Part 19 (1/2)

Other cla.s.ses of Receivers purchased from the Lumpers, Coopers, &c.

after the property was landed, and being generally engaged in business as small grocers or keepers of chandlers' shops, and old iron and junk warehouses, they were accustomed to protect it in its transit, from one criminal dealer to another, by means of false bills of parcels.

It would fill a volume to recount the various ramifications of this nefarious traffic, and the devices used to defeat Justice and elude the punishment of the Law.[60]

[Footnote 60: For the purpose of defraying the expence of prosecutions for criminal offences upon the River Thames, and to raise a fund for suborning evidence, and employing counsel for higher crimes, and of paying the penalties under the Act of the 2d Geo. III. cap. 28.

commonly called the b.u.mboat Act; there existed a club composed of _River Plunderers_, and _Lumpers_, _Coopers_, _Watermen_, and _Receivers_, (denominated _Light-Hors.e.m.e.n_, _Heavy-Hors.e.m.e.n_, and _Copes_,) from the funds of which the Law expences and the penalties incurred by members of the fraternity were paid. By these iniquitous means not a few notorious offenders escaped justice, while those who were convicted of penalties for misdemeanors escaped the punishment of imprisonment, and being thus screened from justice the culprits (previous to the establishment of the Marine Police System) returned to their evil practices without the least apprehension of any other inconvenience than the payment of a fine of 40_s._ defrayed by the Club. The New System, however, affording means of detection in the s.h.i.+ps where the offences were committed: what were formerly misdemeanors are now treated as larcenies, which has operated most powerfully in breaking up this atrocious confederacy, and in defeating all the nefarious designs of the criminal delinquents of which it was formed, some of whom, although apparently common labourers, resided in handsome houses furnished in a very superior style for the rank in life of the occupiers.

As a proof, among many others, of the enormous extent of the River Plunder, the convictions for misdemeanors under the Act of the 2d Geo.

III. cap. 28. from August 1792 to August 1799, exceeded _two thousand two hundred_; of which number about 2000 culprits paid the penalty; partly from their own resources, but chiefly, it is believed, from the funds of the club, amounting in all to about 4000_l._ in the course of seven years.]

It extended to almost every article imported into, and exported from, the port of London. But the dealings in stolen West India produce were by far the most extensive; at the same time it appears from recent investigation, that the _East India Company_ and the _Russian_ and _American Merchants_, as well as the Importers of _Timber_, _Ashes_, _Furs_, _Skins_, _Oil_, _Provisions_ and _Corn_, were also considerable sufferers. The Coal Merchants have likewise sustained losses to a great amount annually, while every species of goods imported have been more or less subject to depredations.

Nor has the Export Trade on the River Thames been in any respect secured against the rapacity of this phalanx of plunderers. Many well-authenticated cases have recently been developed, which prove that Hamburgh vessels outward bound, have been plundered to a considerable amount,[61] particularly those which were laden with sugar, coffee, and other West India produce. Outward-bound s.h.i.+ps to every part of the world have also been more or less objects of plunder, to the numerous herds of delinquents who were employed upon the River, aided by their a.s.sociates in iniquity, the Receivers.

[Footnote 61: A s.h.i.+pmaster in the trade a few months since was compelled to pay 40_l._ for deficient sugars plundered by Lumpers and others, who a.s.sisted in lading his vessel, notwithstanding his utmost personal vigilance and attention while the sugars were taking on board. A single Marine Police Officer would have prevented this. The effect of their power in overawing delinquents, from the nature of the system and the discipline peculiar to the inst.i.tution, is not to be conceived.]

To enter _into particulars_, or to detail specific instances, would far exceed the limits prescribed for this branch of the general catalogue of delinquency exhibited in this Work. Suffice it to say, that the most satisfactory evidence can be adduced, that the system of depredation which had so long prevailed, and which had advanced with the growing Commerce of the Port, had pervaded every species of Merchandize laden or discharged, as well as the Tackle, Apparel and Stores of almost every s.h.i.+p and vessel arriving in, and departing from, the River Thames.

Nor can it be a matter of wonder, that such pervading mischiefs should have prevailed when it is known, that above 5000 individuals, employed in various stationary situations upon the River, have, with a very few exceptions, been nursed from early life in acts of delinquency of this nature.

In a group so extensive there are unquestionably many different shades of turpitude; but certain it is, that long habit, and general example, had banished from the minds of the ma.s.s of the culprits implicated in these offences, that sense of the criminality of the action, which attaches to every other species of theft.

Such was the situation of things in the Port of London, in the month of July 1798, when the MARINE POLICE INSt.i.tUTION, a wise and salutary measure of Government, arose from the meritorious exertions of the West India Merchants.

The object of this Establishment was to counteract these mischievous proceedings, and by salutary arrangements _in the Science of Police_ to prevent in future a repet.i.tion of those crimes which had so long contaminated the morals of the people, and operated as an evil of no small weight and magnitude on the Trade of the River Thames.

How far this System, _planned_ and adapted to the exigencies of the case, and carried into effort by the Author of these pages, a.s.sisted by a very able and indefatigable Magistrate, and by many zealous and active Officers, has been productive of the benefits which were in contemplation, must be determined by an accurate examination of the state of delinquency, among the aquatic labourers and others, employed at present in s.h.i.+ps and vessels in the River Thames; compared with what existed previous to this Establishment, as detailed in the preceding pages of this Chapter.

Although much yet remains to be done to prevent the renewal of those criminal proceedings, which have by great exertions been happily in many instances suppressed.--Although the Marine Police[62] has been unquestionably crippled by the want of those apposite _Legislative_ Regulations, upon which its energy and utility, as a _permanent Establishment_, must, in a great measure depend, yet the proofs of the advantages which have resulted from it, not only to the West India Trade[63] (for the protection of which it was originally inst.i.tuted) but also to the whole Commerce and Navigation of the Port of London, are so decided and irrefragable, that specific details are unnecessary, especially since Deputations of the most respectable Merchants from the whole Commercial Body, sensible of the benefits derived from the system have solicited the sanction of Government, for the purpose of pa.s.sing a Bill to extend the design, so as to afford the same protection to the general Trade of the Port, which has been experienced by the West India Planters and Merchants;[64] and requesting to be permitted to defray the expence by an annual a.s.sessment upon the Trade.

[Footnote 62: For a particular account of this Inst.i.tution, see the ”Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames,” already alluded to.]

[Footnote 63: With respect to the advantages which have resulted in the aggregate, to the West India Planters and Merchants, from this New Inst.i.tution, it is impossible to form any decided opinion; but estimating the savings, on an average, at 28_lbs._ of sugar per hhd.

(which is only one half of what the Committee of West India Merchants, in their Report to a General Meeting in 1798, supposed the plunderage might have been formerly) it appears, upon this data, that the gain to the Planters, Merchants, and the Revenue, on a very reduced estimate as to the actual importation may be thus stated.--

Saving Saving to the to the Planters. Revenue. TOTAL.

On 115,000 casks of sugar, at 28_lbs._ per cask .97,012 .25,150 .122,162

15,000 casks of rum, at three gallons each 9,000 15,000 24,000

Coffee, pimento, and other articles, suppose 5,000 10,000 15,000 --------- -------- --------- Totals .111,012 .50,150 .161,162

If credit is to be given to the general and specific proofs of the depredations which took place before the establishment of the Marine Police, and to the numerous doc.u.ments which demonstrate the saving of property, which has been the effect of this system of prevention, the above estimate will not appear to be over-rated. In an importation amounting to above .8,000,000 sterling a year, it is not too much to say that 1-1/2 per cent. on this sum may have been saved under a system of such extreme vigilance, where every cla.s.s of depredators were defeated in their iniquitous designs, and deprived in a great measure of the powers they formerly possessed, of doing mischief. The probability is, that it has amounted to more, though the fact never can be accurately ascertained.]

[Footnote 64: At a meeting of the Committee of the West India Merchants appointed to manage the general concerns of the Trade, held on the 4th of January 1799, It was