He makes little, if any, display of goods in his window, and the thief once inside his carefully-enclosed shop is safely screened from the gaze of the passers by.
This worthy tradesman has a spout at the back of his counter communicating with a floor above, in which is situated the “soup,” or melting, pot.
The thief may hand in for disposal, at well-understood prices, ornaments in the most precious of metals, possibly treasure trove in the shape of some great wrought Saxon collar of gold, or Queen Anne silver plate.
It is all “stock” that comes to the “soup” kettle of this sort of gentry. A few minutes after the chain or ladle, bracelet or salver, is handed across the counter the materials are reduced to their original state.
Form vanishes, and with it most of the chances of detection. These facts are not unknown to the police, and it may well be asked whether the suppression of an avoidable evil of great magnitude and importance would not fairly come within the duties of a public prosecutor.
In the stolen goods department of commerce, as in many other things, prevention is better than cure.
Subject to some few exceptions, a shop within the metropolitan district is a “market overt,” the keeper of which is free, without fear of the law, to buy or sell anything he pleases, from a malachite snuff-box to a Prayer-book bound in ivory, or from a cedar-wood workbox to a set of gold solitaires.
Browne has a right, no doubt, to claim that he must be held innocent until the offence with which he stands charged is actually proved.
But the commonest consideration must show the case to be one of very grave suspicion, and the sitting magistrate sufficiently showed his opinion of the facts as put before him when he refused to listen to any application for bail.
Without, however, impugning the innocence of the prisoner in the present instance, there can be no doubt that receiving stolen property, or “fencing,” as it is technically known at Scotland-yard, is largely practised in London by the class of tradesmen to which he belongs.