This arbitrary system of impressing was so cruel, that one feels heartily glad to find that it is possible there might be another side to the question, and that a man might be punished for it. 'Yesterday one Philpot was by the court of Queen's Bench fined 10 Nobles, and to stand in the pillory on Tower Hill, for wrongfully pressing one Gill, and taking 4 Guineas for his discharge.'[631] One man seems to have had the courage to speak against it, and I regret I have been unable to get his pamphlet. 'Just Published. The Old and True Way of Manning the Fleet, Or how to Retrieve the Glory of the English Arms by Sea, as it is done by Land; and to have Seamen always in readiness, without Pressing. In a Letter from an old Parliament Sea Commander, to a Member of the present House of Commons, desiring his Advice on that Subject. Printed in the Year 1707.'
The pay was not so bad, £4 a month;[632] but the service was unpopular—the officers were rough and foul-mouthed, whose creed was, 'I hate the French, love a handsome Woman and a Bowl of Punch'[633]—so the men deserted whenever they could. It was no use issuing proclamations offering a reward of twenty shillings for every such deserter delivered up on board ship; they kept their pay back, and tried to allure them from the joys of freedom and the shore by bidding them repair on board their ships to receive their pay due six months back, still keeping six months in hand. Jack was proof against such blandishments: so the authorities tried another plan—the magnanimous—and promised to forgive the deserters, if only they would come back; anything to get the dear fellows on board, all would be forgotten and forgiven, and joy and peace should reign henceforth. 'All such Seamen that are made run, for not repairing to their Duty, shall have their R's taken off, and be continued in Wages from the times they have been absent, provided they do forthwith repair on board.' As this is the only instance I can meet with of this bait being held out, one rather suspects Jack was not quite such a fool as they imagined him, and, once free, had no wish to get into the trap again.
Brown[634] gives a description of the Admiralty in his time: 'By this time we were come to the Admiralty Office, the outside invited us in, and here we found only a Company of Tarrs, walking to and fro with their Hands in their Pockets, as on the Quarter Deck aboard; in one Room there was a company of Lieutenants, some had serv'd twenty Years without being rais'd, because they either knew not how to Bribe in the right Place, or were so tenacious of what they had so hardly purchas'd, that their only hopes were now Half Pay or Superannuation. In another place were Seamen's Wives with Petitions, and pressing Deputy B——, who was as surly to them, as a true Whigg in Office; but tho' he demanded no Fee, he could be mollified by a little Fellow feeling, that like a Sop to Cerberus, let Petitions and Men pass too; Then you fall in betwixt Scylla and Charybdis, the Clerks on one Side, and Sea Captains on the other; where Cowards that have lost one Ship, easily get another; and Men of Valour, without Interest, wait in vain for Preferment, from those who dispose of what they do not understand; for here the Land determines of the Main, and he that never see the North Foreland, disposes of things, as if he knew all the Creeks and Bays, Shelves, Sands, and Nations of the Universe.'
From contemporary descriptions Jack's nature has not much altered since Anne's time. Ward thus sums him up: 'I could not but reflect on the unhappy Lives of these Salt Water kind of Vagabonds, who are never at Home but when they're at Sea, and always are wandering when they're at Home; and never contented but when they're on Shore; They're never at ease till they've receiv'd their Pay, and then never satisfied till they have spent it; And when their Pockets are empty, they are just as much respected by their Landladies (who cheat them of one half, if they spend the other) as a Father is by his Son-in-Law, who has Beggar'd himself to give him a good Portion with his Daughter.'
In the mercantile marine, there was a large trade done with India and China. Dampier fitted out his third semi-piratical expedition, Alexander Selkirk was discovered and brought home, and Captain Edward Cooke circumnavigated the globe. The map published in his book[635] is a very fair sample of hydrography. 'New Zealand, Dimens Land, and New Holland' are just indicated in their proper positions, but New Guinea is represented as being joined to the north of Australia, and California is shown as an island.
CHAPTER XL.
CRIME.
Capital punishment — Its frequency — An execution described — Behaviour on the scaffold and way to execution — Revival after hanging — Peine forte et dure — Hanging in chains — Highwaymen — Claude du Val lying in state — Ned Wicks and Lord Mohun: their swearing match — A highwayman hanged — Highwaymen in society — Highway robberies — Footpads — Burglars — John Hall — Benefit of clergy — Coining — Pickpockets — Robbery from children — Perjury — Sharpers — Begging impostors — Gipsies — Constables — Private detectives — Commercial frauds — 'Society for the Reformation of Manners' — Statistics of their convictions — The pillory — Ducking-stool.
The repression and punishment of crime is the duty of every Government, and it was performed in Anne's reign as well as an imperfect police would allow. Capital punishment was, of course, more frequent than in our days, because there were so many more offences punishable by it. In London alone, from the commencement of Sir Thos. Abney's mayoralty in 1701, to the end of that of Sir Richard Hoare in 1713, 242 malefactors were hanged at Tyburn and other places.
It was of such frequent occurrence that men got callous about it, nay, joked of it. 'Mr. Ordinary visits his melancholy Flock at Newgate by Eight. Doleful Procession up Holborn Hill about Eleven. Men handsome and proper, that were never thought so before, which is some Comfort however, Arrive at the fatal Place at Twelve. Burnt Brandy, Women and Sabbath breaking repented of. Some few Penitential Drops fall under the Gallows. Sheriffs Men, Parson, Pickpockets, Criminals, all very busie. The last concluding peremptory Psalm struck up. Show over by One.'
Misson gives a far longer account, full of detail, of an execution in those days. He says: 'Hanging is the most common Punishment in England. Usually this Execution is done in a great Road[636] about a quarter of a League from the Suburbs of London. The Sessions for trying Criminals being held but eight Times a Year, there are sometimes twenty Malefactors to be hang'd at a Time.