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take charge of their property and return it to them when recovered from their insensibility; whilst riotously drunk and dangerous persons are searched for arms or weapons by which they might inflict injury on themselves or others.

The careful supervision of the places where men and women drink and get drunk, is also one of the most difficult and delicate duties of the police. There is the greater reason for this supervision, as the lowest of those houses are the resort of prostitutes and other bad characters, and the harbours and schools of the criminal classes, there being not fewer than 360 in the metropolis (including the City) in 1868, which were the known haunts of thieves and prostitutes. In the same year, informations were laid against 1322 public-houses, beer-shops, and refreshment-shops, for various infringements of the law; and in 1034 of the cases convictions were obtained.

Next there are the multitudinous idle and lazy persons, whom it is the constant business of the police to watch and keep in check. From the moment,' says Frégier, in his work on the Dangerous Classes, that the poor man, given over to his bad passions, ceases to work, he puts himself in the position of an enemy to society, because he disregards the supreme law, which is labour. These dangerous classes include a great variety of idlers, rogues, and reprobates. There are the tramps and beggars, -the match-sellers, rag and bottle-buyers, ballad-singers, fortune-tellers, dog-fanciers, umbrella-menders, ring-droppers, prigs, areasneaks, smashers, card-sharpers, clothes-beggars who go about half-naked leaving their ordinary clothes in the lodging-houses, women in white aprons with a crying baby in each arm, burnt-out shopkeepers or farmers carrying about and exhibiting forged begging letters, sham old soldiers wounded in the Crimea,' sham shipwrecked sailors who abound after a storm, sham epileptics who live in comfort upon convulsive fits with the aid of a little soap, and a host of idlers, vagabonds, and dissolute persons, from whom the regular thieves and criminals are from time to time recruited.

The foundation of all these is the common beggar. The beggar is an idler, ready as the opportunity offers to become a thief; and he is often a beggar because he is a thief. The beggar is the enemy of society, and especially of the deserving poor. The French have a true proverb: 'Les mendiants volent les pauvres; for beggars divert the stream of charity from the deserving to the reprobate. There are many charitable persons who satisfy their consciences by giving

to an importunate beggar, when, if the truth were known, they were only contributing to maintain in comfort an incorrigible thief. Hence, there was good reason in the old law which punished the indiscriminate almsgiver as being not only the patron of idleness but of crime.

It is foreign to our present purpose to enquire into the causes of crime. Many poor children are doubtless bred to thieving as others are to honest trade. They are sent out into the streets by dissolute and drunken parents to beg, as other children are sent out to work. If they do not bring home money they are beaten, and to make up the amount they do not hesitate to steal. These are the Arabs of the streets, the utterly neglected children-neglected by their parents, by society, and the State-over whom the sects quarrel, leaving them to the elementary instruction of the gutters, the Adelphi arches, or the penny gaffs,-creatures of mere instinct, with the means of animal gratification constantly in sight, and often within reach, deterred from scizing them by fraud or force, by no higher consideration than that of fear of the policeman.

Then there are the ill-disciplined, the idle, the vicious, who hate labour, but love pleasure by whatever means obtained. Labour is toilsome, and its gains are slow. There is another and a shorter road to pleasurethe Devil's. These people determine to live by the labour of others; and from the moment they arrive at that decision they become the enemies of society. It is not often that distress drives men to crime; nor are the poor necessarily the vicious. 'In nine cases out of ten,' says the Ordinary of Newgate, it is choice, and not necessity, that leads men to crime.' The main incentive to it is love of sensual gratification, which in the ill-regulated, untrained animal, overpowers all other considerations; and, once entered on this career, the criminal pursues the dismal round of vice, falling from one stage to another, until at last the wretched end is reached.

The classes who live by plunder are of many kinds. There are prigs or petty thieves, prowlers about areas or back doors, pick-pockets, stealers of goods from counters, robbers of dwelling-houses, and skilled cracksmen, or burglars. These several classes pursue their special branches of thieving as tradesmen do their respective callings. Thus, in the single branch of crime connected with the issue of false money, there are four distinct classes of persons concerned: 1st, the makers of the bad coin; 2nd, the dealers; 3rd, the carriers of the money to those who buy it; 4th, the utterers or 'sneyders';

to which even a fifth might be added, the stealers of pewter pots to be converted into bad half-crowns and shillings.

The old and experienced thieves are the trainers and teachers of the young ones, whose help they need in carrying on their operations, and whose education they undertake. These old thieves have graduated in many gaols and penitentiaries, and as much time has been devoted to their training as is required to master any of the learned professions. Possessing a treasury of criminal knowledge, they even take a pride in imparting it to the rising generation of thieves. No conscience clause' stands in their way. They know nothing of a religious difficulty.' In this country the school of criminal knowledge is perfectly free. While good men are higgling about the manner in which destitute children should be taught, the missionaries of crime are busily at work, actively educating the rising generation of thieves. Hundreds of them are turned out of gaol yearly with their tickets of leave, to pursue their respective callings and to serve as so many centres of criminal training and example. The juvenile thieves have even a literature of their own,* which flourishes extensively under our famous liberty of the press, emulating in the wideness of its circulation the excellent publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge.

London, however, is by no means the exclusive training ground of the criminals that frequent it. As enterprising men come up to London from the country to push their fortunes, so do enterprising thieves. Lancashire business men are distinguished for their energy, and so are Lancashire criminals. Indeed Lancashire is, even more than London, the great nursery of crime. More than half the convicted criminals of England and Wales in 1868 belonged to three counties; Lancashire supplying 23.6 per cent., Middlesex 20.5 per cent., and Yorkshire 10.8 per cent. of the whole number.

The high average of criminality in the northern towns has been attributed to the large Irish element there. The Manchester and Liverpool men,' said a thief, 'are reckoned the most expert; they are thought to

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be of Irish parents, and to have most cunning. In fact three-fourths of those now travelling throughout the kingdom have Irish blood in them, either from father, mother, or grandmother.' The garotters-of whom ordinary thieves speak with contempt-are almost entirely of this origin. In London they are commonly known as 'Irish cockneys.' Of five garotters lately whipped in Newgate, four were Irish; the ruffians being recognisable by their names, their brogue, and, strange to say, by their religion! According to the last Census Returns, the Irish-born population of Liverpool formed 18 per cent. of the whole, whereas the criminals of Irish birth confined in the Liverpool borough gaol in 1868 constituted 35 per cent. Again, in London, where the Irish constitute only 3.8 per cent. of the population, the criminals of Irish birth (independent of those of Irish extraction) confined in the prisons of Middlesex in 1868 amounted to 13 per cent. of the whole; or four times more than their ratio to the population of the metropolis. Of the total population of the United Kingdom in 1861 three per cent. were born in Ireland, whereas Irish criminals constituted 14 per cent. of the total number committed in 1868.

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That criminals pursue their trade as a regular calling is clear from the number of recommittals every year. The thief who has been once in gaol is almost certain to reappear there. He is not deterred by the so-called punishment' of the model prison, in which he enjoys food, warmth, and clothing, provided for him at the public expense. So he is no sooner set free than he at once recommences the practice of his vocation. The police had captured him before and handed him over to justice; but after a short term of absence justice restores him to society again. Another round of thefts or burglaries follows; the police catch him again; and again he is handed over to justice, to travel in the same circle of imprisonment, restoration to society, and renewal of burglary and crime.

The commonest class of thieves are the street thieves, who are of many kinds. Whatever draws a crowd into the streets-a fire, a Lord Mayor's show, the march of a militia regiment, or a Reform procession-brings them together in hundreds. They also attend the May meetings, the Divorce Court, and other places attended by country yokels. A popular preacher draws' them largely; and when the Rev. Mr. Liddon delivered the first of his recent series of sermons at St. James's, Piccadilly, forty purses, and many watches, were abstracted from the owners' pockets. A man who gets into a push amongst the swell

mob may be robbed with certainty, unless | consideration of certain valuable information protected by a cloak, which foils thieves. to be communicated to the applicants. Two go before the appointed victim and the others, close up behind. A push occurs; the person to be robbed is hemmed in, and jostled and hustled about. If he keeps his hands in his pockets, or at his side to guard his property, his hat gets a tip from behind. To right his hat he raises his hands, and in the confusion-with one of the thieves pressing his arms against his chest-his pockets are at once emptied all round. The signal is then given that the robbery has been effected; the push subsides, and the thieves move away in different directions, to re-assemble round another victim and repeat the process.

A large number of thieves of a different sort prowl about spying goods exposed for sale, and watching for an opportunity of carrying them off. The number of felonies of this sort committed in the metropolitan district in 1868 was 2650; and of the 2084 persons apprehended 1196 were convicted. There are other thieves who break into City warehouses and shops, sometimes contriving to carry off large quantities of goods, which they sell to Jews and pawnbrokers.

These receivers of stolen goods are among the greatest encouragers of crime. They are not only as bad as the thief, but worse. They educate, cherish, and maintain the criminal. The young thief begins by stealing small things from stalls, from shops, from warehouses; or he first picks pockets in a small way, proceeding from handkerchiefs to watches and purses; always finding a ready customer for his articles in the receiver of stolen goods. And when a skilled thief gets out of gaol, without means, the receiver will readily advance him 50l. at a time, until he sees his way to an extensive shoplifting, from which he not only gets his advance returned but a great deal more in the value of the stolen goods. The number of detected receivers of stolen goods committed for trial in the metropolitan district for the five years ending December, 1868, was 642; being an increase of 38 on the preceding period.

The vigilance of the police has probably to a certain extent increased the skill of the thieves, and driven them to new methods of plunder in which detection is more difficult. And they have always been found ready to adapt themselves to new habits, customs, and circumstances. Thus there is a class of ingenious thieves, driven from the streets, who operate upon the pockets of the public through the post-office and the press. Lucrative situations are advertised, and applications are invited from persons prepared to deposit a sum as security; or the remittance of so much in postage stamps is requested in

Begging letters are of a thousand kinds; sometimes purporting to come from distressed authors, sometimes from distressed beauty and virtue, oftenest of all from distressed clergymen. The facilities provided by the post-office are adroitly turned to account by these swindlers. When they remove from one lodging to another, they give directions at the central office, by which the letters of their dupes continue to reach them at their new address. Thus the police are eluded, and the system of plunder is continued. But even when detected, it is very difficult (at least in England, where there is no public prosecutor) to bring the swindlers to justice; as the persons defrauded are mostly of small means, and not likely to be at the trouble or the expense of a journey to London to prosecute the guilty parties.

The classes who live by plunder have been equally prompt to take advantage of all new methods of travelling. Thus railways have attracted the attention of several distinct classes of thieves. Women respectably dressed, sometimes as widows, haunt the waiting rooms of the railway termini, where they lie in wait for passengers' portmanteaus. No one could suspect any guile on the part of these distressed-looking widows, but on the occurrence of a suitable opportunity, when the owner's attention is called away, or he leaves the room to enquire after a starting train, the apparently bereaved person suddenly lays hands upon his portmanteau and quietly carries it away.

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There are other railway thieves who travel first class with season tickets. These are, for the most part, card-sharpers; but they are also ready to take a purse, or to carry away any promising-looking portmanteau or travelling case-by mistake.' A gang of ac complished card-sharpers of this description regularly works' the southern railways. Their method is as follows: One of them walks along the train about to start, and having selected a compartment containing a promising-looking victim-perhaps some young fellow setting out with a full purse on a continental tour-he enters and takes his seat, ostentatiously showing his season ticket. Immediately after, another well-dressed person enters, apparently a stranger to the first, but really a confederate. The train starts, and one of them, to beguile the tediousness of the journey, draws out a pack of cards. The confederate is invited to play; at first he refuses; then he reluctantly takes a hand, and money passes between the two. The pigeon in the far corner intended to be plucked, becomes gradually interested in the game, sees

one of them playing badly and losing money. | in Fleet Street, was made by window-fishers, He ventures to make a suggestion, is invited and it had very nearly succeeded. This into join, and by the time he reaches Dover genious method of robbing shops has long his purse is very much lighter than when he been known. As long ago as 1833, it formleft Charing Cross. Sometimes it is empty, ed the subject of the following order issued and then he discovers, when too late, that by the metropolitan police, which clearly dehe has been robbed; but he is too much scribes the means by which it is accomplishashamed of himself to think of making any ed:attempt to bring the sharpers to justice. Besides, as a magistrate observed to one such victim who did bring his case before him 'You yourself stood to win, and therefore you have no case.'

There are at present known to be about sixty well-dressed, well-educated thieves employed in this pursuit on the principal English railways; and in the autumn season, being good linguists, they frequently try a venture on continental lines, sometimes gathering a very rich booty from foolish travellers, foreign as well as English.

The first-class thief is equally ready to adapt himself to circumstances. He is no longer a highwayman, mounted on his Black Bess,' with a brace of pistols in his belt; but a skilled mechanic-an expert, a cracksman --provided with the best tools and appliances of his 'profession.' There is no longer the mail to rob, but there is the express-train running at sixty miles an hour, a speed which one might naturally suppose would outstrip the most agile thief. Yet he contrives to mount the train, and rob it while running, with his accustomed skill. Thus what is known as the Great Gold Robbery was accomplished-one of the most carefully-studied and cleverly-executed robberies of re

cent times.

'The superintendents are to send an inspector to all the jewellers, silversmiths, and others in their respective divisions, who keep chains, &c., in their windows, and explain to them the method thieves have adopted of robbing shops of this description, viz. by boring with a large gimlet or centre-bit under the bottom of the window, and drawing chains, rings, &c., through the aperture by means of a hooked wire, the thieves noticing by day-time the place in which such property is laid in the window.'

Two men and one woman, who had been seen hanging about Mr. Attenborough's door, were taken into custody as the persons who had cut through the iron shutter and smashed the plate-glass inside; but as the robbery had not been effected, they were only imprisoned for three months with hard labour, under the Habitual Criminals Act. For it is worthy of note that the persons taken up were all old thieves. One had been twice before convicted, another four times, and the third five times; and all three are, doubtless, by this time at liberty pursuing their vocation, unless again caught and imprisoned.

There is another class of thieves who enter houses from porticos, thus described by a detective in his report to the Commissioner:

Burglars are a distinct order of thieves, urbs were very numerous, and of a most au'Some time ago portico larcenies in the subthe greater number of them being liberated dacious character, being generally committed convicts and ticket-of-leave men. These, too, in the afternoons or evenings, when the famiare of many classes. Thus, there are the lies were all in or about their houses, the breakers into shops and city warehouses, the thieves always managing to enter and leave receivers of stolen goods providing them without being seen. This naturally made it a with a ready vend for the plunder. There most difficult task to trace them. In nearly are the breakers into dwelling-houses, who all cases the thieves committing this class of conduct their depredations on a regular sys-horses and traps, mostly at livery stables. larceny are well dressed, keeping their own tem. Thus, on the person of a repeatedly Some of the carts are made with a box under convicted burglar, recently captured and tried the seat, the top of which contains cigars, &c., at the Old Bailey, there was found a list of as if travellers, while under this is a false botdwelling-houses put up' for being robbed, tom containing housebreaking implements. In on which those which had been 'done' were this manner they drive about the suburbs withregularly ticked off! Then there are the out suspicion, sometimes with a very dressy breakers into banks, and jewellers' and gold- lady."* smiths' shops. These last are the senior wranglers in crime; they are men who will only go in for a big thing;' and they are spoken of by the profession as 'tip-toppers'

and first-class cracksmen.'

Two other classes have come up of late'window-fishers' and portico thieves.' The recent attempt on Mr. Attenborough's shop

An extensive gang of this sort was cleverly broken up by the Metropolitan Police in the course of last year, which was in no small degree due to the skill and integrity of Detectives Ham and Ranger. In consequence of certain information received by them as

Appendix to the Commissioner's Report, 1870.

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to portico and other robberies, these officers
considered it necessary to keep close watch
on two receivers of stolen goods, named
Simpson and Critchley. At length suffi-
cient reasons were found for taking Simp-
son into custody, together with a notorious
thief, named Green; and, on Simpson's
house being searched, the proceeds of se-
veral portico robberies were found there,
and the two criminals were committed on
seven separate cases. While they were in
custody waiting examination before the ma-
gistrates, Ham received a letter from an
anonymous correspondent, requesting an in-
terview, which would prove to his advan-
tage.' He submitted the letter to his Su-
perintendent, and was authorized by him to
proceed to the appointed rendezvous. There
he met a person named Richards, who, after
some preliminary conversation, offered Ham
and Ranger a bribe of twenty sovereigns on
condition of their getting Simpson and Green
'turned up—that is, discharged. Ham pre-
tended to entertain the proposal, and at a
further interview he again met Richards in
the presence of Critchley, who paid over the
bribe of twenty sovereigns. Proceedings
were at once instituted against Richards and
Critchley, and they were both tried at the
Central Criminal Court in August last, and
sentenced to two years' hard labour. Critch-
ley had been a known receiver of stolen goods
for many years, in the course of which he
had accumulated some 12,000l. by the pur-
suit of his nefarious calling. He was con-
nected with 'first-class thieves' in all parts
of the world, advancing money to them to
go to foreign countries and commit rob-
beries. His 'house' contained correspon-
dence relating to transactions of this sort in
France, Spain, Germany, and America; and
stolen property received from these countries
was found upon

him.

were taken into custody, of whom five are now in prison for long terms.

There is still, however, another school of these portico thieves, as yet undiscovered, who have of late been remarkably daring and successful; and their hauls of jewels and plate at Mr. Motley's, Lord Napier's, and Lady Margaret Beaumont's, have been great almost beyond precedent in the history of robbery. It has been suggested that these thefts have been committed by a quondam acrobat. But this is quite a mistake, as nothing can be easier than for an ordinarily agile thief, with the aid of a confederate's back, or the help of a small hand-ladder, to mount a portico, and from thence enter an unfastened window. There is, however, one remarkable circumstance connected with these thefts, that the thieves should be able at once to lay their hands upon the most valuable articles in the house, and carry them off before any alarm was raised. But the truth is, that none of these skilled burglaries are attempted except by old and practised thieves, and without much preliminary study and consideration. They watch the premises intended to be robbed, ascer tain whether any guard is kept against which provision must be made, acquaint themselves with the habits of the family, and obtain all possible information as to the internal arrangements and communications of the house. Sometimes they obtain their information from servants of the family, sometimes from painters and paper-hangers who become familiar, in the course of the annual whitewashing and painting, with the internal arrangements of London houses.

At the same time, there are burglars who will act quite independently of such assistance, and rely upon the knowledge they themselves obtain of the premises by careful and continuous external observation of While Critchley and Richards were sen- them. The skilled cracksman is accomplishtenced to their two years' hard labour, the ed in the handling of tools, jemmies, wedges, criminals Simpson and Green, whom they had spring-saws, braces, and centre-bits. Give endeavoured to buy off, were sentenced to him time and he will make his entry anytwelve years' penal servitude at the same ses-where-through iron or through wood. In sions. Simpson, who went by several aliases, had been for nearly thirty years a notorious 'fence.' He was a native of Clayton Heights, Yorkshire, and was concerned in some of the most notorious robberies in that county of late years as receiver, but he was always for- Although the number of burglaries yearly tunate enough to escape conviction until committed in the metropolis is small comhunted down by Detectives Ham and Ran-pared with its enormous size, and the numger. But the apprehension and conviction ber of houses-considerably over half-a-milof Critchley and Simpson did not stop here. lion-which it is the duty of the police to In the course of the inquiries instituted re- watch, yet these crimes probably occasion specting them, a whole school of portico more terror than all the other offences against thieves, of whom they had been the re- persons and property combined. Every burceivers, was discovered, and seven climbers glary sends a thrill of alarm through the

short, no dwelling can resist the skilled burglar determined to get in. The only obstacles he fears are chains across doors, bells inside shutters, and, more than all, a little active dog inside the house.

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