But not to detain you with the relation of circumstances so familiar to daily experience, I will trespass upon your time no longer than is necessary to make some observations upon that more immoral and dangerous species of iniquity, daily practised, under pretence of putting the laws in force against offenders of the foregoing description: in doing which, I must enter into an history of fraud, perjury, subornation, extortion, and robbery of the most hideous description, wherein I shall be assisted not only by matters of fact, but by additional credit from some outrageous acts of delinquency, lately unfolded by the injured parties, to the Magistrates in Bow-street; from which it appeared, that a man of the name of John Bell, who assumed the consequence of a country gentleman residing at Peckham, with a degree of audacity, the necessary concomitant of designing knavery, imposed himself upon a Magistrate as a man outrageously offended with the immorality of gaming houses, and with an unbounded anxiety to suppress the evil, obtained a warrant to appease the perturbed state of his conscience, and apprehend the keepers: with this instrument he marched, at the head of about a dozen constables, to an house in Pall Mall, between eleven and twelve o’clock-at night, and there, with all the insolence of an Arabian freebooter, domineered, and terrified the mistress, children, and guests, whom he conveyed to a watch house, where they remained till five o’clock in the morning, when this Algerine demagogue, condescended to take what he impudently called bail for their appearance, and thus the night scene ended; upon which there is but one circumstance creative of surprise, and that is, that no one man out of the twenty-four whose liberty he sported with, had spirit enough to cut off one of his ears, as a token of his imposture; for it must be remembered he was not a peace officer, or armed with any authority, but such as an highwayman assumes the moment he is cocking his pistol.
To suppose that this man of straight-laced morality would stray from his hovel at Peckham, to hunt gamblers at midnight in Pall-Mall, from motives of public justice, is as ridiculous a supposition, as that he could produce any circumstance of his life, that procured him an honest shilling. The warrant having thus operated to the accomplishment of every purpose for which it was obtained, the negociation commenced relative to its future progress, but ended as fifty others had done before; one hundred pounds was demanded to satisfy the voracious appetite of offended decorum; a sum so trifling, that if it was not immediately paid, a similar visit was threatened for the next night:—however, the sum of 60l. was at length acceded to, and 60l. was paid, of course all hostilities ceased. This pecuniary anodyne assuaged the moral-wrought grief of Mr. Bell; but there was yet left unmolested, three houses more in the same neighbourhood, that furnished Mr. Bell with suspicions, that similar instruments against them might prove equally productive to his pocket; he instantly tried the experiment, and with the use of little more rhetoric than accompanies a dark-lanthorn and knife in the hands of a midnight ruffian, demanded 35l. each, as the conditions of a short cessation from a like outrage: these respective sums being also paid, silence was proclaimed, and the blast of offended justice no longer heard; here perhaps, the business would have ended, and the robberies sunk into an oblivion, criminal as the impunity with which they were committed, had Mr. Bell given himself time to recollect, that one extreme generally begets another; the extremity of vice being frequently the beginning of folly; for within a month subsequent to this transaction, the different parties received a further demand of 10l. each: however, a little expostulation upon the rapidity of their collections, procured them a respite of some days for the payment of this second subsidy; in the interim the nefarious transactions came to the knowledge of some of the magistrates at Bow Street, who to their eternal honour, sent for the objects of Mr. Bell’s plunder, from whom they received an ample detail of all the circumstances; from that period the spirit of self-defence was roused, and the injured parties determined to seek protection from the laws of the country: with the advice of three eminent council at a consultation, they have preferred bills of indictment against Mr. Bell and his Attorney, who appears so implicated in the business, that no legal distinction in point of turpitude can possibly exist; therefore, they are indicted for a conspiracy; other bills were prepared, the presenting of which was delayed by an accident till next sessions.
In stating this transaction, I wish it to be understood, as a mere sample of the virtuous conduct of Mr. Bell upon a variety of occasions, too numerous for any thing like a detailed accuracy, which, however, bids fair to undergo an ample discussion at the next Surry assizes, if he has audacity enough to pursue the action, there to be tried, and if what is stated in the defendant’s brief is true, it exhibits a catalogue of outrageous atrocity unparalleled in the history of human turpitude.
With respect to Mr. Bell’s cotemporaries in the traffic of similar extortions, they are about twenty-five in number, but as many of the magistrates are, and the rest soon will be, furnished with a complete list of their names and descriptions, and as they are perfectly known to the generality of my readers, it is unnecessary to enlarge upon their conduct, the more especially as there is great probability that from the example indignant justice calls for, upon the heads of these selected for prosecution, the rest may benefit by their fate, and substitute some other means of existence, more particularly that portion of the catalogue composed of attornies, of whom I shall say no more at present than that the profession will suffer no material indignity whenever an halter or any other accident sweeps from its bosom, those superfluous ornaments of the roll. I shall, therefore, content myself with personifying a gentleman who may fairly be called the prolific parent of perjury, or nest-egg of iniquity; if I am right in his name, and I think I need not guess twice, to nick it once, it is John Barnes Hart; (next in order for prosecution) this reptilised miscreant has, perhaps, trained more wretches to eminence in infamy than any other man that makes plunder a science; it is true that he cannot swear himself, for upon the evidence of the pillory about 20 years ago, an act of divorce passed between his lips and the Holy Evangelists; he now pays his religious salutations to the new testament by proxy. This wretch has been drummed out of all the courts of law, and from the presence of the magistrates to the beat of the “Rogue’s March.” He now contents himself with leading his instruments of infamy to the doors of Justice, where, like a brutal butcher, he turns in Towzer to the bloody work, waiting without to receive a report of the success of his pious instructions, the effects of which generally end in obtaining a warrant from the Magistrate, to accomplish some disastrous scene of corruption. If any thing can mitigate the attrocious conduct of this man, it is the melancholy consideration that many others imitate it. But to draw to a conclusion, what will Magistrates say?—what will mankind at large say?—and what will be their execrations of the transactions I have here stated, when they are told, that out of at least 100 indictments and process by Magistrate’s warrants, within these ten years past, not more than half a dozen have been prosecuted with effect, at the instance of common Informers. On the other hand, I cannot fall in with the doctrine that is propagated by vulgar prejudice of censuring every man who becomes plaintiff in a Qui Tam action, nor can I countenance the absurdity of making laws to punish offences, and deeming it infamous to put those laws in execution; but then let them be put in force according to the spirit of that law, and consonant with the rules of public justice. Proceedings conducted upon such principles ought to receive the protection of Magistracy:—but to put the instruments of terror into the hands of ruffians, for the mere purpose of plundering even the worst offenders, is monstrous, and ought not to be endured, for neither innocence or common fortitude can repel the ravages committed by such means; with Mr. Barnes Hart, and many others, whose views and principles are of the same complexion, little regard is paid to the difference between guilt and innocence; witness the many poor wretches that have been committed to Bridewell upon the oaths of reptiles, under the Lottery Act, who never took a number, or had any transactions in the Lottery; the charge of the offence is first made to try the depth of unfortunate people’s pockets; if no one comes forward with an appropriate sum, Bridewell is the certain doom of the victim,—for those gentlemen see danger in retracting from the affidavit they have made. To authenticate these assertions many instances might be produced; and here I cannot omit a circumstance to the honour of Mr. Harvey Coombe, when Lord Mayor, before whom a man of the name of Paulett was brought, charged as a vagrant, for taking illegal insurances in the Lottery, and committed to the counter for a rehearing the next day; but in the intermediate time, 100l. had been paid: of course not even the ghost of an informer appeared to make good the charge; his lordship saw through the infamy, and conjured Paulett to tell him what sum he had given, who replied 100l. but as the money was paid out of the jurisdiction of the city, his Lordship lamented the circumstance, declaring he intended to prosecute the offender.
I believe there is not a magistrate in the kingdom, or a man that pretends to legal knowledge, but will agree, that the property and liberty of a reputed offender is protected by the laws of the land with the same degree that watches over the most unimpeached character: a common prostitute is in a condition to prosecute for a rape, equally with the most virtuous woman; the delinquency of one man cannot justify the robbery of another; I do, therefore, insist that Samuel Butcher, the wholesale brothel keeper, and Edward Barnet, the rapacious petty fogger, must be permitted the use of their silver spoons, (no matter how they got them) and that, too, in defiance of summary retribution, or any species, of anti-legal retaliation; it, therefore, only remains for Magistrates who stretch forth one hand to crush a nuisance, to employ the other to the laudable ends of checking a more daring system of rapacity; to effect which nothing more is required than a degree of circumspection in issuing your warrants, under circumstances pregnant with suspicion of their being converted to the perpetration of such disgraceful extortions; the voice of impartial justice calls upon you, and I will not offer so much violence to virtue, as to doubt your exertions in rectifying so alarming an abuse of your process.
I am, Gentlemen,
With unfeigned respect,
Your obedient humble servant,
R. HOLLOWAY.
P.S. A complete list of the wretches alluded to, having been delivered to the Magistrates at Bow Street, perhaps it may be thought necessary to stick up the map of monstrosity in all the public offices, as a guide for the clerks to avoid future impositions.