That vagrancy is the nursery of crime, and that the habitual tramps are first the beggars, then the thieves, and, finally, the convicts of the country, the evidence of all parties goes to prove. There is, however, a curious corroboration of the fact to be found, by referring to the period of life at which both crime and vagrancy seem to be in their youth. The ages of the vagrants frequenting the asylums for the houseless poor, are chiefly between fifteen and twenty-five years old; and the tables of the ages of the criminals, given in the Government Returns, show that the majority of persons convicted of crime are equally young.
The total number of vagrants in the metropolis may be calculated as follows:—There were 310,058 vagrants relieved at the metropolitan unions during the year 1848. (I take the metropolitan returns of 1848, because those for England and Wales published as yet only extend to that year.) As the vagrants never remain two days in the same place, we must divide this number by 365, in order to ascertain the number of vagrants resident at one and the same time in London. This gives us 849 for the average number relieved each night in the whole of the metropolitan unions. To this we must add the 2431 tramps residing in the 221 metropolitan mendicants’ lodging-houses (averaging 11 inmates each); and the sum of these must be further increased by the 750 individuals relieved nightly at the asylums for the houseless poor (including that of Market-street, Edgeware-road), for the majority of these seldom or never make their appearance in the casual wards of the metropolis, but are attracted to London solely by the opening of the asylums. Hence the account will stand as follows:—
| Average number of vagrants relieved night in the metropolitan unions | 849 |
| Average number of vagrants resident in the mendicants’ lodging-houses in London | 2431 |
| Average number of individuals relieved at the metropolitan asylums for the houseless poor | 750 |
| 4030 |
Now, as 5 per cent of this amount is said to consist of characters really destitute and deserving, we arrive at the conclusion that there are 3829 vagrants in London, living either by mendicancy or theft.
The cost of the vagrants in London in the year 1848 may be estimated as follows:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| 310,058 vagrants relieved at the metropolitan unions, at the cost of 2d. per head | 2,584 | 13 | 0 |
| 67,500 nights’ lodgings afforded to the houseless poor at the metropolitan asylums, including the West-end Asylum, Market-street, Edgeware road | 3,134 | 1 | 4½ |
| 2,431 inmates of the mendicants’ lodging-houses in London, gaining upon an average 1s. per day, or altogether per year | 44,365 | 15 | 0 |
| £59,084 | 9 | 4½ | |
| Deduct 5 per cent for the cost of the relief of the truly deserving | 2,504 | 4 | 5 |
| The total will then be | £47,580 | 4 | 11½ |
It appears, then, that there are 3829 habitual vagrants in the metropolis, and the cost for their support annually amounts to 47,580l. 4s. 11½d.
The number of metropolitan beggars is considerably increased on the eve of any threatened disturbances, or any large open-air meeting in London. For several days previous to the Chartist display in 1848, there was an influx of 100 tramps over and above the ordinary quantity, each day, at one union alone in the suburbs of London; and the master assured me that on the night of the meeting on Kennington Common, he overheard the inmates of the casual ward boasting how they had assisted in pillaging the pawnbroker’s house that had been broken into that afternoon.
Well might the master of the Wandsworth and Clapham Union say, therefore, that the vagrants form one of the most restless, discontented, vicious, and dangerous elements of society. Of these we have seen that there are about 100,000 dispersed throughout the country, 4000 of whom, in round numbers, are generally located in London. These constitute, in the words of the same gentleman, the main source from which the criminals are continually recruited and augmented.