“There are some characters,” say the officers of the Derby Union, in the same Report, “who come on purpose to be committed, avowedly. These have generally itch, venereal disease, and lice, all together. Then there are some who tear their clothes for the purpose of being committed.”
I shall now give as full an account as lies in my power of the character and consequences of vagrancy. That it spreads a moral pestilence through the country, as terrible and as devastating as the physical pest which accompanies it wherever it is found, all the evidence goes to prove. Nevertheless, the facts which I have still to adduce in connexion with that class of vagrancy which does not necessarily come under the notice of the parish authorities, are of so overpowering a character, that I hope and trust they may be the means of rousing every earnest man in the kingdom to a sense of the enormous evils that are daily going on around him.
The number of vagrants taken into custody by the police, according to the Metropolitan Criminal Returns for 1848, was 5598; they belonged to the trades cited in the subjoined table, where I have calculated the proportionate number of vagrants furnished by each of the occupations, according to the total number of individuals belonging to the class.
| Toolmakers | 1 in every 33·9 |
| Labourers | 45·9 |
| Weavers | 75·6 |
| Cutlers | 82·1 |
| French polishers | 109·7 |
| Glovers, &c. | 112·8 |
| Corkcutters | 114·2 |
| Brassfounders | 119·1 |
| Smiths | 129·1 |
| Bricklayers | 143·4 |
| Papermakers, stainers, &c. | 188·1 |
| Fishmongers | 207·3 |
| Curriers | 211·6 |
| Masons | 231·4 |
| Tinkers and tinmen | 236·3 |
| Sawyers | 248·1 |
| Carvers and gilders | 250·3 |
| Hatters and trimmers | 250·4 |
| Musicians | 292·0 |
| Turners, &c. | 308·8 |
| Shoemakers | 310·5 |
| Surveyors | 326·5 |
| Average for all London | 334·7 |
| Gardeners | 341·8 |
| Tobacconists | 344·6 |
| Painters | 359·5 |
| Bakers | 364·4 |
| Tailors | 373·2 |
| Milliners | 451·7 |
| Clerks | 453·7 |
| Printers | 461·6 |
| Sweeps | 516·5 |
| Opticians | 536·0 |
| Saddlers | 542·7 |
| Coach and cabmen | 542·8 |
| Glassmakers, &c. | 580·5 |
| Butchers | 608·0 |
| Laundresses | 623·8 |
| Coachmakers | 709·3 |
| Grocers | 712·2 |
| General and marine storedealers | 721·2 |
| Jewellers | 922·7 |
| Artificial flowermakers | 1025·0 |
| Brushmakers | 1077·5 |
| Ironmongers | 1177·0 |
| Watchmakers | 1430·0 |
| Engineers | 1433·3 |
| Dyers | 1930·0 |
| Servants | 2444·9 |
| Drapers | 2456·5 |
| Bookbinders | 2749·5 |
The causes and encouragements of vagrancy are two-fold,—direct and indirect. The roving disposition to which, as I have shown, vagrancy is directly ascribable, proceeds (as I have said) partly from a certain physical conformation or temperament, but mainly from a non-inculcation of industrial habits and moral purposes in youth. The causes from which the vagabondism of the young indirectly proceeds are:—
1. The neglect or tyranny of parents or masters. (This appears to be a most prolific source.)
2. Bad companions.
3. Bad books, which act like the bad companions in depraving the taste, and teaching the youth to consider that approvable which to all rightly constituted minds is morally loathsome.
4. Bad amusements—as penny-theatres, where the scenes and characters described in the bad books are represented in a still more attractive form. Mr. Ainsworth’s “Rookwood,” with Dick Turpin “in his habit as he lived in,” is now in the course of being performed nightly at one of the East-end saloons.