_But perhaps the greatest source of delinquency and crimes is to be ascribed to ill-regulated Public Houses_, conducted by men of loose conduct and depraved morals--Since it is in these receptacles that the corruption of morals originates.--It is here that the minds of youth are contaminated, and the conspiracies for the purpose of committing frauds and depredations on the Public formed and facilitated.
A disorderly and ill-regulated Public-house, therefore, is one of the greatest nuisances that can exist in civil Society.--Innumerable are the temptations which are to be found in these haunts of idleness to seduce the innocent, and to increase the resources of the evil-disposed to do mischief.
Whatever tends to promote vice and dissipation, whether arising from low gaming, by means of cards, dice, dominos, shuffleboard, and other sedentary games; or fraudulent insurances in the lottery, calculated to fascinate and seduce the unwary, and to poison the minds of all ranks in the humble walks of vulgar life, is here to be found; in spite of every laudable precaution, exercised by Magistrates, under the present System of Police applicable to this object.--Even Prost.i.tutes of the lowest cast are not seldom introduced, where the gains of the landlord are thereby to be promoted.
It is in these receptacles that Thieves and Robbers of every description hold their orgies, and concert and mature their plans of depredation on the peaceful Subject; and here too it not unfrequently happens, that their booty is deposited and concealed.
It is here also that markets are held for the sale of Base Money, where every facility is afforded for the purpose of concealment, and a.s.sistance in escaping justice.
In fact, there is scarce any moral evil by which _Society is afflicted--the mind debauched--the virtuous parent_ and _master distressed_, and the _ruin of families and individuals affected_, which is not generated in Public-houses.
At present, in the Metropolis and its environs, there are at least five thousand of these receptacles, of which it is computed that about one thousand change tenants from once to three times a year.--Hence it follows that not less than two thousand individuals are in a floating state, either from one Public-house to another, or perhaps, more frequently, from the Alehouse to a Gaol.
When a depraved character loses his licence in one division of the Metropolis, he generally finds means to obtain admission in another where he is not known. The separation of jurisdictions without a centre point, and the numerous changes which are constantly taking place, preclude the possibility of detection; while the facility, with which the worst characters obtain the certificates required by law, (which are too often signed, without the least previous inquiry, by the Clergyman and Parish Officers as a matter of course,) enable them to effect their purpose; and such houses being generally of the inferior cla.s.s in point of trade, every species of disorder is permitted for the purpose of obtaining custom. This is soon discovered by those who have criminal objects in view; and to such houses they generally resort, where it has sometimes been discovered that the Landlord himself belongs to the gang; _and_ that he has become a Publican the better to facilitate its designs. That the Ale-houses are yet by far too numerous, is incontestibly proved by the frequent changes which take place in so large a proportion in the course of a year, while the irregularities which prevail render it equally clear that a more general control is necessary to prevent the mischiefs which have been detailed.
It is chiefly in houses where the trade is inadequate to the support of the establishment that the greatest disorders prevail, as in such cases every lure is held out to invite customers, and to entice them to expend money.--And in return for this, where the Landlord is not himself of the fraternity of Thieves or Receivers, he is induced at least to afford them his a.s.sistance, as a medium of concealment.
If a plan could be devised, with equal advantage to the Revenue, by the introduction of more innocent and less noxious gratifications, whereby the lower ranks of the people could be gradually led into better habits, much benefit would arise to the State, both with respect to health and morals.
The quant.i.ty of Beer, Porter, Gin, and Compounds, which is sold in Public-houses in the Metropolis and its environs, has been estimated, after bestowing considerable pains in forming a calculation, at nearly 3,300,000_l._ a year.[90]
[Footnote 90: In a Tract ent.i.tled "Observations and Facts relative to Public-Houses," by the Author of this Work, the mode of conducting Ale-houses in the Metropolis, and the evils arising from this source of iniquity and idleness is very fully explained. By this publication it is discovered, after much investigation, that there is consumed and sold in the 5000 Public-houses in and round the Metropolis:
158,400,530 pots of Porter, Ale, and Twopenny .2,311,466 15 10
Gin and Compounds from the Distillers and Rectifiers 975,000 0 0 ----------------- 3,236,466 15 10
To which add Pipes, Tobacco, &c. at least 113,533 4 2 ----------------- Total .3,310,000 0 0]
This immense sum, equal to double the Revenue of some of the Kingdoms and States of Europe, independent of other evil consequences in producing indigence and promoting crimes, must in a certain degree debilitate manhood--in lessening the powers of animal life, and in shortening its duration long before the period arrives, when an adult ceases to contribute by his labours to the resources of the State. In this point of view, independent of considerations of a moral tendency, and of all the other train of evils which have been detailed, it would seem of importance, as a political measure, to check the growing propensity to consume a greater quant.i.ty of Porter, Beer, and ardent Spirits, than is necessary to health.--To the State, indeed, it creates a Revenue; but it is a Revenue too dearly purchased if it wastes the human species--if it deprives the nation, prematurely, of the benefit of their labour, and occasions infinitely greater pecuniary pressures in the support of an indigent and helpless offspring, who must be reared again to manhood at the expence of the Public; not to speak of the grain, labour, fuel, &c. unnecessarily consumed in creating this poison to the health, the morals, and comforts of the poor.[91]--However unpopular it may appear in the view of those who have not fully considered the subject, it may be clearly demonstrated that a triple duty on Malt Spirits, and a much higher duty on Strong Beer and Porter would be an act of the greatest humanity on the part of the Legislature.--The present Revenue might thus be secured, while that which is even of more importance to a State than any other consideration would be preserved--_the health and morals of the labouring people_. It is a mistaken notion, that a very large quant.i.ty of Malt Liquor is necessary to support labourers of any description.--After a certain moderate quant.i.ty is drank, it enervates the body, and stupefies the senses.--A Coal-heaver who drinks from 12 to 16 pots of Porter in the course of a day, would receive more real nourishment, and perform his labour with more ease and a greater portion of athletic strength, if only one-third of the quant.i.ty were consumed. He would also enjoy better health, and be fitter for his labour the following day. On a supposition that the excesses in which perhaps 200,000 of the labouring people in the Metropolis _indulge_, shortens the natural period of their existence only five years each on an average, the labour of one million of years is lost in the lives of this cla.s.s of men, after the expence is incurred in rearing them to maturity, which, during a period of 36 years of adult labour, at 25_l._ a year, establishes a deficiency to the Community of _Twenty-five Millions sterling_: independent of the numerous other train of evils, which arise to a nation from idle, dissolute and immoral habits, by which the rising generation is contaminated, and great inconvenience imposed on the innocent and peaceful subject, from the increase of crimes which are generated through this medium.
[Footnote 91: It is a curious and important fact, that during the period when Distilleries were stopped in 1796 and 1797, although Bread, and every necessary of life was considerably higher than during the preceding year, the Poor in that quarter of the Town where the chief part reside were apparently more comfortable, paid their rents more regularly, and were better fed than at any period for some years before;--even although they had not the benefit of the extensive charities which were distributed in 1795. This can only be accounted for by their being denied the indulgence of Gin, which had become in a great measure inaccessible from its very high price. It may fairly be concluded, that the money formerly spent in this imprudent manner had been applied in the purchase of provisions and other necessaries to the amount of some hundred thousand pounds.--The effects of their being deprived of this baneful Liquor was also evident in their more orderly conduct.--Quarrels and a.s.saults were less frequent, and they resorted seldomer to the p.a.w.nbrokers" shops: and yet during the chief part of this period Bread was 15_d._ the Quartern Loaf, and Meat higher than the preceding year, particularly Pork, which arose in part from the stoppage of the Distilleries; but chiefly from the scarcity of Grain.]
It is to be lamented, that in pursuing this subject, new sources giving origin and progress to crimes press upon the mind in the course of the inquiry. To the catalogue already detailed may be added, _Gaming-Houses_ of every description, particularly _houses of the lower cast_; but as this subject has been very fully handled in a preceding Chapter, it will be unnecessary to do more than place it in the general list of causes, which have contributed exceedingly to the evils, which have afflicted Society in this Metropolis, and which can only be remedied by a _Responsible Police_, attaching particularly upon this baneful propensity by appropriate regulations.
Next to Gaming, Illicit Trade or Smuggling may be mentioned as a very productive source of criminality. The vast extent of the Trade and Revenues of the Country; its insular situation, and the temptations arising from the magnitude of the duties, contribute exceedingly to the corruption of morals, not only of these engaged in illicit pursuits, but it is to be lamented also of the inferior officers themselves, whose duty it is to prevent this evil.
Severe and pointed as the laws unquestionably are with an immediate view to the prevention of this evil, experience proves how ineffectual they have been, since every idle and profligate character becomes a smuggler. But it is not merely the offence of smuggling as it relates to the revenue, which is to be deplored as a grievance to the Public, since those on the Sea Coasts of the kingdom, concerned in such pursuits, are generally of ferocious habits, which produce such excesses and depredations upon the unfortunate, when suffering the calamity of shipwreck, as would disgrace the rudest savages.
With contaminated minds, depraved hearts, men given up to such warfare upon helpless humanity, become fit instruments for every species of criminality.--_Vagabonds by trade_, the transition from one offence to another is easy, and hence through this medium many culprits are added to the general catalogue of delinquency, which nothing can check or prevent but a System of Police, attaching responsibility _some-where instead of no-where as at present_.
Crimes are also generated in no inconsiderable degree, by the evil examples exhibited in _Prisons_, and by the length of time persons charged with offences are suffered to remain in gaols previous to their trial, particularly in the counties adjoining the Metropolis, where they frequently are in confinement five and six months before the a.s.sizes.--If they were novices in villainy before, the education they receive in these seminaries, in the event of their escaping justice, returns them upon society, completely proselyted and instructed in the arts of mischief and depredation.
Nor have the unequal scale of punishments, and the ultimate unconditional pardons, dictated no doubt by the purest motives of humanity, a less tendency to generate new crimes. Encouraged by the chances of escaping free, _even after conviction_, many delinquents pursue their evil courses, trusting ultimately to this resource, if other devices shall fail.
To shew mankind that crimes are sometimes wholly pardoned, and that punishment is not the necessary consequence, is to nourish the flattering hope of impunity, and is the cause of their considering every punishment which is actually inflicted, as an act of injustice and oppression.
Let the Legislator be _tender_, _indulgent_, and _humane_; but let the Executors of the Laws be inexorable in punishing;--at least to a certain extent.
CHAP. XII.
_The Consideration of the causes of the progress and increase of Crimes pursued.--The condition of the unhappy Females, who support themselves by Prost.i.tution--Their pitiable Case.--The progress from Innocence to Profligacy explained.--The morals of Youth corrupted by the mult.i.tudes of Prost.i.tutes in the streets.--These temptations excite desires which suggest undue means of obtaining money.--Apprentices and Clerks are seduced--Masters are robbed--Parents are afflicted.--The miserable consequences of Prost.i.tution explained.--The impossibility of preventing its existence in a great Metropolis.--The propriety of lessening the Evil:--By stripping it of its indecency and much of its immoral tendency.--The shocking indecency which has lately been suffered by Prost.i.tutes at the Theatres.--The number of Prost.i.tutes in the Metropolis estimated--Suggestions for rendering the consequences arising from Female Prost.i.tution less noxious to Society.--The advantages of the measure in reducing the ma.s.s of turpitude.--Reasons offered why the interests of Morality and Religion will be promoted by prescribing Rules with respect to Prost.i.tutes.--The example of Holland, Italy, and the East Indies quoted.--Strictures on the offensive manners of the Company who frequent Public Gardens:--Imputable to the want of a proper Police.--Tea Gardens under a proper Police might be rendered beneficial to the State.--The Ballad Singers might also be rendered instruments in giving a right turn to the minds of the Vulgar.--Crimes generated by immoral Books and Songs.--Responsibility as it relates to the execution of the Laws rests no where at present.--The nature and advantages of the Police System explained._
In addition to the prominent causes, which contribute to the origin and the increase of crimes, which have been developed in the preceding Chapter, there are other sources of a minor nature still to be traced, from which infinite evils to the Community spring.
Among these the most important is, the state and condition of the unhappy Females, who support themselves by Prost.i.tution in this great Metropolis.
In contemplating their case, it is impossible to avoid dropping a tear of pity.--Many of them perhaps originally seduced from a state of innocence, while they were the joy and comfort of their unhappy parents. Many of them born and educated to expect a better fate, until deceived by falsehood and villainy, they see their error when it is too late to recede. In this situation, abandoned by their relations and friends; deserted by their seducers, and at large upon the world; loathed and avoided by those who formerly held them in estimation, what are they to do? In the present unhappy state of things they seem to have no alternative, but to become the miserable instruments of promoting and practising that species of seduction and immorality, of which they themselves were the victims.[92] And what is the result?--It is pitiable to relate.--They are compelled of necessity to mingle with the abandoned herd, who have long been practised in the walks of infamy, and they too become speedily polluted and depraved.--Oaths, imprecations, and obscene language, by degrees, become familiar to their ears, and necessity compels them to indure, and at length to imitate, and practise in their turn, upon the unwary youth, who too easily falls into the snare.
[Footnote 92: It is in the first stage of Seduction, before the female mind becomes vitiated and depraved, that Asylums are most useful. If persons in this unhappy situation had it in their power to resort to a medium, whereby they might be reconciled to their relations, while uncontaminated by the vices attached to _General Prost.i.tution_, numbers, who are now lost, might be saved to Society.]
Thus it is from the mult.i.tudes of those unhappy Females, that a.s.semble now in all parts of the Town, that the morals of the youth are corrupted. That unnecessary expences are incurred; and undue, and too often criminal, means are resorted to, for the purpose of gratifying pa.s.sions, which but for these temptations, which constantly a.s.sail them in almost every street in the Metropolis, would not have been thought of. Through this medium _Apprentices, Clerks and other persons in trust_ are seduced from the paths of honesty--Masters are plundered, and Parents are afflicted; while many a youth, who might have become the pride of his family--a comfort to the declining years of his Parents, and an ornament to Society, exchanges a life of Virtue and Industry, for the pursuits of the Gambler, the Swindler, and the Vagabond. Nor is the lot of these poor deluded females less deplorable. Although some few of them may obtain settlements, while others bask for a while in the temporary sun-shine of ease and splendour, the major part end a short life in misery and wretchedness.
What has become of the mult.i.tudes of unfortunate females, elegant in their persons, and sumptuous in their attire, who were seen in the streets of the Metropolis, and at places of public Amus.e.m.e.nt twenty years ago? Alas! Could their progress be developed, and their ultimate situations or exit from the world disclosed, it would lay open a catalogue of sufferings and affliction, beyond what the most romantic fancy could depict or exhibit to the feeling mind.
Exposed to the rude insults of the inebriated and the vulgar:--the impositions of brutal officers and watchmen, and to the chilling blasts of the night, during the most inclement weather, in thin apparel, partly in compliance with the fashion of the day, but more frequently from the p.a.w.nbroker"s shop rendering their necessary garments inaccessible--diseases, where their unhappy vocation does not produce them, are generated. No pitying hand appears to help them in such situations. The feeling parent or relation is far off. An abandoned monster of the same s.e.x, inured in the practice of infamy and seduction, instead of the consolation which sickness requires, threatens to turn the unhappy victim out of doors, when the means of subsistence are cut off, and the premium for shelter is no longer forth-coming; or perhaps the unfeeling landlord of a miserable half-furnished lodging afflicts the poor unhappy female, by declarations equally hostile to the feelings of humanity, till at length turned out into the streets, she languishes and ends her miserable days in an hospital or a workhouse, or perhaps perishes in some inhospitable hovel alone, without a friend to console her, or a fellow-mortal to close her eyes in the pangs of dissolution.
If no other argument could be adduced in favour of some arrangements, calculated to stop the progress of Female Prost.i.tution, Compa.s.sion for the sufferings of the unhappy victims would be sufficient; but other reasons occur equally powerful, why this evil should be controlled.
To prevent its existence, even to a considerable extent, in so great a Metropolis as London, is as impossible as to resist the torrent of the tides. It is an evil therefore which must be endured while human pa.s.sions exist: but it is at the same time an evil which may not only be lessened, but rendered less noxious and dangerous to the peace and good order of society: it may be stript of its indecency, and also of a considerable portion of the danger attached to it, to the youth of both s.e.xes.
The lures for the seduction of youth pa.s.sing along the streets in the course of their ordinary business, may be prevented by a Police, applicable to this object, without either infringing upon the feelings of humanity or insulting distress; and still more is it practicable to remove the noxious irregularities, which are occasioned by the indiscreet conduct, and the shocking behaviour of Women of the Town, and their still more blameable paramours, in openly insulting Public Morals; and rendering the situation of modest women at once irksome and unsafe, either in places of Public Entertainment, or while pa.s.sing along the most public streets of the Metropolis, particularly in the evening.
This unrestrained licence given to males and females, in the Walks of Prost.i.tution, was not known in former times at places of public resort, where there was at least an affectation of decency. To the disgrace, however, of the Police the evil has been suffered to increase; and the Boxes of the Theatres often exhibit scenes, which are certainly extremely offensive to modesty, and contrary to that decorum which ought to be maintained, and that protection to which the respectable part of the Community are ent.i.tled, against indecency and indecorum, when their families, often, composed of young females, visit places of public resort.
In this instance, the induring such impropriety of conduct, so contrary to good morals, marks strongly the growing depravity of the age. To familiarize the eyes and ears of the innocent part of the s.e.x to the scenes which are often exhibited in the Theatres, is tantamount to carrying them to a school of vice and debauchery--
Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, That to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft--familiar with her face, We first endure--then pity--then embrace.
For the purpose of understanding more clearly, by what means it is possible to lessen the evils arising from Female Prost.i.tution in the Metropolis, it may be necessary to view it in all its ramifications.
In point of extent it certainly exceeds credibility: but although there are many exceptions,--the great ma.s.s, (whatever their exterior may be,) are mostly composed of women who have been in a state of menial servitude, and of whom not a few, from the love of idleness and dress, with (in this case) _the misfortune of good looks_, have partly from inclination, not seldom from previous seduction and loss of character, resorted to Prost.i.tution as a livelihood.
They are still, however, objects of compa.s.sion, although under the circ.u.mstances incident to their situation they cannot be supposed to experience those poignant feelings of distress, which are peculiar to women who have moved in a higher sphere and who have been better educated.--
_The whole may be estimated as follows:_
1. Of the cla.s.s of Well Educated women it is earnestly hoped the number does not exceed 2,000
2. Of the cla.s.s composed of persons above the rank of Menial servants perhaps 3,000
3. Of the cla.s.s who may have been employed as Menial Servants, or seduced in very early life, it is conjectured in all parts of the town, including Wapping, and the streets adjoining the River, there may not be less, who live wholly by Prost.i.tution, than 20,000 ------ 25,000
4. Of those in different ranks in Society, who live partly by Prost.i.tution, including the mult.i.tudes of low females, who cohabit with labourers and others without matrimony, there may be in all, in the Metropolis, about 25,000 ------ Total 50,000