Part 11 (1/2)
In the progress however of Society and Commerce, joined to the consequent influx of riches, producing luxury and extravagance, a larger field opened for cheats and sharpers of every description; insomuch, that the evil became so great, and the existing Laws were found so insufficient, as to render it necessary to provide a legislative remedy.
In applying this remedy, it seems that the great increase of a new species of cheating, practised by persons known in modern times by the name of _Swindlers_, had suggested the propriety of defining the offence, in a more applicable and specific manner, and of rendering the punishment more severe. By the act of 30 Geo. II. _cap._ 24. it is declared, ”_that all persons obtaining money, goods, wares, or merchandise_, by false pretences, _shall be deemed offenders against the Law and the public peace; and the Court, before whom any such offender shall be tried, shall on conviction, order them to be put in the pillory, or publicly whipped, or transported for seven years_.”
Thus stand the Laws at present with regard to Swindlers.[30] They ought certainly to embrace a wider field, so as to reach those artifices by which sharpers and persons of depraved minds, obtain money from the ignorant and unwary, by a.s.suming false characters, taking genteel lodgings, and cheating innocent tradesmen, who lose large sums annually by such depredations.
[Footnote 30: There appears to be a deficiency in the Act of 30th George the Second, cap. 24. in omitting to add _Bank Notes_ after the word _Money_, and also _Horses, Cattle, Sheep, or other Animals_, after goods, wares, and merchandise; since, (as has already been noticed, ante page 9,) it has been held that Bank Notes are not Money, nor are horses, cattle, &c. considered as goods, wares, or merchandise, according to the legal construction of any existing Statute.--An amendment of the Law with regard to these and other objects is the more necessary, as _Bank Notes_ and _Horses_ are, perhaps, more the objects of swindling, than other species of property.]
We shall next proceed to particularize the various cla.s.ses of Sharpers who thus prey upon the public: reserving all that relates to those more immediately connected with _Gaming Houses_ and _Lottery Insurances_ to the subsequent chapter.
I. _Sharpers who obtain Licences to become p.a.w.nbrokers_,[31] and bring disgrace upon the reputable part of the trade, by every species of fraud which can add to the distresses of those who are compelled to raise money in this way; for which purpose there are abundance of opportunities.--Swindling p.a.w.nbrokers, of this Cla.s.s, are uniformly receivers of stolen goods; and under the cover of their licence do much mischief to the Public. The evil arising from them might, in a great measure, be prevented by placing the power of granting licences in a general Board of Police; and rendering it necessary for all persons to produce a Certificate of character, before they can obtain such licence; and also to enter into recognizance for good behaviour.[32]
[Footnote 31:
Number of p.a.w.nbrokers within the Bills of } Persons .
Mortality, paying a licence of 10. a year. } 213 2130
In the Country, paying 5. a year. 432 2160 --- ---- Total 644 4290 --- ----]
[Footnote 32: A regulation of this kind is of great importance; as the property of the poorest and most distressed part of the community, to the amount of nearly one million sterling, is constantly in the hands of p.a.w.nbrokers in the Metropolis alone! and although it is of the utmost consequence that they, above all others, should be _honest, correct_ and even _humane_ characters, (and it is to be hoped many of them are of that description,) yet certain it is that any person, even the most notorious rogue or vagabond, who can raise ten pounds to pay for a licence, may at present set up the trade of p.a.w.nbroker; and it is even said that some have got licences who have actually been on board the Hulks!--a thing unavoidable under the present circ.u.mstances.]
II. _Sharpers and Swindlers who obtain Licences to be Hawkers and Pedlars_; under the cover of which every species of villainy is practised upon the country people, as well as upon the unwary in the Metropolis, and all the great towns in the kingdom.--The artifices by which they succeed, are various, as for example;--By fraudulent raffles, where plated goods are exhibited as silver, and where the chances are exceedingly against the adventurers;--By selling and uttering base money, and frequently forged Bank Notes, which make one of the most profitable branches of their trade;--By dealing in smuggled goods, thereby promoting the sale of articles injurious to the Revenue, besides cheating the ignorant with regard to the value;--By receiving stolen goods to be disposed of in the country, by which discoveries are prevented, and a.s.sistance afforded to common thieves and stationary receivers;--By purchasing stolen horses in one part of the country, and disposing of them in another, in the course of their journies; in accomplis.h.i.+ng which, so as to elude detection, they have great opportunities;--By gambling with EO Tables at Fairs and Horse-races.
A number of other devices might be pointed out, which render this cla.s.s of men great nuisances in Society; and shew the necessity of either suppressing them totally, (for in fact they are of little use to the Public;) or of limiting the licences only to men of good character; to be granted by a general Board of Police under whose controul they should be placed, while they enter at the same time into a recognizance in a certain sum, with one surety for good behaviour; by which the honest part would be retained, to the exclusion of the fraudulent.
III. _Swindlers who take out Licences as Auctioneers_, and open shops in different parts of the Metropolis, with persons at the doors, usually denominated _Barkers_, inviting strangers to walk in. In these places, various articles of silver plate and household goods are exposed to sale, made up on a slight principle, and of little intrinsic value; a.s.sociates, generally denominated _Puffers_, are in waiting to bid up the article to a sum greatly beyond its value, when, upon the first bidding of the stranger, it is knocked down to him, and the money instantly demanded; the goods, however, on being carried home and examined, are generally found to be very different in reality, from what their appearance exhibited, and upon a close examination the fraud is discovered.
Neither the common Law, nor the Act of the 30th George II. cap. 24, seem to be sufficiently _broad_ and explanatory to include this species of offence; and hence it is, that this mode of selling goods continues with impunity, and seems to increase. It is not, however, meant here to insinuate that all petty auctions are fraudulent.--It is to be hoped there may be some exceptions, although probably, they are not numerous. A licence from a general Board of Police, and to be subject to certain restrictions only burdensome to the dishonest, and obliging the parties to find security, would, in a great measure, regulate this kind of business, in a proper manner.
IV. _Swindlers who raise money, by pretending to be Discounters of Bills, and Money Brokers_; These chiefly prey upon young men of property, who have lost their money at play, or spent it in expensive amus.e.m.e.nts, and are obliged to raise more upon any terms, until their rents or incomes become payable; or who have fortunes in prospect, as being heirs apparent to estates, but who require a.s.sistance in the mean time.
Availing themselves of the credit, or the ultimate responsibility, of such thoughtless and giddy young men, in the eager pursuit of criminal pleasures, and under the influence of those allurements which the Faro Tables, and other places of fas.h.i.+onable resort hold out--these Swindlers seldom fail to obtain from them securities and obligations for large sums; upon the credit of which they are enabled, perhaps, at usurious interest, to borrow money, or discount bills; and thus supply their unfortunate customers upon the most extravagant terms.
Another cla.s.s, having some capital, advance money upon bonds, t.i.tle-deeds, and other specialities, or upon the bond of the parties having estates in reversion: by these and other devices too tedious to detail, large sums of money are, most unwarrantably and illegally, wrested from the dissipated and thoughtless: and misery and distress are thus entailed upon them, as long as they live; or they are driven, by utter ruin, to acts of desperation or to crimes.
A Law seems absolutely necessary to be pointed at this particular mischief, which is certainly an increasing evil.--Humanity pleads for it; and _Policy_ points out the necessity of some effectual guard against those miseries which it generates; and which could not exist in so great a degree, were it not for the opportunities held out by these blood-suckers, in affording money to the young and inexperienced, to be expended in scenes of gambling and debauchery.
V. _A Cla.s.s of Cheats of the Society of Jews, who are to be found in every street, lane and alley in and near the Metropolis, under the pretence of purchasing old clothes, and metals of different sorts_; Their chief business really is to prowl about the houses and stables of men of rank and fortune, for the purpose of holding out temptations to the servants to pilfer and steal small articles, not likely to be missed, which these Jews purchase at about one third of the real value.--It is supposed that upwards of fifteen hundred of these depraved people are employed in diurnal journies of this kind; by which, through the medium of bad money, and other fraudulent dealings, many of them acquire property, and then set up shops and become Receivers of stolen Goods.
It is estimated that there are from fifteen to twenty thousand Jews in the city of London, besides, perhaps, about five or six thousand more in the great provincial and sea-port towns; (where there are at least twenty synagogues, besides six in the Metropolis;) most of the lower cla.s.ses of those distinguished by the name of German or Dutch Jews, live chiefly by their wits, and establish a system of mischievous intercourse all over the country, the better to carry on their fraudulent designs in the circulation of base money,--the sale of stolen goods, and in the purchase of metals of various kinds; as well as other articles pilfered from the Dock-Yards, and stolen in the provincial towns, which they bring to the Metropolis to elude detection,--and _vice versa_.
Educated in idleness from their earliest infancy, they acquire every debauched and vicious principle which can fit them for the most complicated arts of fraud and deception; to which they seldom fail to add the crime of perjury, whenever it can be of use, in s.h.i.+elding themselves or their a.s.sociates from the punishment of the law.--From the orange boy, and the retailer of seals, razors, gla.s.s, and other wares, in the public streets, to the shop-keeper, dealer in wearing apparel, or in silver and gold, the same principles of conduct too generally prevail.
The itinerants utter base money to enable them, by selling cheap, to dispose of their goods; while those that are stationary, with very few exceptions, receive and purchase, at an under-price, whatever is brought them, without asking questions.
VI. _Cheats who sell provisions and other articles by means of false weights and measures._ Nothing requires the a.s.sistance of the Legislature in a greater degree than this evil; to s.h.i.+eld the Poor against the numerous tricks thus practised upon them, by low and inferior shop-keepers and itinerants.
The ancient System of regulating this useful branch of Police by the Juries of the Court-Leet, having been found ineffectual, and in many respects inapplicable to the present state of Society, an act pa.s.sed the 35th of his present Majesty, (_cap._ 102,) to remedy the inconvenience with regard to fraudulent weights; but difficulties having occurred on account of the expence of carrying it into execution, certain amendments were made by another act, (37 Geo. III.
_c._ 143,) and the Magistrates in Petty Sessions have now power to appoint Examiners of weights, and to authorize them to visit shops, seize false weights, &c.