able only for its monstrous absurdities, yet it also contains evidence, not ostentatiously obtruded, but rather escaping unaware from his pen, that his lordship is really a generous and goodnatured man, one who has a very honest John-Bull spirit, and who appears neither to have avoided trouble nor shunned danger when his intervention became necessary to any of his less fortunate fellow prisoners: and though, as literary men, we can give little praise to his lordship's narrative of his forced journey, we have no doubt that many particulars of the journey itself are gratefully remembered by German, Spanish, and English prisoners, towards whom his lordship appears to have been, on all occasions, ready to extend every degree of protection and assistance which circumstances would permit.

ART. VI. Minutes of the Evidence taken before the Committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the State of Mendicity and Vagrancy in the Metropolis and its Neighbourhood.-Ordered to be printed July 11th, 1815.

A WORTHY constituent of one of the most efficient members of the present Committee, intending to compliment his representative, is said to have observed to him, that, of all his useful labours, the Mendacity Report was likely to obtain for him the greatest credit. The joke was probably taken from the slang name given to the Committee by the fraternity whose life, character, and behaviour' it exposes. But vague and desultory as a great part of the evidence may be, there is no reason whatever to call in question its veracity; and it confirms the truth of all those extraordinary stories that have long been current respecting the imposition of beggars. There is not a trick or device related in Lazarillo de Tormes, Gusman d'Alfaraché, or the Diable Boiteux, that cannot be matched by the sons and daughters of mendicity and vagrancy residing in the bye corners, and infesting the streets, of London.

At the same time, we find nothing in the evidence contradictory of an opinion, which we have long entertained, that London, with a greater population, had less misery, with greater opulence, less profligacy, and with a worse police, better security and fewer nuisances, than any other great city in the universe; while it very forcibly evinces that these superior advantages are the spontaneous fruits of the sound good sense and peaceable disposition of the great mass of its inhabitants. But it also proves that its numerous institutions for the relief of suffering humanity, its munificent charities, both public and private, for alleviating distress in all its shapes, whether the consequence of vice, imprudence, or misfortune,

and

and for the religious and moral education of the children of the poor, unparalleled as they unquestionably are, have little or no effect in diminishing the number of vagrants and street beggars.-The cause is not the insufficiency of the sums raised, but the want of some systematic appropriation to meet and check the nuisance complained of. The existing laws are stated to be fully adequate to the purpose: but they are suffered to sleep quietly in the great Statute Book, or are acted upon in so partial and imperfect a manner as to encourage rather than suppress the evil. We expect no good from any new law on the subject; yet we expect much from the publicity that will now be given to the frauds and impostures of the idle and profligate, who riot on the misplaced benevolence of the charitable and humane. To aid that publicity we shall endeavour to collect and condense the scattered parts of the evidence, so as to give a concise view of the whole system of beggary and vagrancy as at present conducted in this great metropolis.

The first mover of the present inquiry, we take for granted, is Mr. Martin, who, in 1802, undertook, under the sanction of the Secretary of State, an inquiry into the state of mendicity in the metropolis. His plan consisted in disposing of tickets to charitable persons, at three-pence each, for the purpose of distributing to beggars, who, on presenting them at the office of the institution, were paid the amount, and frequently more, in return for their history, which was carefully registered in books prepared for the purpose.

In little more than seven months 2000 examinations were taken by means of these tickets; which number, considering the shortness of the time, and that they were principally disposed of at the west end of the town, Mr. Martin conceives may be about a third part of the full-grown beggars in the metropolis; and from the result of the inquiry into these cases, he concludes the total amount of persons subsisting by beggary to be 15,288 individuals. Of these, the home parochials, including about 4,152 children, amount to 6,693; the distant parochials, including 1,467 children, to 2,604; and the non-parochials, including children, to 5,991; of which the Irish, including 3,273 children, amount to 5,310; the Scotch, including 309 children, to 504; and foreigners, including 87 children, to 177-and he intimates the sum required for their maintenance, and extorted from the public by their importunities,' at £97,126: 10s. being at the rate of sixpence a-day for the food, clothing, and lodging of the adults, and threepence a-day for the children.-He might, we think, very safely have doubled it. Of the 2000 cases thus inquired into, 192 were men and 1,808 women; of the latter, 1,100 were married, 581 were widows, and 127 single; and from this disparity, joined to

other

other circumstances, Mr. Martin is disposed to think that in above half the cases that came before him, beggary had arisen from real distress. Perhaps it might be so; but few, we suspect, of those who shewed themselves at Mr. Martin's office, were common street beggars by profession. As a proof of this, it appears that not one third part of the tickets issued were brought in; that many beggars threw the tickets into the street; and it also appears, that of the 2000 who attended the first inquiry, not 100 shewed themselves at the second. Mr. Martin's evidence may, therefore, be considered as grounded on much too loose and uncertain data, to arrive at any just conclusion either as to the number or character of the professional beggars that haunt the metropolis.

It is probable that the Irish beggars exceed in number and depravity all the rest. Montagu Burgoyne, Esq. honorary secretary to a Society originally intended to give assistance to Irish families residing in Calmet Buildings, Orchard-street, in the parish of Mary-le-bone, states, that having heard that in twenty-four small houses, seven hundred Irish poor lived, he found them, on personal inquiry, to exceed that number; three or four families often residing in one room; that the court was totally neglected by the parish; was never cleaned; that people were afraid to enter it from dread of contagion, and that it was a perfect nuisance. "I have been,' he says, in every room myself, and I beg leave to add, that neither in the town nor in the country, have I ever met with so many poor among whom there was so much distress, so much profligacy, and so much ignorance.'

In

From the discovery made in Calmet Buildings, the Society extended its researches into the state of the Irish poor throughout the metropolis; and though Mr. Burgoyne believes they have not been able to take an account of one-half, yet the number amounts to 6,876 grown persons, and 7,288 children under twelve years of age. the parish of St. Giles's alone, 1,210 grown persons and 1,138 children: In this parish,' says Mr. Wakefield, laud surveyor, I found an entire colony of Irish.' And the description which he gives of their moral and personal condition is most wretched and revolting. Mr. Sampson Stevenson, of King's-street, Seven Dials, overseer of the parish of St. Giles's, states, that of the £32,000 a year, raised within the parish, £20,000 goes to the maintenance of the lower Irish, who are non-parochial.—(p. 19.)*

Mr. Burgoyne further states, that in this account are contained but few Irish resident in Wapping, though he understood that great numbers were to be found there; he states also, that it was very

*Our references are made to the reprinted pamphlet, from which the extracts are taken.

difficult

difficult to educate their children, from the influence of the priests in preventing their going to any but catholic schools. The following paper, communicated by three members of a society instituted for benevolent purposes, proves what numerous hordes may elude the search of those who have no other view than that of discovering real objects of charity.

In visiting George-yard, leading from High-street, Whitechapel, into Wentworth-street, we found there were from thirty to forty houses apparently full of people; and being desirous of knowing the situation they were in, we gained access to several of them, where we had formerly visited distressing cases; and from the information we collected, we conceive that in these houses there are no less than two thousand people; the whole place, indeed, presents such a scene of human misery and dissipation, as can hardly be conceived. We learned from those we had access to, that one half of these inhabitants subsist almost entirely by prostitution and beggary; the other half are chiefly Irish labouring people.

'In Wentworth street (adjoining the above yard) there are a great many houses occupied by inhabitants similar to those in George-yard. One of these (a private house, No. 58) we visited, and were not a little surprized to find that it contained one hundred beds, which are let by the night, or otherwise, to beggars and loose characters of all descriptions. In some of the lanes leading from this street, there are other houses of the same kind.'-(p. 64.)

To those who are acquainted with the national character of the Scotch, it will not be surprizing that so few of this nation applied at Mr. Martin's office. Mr. Wakefield, who went from house to house for the Lancastrian Association, did not meet with a single Scotchman in all St. Giles's! Yet North Britain throws off its swarms not less numerous, perhaps, than those of the sister kingdom; and London may be reckoned the general rendezvous of both; but they proceed thither with very different views; the one to save money, the other to spend what they get in jollity. The Scotch are industrious, frugal, persevering, and provident; and most of them have received a decent education. The Irish, on the contrary, are lazy, extravagant, thoughtless, extremely ignorant, and possessed, as Mr. Burgoyne says, of so much ingenuity and so much imagination, that they will make a story which, on inquiry, turns out to be without foundation.' Mr. Gordon, Treasurer of the Scottish Hospital, states, that the object of that society is to prevent mendicity, and to send home to Scotland those who may not be in a situation to maintain themselves here; but that as they discard all who have been begging in the streets, very few of that description apply to them. In fact, a Scotchman knows better than to remain unemployed in London till he must either starve or beg; the world is all before him where to chuse ;' and there is no

part

part of it, however distant or unfrequented, in which successful Scotchmen are not to be found.

There is, however, one sturdy beggar, and but one of this nation, that makes any sort of figure in the evidence delivered before the Committee; and this man preserved, in his degraded situation, at least one trait of the national character-thrift. John Smith, beadle of St. George's, Bloomsbury, informed the Committee, that,―

'There was a Scotchman, some time ago, who had been often sitting in Hart-street, Bloomsbury; he was sitting with his back against the post, and his feet across the foot-path, begging charity. I went and got another person to assist me, and began to remove him; he was a very strong man; he had neither shoes nor stockings on. When I took him to the watch-house, I searched him, and found between thirty and forty shillings in halfpence and silver about him, in different pockets; he had got four waistcoats on, and three coats, and a robe tied round him, that hung just as you may see a lady's shawl flung over her; he appeared in a deplorable situation. I went down to Hatton Garden with him; and after he was ordered to be sent to prison and to the sessions, and I was bound over to prosecute him as an incorrigible rogue and vagabond, I went into a public-house with him, and he said, "Ah, you search very well, but you have missed some point; now let us have something to eat." He called for a pound of ham, and half a pound of beef, a pint of rum, and two pots of ale. He undressed himself, and pulled his garments off; and in his waistcoat there was a tin between the shoulders, such as they keep the pension tickets in. He pulled out a pension ticket," Here is my pension ticket," says he," and here is something besides," and I saw it was bank notes. I said, "How much is it?" he said, "Never mind, I will take care of them." I said, 66 Perhaps you will

be robbed when you are in prison." He said, "No, if they rob me, they may rob the devil; sleeping or waking, I take care of what I have." He told me he had a pension of eighteen pounds a year, from Chelsea.'(p. 96.)

One great source of beggars, though it was attempted to be denied, arises out of the practice, which for its apparent inhumanity cannot be too much reprobated, of all the city parishes, except one or two of the larger, farming out their poor. These parishes, though small, are opulent, and consequently have few poor to maintain; yet light as the burthen is, they find it convenient to trust their maintenance to persons who, like Gil Blas's friend in Madrid, get rich by taking care of the poor, and who can have no other view than that of making a profit by them. James Robertson, of Hoxton, deposes that he farms the poor of forty parishes, amounting to about three hundred, all in one house, at the rate of six shillings a week per head, for which he supplies them with victuals, drink and lodging, and, after the first twelve months, with clothing; that they breakfast at nine, the women having tea and

sugar,