III. cap. 29; but the offender must be prosecuted within eighteen months.—Burning any ship; to the prejudice of the owners, freighters, or underwriters: 22 and 23 Charles II. cap. 11; 1 Anne, stat. 2. cap. 9; 4 George I. cap. 12.—Burning the King's ships of war afloat, or building: or the Dock-yards, or any of the buildings, arsenals, or stores therein: 12 George III. cap. 24.—And finally, Threatening by anonymous or fictitious letters to burn houses, barns, &c. is by the Act 27 George II. cap. 15, also made felony without Benefit of Clergy.
Burglary is a felony at common law; it is described to be when a person, by night, breaketh into the mansion of another, with an intent to commit a felony; whether the felonious intent be executed or not.
By the 18th of Elizabeth, cap. 7, the Benefit of Clergy is taken away from The Offence; and by the 3d and 4th William and Mary, cap. 9, from Accessaries before the fact.—By the 12th of Anne, stat. 1, cap. 7, if any person shall enter into a mansion or dwelling house, by day or by night, without breaking into the same, with an intent to commit any felony; or being in such houses, shall commit any felony; and shall, in the night time, break the said house to get out of the same, he is declared guilty of the offence of burglary, and punished accordingly.
It is, without doubt, highly expedient that this Offence should be punished more severely than any other species of theft; since, besides the loss of property, there is something very terrific in the mode of perpetration, which is often productive of dreadful effects.
The ancient laws made a marked distinction in the punishment, between this Offence, which was called Hamsokne, (and which name it retains at present in the Northern parts of this kingdom) and robbing a house in the day time.
There are many other felonies which have been made capital (particularly within the present century) which do not properly fall within the class above discussed;—for an account of these the reader is referred to the general Catalogue of offences specified in a subsequent Chapter.
The number of these various capital Offences upon which the judgment of death must be pronounced, if the party is found guilty, has been already stated to amount to above one hundred and sixty.—And yet if a full consideration shall be given to the subject, it is believed that (excepting in cases of Treason, Murder, Mayhem, and some aggravated instances of Arsonry) it would be found that the punishment of death is neither politic nor expedient.
At any rate, it must be obvious to every reasoning mind, that such indiscriminate rigour, by punishing the petty pilferer with the same severity as the atrocious murderer, cannot easily be reconciled to the rights of nature or to the principles of morality.
It is indeed true, in point of practice, that in most cases of a slight nature, the mercy of Judges, of Juries, or of the Sovereign, saves the delinquent; but is not the exercise of this mercy rendered so necessary on every occasion, "a tacit disapprobation of the laws?"[14]
Cruelty, in punishment for slight Offences, often induces Offenders to pass on from the trifling to the most atrocious crime.—Thus are these our miserable fellow-mortals rendered desperate; whilst the laws, which ought to soften the ferocity of obdurate minds, tend to corrupt and harden them.
What education is to an individual, the Laws are to Society. Wherever they are sanguinary, delinquents will be hard-hearted, desperate, and even barbarous.
However much our ancestors were considered as behind us in civilization, yet their laws were infinitely milder, in many instances, than in the present age of refinement.
The real good of the State, however, unquestionably requires that not only adequate punishments should be impartially inflicted, but that the injured should obtain a reparation for their wrongs.
Instead of such reparation, it has been already stated, and indeed it is much to be lamented, that many are induced to desist from prosecutions, and even to conceal injuries, because nothing but expence and trouble is to be their lot: as all the fruits of the conviction, where the criminal has any property, go to the State.—That the State should be the only immediate gainer by the fines and forfeitures of criminals, while the injured party suffers, seems not wholly consonant to the principles either of justice, equity, or sound policy.
Having said thus much on the subject of severe and sanguinary Punishments, it may not be improper to mention a very recent and modern authority, for the total abolition of the Punishment of death. This occurred in the Imperial Dominion, where a new code of criminal law was promulgated by the late Emperor, Joseph II. and legalised by his edict in 1787.
This Code, formed in an enlightened age, by Princes, Civilians, and Men of Learning, who sat down to the deliberation assisted by the wisdom and experience of former ages, and by all the information possible with regard to the practice of civilized modern nations; with an impression also upon their minds, that sanguinary punishments, by death, torture, or dismemberment are not necessary, and ought to be abolished; becomes an interesting circumstance in the annals of the world.
"The Emperor in his edict signed at Vienna the 13th of January, 1787, declares his intention to have been to give a precise and invariable form to Criminal Judicature; to prevent arbitrary interpretations; to draw a due line between criminal and civil offences, and those against the state; to observe a just proportion between offences and punishments, and to determine the latter in such a manner as that they may make more than merely a transient impression.—Having promulgated this new code, he abrogates, annuls, and declares void all the ancient laws which formerly existed in his dominions.—Forbidding at the same time every criminal Judge to exercise the functions of his office, on any but those who shall be brought before him, accused of a criminal offence expressed in the new code."
This system of criminal law is so concise as to be comprehended in less than one hundred octavo pages. It commences with laying down certain general principles, favourable in their nature both to humanity and public liberty.—In determining the Punishments (which will hereafter be very shortly detailed) the following rules are laid down for the Judges.
"The criminal Judge should be intent on observing the just proportion between a criminal Offence and the punishment assigned it, and carefully to compare every circumstance.—With respect to the Offence, his principal attention should be directed to the degree of malignity accompanying the bad action,—to the importance of the circumstance connected with the Offence,—to the degree of damage which may result from it,—to the possibility or impossibility of the precautions which might have been made use of to prevent it.—With respect to the Criminal, the attention of the Judge should be directed to his youth,—to the temptation or imprudence attending it,—to the punishment which has been inflicted for the same Offence, and to the danger of a relapse."
| Those denominated Criminal Offences, viz. | 1. Offences against the Sovereign and the State; including High Treason. 2. Offences against human life and bodily safety. 3. Offences against honour and liberty. 4. Offences against possessions and rights. |
| Those denominated Civil Offences, viz. | 5. Offences that endanger the life or health of the Citizens. 6. Offences that affect the fortunes or rights of the Citizens. 7. Offences that tend to the corruption of morals. |
The offences are divided into seven different classes.
It is impossible, within the narrow compass of this Work, to enter into a particular detail of the various subdivisions of the Crimes and Punishments explained in this Code; which must be perused, in order to form a clear and comprehensive view of the subject. The following Specification therefore contains merely the heads or outlines of the System; which it is hoped may be found, from the mode of its arrangement, to convey to the reader both amusement and instruction.
ABSTRACT
OF
THE CRIMINAL CODE
OF THE
EMPEROR JOSEPH II.
| Crimes. | Punishments. |
| High Treason. | |
| 1. Laying violent hands onthe Sovereign, whether injuryresults from it or not. | Confiscation of property; imprisonmentfor not less than 30years; and branding on eachcheek with the mark of a gallows[15]if the prisoner is remarkably depraved. |
| 2. Attacking the Sovereignby speeches or writings. | Imprisonment 8 years, and notless than 5. |
| 3. Persons conspiring andtaking up arms, or enteringinto alliance with an enemy,&c. are guilty of sedition and tumult. | Confiscation of Property and30 years' imprisonment, withbranding as above. |
Criminal Offences relative to the Sovereign and the State.
| 4. He who enters the house or abode of another, and uses violence against his person, goods, or possession, is guilty of open force. | Imprisonment, not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 5. He who violently resists the authority of a Judge, or Officer of Justice, although no wound result, is guilty of open violence. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years; but where there is an injury and wounds, not exceeding 8 nor less than 5. |
| 6. Breach of trust, in a Governor, or Chargé des Affaires; neglecting the interest of the State, or betraying his Country, &c. | Imprisonment not less than 8, nor more than 12 years, and condemnation to the public works, and in aggravated cases, the pillory.[16] |
| 7. A Judge, who from corruption or passion is guilty of an abuse of judicial authority. | Imprisonment not less than 8, nor more than 12 years, and condemnation to the public works, and in aggravated cases, the pillory. |
| 8. Accomplices attempting to corrupt a Judge. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years; and condemnation to the public works. |
| 9. Forgery, by attempting to counterfeit public bills of the State which circulate as money. | Imprisonment not less than 30 years, and branding with a hot iron. |
| 10. Falsifying a public bill, by changing or altering it, or imitating the signatures. | Imprisonment not less than 12, nor more than 15 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 11. Coining false money, resembling the Coin of the Hereditary Dominions, or foreign Coin current by law; even though of equal weight and quality, or superior to the current Coin. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years, with condemnation to the public works. |
| 12. Coining false money, by using a bad alloy; and by fraud giving false money the quality of good. | Imprisonment not less than 12, nor more than 15 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 13. Accomplices in fabricating tools for Coining. | Imprisonment not less than 8, nor more than 12 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 14. Assisting in the escape of a prisoner. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years; and condemnation to the public works. |
| 15. Magistrates granting indulgencies contrary to law, &c. | Imprisonment not less than 12, nor more than 15 years; and deprivation of authority. |
Criminal Offences against Human Life and Bodily Safety.
| 16. Murder,—by wounding a man so that death ensues, including all accomplices. | Imprisonment not less than 15, nor more than 30 years; the latter in cases of consanguinity.[17] |
| 17. Killing a man in self-defence, if the slayer exceed the bounds of necessity. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 18. Murder,—with an intention to rob or steal the property of the person, or other property intrusted to his care. | Imprisonment not less than 30 years, with the hot iron; in cruel cases, to be closely chained, with corporal punishment[18] every year. |
| 19. Assassination by stratagem, arms, or poison. | Condemnation to the Chain,[19] not less than 30 years. |
| 20. Inducing another to commit Murder; by caresses, promises, presents, or threats; whether death is the result or not. | Imprisonment not less than 5, nor more than 8 years, and condemnation to the public works.—If murder is committed, the criminal shall suffer as a murderer. |
| 21. Duelling,—or challenging another to combat with murderous weapons on whatever pretence the challenge be grounded.—The person accepting the challenge is equally guilty, after agreeing to combat with murderous weapons. | If death ensues; condemnation to the chain for 30 years, where the survivor is the challenger. If the survivor be the party challenged, imprisonment, not more than 12, nor less than 8 years, and condemnation to the public works. If neither fall, imprisonment to the challenger, not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years; and hard labour in the public works. |
| 22. Accomplices acting as assistants and seconds. | Imprisonment not less than 1, nor more than 5 years. |
| 23. A woman with child using means to procure abortion. | Imprisonment not less than 15, nor more than 30 years; and condemnation to the public works: augmented when married women. |
| 24. Accomplices advising and recommending abortion. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years, and condemnation to the public works.—Punishment increased when the accomplice is the father of the infant. |
| 25. Exposing a living infant, in order to abandon it to danger and death; or to leave its deliverance to chance; whether the infant, so exposed, suffers death or not. | Imprisonment not less than 8, nor more than 12 years; to be increased under circumstances of aggravation. |
| 26. Maiming by malignant assault. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years. |
| 27. Suicide or self-murder, without any sign of insanity. | The body to be thrown into the earth by the executioner, and the name of the person and crime to be publicly notified and fixed on a gallows. |
Criminal Offences against Honour and Liberty.
| 28. Calumny—false accusation—injuring a man of his right, or robbing him of his good name unjustly and without proof (See post. [No. 56].) | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years, and condemnation to the public works; with corporal punishment if the party receive injury. |
| 29. Rape,—or forcibly, by associates, threatnings, or shewing weapons, overpowering and forcing a woman to submit, and shamefully abusing her by rendering her incapable of opposition. | Imprisonment not less than 3 years, nor more than 12, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 30. Accomplices aiding in the commission of a rape. | Imprisonment not less than 5, nor more than 8 years; and condemnation to the public works. |
| 31. Forcibly carrying a person out of the State without his will, or the consent of the Magistrate, enlisting men into foreign service, &c. | Imprisonment not less than 15 years, nor more than 30 years; augmented if the criminal is a natural-born subject. |
| 32. Forcibly, or by address, secretly carrying away a Minor past the years of infancy, under the care of parents or guardians, &c. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years; if no injury result—otherwise imprisonment, not less than 8, nor more than 12 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 33. Forcibly, and by address, getting possession of any woman contrary to her will, obtaining her consent to marriage, or shameful debauchery, and carrying her from her abode; whether the design is accomplished or not. | Imprisonment not less than 5 years, and not more than 8; and condemnation to the public works. |
| 34. Forcibly carrying away a woman known to be bound by lawful marriage, or under protection of parents, and without her consent. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 35. Accomplices aiding and assisting. | The same. |
| 36. Unlawful Imprisonment, or keeping a person in confinement against his will and of his own private authority. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years; augmented in cases of damages. |
Criminal Offences against Possessions and Rights.
| 37. Fraud.—Obtaining the property of another by stratagem, with an evil design on his possessions, honour, or liberty; forging title deeds or contracts, or altering the same. | Various, according to the degree of malignity—in general by imprisonment not less than 8, nor more than 12 years; and in smaller offences, not less than 5 nor more than 8; and condemnation to the public works. |
| Perjury in a Court of Justice, assuming a false name, &c. &c. bearing false witness. | The same. |
| 38. Theft, or taking a moveable from the possession of another by fraud, and without his consent. (See post. [No. 47].) | Imprisonment not less than 1 month, nor more than 5 years, if unaccompanied by aggravating circumstances: but in aggravated cases, imprisonment not less than 5 nor more than 8; or not less than 8, nor more than 12 years. |
| 39. Accomplices in Theft.—abettors and receivers, &c. | Imprisonment not less than 1 month nor more than 5 years, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 40. Robbery—committed alone or in company, by using violence, or forcing a person to discover effects, on which the offender has felonious views. | Imprisonment not less than 15 years, nor more than 30; if wounds ensue, in consequence of the violence used. And if acts of cruelty or wounds, occasioning death, then the punishment of the chain additional. |
| 41. Incendiary—where one undertakes an action from which fire may ensue, or with intention to prejudice, or cause damage, with a view to profit by the disorder that takes place, he shall be considered as an incendiary, whether damage ensues or not. | Imprisonment not less than 8 nor more than 12 years; and condemnation to the public works: when the flames have been stifled. Setting fire to a Camp, Magazine, Barn, Timber-yard, &c. from 15 to 30 years; according to the circumstances of the case. |
| 42. Bigamy—where one bound by the tie of lawful matrimony, concludes a second marriage with another person, single or married. | Imprisonment not less than 5 nor more than 8 years, or condemnation to the public works; if the person with whom the offender contracts the second marriage was acquainted with the first.—If concealed, then imprisonment not exceeding 12 nor less than 8 years. |
Civil Offences that endanger the Life or Health of the Citizen.
| 43. Misadventure—where without any ill intention, by means of poisonous merchandize, or apothecaries selling adulterated drugs, any person suffers danger or injury. | Imprisonment from 1 month to a year, or condemnation to the public works, if the offender has caused any immediate damage; but if the cause of damage be remote, imprisonment from a day to 1 month. |
| 44. Damage to man or child, occasioned by riding or driving carriages with too much speed; or injury received by persons incapable of guarding against danger, occasioning a wound or death, which might have been prevented by due vigilance. | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month; to be augmented, in case death or wound should have resulted from the accident. |
| 45. Breaking Quarantine, &c. and fabricating false bills of health. | By a Military Court of Justice. |
| 46. Actions prejudicial to health, or nuisance, where the necessary precautions prescribed by the laws of health are neglected in cases of dead animals, distempers among cattle, &c. &c. | Condemnation to the public works, with or without fetters; either from 1 day to a month, or from 1 month to a year. |
Civil Offences that affect the Fortunes and Rights of Citizens.
| 47. Stealing to the value of 25 crowns of any moveable, when not accompanied with aggravating circumstances: Stealing Wood in a Forest—Poaching by an unqualified person—Stealing Fruit from Trees—or earth from open Fields—though beyond the value of 25 crowns. (See ante, [No. 38], [39].) | Confinement, corporal correction, and the augmentation of the punishment if requisite. |
| 48. Using Frauds in playing at Games allowed by Law. | The pillory and condemnation to the public works, in atrocious cases; also imprisonment, from 1 day to a month, and restitution.—In case of foreigners, the pillory and banishment. |
| 49. Accomplices co-operating in such Frauds. | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month. |
| 50. Playing at prohibited Games. | A fine of 300 ducats, or imprisonment. |
| 51. Persons selling Merchandize at higher prices than fixed by the Police, or by false weight or measure. | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month, which may be augmented. |
| 52. Adultery. | Corporal correction, or imprisonment from 1 day to a month. |
| 53. Contracting illegal Marriages. (See ante, [No. 42].) | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month, and condemnation to the public works. |
| 54. Servants receiving earnest, and engaging to serve more masters than one, or otherwise misbehaving. | Corporal correction or imprisonment from 1 day to a month. |
| 55. Masters giving servants a false character. | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month. |
| 56. Libels on another by writings or disgraceful prints or drawings, causing injury to another. (See ante, [No. 28].) | Condemnation to the public works; reserving the right to recompence to the party wronged. |
| 57. Distributing or publishing Libels. | Condemnation to the public works; reserving the right of recompence to the party wronged. |
| 58. Actions by which danger by fire may be occasioned; such as smoking tobacco in a stable, timber-yard, &c. | Corporal correction. |
| 59. Acts of hasty petulance, leading to quarrels, assaults, and damages. | Imprisonment various, or condemnation to the public works. |
Civil Offences that tend to the Corruption of Morals.
| 60. Wickedly insulting the Supreme Being by words, deeds, or actions, in a public place, or in the presence of another person. | Detention in the hospital destined for madmen; where the offender is to be treated like a man out of his senses, until his amendment be perfect and assured. |
| 61. Disturbing the exercise of Public Worship, &c. | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month; to be augmented by fasting and corporal correction. |
| 62. Writing or Preaching against the Christian Religion, and Catholick Faith, &c. &c. Heresies, &c. | Pillory and Imprisonment, from 1 day to a month, or to a year. |
| 63. Committing indecencies in any public street or place. | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month, augmented by fasting. |
| 64. Attempting to seduce or insult women of reputation, by shameful debauchery, and using gestures, or discourses, tending to that purpose. | Imprisonment from 1 day to a month. |
| 65. Carnal Commerce by Man with Beast, or with a person of the same sex,—Sodomy. | Corporal Correction, and condemnation to the public works; and banishment from the place where the offence has been publicly scandalous. |
| 66. Consenting to shameful debauchery in his house; Keeping a Bawdy House. | Condemnation to the public works, from 1 month to 1 year; to be augmented when an innocent person has been seduced; second offence, the pillory. |
| 67. Any person, man or woman, making a business of prostitution, and deriving profit from thence. | Imprisonment from 1 month to a year; second offence, punishment double, and augmented by fasting and corporal correction. |
| 68. Dealing in Books, Pictures, or Prints which represent indecent actions. | Imprisonment from 1 day to 1 month. |
| 69. Disguising in masks, and obtaining admission into societies, and secret fraternities not notified to the Magistrate. | The same. |
| 70. Harbouring in dwellings persons not known to have an honest mean of living. | The same. |
| 71. Banished persons, from the whole of the Austrian Dominions—returning, &c. | Corporal correction, to be doubled at each successive return; and the offender to be banished from the Hereditary Dominions. |
In contemplating the various component parts of this Code, it is easy to discover that although some features of it may be worthy of imitation, upon the whole it is not suited either to the English constitution or the genius of our people. It is, however, a curious and interesting document, from which considerable information may be drawn; if ever that period shall arrive when a revision of our own criminal Code (in many respects more excellent than this) shall become an object of consideration with the Legislature.—At all events it strongly evinces the necessity of adapting the laws to the circumstances and situation of the Government; and of the people whose vices are to be restrained.
The total abolition of the Punishment of death (excepting in military offences cognizable by Courts Martial) is a very prominent feature in this Code; which appears to have been founded in a great measure on the principles laid down by the Marquis Beccaria, in his Essay on Crimes and Punishments: That able writer establishes it as a maxim, which indeed will scarcely be controverted—"That the severity of Punishment should just be sufficient to excite compassion in the spectators, as it is intended more for them than the criminal.—A punishment, to be just, should have only that degree of severity which is sufficient to deter others, and no more"—This authour further asserts, "That perpetual labour has in it all that is necessary to deter the most hardened and determined, as much as the punishment of death, where every example supposes a new crime:—perpetual labour on the other hand, affords a frequent and lasting example."[20]
Doubtless, the fundamental principle of good legislation is, rather to prevent crimes than to punish.—If a mathematical expression may be made use of, relative to the good and evil of human life, it is the art of conducting men to the maximum of happiness and the minimum of misery.
But in spite of all the efforts of human wisdom, aided by the lights of Philosophy, and freed from the mist of prejudice or the bigotry of darker ages;—In spite of the best laws, and the most correct system of Police which the most enlightened Legislature can form: it will not be altogether possible, amid the various opposite attractions of pleasure and pain, to reduce the tumultuous activity of mankind to absolute regularity:—We can only hope for a considerable reduction of the evils that exist.—Let the Laws be clear and simple;—let the entire force of the Nation be united in their defence; let the Laws be feared, and the Laws only.
CHAP. III.
The causes and progress of small Thefts in London explained and traced to the numerous Receivers of stolen Goods, under the denominations of Dealers in Rags, Old Iron, and other Metals.—The great increase of these Dealers of late years.—Their evil tendency, and the absolute necessity of Regulations, to prevent the extensive Mischiefs arising from the Encouragements they hold out, to persons of every age and description, to become Thieves, by the purchase of whatever is offered for sale.—A Remedy suggested.—Petty Thefts in the country round the Metropolis—Workhouses the causes of idleness—Commons—Cottagers—Gypsies—Labourers and Servants; their general bad character and propensity to thieving small articles from their Masters, encouraged by Receivers.—Thefts in Fields and Gardens—Their extent and amount throughout England—Frauds in the sale and adulteration of Milk in the Metropolis.
IN a [preceding Chapter] the small thefts committed by persons not known to belong to the fraternity of Thieves, are estimated to amount to the enormous sum of £.700,000 a year.
This discovery (except what relates to embezzled silk, cotton, and worsted) was originally made through the medium of a considerable Dealer in Rags and Old Iron, and other Metals, who communicated to the Author much interesting information, respecting Receivers of stolen Goods, confirmed afterwards through other channels, the substance of which has been already alluded to; and of which the following are more ample details:
That there exists in this Metropolis, (and also in all the towns where his Majesty's Dock-Yards are established) a class of Dealers, of late years become extremely numerous, who keep open shops for the purchase of Rags, Old Iron, and other Metals.
"That these Dealers are universally, almost without a single exception, the Receivers of stolen Goods of every denomination; from a nail, a skewer, a key, or a glass bottle, up to the most valuable article of portable household goods, merchandize, plate, or jewels, &c. &c.
"That they are divided into two classes:—Wholesale and Retail Dealers. That the Retail Dealers are generally (with some exceptions) the immediate purchasers in the first instance, from the pilferers or their agents; and as soon as they collect a sufficient quantity of iron, copper, brass, lead, tin, pewter, or other metals, worthy the notice of a large Dealer, they dispose of the same for ready money; by which they are enabled to continue the trade.
"That the increase of these old iron, rag, and store shops has been astonishing within the last twenty years.
"That, as the least trifle is received, the vigilance of the parties, from whom the articles are stolen, is generally eluded; by the prevailing practice of taking only a small quantity of any article at a time.
"That the articles thus received are generally purchased at about one-third of the real value, and seldom at more than half;—glass bottles in particular, are bought at one penny each, and no question asked:—they are afterwards sold to dealers in this particular branch, who assort and wash them, and again re-sell them to inferior wine-dealers at nearly the full value:—this has become, of late, an extensive line of trade.
"That further facilities are afforded by the dealers in old iron, in the collection of metals, rags, and other articles purloined and stolen in the Country; which are conveyed to town by means of single-horse carts, kept by itinerant Jews, and other doubtful characters; who travel to Portsmouth, Chatham, Woolwich, Deptford, and places in the vicinity of London, for the purpose of purchasing metals from persons who are in the habit of embezzling the King's stores, or from dealers on the spot, who are the first receivers; from them, copper-bolts, nails, spikes, iron, brass, lead, pewter, and other ship articles of considerable value are procured.—These single-horse carts have increased greatly of late years, and have become very profitable to the proprietors.
"That some of these dealers in old metals, notoriously keep men employed in knocking the broad Arrow, or King's mark, out of the copper-bolts, nails, and bar iron, whereon it is impressed, and also in cutting such bar iron into portable lengths, after which it is sold to the great dealers, who supply the Public Boards; and who are in some instances supposed by this means to sell the same Article to these boards even two or three times over.
"That the trade thus carried on, is exceedingly productive both to the retail and wholesale dealers; many of whom are become extremely opulent, and carry on business to the extent of from ten to thirty, and in some few instances, fifty thousand a year in old metals alone.
"That the quantity of new nails, taken from the public repositories, and from private workshops, and disposed of at the old iron shops exceeds all credibility.
"And finally, that the retail dealers in old iron, with some exceptions, are the principal purchasers of the pewter pots stolen from the Publicans, which they instantly melt down (if not previously done) to elude detection."
Thus are the lower ranks of Society assailed on all hands; and in a manner allured to be dishonest, by the ready means of disposing of property, unlawfully acquired, to satisfy imaginary and too frequently criminal wants, excited by the temptations which the amusements and dissipations of a great Capital, and the delusion of the Lottery, hold out.
The rapid growth of this Evil within the last twenty years, and the effect it has upon the morals of menial servants and others, who must in the nature of things have a certain trust committed to them, is a strong reason why some effectual remedy should be administered as speedily as possible.
It seems, under all circumstances, that the regulation of these Iron-shops, by licence, and by other restrictions connected with the public security, has become a matter of immediate necessity; for it is a dreadful thing to reflect that there should exist and grow up, in so short a period of time, such a body of criminal dealers, who are permitted to exercise all the mischievous part of the functions of Pawnbrokers; enjoying equal benefits, without any of the restrictions which have already been extended to this last class of dealers; who themselves also require further regulations, which will be hereafter discussed.
But beside the dealers in old iron, it will be necessary to extend the regulation proposed, to dealers in second-hand wearing apparel, whether stationary or itinerant; for through this medium also, a vast quantity of bed and table linen, sheets, wearing apparel, and other articles, pilfered in private families, is disposed of; and money is obtained, without asking questions, with the same facility as at the iron shops.
To prevent metals from being melted by Receivers of stolen Goods, and other persons keeping crucibles and melting vessels, by which means the most infamous frauds are committed, to the evasion of justice, by immediately melting plate, pewter pots, and every kind of metal that can be identified; it may be also necessary to regulate, by licence, all Founders of metal, and also the horse and truck carts used for the purpose of conveying old metals from place to place: so as, upon the whole, to establish a mild, but complete System of Prevention; by limiting the dealers in old metals and second-hand wearing apparel, to the honest and fair part of their trade, and by restraining them with regard to that which is fraudulent and mischievous.
At present these respective dealers may truly be said to be complete pests of Society.—They are not, like Pawnbrokers, restrained, as to the hours of receiving or delivering goods.—Their dealings are often in the night time, by which means they enjoy every opportunity of encouraging fraud and dishonesty.
It is impossible to contemplate the consequences arising from the seduction of so many individuals, young and old, who must be implicated in the crimes which these abominable receptacles encourage, without wishing to see so complicate and growing a mischief engage the immediate attention of the Legislature, that a remedy may be applied as early as possible.[21]
This System of petty thievery and general depredation is, however, by no means confined to the precincts of the Metropolis: it is extended in a peculiar manner through the different Counties in its Vicinity.—The following particulars, extracted from Mr. Middleton's View of the Agriculture of Middlesex, will enable the Reader to form some judgment of the extent of the mischief, and the causes from which it originates; producing and increasing that band of plunderers, of which the Metropolis itself has ultimately been at once the Nurse and the Victim.
"The funds raised for supporting the Idle Poor of this country (says this intelligent writer) are so numerous, efficient, and comfortable, as to operate against the general industry of the Labouring Poor.
"Lodging and diet in the workhouses, in every instance, are superior to what the industrious labourer can provide for his family. It is obvious that this must have an influence over their minds, and become most injurious to the interests of society; it holds out encouragement to prefer the workhouse to labour; and, by filling the poor houses with improper inhabitants, it reduces the amount of industry."
The annual expence of each pauper is calculated by the same Writer at about Fifteen Guineas; a stout healthy labourer in husbandry, with a wife and three children, earns only Thirty for the support of five persons.
"The want of prudence is increased, and general industry lessened, on the part of the poor, by the facility with which voluntary contributions are raised during every temporary inconvenience, such as a few weeks' frost, or an extraordinary advance in the price of provisions.[22] And also by the constantly cloathing upwards of ten thousand children of the labouring Poor in this Country.
"Every institution which tends to make the poor depend on any other support than their own industry does them great disservice, and is highly injurious to society, by diminishing the quantity of labour which annually produces consumable goods, the only wealth of a nation."
Although these suggestions may appear harsh, and some of them may admit of more extended discussion, yet they certainly deserve very serious consideration; as do also the following observations on the Commons and Waste Lands with which this kingdom still abounds; and on the general character of Servants and Labourers; the latter of which afford but too melancholy a confirmation of many opinions which the author of this treatise has thought it his duty to bring forward to the Public eye.
"On estimating the value of the Commons in Middlesex, including every advantage that can be derived from them in pasturage, locality of situation, and the barbarous custom of turbary, it appears that they do not produce to the Community, in their present state, more than four shillings per Acre! On the other hand, they are, in many instances, of real injury to the Public, by holding out a lure to the poor man; by affording him materials wherewith to build his cottage, and ground to erect it upon; together with firing, and the run of his poultry and pigs for nothing. This is, of course, temptation sufficient to induce a great number of poor persons to settle upon the borders of such Commons. But the mischief does not end here; for having gained these trifling advantages, through the neglect or connivance of the Lord of the Manor, it unfortunately gives their minds an improper bias, and inculcates a desire to live, from that time forward, without labour, or at least with as little as possible.
"The animals kept by this description of persons, it is soon discovered by their owners, are not likely to afford them much revenue, without better feed than the scanty herbage on a Common; hence they are tempted to pilfer corn, &c. towards their support; and as they are still dependant on such a deceptious supply, to answer the demands of their consumption, they are in some measure constrained to resort to various dishonest means, so as to make up the deficiency.
"It is a notorious fact, that in all cases cottages not having any ground belonging to them promote thieving to a great extent; as their inhabitants constantly rob the neighbouring farms and gardens of root and pulse sufficient for their own consumption, and which they would have no temptation to do, if they had the same articles growing of their own." Hence Mr. Middleton suggests the evil admits of an easy remedy, namely, the allotting to each cottager a piece of ground.
"Another very serious evil which the Public suffers from these Commons is, that they are the constant rendezvous of Gypsies, Strollers, and other loose persons, living under tents which they carry with them from place to place, according to their conveniency. Most of these persons have asses, many of them horses, nay, some of them have even covered carts, which answer the double purpose of a caravan for concealing and carrying off the property they have stolen, and also of a house for sleeping in at night. They usually stay a week or two at a place; and the cattle which they keep serve to transport their few articles of furniture from one place to another. These, during the stay of their owners, are turned adrift to procure what food they can find in the neighbourhood of their tents, and the deficiency is made up from the adjacent hay-stacks, barns and granaries. They are known never to buy any hay or corn, and yet their cattle are supplied with these articles of good quality. The women and children beg and pilfer, and the men commit greater acts of dishonesty. In short, the Commons of this Country are well known to be the constant resort of footpads and highwaymen, and are literally and proverbially a public nuisance."——
"The Labourers of this country are ruined in morals and constitution by the public houses. It is a general rule, that the higher their wages, the less they carry home, and consequently the greater is the wretchedness of themselves and their families. Comforts in a cottage are mostly found where the man's wages are low, at least so low as to require him to labour six days a week. For instance, a good workman at nine shillings per week, if advanced to twelve will spend a day in the week at the alehouse, which reduces his labour to five days, or ten shillings; and as he will spend two shillings in the public house, it leaves but eight for his family, which is one less than they had when he earned only nine shillings.
"If by any means he be put into a situation of earning eighteen shillings in six days, he will get drunk Sunday and Monday, and go to his work stupid on Tuesday; and should he be a mechanical journeyman of some genius, who by constant labour could earn twenty-four shillings or thirty shillings per week, as some of them can, he will be drunk half the week, insolent to his employer, and to every person about him.
"If his master has business in hand that requires particular dispatch, he will then, more than at any other time, be absent from his work, and his wife and children will experience the extreme of hunger, rags and cold.
"The low Inns on the road sides are, in general, receiving houses for the corn, hay, straw, poultry, eggs, &c. which the farmers' men pilfer from their masters.
"Gentlemen's Servants are mostly a bad set, and the great number kept in this county, is the means of the rural labourers acquiring a degree of idleness and insolence unknown in places more remote from the Metropolis.
"The poor children who are brought up on the borders of commons and copses, are accustomed to little labour, but too much idleness and pilfering. Having grown up, and these latter qualities having become a part of their nature, they are then introduced to the farmers as servants or labourers; and very bad ones they make.
"The children of small farmers, on the contrary, have the picture of industry, hard labour, and honesty, hourly before them, in the persons of their parents, and daily hear the complaints which they make against idle and pilfering servants, and comparisons drawn highly in favour of honesty. In this manner honesty and industry become, as it were, a part of the nature of such young folks. The father's property is small, and his means few; he is therefore unable to hire and stock a farm for each of his children; they consequently become servants on large farms, or in gentlemen's families, and in either situation are the most faithful part of such establishments."——
"One great hindrance to comfort in a life of agriculture, and which drives liberal minded men, who are always the best friends to improvement, out of the profession, is the want of laws to put a total stop to the Receivers of stolen goods. These are the wretches who encourage servants in agriculture, and others to pilfer, by holding out the lure of buying every article, which such servants can bring without asking them any questions. Most things which are usually produced on a farm, from so small an article as an egg, to hay, straw and grain of all sorts are daily stolen,[23] and sold on the sides of every principal road in this county. Among the Receivers are to be reckoned Millers, Cornchandlers, Dealers in eggs, butter and poultry, and the Keepers of Chandlers' shops.
"The Drivers of Gentlemen's carriages are intrusted to buy hay, straw, and corn, for their horses; in the doing which, they generally cheat their masters of 5s. in each load of hay, of 2s. 6d. in each load of straw, and 1s. in every quarter of corn. This gives them an interest in the consumption, makes them extremely wasteful, and brings on habits of dishonesty.
"The Ostlers at the Inns on the sides of the roads, purchase stolen hay, straw, corn, eggs, and poultry. A person who kept a horse several weeks at one of these inns, in attending occasionally to see the animal, discovered him to be fed with wheat, barley and oats mixed together, which could only happen by the farmers' servants robbing their Master, and selling the corn to the Ostler."——
"The fields near London are never free from men strolling about in pilfering pursuits by day, and committing great crimes by night. The depredations every Sunday are astonishingly great. There are not many gardens within five miles of London, that escape being visited in a marauding way, very early on a Sunday morning, and the farmers' fields are plundered all day long of fruit, roots, cabbages, pulse and corn. Even the ears of wheat are cut from the sheaves, and carried away in the most daring manner in open day, in various ways, but mostly in bags containing about half a bushel each. It has been moderately estimated, that 20,000 bushels of all the various sorts are thus carried off every Sunday morning, and 10,000 more during the other six days of the week; or one million and a half of bushels in a year, which, if valued at so small a sum as sixpence each, would amount to £37,500.
"The occupiers of many thousand acres round London, lose annually in this manner to the amount of much more than 20s. 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 4s. 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 10s. an acre, or nearly twenty millions annually.
The following curious circumstances 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 œconomy perfectly genuine.[24]
"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 circumstance 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 classes 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 classes:
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 classes 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 circumstances 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, assaults, 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 associates.—4th. Criminals tried and acquitted of offences charged against them, of which class 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.
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 circumstances 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.
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 multitude of thieves now at large, there will be added numbers of the same class, 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.
The means these depredators at present use in accomplishing their nefarious purposes are complicated and various; and of late years have become as much diversified as it is possible for the ingenuity of men to devise, who frequently join good natural abilities to all the artifices of the finished villain.
It is no uncommon thing for the more daring and strong-minded to form themselves into gangs or societies; to the exclusion of those of their fraternity whose hearts are likely to fail them, and who are supposed not to be sufficiently firm, so as to secure their accomplices against the hazard of discovery in case of detection.
Robbery and theft, as well in houses as on the roads, have long been reduced to a regular System. Opportunities are watched, and intelligence procured, with a degree of vigilance similar to that which marks the conduct of a skilful General, eager to obtain an advantage over an enemy.
Houses, intended to be entered during the night, are previously reconnoitred and examined for days preceding. If one or more of the servants are not already associated with the gang, the most artful means are used to obtain their assistance; and when every previous arrangement is made, the mere operation of robbing a house becomes a matter of little difficulty.
By the connivance and assistance of immediate, or former servants, they are led to the places where the most valuable, as well as the most portable, articles are deposited, and the object is speedily attained.
In this manner do the principal Burglars and House-breakers proceed: and let this information serve as a caution to every person in the choice both of their male and female servants; since the latter as well as the former are not seldom accomplices in very atrocious robberies.
The same generalship is manifested in the nocturnal expeditions of those criminal associates upon the highways.
A perfect knowledge is obtained every evening of the different routes and situations of the patroles:—they are narrowly watched, and their vigilance (wherever they are vigilant) is in too many instances defeated.
Infinite pains are bestowed in procuring intelligence of persons travelling upon the road with money, bank-notes, or other valuable effects; and when discovered, the most masterly pains are concerted to waylay and rob them of their property: Nor have the measures pursued by those atrocious villains, the Footpads, exhibited less skill in the plans adopted; while their outrages are too often marked with those acts of cruelty and barbarity which justly render them objects of peculiar terror.
The same adroitness also marks the conduct of those who turn their attention chiefly to picking of pockets, and other smaller robberies.
It would almost fill a volume to detail the various artifices which are resorted to, in carrying on this species of thieving; by which even the most cautious, and those who are generally upon their guard, are not exempted from the ravages of these inferior pests of Society.
In addition to the injuries or losses arising from burglaries, highway-robberies and lesser thefts, it is to be lamented that extensive and increasing depredations are made upon horses, cattle and sheep, and also upon flour, corn, potatoes, provender, and poultry; stolen from the drovers, millers, corn-factors, and farmers in the vicinity of the Metropolis. These have been stated more at large in a [preceding Chapter].
It cannot be too often repeated that the great facility experienced, in the immediate disposal of every article obtained by dishonesty, is one of the chief encouragements to all the acts of outrage and depredation enumerated in the course of this Work.
It frequently happens that the Burglars, the Highwaymen, and Footpad robbers, make their contracts with the Receivers, on the evening before the plunder is obtained; so as to secure a ready admittance immediately afterwards, and before day-break, for the purpose of effectual concealment by melting plate, obliterating marks, and securing all other articles so as to place them out of the reach of discovery. This has long been reduced to a regular system which is understood and followed as a trade.
Nor do those Thieves who steal horses,[26] cattle and sheep experience more difficulty in finding purchasers immediately for whatever they can obtain:—they too, generally, make a previous bargain with the Receivers, who are ready at an appointed hour to conceal the animals, to kill them immediately, and to destroy the skins for the purpose of eluding detection.
It sometimes happens also, that the persons who perpetrate these robberies are journeymen-butchers, by trade; who kill whatever they steal, and often afterwards sell their plunder in the Public Markets.
If, by wise regulations, it were possible to embarrass and disturb the extensive trade carried on by all the concealed Receivers, who are the particular class having connection with the professed thieves, a very great check would be given to public depredations.
In suggesting Remedies, this of all other appears, at first view, to be the most difficult; because of the apparent impossibility of regulating any class of Dealers who have no shop, or visible trade, and who transact all their business under concealment:—but still the object is to be obtained by a combination of different legislative regulations, carried into execution by a consolidated, vigilant and well-regulated Police.
The detail, however, of the means of detecting Receivers will, of course, be discussed hereafter, in a [subsequent Chapter]; at present the following Hints will suffice.
A register of lodging-houses and lodgers in every parish, liberty, hamlet, and precinct, where the rent does not exceed a certain sum (suppose ten shillings) weekly, would prove one great means of embarrassment to Thieves of every class; and of course would tend, with other regulations, to the prevention of Crimes.
Night-Coaches also promote, in an eminent degree, the perpetration of burglaries and other felonies: Bribed by a high reward, many hackney coachmen eagerly enter into the pay of nocturnal depredators, and wait in the neighbourhood until the robbery is completed, and then draw up, at the moment the watchmen are going their rounds, or off their stands, for the purpose of conveying the plunder to the house of the Receiver, who is generally waiting the issue of the enterprise. Above one half of the present Hackney Coachmen, in London, are said to be (in the cant phrase) Flashmen designed to assist thieves.
It being certain that a vast deal of mischief is done which could not be effected, were it not for the assistance which night coaches afford to Thieves of every description, it would seem, upon the whole, advantageous to the Public, that no Hackney Coaches should be permitted to take fares after twelve o'clock at night; or, if this is impracticable, that the coach-hire for night service should be advanced, on condition that all coachmen going upon the stands after twelve o'clock, should be licensed by a Board of Police. By this means the night-coachmen, by being more select, would not be so open to improper influence; and they might even become useful to Public Justice in giving informations, and also in detecting Burglars, and other Thieves.
Watchmen and Patroles, instead of being, as now, comparatively of little use, from their age, infirmity, inability, inattention, or corrupt practices, might almost at the present expence, by a proper selection, and a more correct mode of discipline, by means of a general superintendance over the whole to regulate their conduct, and keep them to their duty, be rendered of great utility in preventing Crimes, and in detecting Offenders.[27]
At present the System of the nightly watch is without energy, disjointed, and governed by almost as many different Acts of Parliament, as there are Parishes, Hamlets, Liberties, and Precincts within the Bills of Mortality; and where the payment is as various, running from 8½d. up to 2s. a night.
The Act of the 14th of George IIId. (cap. 90.) entituled, An Act for the better regulation of the Nightly Watch within the City and Liberty of Westminster, and parts adjacent, contains many excellent Regulations, but they do not extend to the eastern part of the Metropolis; and for want of an active and superintending agency, superior to beadles, it is believed and felt that they are not, (even within the district included in the Act,) correctly carried into execution: and that no small portion of those very men who are paid for protecting the public, are not only instruments of oppression in many instances, by extorting money most unwarrantably; but are frequently accessaries in aiding, abetting or concealing the commission of crimes, which it is their duty to detect and suppress.
If as an improvement to the preventive System, and as a check upon the improper conduct of parochial Watchmen, a body of honest, able, and active Officers, in the character of Police Patroles, were attached to each Public Office, or to a General Police System with a sufficient fund to defray the expences, to follow up informations for the detection of negligent servants of the Public, and liberally to reward those who were active and useful in apprehending delinquents, and in making discoveries, tending either to the recovery of property stolen, or to the detection of the offenders, little doubt need be entertained, under the guidance of a Central Board and vigilant Police, aided by zealous and active Magistrates, that such a System would soon be established, as would go very far towards the prevention of many atrocious crimes.
Among the various advantages which may thus be expected to result to the Community from the arrangements recommended in this work, would be the suppression of Highway Robberies. A desideratum impracticable in the present state of the Police, although easy and certain under a Police Board; having a general superintendance competent to look at every point of danger, and with pecuniary resources equal to an object so interesting to the inhabitants of this Metropolis.[28] Upon the adoption of this important measure, therefore, (a measure so strongly recommended by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance[29]) depends in a great degree, that security to travellers on the highways in the vicinity of the Metropolis; the want of which, and of many other valuable regulations, for the prevention of crimes, has long been a reproach to the Criminal Jurisprudence, as well as the Police, of the Country.
CHAP. V.
Reasons assigned why forgeries and frauds must prevail in a certain degree, wherever the interchange of property is extensive.—A considerable check already given to the higher class of Forgeries, by shutting out all hopes of Royal Mercy:—Petty Forgeries have however increased:—The Reason assigned.—The qualifications of a Cheat, Swindler, and Gambler explained.—This mischievous class of men extremely numerous in the Metropolis.—The Common and Statute Law applicable to offences of this nature explained.—The different classes of Cheats and Swindlers, and the various tricks and devices they pursue, to enable them to live in idleness, by their wits.—Sharpers, Cheats, and Swindlers, divided into eighteen different Classes—1st. Sharpers who become Pawnbrokers.—2d. Sharpers who obtain Licence as Hawkers and Pedlars.—3d. Swindlers who open shops as Auctioneers.—4th. Swindlers who pretend to discount Bills.—5th. Itinerate Jews.—6th. Cheats who sell by false Weights and Measures.—7th. Swindlers who defraud Tradesmen of Goods.—8th. Cheats who take Genteel Lodgings with false Names, &c.—9th. Cheats who personate former Masters to defraud their Tradesmen.—10th. Cheats who personate Footmen, and order Goods from Tradesmen.—11th. Cheats and Sharpers who deceive Persons from the Country.—12th. Cheats and Sharpers who trick Shopmen and Boys out of Parcels.—13th. Sharpers who attend Inns to pick up Parcels by various tricks and devices.—14th. Cheats who go from door to door, begging on false Pretences.—15th. Sharpers selling smuggled Goods; known by the name of Duffers.—16th. Female Sharpers, who attend Court and Public Places.—17th. Female Bankers who lend money to Barrow-Women at 6d. a day for Five Shillings.—18th. Cheats who pretend to tell Fortunes.—Various Remedies suggested.
IN a great Metropolis, like London, where trade and commerce have arrived at such an astonishing height, and where from the extensive transactions in the Funds, and the opulence of the People, the interchange of property is so expanded, it ceases to be a matter of wonder that Forgeries and Frauds should prevail, in a certain degree:—the question of difficulty is, why the Laws and the means of prevention, have not kept pace with the progressive advancement of the Country; so as to check and keep within bounds those nefarious practices?
Forgeries of the higher class, so dangerous in a commercial country, have by the wise policy of the Executive Government, in shutting out all hopes of the extension of the Royal Mercy to the guilty, received a most severe check: beneficial in the highest degree to the country, and clearly manifested by the records of the Old Bailey, where trial for offences of this nature certainly do not increase in number.
But it is to be lamented, that, with regard to petty forgeries and frauds, this is by no means the case, for they seem to multiply and advance with the opulence and luxury of the country; and to branch out into innumerable different shades, varying as the fashions of the year, and as the resources for the perpetration of this species of fraud change their aspect.
When those depraved people who (to use a vulgar phrase) live entirely by their wits—find that any tricks which they have practised for a certain length of time become stale, (such as pricking the belt for a wager, or dropping the ring) they abandon these; and have recourse to other devices more novel, and more likely to be effectual in cheating and defrauding the unwary.
One of the most prevailing and successful of these, is the fraud practised upon shop-keepers, tradesmen, publicans, and others, by the circulation of forged copper-plate notes and bills for small sums, of £5. and £10. the latter purporting to be drawn, by bankers in the manufacturing and sea-port towns, on different banking-houses in London.
This species of forgery has been carried to a considerable extent suggested no doubt by the confidence which is established from the extensive circulation of country bankers' notes and bills, now made payable in London; by which the deception is, in some degree, covered, and detection rendered more difficult.
The great qualifications, or leading and indispensable attributes of a Sharper, a Cheat, a Swindler, or a Gambler, are, to possess a genteel exterior, a demeanor apparently artless, and a good address.
Like the more violent depredators upon the public, this class (who are extremely numerous) generally proceed upon a regular system, and study as a trade all those infamous tricks and devices by which the thoughtless, the ignorant, and the honest are defrauded of their property.
The common law has defined the offence of cheating—to be a deceitful practice in defrauding, or endeavouring to defraud, another of his own right, by means of some artful device, contrary to the plain rules of common honesty.
The Statute of the 33d of Henry the Eighth, cap. 1. entered into a more specific explanation of what might constitute such an offence, and fixed the mode of punishment; by declaring, "that if any persons shall falsely or deceitfully obtain, or get into his hands or possession, any money, goods, &c. of any other person, by colour or means of any false privy token, or counterfeit letter, &c.—he shall, on conviction, be punished by imprisonment, the pillory, or whipping—saving to the party aggrieved the same power of recovering the property as he might have had at Common Law, &c."
From this remote period, until the 30th of George the Second, the Legislature does not appear to have seen the necessity of enacting any new Law, applicable to this species of offence.
In the progress however of Society and Commerce, joined to the consequent influx of riches, producing luxury and extravagance, a larger field opened for cheats and sharpers of every description; insomuch, that the evil became so great, and the existing Laws were found so insufficient, as to render it necessary to provide a legislative remedy.
In applying this remedy, it seems that the great increase of a new species of cheating, practised by persons known in modern times by the name of Swindlers, had suggested the propriety of defining the offence, in a more applicable and specific manner, and of rendering the punishment more severe. By the act of 30 Geo. II. cap. 24. it is declared, "that all persons obtaining money, goods, wares, or merchandise, by false pretences, shall be deemed offenders against the Law and the public peace; and the Court, before whom any such offender shall be tried, shall on conviction, order them to be put in the pillory, or publicly whipped, or transported for seven years."
Thus stand the Laws at present with regard to Swindlers.[30] They ought certainly to embrace a wider field, so as to reach those artifices by which sharpers and persons of depraved minds, obtain money from the ignorant and unwary, by assuming false characters, taking genteel lodgings, and cheating innocent tradesmen, who lose large sums annually by such depredations.
We shall next proceed to particularize the various classes of Sharpers who thus prey upon the public: reserving all that relates to those more immediately connected with Gaming Houses and Lottery Insurances to the [subsequent chapter].
I. Sharpers who obtain Licences to become Pawnbrokers,[31] and bring disgrace upon the reputable part of the trade, by every species of fraud which can add to the distresses of those who are compelled to raise money in this way; for which purpose there are abundance of opportunities.—Swindling Pawnbrokers, of this Class, are uniformly receivers of stolen goods; and under the cover of their licence do much mischief to the Public. The evil arising from them might, in a great measure, be prevented by placing the power of granting licences in a general Board of Police; and rendering it necessary for all persons to produce a Certificate of character, before they can obtain such licence; and also to enter into recognizance for good behaviour.[32]
II. Sharpers and Swindlers who obtain Licences to be Hawkers and Pedlars; under the cover of which every species of villainy is practised upon the country people, as well as upon the unwary in the Metropolis, and all the great towns in the kingdom.—The artifices by which they succeed, are various, as for example;—By fraudulent raffles, where plated goods are exhibited as silver, and where the chances are exceedingly against the adventurers;—By selling and uttering base money, and frequently forged Bank Notes, which make one of the most profitable branches of their trade;—By dealing in smuggled goods, thereby promoting the sale of articles injurious to the Revenue, besides cheating the ignorant with regard to the value;—By receiving stolen goods to be disposed of in the country, by which discoveries are prevented, and assistance afforded to common thieves and stationary receivers;—By purchasing stolen horses in one part of the country, and disposing of them in another, in the course of their journies; in accomplishing which, so as to elude detection, they have great opportunities;—By gambling with EO Tables at Fairs and Horse-races.
A number of other devices might be pointed out, which render this class of men great nuisances in Society; and shew the necessity of either suppressing them totally, (for in fact they are of little use to the Public;) or of limiting the licences only to men of good character; to be granted by a general Board of Police under whose controul they should be placed, while they enter at the same time into a recognizance in a certain sum, with one surety for good behaviour; by which the honest part would be retained, to the exclusion of the fraudulent.
III. Swindlers who take out Licences as Auctioneers, and open shops in different parts of the Metropolis, with persons at the doors, usually denominated Barkers, inviting strangers to walk in. In these places, various articles of silver plate and household goods are exposed to sale, made up on a slight principle, and of little intrinsic value; associates, generally denominated Puffers, are in waiting to bid up the article to a sum greatly beyond its value, when, upon the first bidding of the stranger, it is knocked down to him, and the money instantly demanded; the goods, however, on being carried home and examined, are generally found to be very different in reality, from what their appearance exhibited, and upon a close examination the fraud is discovered.
Neither the common Law, nor the Act of the 30th George II. cap. 24, seem to be sufficiently broad and explanatory to include this species of offence; and hence it is, that this mode of selling goods continues with impunity, and seems to increase. It is not, however, meant here to insinuate that all petty auctions are fraudulent.—It is to be hoped there may be some exceptions, although probably, they are not numerous. A licence from a general Board of Police, and to be subject to certain restrictions only burdensome to the dishonest, and obliging the parties to find security, would, in a great measure, regulate this kind of business, in a proper manner.
IV. Swindlers who raise money, by pretending to be Discounters of Bills, and Money Brokers; These chiefly prey upon young men of property, who have lost their money at play, or spent it in expensive amusements, and are obliged to raise more upon any terms, until their rents or incomes become payable; or who have fortunes in prospect, as being heirs apparent to estates, but who require assistance in the mean time.
Availing themselves of the credit, or the ultimate responsibility, of such thoughtless and giddy young men, in the eager pursuit of criminal pleasures, and under the influence of those allurements which the Faro Tables, and other places of fashionable resort hold out—these Swindlers seldom fail to obtain from them securities and obligations for large sums; upon the credit of which they are enabled, perhaps, at usurious interest, to borrow money, or discount bills; and thus supply their unfortunate customers upon the most extravagant terms.
Another class, having some capital, advance money upon bonds, title-deeds, and other specialities, or upon the bond of the parties having estates in reversion: by these and other devices too tedious to detail, large sums of money are, most unwarrantably and illegally, wrested from the dissipated and thoughtless: and misery and distress are thus entailed upon them, as long as they live; or they are driven, by utter ruin, to acts of desperation or to crimes.
A Law seems absolutely necessary to be pointed at this particular mischief, which is certainly an increasing evil.—Humanity pleads for it; and Policy points out the necessity of some effectual guard against those miseries which it generates; and which could not exist in so great a degree, were it not for the opportunities held out by these blood-suckers, in affording money to the young and inexperienced, to be expended in scenes of gambling and debauchery.
V. A Class of Cheats of the Society of Jews, who are to be found in every street, lane and alley in and near the Metropolis, under the pretence of purchasing old clothes, and metals of different sorts; Their chief business really is to prowl about the houses and stables of men of rank and fortune, for the purpose of holding out temptations to the servants to pilfer and steal small articles, not likely to be missed, which these Jews purchase at about one third of the real value.—It is supposed that upwards of fifteen hundred of these depraved people are employed in diurnal journies of this kind; by which, through the medium of bad money, and other fraudulent dealings, many of them acquire property, and then set up shops and become Receivers of stolen Goods.
It is estimated that there are from fifteen to twenty thousand Jews in the city of London, besides, perhaps, about five or six thousand more in the great provincial and sea-port towns; (where there are at least twenty synagogues, besides six in the Metropolis;) most of the lower classes of those distinguished by the name of German or Dutch Jews, live chiefly by their wits, and establish a system of mischievous intercourse all over the country, the better to carry on their fraudulent designs in the circulation of base money,—the sale of stolen goods, and in the purchase of metals of various kinds; as well as other articles pilfered from the Dock-Yards, and stolen in the provincial towns, which they bring to the Metropolis to elude detection,—and vice versâ.
Educated in idleness from their earliest infancy, they acquire every debauched and vicious principle which can fit them for the most complicated arts of fraud and deception; to which they seldom fail to add the crime of perjury, whenever it can be of use, in shielding themselves or their associates from the punishment of the law.—From the orange boy, and the retailer of seals, razors, glass, and other wares, in the public streets, to the shop-keeper, dealer in wearing apparel, or in silver and gold, the same principles of conduct too generally prevail.
The itinerants utter base money to enable them, by selling cheap, to dispose of their goods; while those that are stationary, with very few exceptions, receive and purchase, at an under-price, whatever is brought them, without asking questions.
VI. Cheats who sell provisions and other articles by means of false weights and measures. Nothing requires the assistance of the Legislature in a greater degree than this evil; to shield the Poor against the numerous tricks thus practised upon them, by low and inferior shop-keepers and itinerants.
The ancient System of regulating this useful branch of Police by the Juries of the Court-Leet, having been found ineffectual, and in many respects inapplicable to the present state of Society, an act passed the 35th of his present Majesty, (cap. 102,) to remedy the inconvenience with regard to fraudulent weights; but difficulties having occurred on account of the expence of carrying it into execution, certain amendments were made by another act, (37 Geo. III. c. 143,) and the Magistrates in Petty Sessions have now power to appoint Examiners of weights, and to authorize them to visit shops, seize false weights, &c.
This plan, if pursued as steadily as that which already prevails in regulating Bakers, promises to produce very valuable benefits to the lower ranks of people at a very small expence.
VII. Cheats and Swindlers who associate together, and enter into a conspiracy for the purpose of defrauding Tradesmen of their goods.—One of these sharpers generally assumes the character of a Merchant;—hires a genteel house, with a counting-house, and every appearance of business.—One or two associates take upon them the appearance of Clerks, while others occasionally wear a livery: and sometimes a carriage is set up, in which the ladies of the party visit the shops, in the stile of persons of fashion, ordering goods to their apartments.—Thus circumstanced, goods are obtained on credit, which are immediately pawned or sold, and the produce used as a means of deception to obtain more, and procure recommendations, by offering to pay ready money,—or discount bills.
When confidence is once established in this way, notes and bills are fabricated by these conspirators, as if remitted from the country, or from foreign parts; and application is made to their newly acquired friends, the tradesmen, to assist in discounting them. Sometimes money and bills upon one another are lodged at the bankers for the purpose of extending their credit, by referring to some respectable name for a character.
After circulating notes to a considerable amount, and completing their system of fraud by possessing as much of the property of others as is possible, without risk of detection, they move off; assume new characters; and when the bills and notes are due, the parties are not to be found.
Offences of this sort, where an actual conspiracy cannot be proved, which is generally very difficult, are not easily punished; and it seems of importance that frauds and impositions of this sort, and others of the same nature, where the confidence of tradesmen and manufacturers is abused by misrepresentation and falsehood, should be defined, so as to render it difficult for the parties to escape punishment.
VIII. Cheats who take genteel Lodgings, dress elegantly, assume false names:—pretend to be related to persons of credit and fashion—produce letters familiarly written to prove an intimacy,—enter into conversation, and shew these letters to tradesmen and others, upon whom they have a design—get into their good graces, purchase wearing apparel and other articles, and disappear with the booty.
This species of offence would be very difficult to reach by any existing Law, and yet it is practised in various shapes in the Metropolis, whereby tradesmen are defrauded to a very considerable extent.—Some legislative guards would certainly be very desirable to define and punish these offences also.
IX. Cheats, who have been formerly in the service of Milliners, Mantua-Makers, Taylors, and other Traders, who have occasion to send to shop-keepers and warehousemen for goods;—These, after being discharged from their service, getting into the company of sharpers and thieves, while out of place, teach them how to personate their former employers; in whose names they too frequently succeed in obtaining considerable quantities of goods before the fraud is discovered.
It would certainly be a good rule at no time to deliver goods upon a verbal message; and it would be useful if all persons discharging servants, would give notice of it to every tradesmen with whom they deal.
X. Cheats who personate Gentlemen's footmen; These order goods to be sent to a genteel lodging, where the associate is waiting, who draws upon some banker in a distant part of the town for the money; or, if the check is refused, a country bank-note (the gentleman just being arrived in town) is offered to be changed, which, although a forgery, often succeeds: if this should also fail, this mischievous class of people, from habit and close attention to the means of deception, are seldom at a loss in finding out some other expedient; and before the fraud is discovered, the parties are off; and the master transformed into the livery-servant, to practise in his turn the same trick upon some other person.
XI. Cheats who associate systematically together, for the purpose of finding out and making a prey of every person from the country, or any ignorant person who is supposed to have money, or who has come to London for the purpose of selling goods.—It is usual in such cases for one of them to assume the character of a young 'Squire, just come to his estate; to appear careless and prodigal, and to shew handfuls of bank-notes, all of which are false and fabricated for the purpose.
Another personates the guardian of the 'Squire, while a part of the associates pretend to sit down to play, and having won money of the young spendthrift, who appears extremely ignorant and profuse, the stranger's avarice gets the better of his prudence, and he is induced at length to try his luck,—the result is that he is soon left without a penny.
XII. Cheats who prowl about in all the streets and lanes of the trading part of the Metropolis, where shopmen and boys are carrying parcels: These, by means of various stratagems, find out where the parcels are going, and regulating their measures accordingly, seldom fail by some trick or other, (such as giving the lad a shilling to run and call a coach,) to get hold of the property.—Porters and young men from the country should be particularly cautious never to quit any property intrusted to their care, until delivered (not at the door) but within the house to which it is directed.
XIII. Cheats who attend Inns, at the time that coaches and waggons are loading or unloading. These by personating porters with aprons and knots, or clerks with pens stuck in their wigs or hair, and by having recourse to a variety of stratagems, according to the peculiar circumstances of the case, aided by their having previously noticed the address of several of the parcels, seldom fail of success, in the general hurry and confusion which prevails at such places. This proves how necessary it is at all times to have one or two intelligent officers of justice, who know the faces of thieves, in attendance, while goods are receiving and delivering.
XIV. Cheats who go from door to door collecting money; under pretence of soliciting for a charitable establishment, for the benefit of poor children, and other purposes. But the money, instead of being so applied, is generally spent in eating and drinking; and the most infamous imposition is thus practised upon the charitable and humane, who are the dupes of this species of fraud in too many instances.
XV. Sharpers who are known by the name of Duffers. These go about from house to house, and attend public houses, inns, and fairs, pretending to sell smuggled goods, such as India handkerchiefs, waistcoat patterns, muslins, &c. By offering their goods for sale, they are enabled to discover the proper objects, who may be successfully practised upon in various ways; and if they do not succeed in promoting some gambling scheme, by which the party is plundered of his money, they seldom fail passing forged country bank notes, or base silver and copper in the course of their dealings.
XVI. Female Sharpers who dress elegantly, personate women of fashion, attend masquerades, and even go to St. James's. These, from their effrontery, actually get into the circle; where their wits and hands are employed in obtaining diamonds, and whatever other articles of value, capable of being concealed, are found to be most accessible.
The wife of a well-known sharper, lately upon the town, is said to have appeared at Court, dressed in a stile of peculiar elegance: while the sharper himself is supposed to have gone in the dress of a clergyman.—According to the information of a noted receiver, they pilfered to the value of £1700. on the King's birth-day (1795,) without discovery or suspicion.
Houses are kept where female Cheats dress and undress for public places.—Thirty or forty of these sharpers generally attend all masquerades, in different characters, where they seldom fail to get clear off with a considerable booty.
XVII. Among the classes of Cheats may be ranked a species of Female Bankers. These accommodate barrow-women and others, who sell fish, fruit, vegetables, &c. in the streets, with five shillings a day; (the usual diurnal stock in trade in such cases;) for the use of which, for twelve hours, they obtain a premium of six-pence, when the money is returned in the evening, receiving thereby at this rate, about seven pounds ten shillings a year for every five shillings they lend out!
The Author, in the course of his Magisterial duty, having discovered this extraordinary species of fraud, attempted to explain to a barrow-woman on whom it was practised, that by saving up a single five shillings, and not laying any part of it out in gin, but keeping the whole, she would save £7. 10s. a year, which seemed to astonish her, and to stagger her belief.—It is to be feared, however, that it had no effect upon her future conduct, since it is evident that this improvident and dissolute class of females have no other idea than that of making the day and the way alike long.—Their profits (which are often considerably augmented by dealing in base money, as well as fruit, vegetables, &c.) seldom last over the day, for they never fail to have a luxurious dinner and a hot supper, with abundance of gin and porter:—looking in general no farther than to keep whole the original stock, with the six-pence interest, which is paid over to the female banker in the evening; and a new loan obtained on the following morning, of the same number of shillings again to go to market.
In contemplating this curious system of Banking, (trifling as it seems to be) it is impossible not to be forcibly struck with the immense profits that arise from it. It is only necessary for one of these female sharpers to possess a capital of seventy shillings, or three pounds ten shillings, with fourteen steady and regular customers, in order to realize an income of one hundred guineas a year!
XVIII. Cheats who pretend to tell fortunes. These impose on the credulity of the public, by advertisements and cards; pretending a power, from their knowledge of astrology, to foretell future events, to discover stolen property, lucky numbers in the Lottery, &c.
The extent to which this mischief goes in the Metropolis is almost beyond belief; particularly during the drawing of the Lottery.—The folly and phrenzy which prevail in vulgar life, lead ignorant and deluded people into the snare of adding to the misfortunes which the Lottery occasions, by additional advances of money (obtained generally by pawning goods or apparel) paid to pretended astrologers for suggesting lucky numbers, upon which they are advised to make insurances; and under the influence of this unaccountable delusion, they are too often induced to increase their risks, and ruin their families.
One of these impostors who lived long in the Curtain-Road, Shoreditch, is said, in conjunction with his associates, to have made near £300. a year by practising upon the credulity of the lower orders of the people.—He stiled himself (in his circulating cards) an Astronomer and Astrologer; and stated, That he gave advice to Gentlemen and Ladies on business, trade, contracts, removals, journies by land or water, marriages, children, law-suits, absent friends, &c. And further, that he calculated nativities accurately,—His fee was half-a-crown.
An instance of mischievous credulity, occasioned by consulting this impostor, once fell under the review of the Author. A person having property stolen from him, went to consult the conjuror respecting the thief; who having described something like the person of a man whom he suspected, his credulity and folly so far got the better of his reason and reflection, as to induce him upon the authority of this impostor actually to charge his neighbour with a felony, and to cause him to be apprehended. The Magistrate settled the matter by discharging the prisoner; reprimanding the accuser severely, and ordering the conjuror to be taken into custody, according to law, as a Rogue and Vagabond.
But the delusion with regard to Fortune-tellers is not confined to vulgar life, since it is known, that ladies of rank, fashion, and fortune, contribute to the encouragement of this fraudulent profession in particular, by their visits to a pretended Astrologer of their own sex in the neighbourhood of Tottenham-Court Road: This woman, to the disgrace of her votaries, whose education ought to have taught them the folly and weakness of countenancing such gross impositions, found the practice of it extremely productive.[33]
The act of the 9th George the Second, cap. 5, punishes all persons pretending skill in any crafty science; or telling fortunes, or where stolen goods may be found; with a year's imprisonment, and standing four times in the pillory (once every quarter) during the term of such imprisonment. The act called the Vagrant Act, made the 17th year of the same reign, (cap. 5,) declares such persons to be rogues and vagabonds, and liable to be punished as such.
It is sincerely to be hoped that those at least who are convinced from having suffered by the gross imposition practised upon the credulity of the people by these pests of Society, will enable the civil Magistrate, by proper informations, to suppress so great an evil.
Innumerable almost are the other tricks and devices which are resorted to by the horde of Cheats, Swindlers, and Sharpers, who infest the Metropolis.
The great increase of commerce, and the confidence resulting from an intercourse so wide and extended, frequently lays men of property and tradesmen open to a variety of frauds; credit is obtained by subterfuges and devices contrary to the plain rules of common honesty, against which, however, there is no remedy but by an action of common law.
If it were possible to look accurately at the different evils arising from fraudulent and swindling practices, so as to frame a statute that would generally reach all the cases that occur, whenever the barrier of common honesty is broken down, it would certainly be productive of infinite benefit to the community; for, in spite of the laudable exertions of the Society established for prosecuting swindlers, it is to be lamented that the evil has not diminished. On the contrary, it has certainly encreased, and must continue to do so, until the Legislature, by applicable Laws and an improved System of Police, either directly or collaterally attaching to these offences, shall find the means of suppressing them.
CHAP. VI.
The great anxiety of the Legislature to suppress the evils of Gaming:—The Misery and Wretchedness entailed on many respectable Families from this fatal propensity:—Often arising from the foolish vanity of mixing in what is stiled, Genteel Company; where Faro is introduced.—Games of Chance, though stigmatized by the Legislature, encouraged by high-sounding names, whose houses are opened for purposes odious and unlawful:—The Civil Magistrate called upon by his public duty, as well as by the feelings of humanity, to suppress such mischiefs.—The danger arising from such seminaries—No probability of any considerations of their illegality, or inhumanity, operating as a check, without the efforts of the Magistracy.—The evil tendency of such examples to servants in fashionable Families, who carry these vices into vulgar life; and many of whom, as well as persons of superior education, become Sharpers, Cheats, and Swindlers, from the habits they acquire.—A particular Statement of the proceedings of persons who have set up Gaming Houses as regular Partnership-Concerns; and of the Evils resulting therefrom.—Of Lottery Insurers of the Higher Class.—Of Lottery Offices opened for Insurance—Proposed Remedies.—Three Plans suggested to the Author by Correspondents.
GAMING is the source from which has sprung up all that race of cheats, swindlers, and sharpers, some of whose nefarious practices have already been noticed, and the remainder of which it is the object of the Author to develope in this chapter.
Such has been the anxiety of the Legislature to suppress this evil, that so early as the reign of Queen Anne, this abandoned and mischievous race of men seems to have attracted its notice in a very particular degree; for the act of the 9th year of that reign (cap. 14. §§ 6, 7,) after reciting, "that divers lewd and dissolute persons live at great expences, having no visible estate, profession, or calling, to maintain themselves; but support these expences by Gaming only; Enacts, that any two Justices may cause to be brought before them, all persons within their limits whom they shall have just cause to suspect to have no visible estate, profession, or calling, to maintain themselves by; but do for the most part support themselves by Gaming; and if such persons shall not make it appear to such Justices that the principal part of their expences is not maintained by gaming, they are to be bound to their good behaviour for a twelve-month; and in default of sufficient security, to be committed to prison, until they can find the same; and if security shall be given, it will be forfeited on their playing or betting at any one time, for more than the value of twenty shillings."
If, in conformity to the spirit of this wise statute, sharpers of every denomination, who support themselves by a variety of cheating and swindling practices, without having any visible means of living, were in like manner to be called upon to find security for their good behaviour, in all cases where they cannot shew they have the means of subsisting themselves honestly, the number of these Pests of Society, under a general Police and an active and zealous Magistracy, would soon be diminished, if not totally annihilated.
By the 12th of George the Second, (cap. 28. § 2, 3,) "the Games of Faro, Hazard, &c. are declared to be Lotteries, subjecting the persons who keep them to a penalty of two hundred pounds, and those who play to fifty pounds."—One witness only is necessary to prove the offence before any Justice of the Peace; and the Justice forfeits ten pounds if he neglects to do his duty under the Act:—and under this Act, which is connected with the statute 8th of George I. cap. 2, it seems that "the keeper of a Faro Table may be prosecuted even for a penalty of five hundred pounds."
Notwithstanding these salutary laws, to the reproach of the Police of the Metropolis, houses have been opened, even under the sanction of high-sounding names, where an indiscriminate mixture of all ranks was to be found, from the finished sharper to the raw inexperienced youth. And where all those evils existed in full force, which it was the object of the Legislature to remove.
Though it is hoped that this iniquitous System of plunder, has of late been somewhat restrained by the wholesome administration of the Laws, under the excellent Chief Justice who presides in the High Criminal Department of the Country, in consequence of the detection of Criminals, through the meritorious vigilance and attention of the Magistrates; to which the Author of this work, by bringing the evil so prominently under the view of the Public, may flatter himself in having been in some small degree instrumental: Still it is much to be feared, that the time is not yet arrived which would induce him to withhold the following narrative.
Gaming, although at all times an object highly deserving attention, and calling for the exertions of Magistrates, never appeared either to have assumed so alarming an aspect, or to have been conducted upon the methodized system of Partnership-Concerns, wherein pecuniary capitals were embarked, till about the years 1777 and 1778, when the vast licence which was given to those abominable engines of fraud, EO Tables, and the great length of time which elapsed before a check was given to them by the Police, afforded a number of dissolute and abandoned characters, who resorted to these baneful subterfuges for support, an opportunity of acquiring property: This was afterwards increased in low Gaming Houses, and by following up the same system at Newmarket, and other places of fashionable resort, and in the Lottery; until at length, without any property at the outset, or any visible means of lawful support, a sum of money, little short of One Million Sterling, is said to have been acquired by a class of individuals originally (with some few exceptions) of the lowest and most depraved order of Society. This enormous mass of wealth (acquired no doubt by entailing misery on many worthy and respectable Families, and driving the unhappy victims to acts of desperation and suicide,) is said to have been afterwards engaged as a great and an efficient capital for carrying on various illegal Establishments; particularly Gaming-Houses, and Shops for fraudulent Insurances in the Lottery; together with such objects of dissipation as the Races at Newmarket and other places of fashionable resort, held out: all which were employed as the means of increasing and improving the ill-gotten wealth of the parties engaged in these nefarious pursuits.
A System, grown to such an enormous height, had, of course, its rise by progressive advances. Several of those who now roll in their gaudy carriages, and associate with some men of high rank and fashion, may be found upon the Registers of the Old Bailey; or traced to the vagrant pursuit of turning, with their own hands, EO Tables in the open streets; These mischievous Members of Society, through the wealth obtained by a course of procedure diametrically opposite to Law, are, by a strange perversion, sheltered from the operation of that Justice, which every act of their lives has offended: they bask in the sun-shine of prosperity; while thousands, who owe their distress and ruin to the horrid designs thus executed, invigorated and extended, are pining in misery and want.
Certain it is, that the mischiefs arising from the rapid increase, and from the vast extent of capital employed in these Systems of ruin and depravity, have become great and alarming beyond calculation; as will be evinced by developing the nature of the very dangerous Confederacy which systematically moves and directs this vast Machine of destruction—composed in general of men who have been reared and educated under the influence of every species of depravity which can debase the human character.
Wherever Interest or resentment suggests to their minds a line of conduct calculated to gratify any base or illegal propensity; it is immediately indulged. Some are taken into this iniquitous Partnership for their dexterity in securing the dice; or in dealing cards at Faro.—Informers are apprehended and imprisoned upon writs, obtained, by perjury, to deter others from similar attacks. Witnesses are suborned—officers of justice are bribed, wherever it can be done, by large sums of money[34]—ruffians and bludgeon-men are employed to resist the Civil Power, where pecuniary gratuities fail—and houses are barricadoed and guarded by armed men: thereby offering defiance to the common exertions of the Laws, and opposing the regular authority of Magistrates.
It is impossible to contemplate a Confederacy thus circumstanced, so powerful from its immense pecuniary resources, and so mischievous and oppressive from the depravity which directs these resources, without feeling an anxiety to see the strong arm of the Law still further and unremittingly exerted for the purpose of effectually destroying it.
Whilst one part of the immense property by which this confederacy was so strongly fortified was employed in the establishment of Gaming-Houses, holding out the most fascinating allurements to giddy young men of fortune, and others, having access to money, by means of splendid entertainments,[35] and regular suppers, with abundance of the choicest wines, so as to form a genteel lounge for the dissipated and unwary; another part of the capital was said to form the stock which composes the various Faro-Banks which were to be found at the routes of Ladies of Fashion: Thus drawing into this vortex of iniquity and ruin, not only the males, but also the females of the thoughtless and opulent part of Society; who too easily became a prey to that idle vanity which frequently overpowers reason and reflection; and the delusion of which is seldom terminated till it is too late.
Evil example, when thus sanctioned by apparent respectability, and by the dazzling blandishment of rank and fashion, is so intoxicating to those who have either suddenly acquired riches, or who are young and inexperienced, that it almost ceases to be a matter of wonder that the fatal propensity to Gaming should become universal; extending itself over all ranks in Society in a degree scarcely to be credited, but by those who will attentively investigate the subject.
At the commencement of the troubles in France, and before this Country was visited by the hordes of Emigrants of all descriptions, who fixed a temporary or permanent residence in this Metropolis, the number of Gaming-Houses (exclusive of those that are select, and have long been established by Subscription,) did not exceed above four or five: In the year 1797, not less than thirty were said to be actually open; where, besides Faro and Hazard, the foreign games of Roulet, and Rouge et Noir, were introduced, and where there existed a regular gradation of establishment, accommodating to all ranks; from the man of fashion, down to the thief, the burglar, and the pick-pocket—where immense sums of money were played for every evening, for eight months in the year.[36]
In a commercial Country, and in a great Metropolis, where from the vast extent of its trade and manufactures, and from the periodical issue of above Twenty Millions annually, arising from dividends on funded security, there must be an immense circulation of property, the danger is not to be conceived, from the allurements which are thus held out to young men in business, having the command of money, as well as to the clerks of merchants, bankers, and others concerned in different branches of trade: In fact, it is well known, that too many of this class resort at present to these destructive scenes of vice, idleness, and misfortune.[37]
The mind shrinks with horror at the existence of a System in the Metropolis, unknown to our ancestors, even in the worst periods of their dissipation; when a Ward, a Waters, and a Chartres, insulted public morals by their vices and their crimes: for then no regular Establishments—no systematic concerns for carrying on this nefarious trade, were known.—No Partnerships in Gaming-Houses, were conducted with the regularity of Commercial Houses.
But these Partnerships have not been confined to Gaming-Houses alone. A considerable proportion of the immense capital which the conductors of the System possess, is employed periodically in the two Lotteries, in Fraudulent Insurances, where, like the Faro Bank, the chances are so calculated as to yield about 30 per cent. profit to the Gambling proprietors; and from the extent to which these transactions have been, and we fear still are carried, no doubt can be entertained that the annual gains must be immense.—It has, indeed, been stated, with an appearance of truth, that a single individual acquired no less than £.60,000 during one English Lottery!
Although it is impossible to be perfectly accurate in any estimate which can be formed; for in this, as in all other cases where calculations are introduced in this Work, accuracy to a point is not to be expected; yet when all circumstances are considered, there appear just grounds to suppose that the following Statement, placing the whole in one connected point of view, may convey to the Reader no very imperfect idea of the vast and unparalleled extent to which this horrid mischief had arrived; and to which, if not closely watched, it may yet rise once more.