of cases, he was convinced the more lenient punishment would more effectually prevent forgery. Mr Collins and Mr Crowther, considerable and very respectable traders in Westminster, gave evidence which the Committee consider as of peculiar value. Mr Collins has suffered both from larcenies and forgeries, and. was restrained by the state of the penal law from bringing the offenders to justice, which he would otherwise have taken the pains to do. He thinks that the laws of God do not permit life to be taken away for mere offences against property; and that among his friends, many of whom are traders in London and Westminster, he does not know a single exception from concurrence in such sentiments. Mr Crowther stated, that no porter had left their establishment for twenty years for any other cause than theft; that a prosecution had taken place in one instance, and terminated in conviction and condemnation. "The pain and anxiety," he adds, "occasioned by that event, until we obtain ed for him the royal mercy, none can describe but ourselves; which made us resolve never to prosecute again for a similar offence." The general opinion of the traders in London and Westminster is the same with his own. He declared, that if he received a forged bank note, he should be prevented from prosecution by the punishment of death, and that if the punishment were less than death, he should undoubtedly consider it as his absolute duty to bring the offender to justice. He believes that nine tradesmen out of ten agree with him. Mr Stephen Curtis, a leather-factor in London, stated several cases of forgery, fraudulent bankruptcy, and larceny, where the persons injured declined to prosecute, from apprehensions that the offenders might suffer death; this is the general opinion of the traders of London, though, in the opinion of this witness, there is scarcely a shopkeeper from Cornhill to Charingcross who does not suffer from shoplifting. Mr Jacob, who has lately travelled through England on business, and Mr Jennings, for some time shopkeeper near Bridgewater, gave some evidence tending to shew that the general sentiments of traders in the country were, on capital punishments, the same which the Committee had such ample reason to consider as the prevalent opinion of the same valuable class of persons in the metropolis. Mr Jennings observed, that these opinions prevailed among farmers as well as shopkeepers, and that the capital punishment prevented prosecutions for horse, cattle, and sheep-stealing, as well as from privately stealing in shops and dwelling-houses, and in constructive burglaries. Mr Joseph Harmer, who has practised for twenty years as a solicitor at the Old Bailey, gave a testimony which the Committee cannot but recommend to the most serious consideration of the House. He informed the Committee, that he knew many instances of persons injured by larcenies and forgeries, declining to prosecute on account, of the punishment; that the same consideration strongly disinclines many persons to serve as jurors at the Old Bailey, and induces them to bribe the summoning officer not to summon them; and that he has seen juries, influenced, as he believes, by the seve rity of the punishment in numerous capital cases, but especially in forgeries, give verdicts of acquittal where the proofs of the prisoner's guilt were perfectly clear. Old professed thieves, aware of the compassionate feelings of juries, are, he says, desirous of being prosecuted on capital indictments rather than otherwise. In addition to the general evidence above stated, to notorious facts, and to obvious conclusions of reason, the Committee have to state the testimony of some witnesses of peculiar weight, on forgery. Mr John Smith, a member of the House, and banker in London, stated, that he knew instances where prosecutions for private for geries were relinquished on account of the punishment, and had no doubt that if the punishment was less, prosecution would have taken place. Mr Barnett, also a member of the House, and a banker in London, is of opinion, that capital punishment goes extremely to discourage prosecutions in forgery; he knows many instances of this; scarcely a year passed with out something of the kind; he is of opinion that the majority of private forgeries pass unpunished, on account of the severity of the punishment. The punishment of death tends, in his opinion, to prevent prosecution, and to increase the crime. Mr J. F. Forster, a Russia merchant, and Mr E. Forster, a banker in London, gave some remarkable examples of the repugnance to prosecute in forgery. In one, by the connivance of the prosecutor, a person who was introduced to the magistrate as a friend of the prisoner's, desired to see the forged cheque, snatched it away, and threw it into the fire;-a mode of avoiding prosecution which, from other parts of the evidence, does not seem to be uncommon. In another, a forgery to the large amount of 1500l. where the forger and the utterer were both in custody, the prosecution was relinquished merely because the offence was capital. Mr Fry, a banker in London, mentioned four cases of prosecution for forgery which were prevented by the capital punishment, in one of which the party injured swallowed the forged note, that he might not be compelled to prosecute. Mr Fry explicitly stated, what is indeed implied in the evidence of the preceding witnesses, that as a banker, he should consider his property as much more secure if the punishment of forgery were mitigated to such a degree that the law against that offence would be generally enforced; in nine cases out of ten of forgery which he has known, there has been an indisposition to prosecute. Dr Lushington declared that he knew, that in the minds of many persons there is a strong indisposition to prosecute, on account of the severity of the punishment; and that he had heard from the mouths of prosecutors themselves, who have prosecuted for capital offences, where there was a danger of the persons being executed, the greatest regret that they had so done; and many times they have expressed a wish, that they had been able to have foreseen the consequences, they would never have resorted to the laws. Mr Charles Attwood, a manufacturer of window glass at Newcastle, and a seller of window glass in London, had observed a very considerable indisposition to prosecute in capital cases among the traders of London generally; and conceives that this reluctance would abate, if the capital punishment were mitigated to something less than death. Mr Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, a broker to the Bank, and to merchants, whose experience in the transactions of bankers is very extensive, entertains no doubt that the punishment of death has a tendency generally to prevent prosecution, and thinks that evidence to that effect might be discovered in hundreds of instances. Mr Daniel Gurney, a banker in the county of Norfolk, declared his own reluctance, and had observed a similar reluctance among many bankers and traders in the country, to prosecute in cases of forgery, in consequence of the severity of the law. The dread of being instrumental in inflicting death had, with himself, and to his knowledge with others, operated as a pro tection to the criminal. There are several points on which the Committee are desirous of offering some observation to the House; two of these are of great importance; the first relates to the best means of enabling judges to pronounce sentence of death only in those cases where they think it probable that death will be inflicted; the second, whether the establishment of unexpensive and accessible jurisdictions, for the trial of small offences, with the help of juries, but with simple forms of proceeding and corrective punishments, might be a means of checking the first steps to wards criminality. These and other parts of this great subject, the Committee hope that the House will allow them to consider, by permitting them, in the next session, to resume, and, if possible, to complete their inquiries. ABSTRACT Of the Report of the Select Commillee appointed to Inquire into the State of Mendicity in the Metropolis. The body of evidence ascertains beyond all possibility of doubt, the gross and monstrous frauds practised by mendicants in the capital, and in its immediate neighbourhood; the success of which affords a direct encouragement to vice, idleness, and profligacy, as much more is gained by importu nate solicitations in the street for charity, than is earned by the sober and most industrious artificers and labourers, by their utmost application to the work in which they are employed. The profits of mendicity are so great as to afford a strong incitement to follow the practice. Beggars on their being searched when brought before the magistrates, a great deal of money has been found about them, in their pockets, and in their clothes. Beggars make great profits by various practices, such as changing their clothes two or three times a-day, and getting money intended for others. Clear proof that a blind man and a dog got 30s. in one day. Another man got 5s. a-day; he could with ease go through 60 streets a-day. Another man Gs. a-day. Two houses in the parish of St Giles frequented by from 200 to 300 beggars; receipts from 3s. to 5s. aday; they could not be supposed to spend less than 2s. 6d. at night, and pay 6d. for their bed. A negro beggar retired to the West Indies with a fortune, it was supposed, of 1500l. Beggars gain 3s. or 4s. a-day by begging shoes. Considerable sums of money pulled out, and shared amongst beggars. Gains of beggars, 6s., 7s., or 8s., and sometimes more. The value of 15s., 20s., and 30s., found upon them; they get more by begging than they can by work; they get so much by begging, that they never apply for parochial relief. Found upon beggars, 8s., 10s., and 12s., that they had gained in the course of the day. The beggars state that they get more by begging than they can by work. They get 4s. or 5s. a-day. 9s. and 10s. gained in a day, marked on a pass. A woman alleged she could go through 60 streets in a day, and that was a bad street that did not yield ld. Beggars get from 10s. to 20s. aday sometimes. A beggar would spend 50s. a-week for his board. Beggars have said they go through 40 streets in a day, and that it is a poor street that does not yield 2d. A bad day that does not yield the beggars 8s. and more. The evils attending mendicity are not, however, confined to adults; children of different ages are made use of to excite compassion; sometimes by themselves, and at other times are carried about by their parents, or persons pretending to be so. This use of children is not a novel one; in a statute of 1st Edward VI. c. 3, it is recited, that divers women and men go on begging, wayfaring, of which some be impotent and be lame, and some able enough to labour, which do carry children about with them, some four or five years of age, or younger or older, which, brought up in idleness, might be so rooted in it, that hardly they may be brought after to good thrift and labour. And a similar recital in the 3d and 4th Edward VI. c. 16. Beggars are furnished with children at houses in Whitechapel, Shoreditch; some who look like twins; children frequently on women's backs. A woman had four children with her begging; much use made of children. Children are annually instructed in idleness and drinking, and of course lying; idleness is sure to bring on ly ing and theft. Children frequently sent out to beg, and not to return with less than 6d. A girl of 12 years of age had been six years engaged in begging; on some days got 3s. or 4s. a-day; sometimes more, usually 18d. or ls.; on Christmas-day, 4s. 6d. One man will collect 3, 4, or 5 children from different parents, paying 6d. and 9d. for each, to go begging with. Parents beat their children if they do not carry home the sum required. A woman in a constant state of intoxication with 3 children. A woman with twins who never grew older; sat for ten years. Twins not the children of the beggars one time in a hundred. A blind child hired to excite charity; ls., 1s. 6d., or 2s. 6d., gained by each in a day. Children let out by the day, who carried to their parents 2s. 6d. a-day, as the price paid by the persons who hired them; of course their gains must have been more. A little boy and a little girl earned 8s. a-day. An instance is stated of an old woman who keeps a night-school for instructing children in the street-language. Of the numbers of beggars in the streets in the metropolis, a probable conjecture only can be formed. Mr Martin, who has been extremely active in the department of inquiry about mendicity, stated them, thirteen years ago, at 15,000, of which 5300 were Irish; but the Committee will have occasion to refer, in a subsequent part of this Report, to a statement which will shew the probability of the number being considerably more. They are most numerous in the outskirts of the town; thirty or forty sleep in a large round bed. In the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, thirty or forty houses, apparently crowded, in which are not less than 2000 people, one half of whom live by prostitution and beggary; the remainder Irish labouring people. It appears by the evidence of the person who contracts for carrying vagrants in and through the county of Middlesex, that he has passed as many as 12,000 or 13,000 in a year; but no estimate can be formed from that, as many of them are passed several times in the course of a year. And it is proved that these people are, in the course of eight or ten days, in the same situation; as they find no difficulty in escaping as soon as they are out of the hands of the Middlesex contractor. A magistrate in the office at Whitechapel thinks there is not one who is not worthless. It certainly appears uncontrovertible that an immense proportion of them are idle, profligate, and lazy, and living in great dissipa tion. The rector of Saint Clement Danes describes them as living very well, especially if they are pretty well maimed, blind, or if they have children; he describes various practices of the beg gars. The beggars, after having perambulated their circuits, live well, spending a considerable portion of money; have hot suppers, and regale themselves with various liquors. From 200 to 300 beggars frequent two public-houses in St Giles's, divided into companies, and subdivided into walks; live luxuriously at night. Beggars scarify their feet to make the blood come; they change their routes every day; share considerable sums of money, and get scandalously drunk; quarrel and fight; and one teaches the other the mode of extorting money; they are the worst of characters, blasphemous, and abusive; when they are detected as impostors in one parish, they go into another. VOL. XIII. PART II. They eat no broken victuals, but have ham, beef, &c. Forty or fifty sleep in a house, and are locked in lest they should carry any thing away, and are let out in the morning all at once The beggars, mostly of a desperately bad character, frequently, sell clothes that are given to them. Tear their clothes for an appearance of distress. Beggars assemble in a morning, and agree what route each shall take. At some of the houses the knives and forks chained to the tables, and other articles chained to the walls. The walks are sold. In the summer they emigrate a good deal. A variety of practices stated. Worthy persons, however distressed, will not have recourse to begging. Street beggars, with very few exceptions, utterly worthless and incorrigible. Luxurious living. Advantages of begging are such, that the parties would rather be imprisoned three months in the year than relinquish it. Beggars evade the Vagrant Act by carrying matches and articles of little intrinsic value for sale. Gainful practices of a man who is something of an attorney. Various practices for obtaining money by beggars who are complete impostors. Out of 400 beggars in St Giles's, 350 are capable of earning their own living. In the course of this inquiry, it ap peared that in almost all of the city parishes, and in some of those in the neighbourhood, the poor are farmed; to which there appear to be considerable objections; and, among others, adding to the numbers of beggars in the streets, as the persons who take 2 D |