October 1, South-Sea Stock had fallen to 370; on the 6th to 180. The consternation occasioned by this event to those who had purchased at 980, may readily be conceived. The Saturday's Post of the 1st remarks: "It is impossible to express the vast alterations made by the sudden and unaccountable fall of the South-Sea Stock, as well as other Stocks; some few of the dealers in them, indeed, had happily secured themselves before the storm arose; but the far greater number who are involved in this public calamity, appear with such dejected looks, that a man of little skill in the art of physiognomy may easily distinguish them.
"Exchange-alley sounds no longer of thousands got in an instant; but, on the contrary, all corners of the town are filled with the groans of the afflicted; and they who lately rode in great state to that famous mart of money, now condescend to walk the streets on foot, and, instead of adding to their equipages, have at once lost their estates. And even those of the trading rank who talked loudly of retiring into the country, purchasing estates, there building fine houses, and in every thing imitating their betters, are now become bankrupts, and have, by necessity, shut up their shops, because they could not keep them open any longer; however, for the comfort of such whose condition will admit of a remedy, it is said, a gentleman has formed a scheme for the relief of those concerned."
Mist's Journal contains a paragraph, said to have been copied from a work, intituled, "The Lord knows what, by the Lord knows who;" which seems to place the South-Sea Stock in a true light: "I shall make a familiar simile, which every reader may carry in his mind without the help of figures, and which, I think, has a very near resemblance to the South-Sea scheme, as it has been executed: viz. A, having 100l. Stock in Trade, though pretty much in debt, gives it out to be worth 300l. on account of many privileges and advantages to which he is entitled. B, relying on his great wisdom and integrity, sues to be admitted a partner on those terms, and accordingly brings 300l. into the partnership. The trade being afterwards given out or discovered to be very improving, C comes in at 500l.; and afterwards D, at 1100l.; and the capital is then completed to 2000l. If the partnership had gone on no farther than A and B, then A had got and B had lost 100l.; if it had stopt at C, A had got and C had lost 200l.; and B had been as he was before. But D also coming in, A gains 400l. and B 200l. and C neither gains nor loses, but D loses 600l. Indeed, if A could show that the said capital was intrinsically worth 4,400l., there would be no harm done to D, and B and C would have been much obliged to him. But if the capital at first was worth but 100l. and increased only by the subsequent partnerships, it must then be acknowledged that B and C have been imposed on in their turns; and that unfortunate, thoughtless D pays the piper."
I shall conclude my notices of the money-making schemes of 1720, with a beautiful invocation written by Mr. Philips: "O Eunomius (Earl Cowper), oraculous in thy speech! happy had it been for thy country if thy wisdom and integrity could have prevailed over the rashness of some, and the avarice of others! Hereafter may'st thou never speak in vain; and may thy counsels help to remedy those evils they might have prevented! may the King hasten his return to his deluded, abused subjects, and the Council of the Nation be speedily summoned for the redress of the land! In the mean time let us mutually bear with, and assist one another in our present necessities: and since we are as free, though not so rich, a people as we have been; and still claim, as our birthright, the liberty to debate, to speak, to write manfully for the public good; let us not be dejected like our neighbours, after whose inventions we have gone astray, not sorrow, even as others who have no hope.
"Have we been delivered from the curse of arbitrary power; have we been preserved from the destruction of the sword, the rage of fire, the scourge of pestilence, and the ghastly terrors of famine, to suffer by the mean artifices of money-changers? O my fellow citizens, you have joined with the spoilers; yet have you not added to your stores. Let me print the remembrance of your past inadvertency upon your hearts, that it may abide as a memorial to you and to your children; that deceivers may not hereafter inherit your possessions. And whereunto shall I liken our past inadvertency, that it may abide as a memorial to us and to our children? O my fellow-citizens, we have waged a civil war throughout the land; who hath not committed hostilities against his neighbour, and what hath it profited? The wealth, the inheritance of the Island, are transferred to the meanest of the people; those chiefly have gained who had nothing to lose: the nobility, the gentry, the merchants, have been a prey to the idle, the licentious, the spendthrifts; men whose habitations were not known. All the calamities have we felt of a civil war, bloodshed only excepted: they who abounded suffer want. The industry, the trade of the Nation, has been suspended, and even arts and sciences have languished in the general confusion: the very women have been exposed to plunder, whose condition is the more deplorable, because they are not acquainted with the methods of gain to repair their broken fortunes. Some are driven from their country, others forced into confinement, some are weary of life; and others there are who can neither be comforted nor recovered to the use of reason. Had his Majesty been present to see the wild proceedings of the people, his goodness would have saved us from these extremities; for though a King can, in his absence, delegate his power and authority, yet can he not delegate his wisdom and his justice."
Immediately after the disclosure of the shocking villainy practised by Stock-jobbers and the South-Sea Directors, another impostor was exposed to public view, and the Charity that had voluntarily flown into his pockets turned to more worthy channels. It is true, the fellow was a little villain, but his arts may serve as a beacon to the unwary. This wretch pretended to be subject to epileptic fits, and would fall purposely into some dirty pool, whence he never failed to be conveyed to a dry place, or to receive handsome donations; sometimes he terrified the spectators with frightful gestures and convulsive motions, as if he would beat his head and limbs to pieces, and, gradually recovering, receive the rewards of his performance; but the frequency of the exploit at length attracted the notice of the Police, by whom he was conveyed in a dreadful fit to the Lord Mayor, in whose presence the symptoms continued with the utmost violence; that respectable Magistrate, undertaking the office of physician, prescribed the Compter, and finally the Workhouse, where he had no sooner arrived, than, finding it useless to counterfeit, he began to amend, and beat his hemp with double earnestness.
A brother in iniquity went to as many as twenty taverns in one afternoon, the landlords of which were ordered by him to prepare a supper for three officers of the guards, and to pay him a shilling for his trouble, and charge it to the officers.
The following Report of a Committee was made to his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, in their General Quarter Sessions, assembled 1725.
"In pursuance of an order made in the last Quarter Sessions held for this County; whereby it was referred to us, among others, to enquire into the number of houses and places within such parts of this town and county as are therein mentioned, where Geneva and other strong waters are sold by retail, and the mischiefs occasioned thereby: We, whose names are subscribed, do hereby certify, that by the returns of the high and petty constables, made upon their oaths, it appears there are within the weekly Bills of Mortality, and such other parts of this County as are now by the contiguity of buildings become part of this Town, exclusive of London and Southwark, 6187 houses and shops, wherein Geneva or other strong waters are sold by retail. And, although this number is exceeding great, and far beyond all proportion to the real wants of the inhabitants (being in some parishes every tenth house, in others every seventh, and in one of the largest every fifth house), we have great reason to believe it is very short of the true number, there being none returned but such who sell publicly in shops or houses, though it is known there are many others who sell by retail, even in the streets and highways, some on bulks and stalls set up for that purpose, and others in wheelbarrows, who are not returned; and many more who sell privately in garrets, cellars, back-rooms, and other places not publicly exposed to view, and which thereby escaped the notice of our officers; and yet there have been a considerable number lately suppressed, or obliged to leave off, by the Justices within their parishes, though it has proved of no effect, having only served to drive those who before were used to these liquors into greater shops, which are now to be seen full of poor people from morning to night.
"But in this number of 6187 are included such victuallers who sell Geneva or other strong waters, as well as Ale and Beer: though it is highly probable, from the great and sudden decay of the brewing-trade, without any diminution in the number of victuallers, that the quantities of strong waters now drank in Alehouses is vastly increased of late beyond what was usual; and it appears by the constables' returns, where they are distinguished, that the number of Geneva and other strong water shops are fully equal to the number of Alehouses, and rather exceed than otherwise.
"It is with the deepest concern your Committee observe the strong inclination of the inferior sort of people to these destructive liquors; and yet, as if that were not sufficient, all arts are used to tempt and invite them. All Chandlers, many Tobacconists, and several who sell fruit or herbs in stalls or wheelbarrows, sell Geneva; and many inferior tradesmen begin now to keep it in their shops for their customers; whereby it is scarce possible for soldiers, seamen, servants, or others of their rank, to go any where without being drawn in, either by those who sell it, or by their acquaintance they meet with in the streets, who generally begin with inviting them to a dram, which is every where near at hand; especially where, of all other places, it ought to be kept at the greatest distance; near churches, work-houses, stables, yards, and markets.
"Your Committee, after having informed themselves as well as they were able of the numbers of those houses, proceeded to enquire according to your directions into the mischiefs arising from them, and from the immoderate use of these liquors, and more especially Geneva; and those appear to be endless and innumerable, affecting not only particular persons and families, but also the trade of the Nation and the public welfare.
"With respect to particular persons; it deprives them of their money, time, health, and understanding, weakens and enfeebles them to the last degree; and yet, while under its immediate influence, raises the most violent and outrageous passions, renders them incapable of hard labour, as well as indisposes them to it, ruins their health, and destroys their lives; besides the fatal effects it has on their morals and religion. And among the women (who seem to be almost equally infected) it has this farther effect, by inflaming their blood, and stupifying their senses, to expose them an easy prey to the attacks of vicious men; and yet many of them are so blind to these dismal consequences, that they are often seen to give it to their youngest children, even to such whom they carry in their arms.
"With regard to their families, this pernicious liquor is still more fatal: whilst the husband, and perhaps his wife also, are drinking and spending their money in Geneva-shops, their children are starved and naked at home, without bread to eat, or clothes to put on, and either become a burden to their parishes, or, being suffered to ramble about the streets, are forced to beg while they are children, and learn as they grow up to pilfer and steal; which your Committee conceive to be one of the chief causes of the vast increase of thieves and pilferers of all kinds, notwithstanding the great numbers who have been transported by virtue of the excellent law made for that purpose. Under this head may also be added, the common practice of pawning their own and children's clothes (which exposes them to all the extortions of pawnbrokers), and their running in debt, and cheating by all the ways and means they can devise, to get money to spend in this destructive liquor, which generally ends in the husband's being thrown into a gaol, and his whole family on the parish. And this your Committee conceive to be one of the principal causes of the great increase of beggars and parish poor, notwithstanding the high wages now given to all sorts of workmen and servants.
"And lastly, with regard to trade, and the public welfare, the consequences are yet more ruinous and destructive. It has been already observed, that the constant use of strong-waters, and particularly of Geneva, never fails to produce an invincible aversion to work and labour; this, by necessary consequence, deprives us of great numbers of useful hands, which would otherwise be employed to the advantage of the publick. And as to those who yet do work sometimes, or follow any employment, the loss of their time in frequent tippling, the getting often drunk in the morning, and the spending of their money this way, must very much cramp and straiten them, and so far diminish their trade, and the profit which would accrue from thence to the publick, as well as to themselves. But it is farther to be observed, that although the retail trade of wine and ale is generally confined to Vintners and Victuallers, this of Geneva is now sold, not only by Distillers and Geneva-shops, but by most other inferior traders, particularly by all chandlers, many weavers, and several tobacconists, dyers, carpenters, gardeners, barbers, shoemakers, labourers, and others, there being in the hamlet of Bethnal-green only above 40 weavers who sell this liquor; and these and other trades which make our manufactures, generally employing many journeymen and artificers under them, who having always this liquor ready at hand, are easily tempted to drink freely of it, especially as they may drink the whole week upon score, and perhaps without minding how fast the score rises upon them, whereby at the week's end they find themselves without any surplusage to carry home to their families, which of course must starve, or be thrown on the parish. And as this evil (wherein the masters may perhaps find their own account, by drawing back the greatest part of their workmen's wages) will naturally go on increasing, and extend to most other trades where numbers of workmen are employed, your Committee apprehend, it may (if not timely prevented) affect our manufactures in the most sensible manner, and be of the last consequence to our trade and welfare.
"Under this head it may be proper also to take some notice of the pernicious influence, the permitting of chandlers, and other inferior trades, to deal in this destructive liquor, or any other strong-waters, has in this town, on the servants of the nobility and gentry; it being too common a practice among chandlers and others, where servants are continually going on one occasion or other, to tempt and press them to drink, and even to give them drams of this liquor, which we may reasonably suppose must be paid for by the masters, either in the price, weight, or measure of the goods they are sent for, and which, besides the immediate damage, encourages them to wrong their masters in greater matters, and, as we conceive, may be one cause of the great complaints that are made against servants.
"And if we may judge what will happen in other workhouses now erecting, by what has already happened by that of St. Giles's in the Fields, we have reason to fear, that the violent fondness and desire of this liquor, which unaccountably possesses all our poor, may prevent in great measure the good effects proposed by them, and which in all other respects seem very hopeful and promising; it appearing by the return from Holborn division, wherein that workhouse is situate, that notwithstanding all the care that has been taken, Geneva is clandestinely brought in among the poor there, and that they will suffer any punishment or inconveniences rather than live without it, though they cannot avoid seeing its fatal effects by the death of those amongst them who had drank most freely of it; and it is found by experience there, that those who use this liquor are not only the most lazy and unfit for work, but also the most turbulent and ungovernable, and on that account several of them have been turned out, and left to struggle with the greatest wants abroad, which they submit to, rather than they will discover who brought in the Geneva to them, though they have been offered to be forgiven on that condition.
"Your Committee, having thus laid before you the numbers of the houses and places wherein Geneva and other strong-waters are sold, as also some of the many mischievous effects derived from them, submit to the consideration and judgment of the Sessions, how far it is in their power, and by what means, to suppress this great nuisance; or whether any, and what application to superiors may be proper in order to a more effectual remedy.
"Jan. 13, 1725.
The Society for the Reformation of Manners published a Statement of their proceedings almost immediately after, by which it appears, they had prosecuted from December 1, 1724, to December 1, 1725, 2506 persons for keeping lewd and disorderly houses, swearing, drunkenness, gaming, and proceeding in their usual occupations on Sundays. The total amount of their prosecutions for 34 years amounted to the amazing number of 91,899[141:A].
A grand masqued ball, given at the Opera-house in February 1726, commenced at 12 o'clock on Monday night the 13th; deep play at Hazard succeeded, when one of the company threw for 50l. and lost; and still holding the box without paying, threw a second time for 150l. with no better success; the winners then insisted upon a deposit of the money, which was complied with in four supposed roleaus, of 50 guineas each; but, some suspicions arising, they were opened and found to be rolls or parcels of halfpence; the sharper was immediately seized and committed to the custody of an officer of the guard, whom he soon terrified into a release, by declaring he was a lawyer thoroughly acquainted with the acts concerning unlawful games at Hazard, and, at the same time, advising him not to incur the penalties usually inflicted on those who committed trespasses on the liberty of the subject by false imprisonment. When carried to a Magistrate, he obliged that respectable guardian of the public peace to acknowledge that he could do nothing with him, and he was discharged accordingly.
The King directed the following note
"To the Right Honourable the Lord De la Warr, Chairman of the Session for the City and Liberty of Westminster; or, in his Lordship's absence, to the Deputy Chairman.
Windsor Castle, Oct. 8, 1728.
"MY LORD,
"His Majesty, being very much concerned at the frequent robberies of late committed in the streets of London, Westminster, and parts adjacent; and being informed, that they are greatly to be imputed to the unlawful return of felons convict who have been transported to his Majesty's Plantations, has been graciously pleased, for the better discovering and apprehending of such felons, to give orders to the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, to cause to be paid to any person or persons, who, before the first day of March next, shall discover any of them, so as they may be apprehended and brought to justice, a reward of 40l. for each felon convict returned, or that shall return from transportation before the expiration of the term for which he or she was transported; who shall, by the means of such discovery, be brought to condign punishment.
"And it having been farther represented to his Majesty, that such felons and other robbers, and their accomplices, are greatly encouraged and harboured by persons who make it their business to keep night-houses, which are resorted to by great numbers of loose and disorderly people; and that the gaming-houses, as also the shops where Geneva and other spirits and strong liquors are drank to excess, much contribute to the corruption of the morals of those of an inferior rank, and to the leading them into these wicked courses: His Majesty has commanded me to recommend it, in his name, in the strongest manner, to his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the City and Liberty of Westminster, to employ their utmost care and vigilance, in the preventing and suppressing of these disorders; and that they do, in their several parishes or other divisions, hold frequent petty Sessions for this purpose, and call before them the High Constable, Petty Constables, and other proper officers under their direction, and give them the strictest orders and warrants, from time to time, as there shall be occasion, to search for and apprehend rogues, vagabonds, idle and disorderly persons, in order to their being examined and dealt with according to the statutes and laws in that behalf; and the said Justices are also to proceed according to law, as well against all persons harbouring such offenders in their houses, as against those that sell Geneva or other spirits and strong liquors, who shall suffer tippling in their houses or shops, contrary to law; and against such as keep common gaming-houses, or practise or encourage unlawful gaming. And his Majesty, having very much at heart the performance of this service, wherein the honour of his government, the preserving of the peace, and the safety of his Majesty's subjects are so much concerned, does further require the said Justices, in their respective Sessions, to draw up in writing, from time to time, an account of their proceedings herein, inserting the names of the Justices of the Peace attending such meetings, and of the Peace-officers whom they shall employ, taking particular notice of the zeal and diligence of each of them in the performance of his duty; which accounts are to be transmitted from the said several Sessions to one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, to be laid before his Majesty; who, being himself informed of their behaviour, may bestow marks of his Royal bounty upon such of the said officers as shall remarkably distinguish themselves by the faithful and diligent execution of their office; his Majesty not doubting but the said Justices, on their part, will take care to punish with rigour, as by law they may, those who shall appear to have been guilty of corruption or negligence therein.
"Your Lordship will be pleased to acquaint the Justices of the Peace for the said City and Liberty, and all others whom it may concern, with this his Majesty's pleasure; that the same may be duly and punctually complied with.
"I am, &c.
When Government issues such notices as the preceding, it authenticates the paragraphs of Newspapers, which might otherwise be doubted; indeed, they abound at this period with the most horrid tales of murders, beatings, and robberies, in every direction.
The Post-man of October 19, observes: "The persons authorized by Government to employ men to drive Hackney-coaches have made great complaints for the want of trade, occasioned by the increase of street-robbers; so that people, especially in an evening, choose rather to walk than ride in a coach, on account that they are in a readier posture to defend themselves, or call out for help if attacked. Mean-time it is apparent, that whereas a figure for driving of an Hackney-coach used lately to be sold for about 60l. besides paying the usual duties to the Commissioners for licensing, they are at this time, for the reasons aforesaid, sold for 3l. per figure good-will."
The year 1730 introduced a new and dreadful trait in the customs of thieves and other villains, which seems to have originated in the lazy constitutions of some predatory wretches in Bristol; where they sent a letter to a Ship's Carpenter, threatening destruction to himself and property, if he did not deposit a certain sum in a place pointed out by them. As that unfortunate person neglected to do so, his house was burnt in defiance of every precaution; and the practice was immediately adopted throughout the Kingdom, to the constant terror of the opulent. London had a threefold share of incendiaries; indeed, the letters inserted in the newspapers, received by various persons, are disgraceful even to the most abandoned character. The King was at length induced to issue his Proclamation, forbidding any person to comply with demands for money, and offering 300l. reward for the apprehension of such as had, for four months previous to the date of the Proclamation, sent incendiary letters, or maimed or injured his subjects for non-compliance.
A female of tolerable appearance, and between 30 and 40 years of age, was the cause of much alarm in 1731, by pretending to hang herself in different parts of the town. Her method was thus: she found a convenient situation for the experiment, and suspended herself; an accomplice, always at hand for the purpose, immediately released her from the rope, and after rousing the neighbourhood absconded. Humanity induced the spectators sometimes to take her into houses, and always to relieve her, who were told, when sufficiently recovered to articulate, that she had possessed 1500l.; but that, marrying an Irish Captain, he robbed her of every penny, and fled, which produced despair, and a determination to commit suicide.
According to the Report of Thomas Railton, Esq. eldest Justice of the Peace, in April 1731, it appeared that a Committee appointed for the suppression of night-houses, night-cellars, and other disorderly houses, had bound over to the Quarter Sessions 58 persons charged with keeping houses of the above description, and committed 16 to prison for the same offence; besides 24 who were indicted, and their neighbours bound to prosecute them; 26 houses were utterly suppressed, and their landlords absconded. In addition to this laudable reformation, the Committee sent 127 vagabonds to the House of Correction, and convicted 11 persons for profane swearing.
I have too frequently had occasion to notice the general depravity of the publick, which must have had its origin from the same indifference towards religion, observable in the Cathedral of St. Paul, where unthinking people walked and talked as much at their ease as if they trod the Mall in St. James's-park. One wretched family, neglecting those precepts which are aimed against despondency and suicide, reasoned themselves into a contempt of death. Pernicious and detestable as the doctrine is, and contrary to every visible operation of nature placed in our view by the Divinity; too many, I am afraid, still cherish an idea that the soul perishes with the body. As an antidote for such persons, let them read the horrid murders committed by Richard Smith and his wife in April 1732. This wretched pair were found in their lodgings, within the Liberties of the King's-bench, hanged, and their infant child shot to death in its cradle. The following letters will explain the opinions entertained by them, which, if adopted, would soon render the world a desert. It is the essence of cowardice to fly from misfortunes.
"To Mr. Brightred.
"Sir,
"The necessity of my affairs has obliged me to give you this trouble; I hope I have left more than is sufficient for the money I owe you. I beg of you that you will be pleased to send these inclosed papers, as directed, immediately by some porter, and that without shewing them to any one, &c.
"I have a suit of black clothes at the Cock, in Mint-street, which lies for 17s. 6d. If you can find any chap for my dog and antient cat, it would be kind. I have here sent a shilling for the porter."
"It is now about the time I promised payment to Mr. Brooks, which I have performed in the best manner I was able. I wish it had been done more to your satisfaction; but the thing was impossible. I here return you my hearty thanks for the favours which I have received; it being all the tribute I am able to pay. There is a certain anonymous person whom you have some knowledge of, who, I am informed, has taken some pains to make the world believe he has done me services: I wish that said person had never troubled his head about my affairs; I am sure he had no business with them; for it is entirely owing to his meddling that I came pennyless into this place; whereas, had I brought 20l. in with me, which I could easily have done, I could not then have missed getting my bread here, and in time have been able to come to terms with my plaintiff; whose lunacy, I believe, could not have lasted always. I must not here conclude, for my meddling friend's man Sancho Panca would perhaps take it ill, did I not make mention of him; therefore, if it lies in your way, let Sancho know that his impudence and insolence was not so much forgotten as despised. I shall now make an end of this epistle, desiring you to publish the inclosed; as to the manner how, I leave it entirely to your judgment.
"That all happiness may attend you and yours, is the prayer of, your affectionate kinsman even to death,
"If it lies in your way, let that good-natured man Mr. Duncome know that I remembered him with my latest breath."
"These actions, considered in all their circumstances, being somewhat uncommon, it may not be improper to give some account of the cause, and that it was an inveterate hatred we conceived against poverty and rags; evils that, through a train of unlucky accidents, were become inevitable; for we appeal to all that ever knew us, whether we were either idle or extravagant, whether or no we have not taken as much pains to our living as our neighbours, although not attended with the same success. We apprehend that the taking our child's life away, to be a circumstance for which we shall be generally condemned; but for our own parts, we are perfectly easy upon that head. We are satisfied it is less cruel to take the child with us, even supposing a state of annihilation (as some dream of) than to leave her friendless in the world, exposed to ignorance and misery. Now in order to obviate some censures, which may proceed either from ignorance or malice, we think it proper to inform the world, that we firmly believe the existence of Almighty God; that this belief of ours is not an implicit faith, but deduced from the nature and reason of things. We believe the existence of an Almighty Being, from the consideration of his wonderful works; from a consideration of those innumerable celestial and glorious bodies, and from their wonderful order and harmony. We have also spent some time in viewing those wonders which are to be seen in the minute part of the world, and that with great pleasure and satisfaction; from all which particulars, we are satisfied that such amazing things could not possibly be without a first mover, without the existence of an Almighty Being; and as we know the wonderful God to be Almighty, so we cannot help believing but that he is also good, not implacable; not like such wretches as men are, not taking delight in the miseries of his creature; for which reason we resign up our breaths unto him without any terrible apprehensions, submitting ourselves to those ways, which in his goodness he shall please to appoint after death. We also believe the existence of unbodied creatures, and think we have reason for that belief; although we do not pretend to know their way of subsisting. We are not ignorant of those laws made in terrorem, but leave the disposal of our bodies to the wisdom of the Coroner and his Jury; the thing being indifferent to us where our bodies are laid; from whence it will appear how little anxious we are about a Hic jacet; we for our parts neither expect nor desire such honours, but shall content ourselves with a borrowed epitaph, which we shall insert in this paper:
"It is the opinion of naturalists, that our bodies are, at certain stages of life, composed of new matter; so that a great many poor men have new bodies oftener than new clothes; now, as Divines are not able to inform us which of those several bodies shall rise at the resurrection; it is very probable that the deceased body may be for ever silent as well as any other.
Smith was pronounced by the Coroner's Jury, felo de se, and guilty of murder with respect to the child: his wife they declared a lunatic.
At a Sermon preached at Bow-church in 1734, before eight Bishops, many Magistrates, and a numerous auditory, by the Rev. Mr. Bedford, on the Anniversary of the Society for the Reformation of Manners; it was stated, that the Society had prosecuted, between December 1732 and December 1733, 89 persons for disorderly and lewd practices; 13 for keeping disorderly houses, and for exercising their trades on Sundays 395.
Three different sets of sharpers infested the Metropolis in the following winter, who went from house to house with counterfeited letters of request from the Magistrates and Rectors of Tid St. Mary's, Lincolnshire, and Outwell and Terrington, Norfolk; representing, that dreadful fires had almost desolated those places; when, in truth, no such events had happened.
The Weekly Register of December 8, 1733, declares: "Those honest City Tradesmen and others, who so lovingly carry their wives and mistresses to the neighbouring villages in chaises to regale them on a Sunday, are seldom sensible of the great inconveniencies and dangers they are exposed to; for besides the common accidents of the road, there are a set of regular rogues kept constantly in pay to incommode them in their passage, and these are the drivers of what are called waiting jobs, and other Hackney travelling coaches, with sets of horses, who are commissioned by their masters to annoy, sink, and destroy all the single and double horse chaises they can conveniently meet with, or overtake in their way, without regard to the lives or limbs of the persons who travel in them. What havock these industrious sons of blood and wounds have made within twenty miles of London, in the compass of a Summer's season, is best known by the articles of accidents in the newspapers; the miserable shrieks of women and children not being sufficient to deter the villains from doing what they call their duty to their masters; for, besides their daily or weekly wages, they have an extraordinary stated allowance for every chaise they can reverse, ditch, or bring by the road, as the term or phrase is.
"I heard a fellow, who drove a hired coach and four horses, give a long detail of a hard chace he gave last Summer to a two-horse chaise which was going with a gentleman and three ladies to Windsor. He said he first came in view of the chaise at Knightsbridge, and there put on hard after it to Kensington; but that being drawn by a pair of good cattle, and the gentleman in the seat pretty expert at driving, they made the town before him; and there stopping at a tavern-door to take a glass of wine, he halted also; but the chaise not yet coming on, he affected another delay, by pretending that one of his horses had taken up a stone, and so dismounting, as if to search, lay by till the enemy had passed him; that then they kept a trot on together to Turnham-green, when the people suspecting his design, again put on; that he then whipped after them for dear blood, thinking to have done their business between that place and Brentford. But here he was again disappointed, for the two horses still kept their courage, till they came between Longford and Colnbrook, where he plainly perceived them begin to droop or knock-up, and found he had then a sure game of it. He went on leisurely after them, till both parties came into a narrow road, where there was no possibility of an escape, when he gave his horses a sudden jerk, and came with such violence upon the people, that he pulled their machine quite over. He said, the cries of the women were so loud, that the B—s might be heard to his Majesty's garden, Piccadilly; that, there being nobody near to assist the people, he got clear off with two or three blind old women his passengers some miles beyond Maidenhead, safe both from pursuit and evidence.
"I have been credibly informed, that many of the coachmen and postillions belonging to the gentry, are seduced by the masters of the travelling-coaches to involve themselves in the guilt of this monstrous iniquity, and have certain fees for dismounting persons on single horses, and overturning chaises, when it shall suit with their convenience to do it with safety (that is, within the verge of the law); and in case of an action or indictment, if the master or mistress will not stand by their servant, and believe the mischief was merely accidental, the offender is then defended by a general contribution from all the Stage-coach masters within the Bills of Mortality.
"Those Hackney gentlemen who drive about the City and suburbs of London, have by their overgrown insolence obliged the Government to take notice of them, and make laws for their regulation; and as there are Commissioners for receiving the Tax they pay to the publick, so those Commissioners have power to hear and determine between the drivers and their passengers upon any abuse that happens: and yet these ordinary coachmen abate very little of their abusive conduct; but not only impose in price upon those that hire them, but refuse to go this or that way as they are called; whereas the Law obliges them to go wherever they are legally required, and at reasonable hours. This treatment, and the particular saucy impudent behaviour of the coachman, in demanding the other twelver or tester above their fare, has been the occasion of innumerable quarrels, fighting, and abuses; affronting gentlemen, frighting and insulting women; and such rudenesses, that no Civil Government will, or, indeed, ought to suffer; and above all, has been the occasion of killing several coachmen, by gentlemen that have been provoked by the villainous tongues of those fellows beyond the extent of their patience. Their intolerable behaviour has rendered them so contemptible and odious in the eyes of all degrees of people whatever, that there is more joy seen for one Hackney-coachman's going to the gallows, than for a dozen highwaymen and street-robbers.
"The driver of a Hackney-coach, having the misfortune to break a leg and an arm by a fall from his box, was rendered incapable of following that business any longer; and therefore posted himself at the corner of one of the principal avenues leading to Covent-garden, with his limbs bound up in the most advantageous manner to move the passengers to commiseration. He told his deplorable case to all, but all passed without pity; and the man must have inevitably perished, had it not come into his head to shift the scene and his situation. The transition was easy; he whipped on a leather apron, and from a Coachman became a poor Joiner, with a wife and four children, that had broke his limbs by a fall from the top of a house. Showers of pence poured daily into his hat, and in a few years he became able to purchase many figures as well as horses; and he is now master of one of the most considerable Livery-stables in London.
"The next are the Watermen; and indeed the insolence of these, though they are under some limitations too, is yet such at this time, that it stands in greater need than any other of severe Laws, and those Laws being put in speedy execution. A few months ago, one of these very people being steersman of a passage boat between Queenhithe and Windsor, drowned fifteen people at one time; and when many of them begged of him to put them on shore, or take down his sails, he impudently mocked them, asked some of the poor frighted women if they were afraid of going to the Devil, and bid them say their prayers; then used a vulgar water-phrase, which such fellows have in their mouths, 'Blow, Devil, the more wind the better boat.' A man of a very considerable substance perishing with the rest of the unfortunate passengers, this villain, who had saved himself by swimming, had the surprising impudence to go the next morning to his widow, who lived at Kingston-upon-Thames. The poor woman, surrounded by a number of sorrowful friends, was astonished to think what could be the occasion of the fellow's coming to her; but thinking he was come to give some account of her husband's body being found, at last she condescended to see him. After a scurvy scrape or two, the monster very modestly 'hoped his good mistress would give him half a-crown to drink her health, by way of satisfaction for a pair of oars and a sail he had lost the night before, when her husband was drowned.'
"I have many times passed between London and Gravesend with these fellows; when I have seen them, in spite of the shrieks and cries of the women, and the persuasions of the men-passengers, and indeed, as if they were the more bold by how much the passengers were the more afraid; I have seen them run needless hazards, and go as it were within an inch of death, when they have been under no necessity of it; and if not in contempt of the passengers, it has been in mere laziness, to avoid their rowing. And I have been sometimes obliged, especially when there have been more men in the boat of the same mind, so that we have been strong enough for them, to threaten to cut their throats, to make them hand their sails, and keep under shore, not to fright, as well as hazard the lives of the passengers, when there was no need of it. But I am satisfied, that the less frighted and timorous their passengers are, the more cautious and careful the Watermen are, and the least apt to run into danger. Whereas, if their passengers appear frighted, then the Watermen grow saucy and audacious, show themselves venturous, and contemn the dangers they are really exposed to.
"Set one knave to catch another, is a proverbial saying of great antiquity and repute in this kingdom. Thus the vigilant Vintner, notwithstanding all his little arts of base brewings, abridging his bottles, and connecting his guests together, does not always reap the fruits of his own care and industry. Few people being aware of the underhand understandings, and petty partnerships these sons of Benecarlo and Cyder have topped upon them; and the many other private inconveniences that they, in the course of their business, are subjected to. Now, to let my readers into this great arcanum or secret, I must acquaint them, that nothing is more certain and frequent, than for some of the principal customers to a tavern to have a secret allowance, by way of drawback, of 6d. or 7d.; nay, sometimes I have heard of 8d. on every bottle of port-wine that themselves shall drink, or cause to be drank in the house, and for which they have seemingly paid the price of 2s.; and so are a sort of Vintners in vizards and setters of society. Those are mostly sharping Shopkeepers, who, by being considerable dealers, hold numbers of other inferior tradesmen in a state of dependency upon them; officers of parishes, old seasoned soakers, who, by having served an age to tippling, have contracted a boundless acquaintance; house-stewards, clerks of kitchens, song-singers, horse-racers, valets-de-chambre, merry story-tellers, attorneys and solicitors, with legions of wrangling clients always at their elbows. Wherefore, as they have got the lead upon a great part of mankind, they are for ever establishing clubs and friendly-societies at Taverns, and drawing to them every soul they have any dealings or acquaintance with.
"The young fellows are mostly sure to be their followers and admirers, as esteeming it a great favour to be admitted amongst their seniors and betters, thinking to learn to know the world and themselves. One constant topic of conversation is, the civility of the people, the diligent attendance, together with the goodness of the wines and cheapness of the eatables, with a side-wind reflection on another house. And, if at any time the wine is complained of, it is answered with 'People's palates are not at all times alike; my landlord generally hath as good, or better, than any one in the town.' And often the poor innocent bottle, or else the cork, falls under a false and heavy accusation.
"In a morning there is no passing through any part of the town without being hemmed and yelped after by these locusts from the windows of Taverns, where they post themselves at the most convenient views, to observe such passengers as they have but the least knowledge of; and if a person be in the greatest haste, going upon extraordinary occasions, or not caring to vitiate his palate before dinner, and so attempts an escape, then, like a pack of hounds, they join in full cry after him, and the landlord is detached upon his dropsical pedestals, or else a more nimble-footed drawer is at your heels, bawling out 'Sir, Sir, it is your old friend Mr. Swallow, who wants you upon particular business.'
"The sums which are expended daily by this method are really surprising. I knew a clerk to a vestry, a half-pay officer, a chancery solicitor, and a broken apothecary, that made a tolerable good livelihood, by calling into a tavern all their friends that passed by the window in this manner. Their custom was, to sit with a quart of white port before them in a morning; every person they decoyed into their company for a minute or two never threw down less than his sixpence, and few drank more than one gill; and, if two or three glasses, he seldom came off with less than one shilling. The master of the house constantly provided them with a plain dinner, gratis. All dinner-time they kept their room, still in full view of the street, and so sat catching gudgeons (as they used to call it) from morning till night; when, besides amply filling their own carcases, and discharging the whole reckoning, they seldom divided less than seven or eight shillings per man, per diem.
"Some people, unacquainted with this fellow-feeling at Taverns, often wonder how such-a-one does to hold it; that he spends a confounded deal of money, is seldom out of a Tavern, and never in his business: when, in reality, he is thus never out of his business, and so helps to run away with the chief profits of the house.
"Nor are these all the hardships many of the Vintners lie under; for, besides, their purses must too often stand a private examination behind the bar, when any of these sort of customers necessities shall require it.
"It is such dealings drives the poor Devils to all the little tricks and shifts imaginable. I went one day into a Tavern near Charing-cross, to enquire after a person whom I knew had once used the house. The Mistress being in the bar, cried out, 'What an unfortunate thing it was, Mr. ——being that instant gone out of the house, and was surprised I did not meet him at the door, but that he had left word he expected a gentleman to come to him, and would return immediately.' I staid the sipping of two or three half pints, and began to shew some uneasiness that he did not come according to her expectation, when she again wondered at it, saying, 'it was one of his times of coming; for that he was a worthy good gentleman, and constantly whetted four or five times in a morning.' At length being out of all patience, I paid, and went to my friend's house, about twenty doors farther; where his wife informed me, he had been gone about three months before to Jamaica.
"The bankruptcies so frequently happening among the sons of Bacchus, are doubtless to be attributed chiefly to such leeches as I have been describing, lying so closely upon them; and then an innocent industrious man is to be called forsworn rogue, villain, and what not: and to be told that he affected a failure, to sink a dozen or fourteen shillings in the pound upon his creditors, when, in reality, he hath not a single shilling left in the world, and shall oftentimes be obliged to become a common waiter to a more fortunate fellow, and one perhaps too that he once had thoughts of circumventing in his business and trade, by no other means than a more humble and tractable behaviour.
"A Vintner, who has been looked upon by all mankind to have been a 20,000l. man at least, hath died not worth eighteen-pence; and then the poor wretch has been worried to his grave, with the character of a private gamester."
Colonel De Veil, as celebrated for his address and the number of his commitments as Sir John Fielding afterwards was, had two legal culprits brought before him for examination, in 1737, who were a Counsellor and an Attorney, and as rare bucks and swindlers as ever disgraced the annals of turpitude. These gentlemen were charged with defrauding Mrs. Eddowes, keeper of a Bagnio in St. James's-street, and two other persons, of 12l., by proceeding to the Bagnio in the characters of country gentlemen just arrived; the Attorney styling himself Sir John Peering, and the Counsellor plain Tom. After remaining a short time with Mrs. E. they sent a porter for ladies, and one kind soul even left her bed to visit them; they then proposed to hire a coach and four, in order to make an excursion for pleasure, and promised the woman a velvet cap and riding habit if she would make one of the party; this she consented to do, provided they would permit her to go home to dress; but Sir John and Tom, entertaining doubts whether she would return, demanded, and received, and kept two guineas as a pledge. The coach was hired and used, and two days and two nights were passed at the Bagnio; but when the charges were to be discharged, the Knight and Tom had nothing to produce but a valuable box carefully corded, containing the writings of Sir John's vast estates and several bank notes. This they offered to leave as security till their return; but Mrs. E. suspecting a fraud, had them immediately conveyed to the Magistrate, in whose presence the following writings were taken from the box: a parcel of rags and some hay, an empty bottle, an earthen pipkin, an earthen candlestick, and a japanned tin box. They were bound over for trial.
While the unthinking part of the community fled from place to place, rather in search of amusement than the means of preserving their health, the Police of the City appointed Beadles and Watchmen as follows, under the then recent Act, for better regulating the night watch of London:
By this arrangement, the guardianship of the City was intrusted to 32 beadles and 913 watchmen.
The wretches, kept in some degree of awe by the above members of the Police, when nothing occurred to set their passions afloat, or to assemble them from all parts of the town to one point, committed horrid excesses at Tyburn this year, by the brutal practice of throwing stones and dirt; besides which they had one ludicrous contrivance that will force a smile, though disgust and abhorrence must succeed, when it is recollected it was performed at the hour of execution. The mob dug two large holes in the fields, and filled them with soil: those they carefully covered with turf; the populace of course walked into the filth, from which they were ushered amidst loud huzza's and laughter, while every effort was made to entice or force others into them.
The extreme misery of the lowest description of Londoners received some amelioration, about 1750, through the commendable inquiries and remedies made and applied by the Legislature, relating to their monstrous excesses in drinking ardent spirits. The evidence given before a Committee is too interesting to be omitted; yet it is a disgusting and melancholy picture of London, as it was at that date.
An eminent Physician to one of our Hospitals gave the following information: "That the increase of patients in all the hospitals from 1704 to 1718, being 14 years, the total increase was from 5612 to 8189, which was somewhat above one-fourth; that from 1718 to 1734, being 16 years, the total increase was from 8189 to 12,710, or perhaps 13,000, which was above one-third; but that from 1734 to 1749, being 15 years, the total increase was from 12,710 to 38,147, which was near three times the number." Being asked his opinion, whence he apprehended so great an increase could arise, he answered from the melancholy consequences of Gin-drinking principally; which opinion he enforced with such strong reasons (in which he was supported by another eminent Physician to one of the Hospitals) as gave full conviction to the house.
It appeared by the evidence of John Wyburn, of Whitechapel, and John Rogers, of Trinity-lane, both of whom had followed the trade of bakers for 30 years: "that the consumption of bread amongst the poor was greatly diminished since the excessive drinking of Gin, which would proportionably increase again as that vice abated; that the poor laid out their earnings in gin, which ought to purchase them bread for themselves and families; and that, in many of the out-parts, the bakers were obliged to cut their loaves into halfpenny-worths, a practice unknown to the trade till gin was so universally drank by the poor."
It appeared "that one house in seven, from the Hermitage to Bell-wharf, was a gin-shop: it appeared there were about 16,000 houses in the City of London, and that there were about 1050 licences granted yearly to victuallers, which was about one house to fifteen."
"It appeared by the evidence of the High Constable of Westminster, that there were in that City about 17,000 houses, of which 1300 licenced, and 900 unlicenced that sold liquors, which was about one house in eight.
"It appeared by the evidence of the High Constable of Holborn, that there were in his division 7066 houses, of which 1350 licenced and unlicenced, being about one house in five and a quarter. That in St. Giles's there were about 2000 houses and 506 gin-shops, being above one house in four; besides about 82 twopenny-houses of the greatest infamy, where gin was the principal liquor drank."
Hateful as the subject is, its ramifications spread, though rather softened, into higher scenes of life. Cordials, alias drams, were not quite unknown to the ladies; it was almost noon—