counters and brass medals, which they give the publican a distant view of, that he may take it for money; they then produce some silk waistcoats embroidered with tinsel, which, if not strictly examined, may pass for silver; these waistcoats they propose, with other India goods, made in Spitalfields, to leave in the hands of the publican, or his wife, as a security for the money they want, who, ignorant of the value of the said goods, generally fall into their trap.

The highest rank of cheats who attack the understanding, have made use of the following stratagems: one of the gang who is happiest in his person, and has the best address, is pitched upon to take a house, which, by means of the extreme good character given of him by his comrades to the landlord, is soon accomplished. The next consideration is to furnish it, when Mr. Softly, a young ironmonger just set up, is pitched upon to provide the squire's grates; who, glad of so fine an order, soon ornaments the squire's chimneys with those of the newest fashion. This being done, Mr. Greengoose, the upholder, is immediately applied to for other furniture, and is brought to the house in order that he may see the grates, which he no sooner beholds than he tells his honour that he could have furnished him likewise with grates of the best kind at the most reasonable rates; to which Squire Gambler replies, that he intends taking some little villa in the country, where Mr. Greengoose shall furnish every thing he can. The house being now completely furnished, the squire dresses himself in his morning gown, velvet cap, and red Morocco slippers; puts one or more of his comrades into livery, then sends for a tailor, linen-draper, silversmith, jeweller, &c. takes upon him the character of a merchant, and by getting credit of one, by pawning the goods the moment he has got them, he is enabled to pay ready money to others; by which means he extends his credit and increases his orders till he is detected; which sometimes does not happen till he has defrauded tradesmen of goods to a very considerable value. Nay, I have known them sometimes carry their scheme so far, as to fix one of their comrades at some rendezvous in Wapping, in the character of the captain of a vessel lying at such stairs, and bound to some of the American plantations; by which means the aforesaid merchant, procures goods to be sent aboard; and as his credit advances, he makes use of drafts which are constantly accepted by his comrades, who have as constantly changed their lodgings when the said drafts become due.

There is a set of sharpers who have lately purchased

.

several estates without money, in the following manner: they make a bargain with the seller or his agent for the estate, in consequence of which they draw articles of agreement, by which they oblige themselves to pay the purchase money at such a time, and give a bond for the performance of covenants. They then immediately go to the tenant to shew him the articles of agreement, and tell him that he will soon have a new landlord; upon which the farmer begins to complain of the old one, and hopes his honour will repair this, rebuild that, and alter something else, which the new landlord promises to do. Credit being thus gained with the tenant, the new landlord falls in love perhaps with the farmer's daughter, or with a fine horse, or else borrows money of him, and gives him a draft upon his banker in town, who seldom has any cash in hand, and often is not to be found.

A new species of cheat has lately been practised by a gambler and his gang, who, to my knowledge, have practised every other with impunity, and is what follows: the head of the party calls himself a coal-merchant, in which character he applies to some tradesman to buy goods in his way; tells him he is out of cash, but if he chuses will pay him in coals, of which he is rather over-stocked. The tradesman approving of this, the gambler goes down to some wharf, and orders one or more chaldrons of coals to be delivered at that tradesman's house for his use. Thus far for the gambler who attacks the understanding.

I shall now mention a set of cheats who make a dupe of the heart, and impose on the benevolence and compassion of the charitable; these are called sky-farmers, and execute their schemes in the following manner. One of them dresses himself extremely genteel, takes upon himself the character of a private gentleman, or reputable tradesman; he is attended by two men in the character of country farmers, with clumsy boots, horsemen's coats, &c. The objects pitched upon for imposition are good old charitable ladies, to whom the solicitor tells a dreadful story of losses by fire, inundations, &c. to the utter ruin of these two poor farmers, and all their families; their wives are big with child, their children down in the small pox, &c. a book is then produced by the solicitor, who undertakes this disagreeable office purely out of good nature, knowing the story to be true. In this book are the names of several of the nobility and gentry, set down by himself, who have contributed to this charity; and by setting out with false names they at length get real ones, which are of great service to them in carrying

on their fraud; and well-disposed persons are daily imposed upon by false appearances of distress. And there are persons in this town who get a very good livelihood by writing letters and petitions of this stamp, with which those noble men and gentlemen who are distinguished for their generosity and benevolence, are constantly tormented; and these wretches often obtain relief for their false distresses, whilst the really miserable suffer, from their modesty, the acutest afflictions. A woman stuffed up as if she was ready to lie in, with two or three borrowed children, and a letter, giving an account of her husband's falling off a scaffold, and breaking his limbs, or being drowned at sea, &c. is an irresistible object.

To enumerate the infinite variety of devices that have been or may be practised by sharpers of all kinds, is impossible; all those I have mentioned have come to my knowledge in the course of my practice as a magistrate, and, I am sorry to say it, that though I have committed many gamblers to prison, most of them have escaped justice. The use, therefore I propose in this publication of their artifices, is, to stop the progress of their imposition on tradesmen, until the legislature shall provide some effectual remedy to bring them to justice, as often as they shall offend; and as I have drawn an act of parliament for this purpose, I shall here set down the causes of their escaping justice, with what, I think, may, in some measure be a remedy for the evil.

In the first place, though a fraud be an offence against the public, and differs only from a felony in the manner of obtaining the goods, yet the person injured may accept of restitution, and discharge the prisoner; whereby the public example is lost, and a body of villains, who have succeeded twenty times, to the ruin perhaps of as many families, if they can make the last person injured satisfaction, are immediately let loose to cheat other people; and, as they act in a body, have a treasurer, solicitor, &c. they always have it in their power to make it up with the party that detects them, who has generally more regard for himself than the public. If therefore the magistrate had power to bind over the persons aggrieved to prosecute, the cheat would be sure of being brought to his trial. Indeed it has sometimes happened, that tradesmen have had spirit enough to pursue a gamester into the first court of justice, namely, quartersessions; but when the cheat finds this, as he is as slippery as an eel, he removes his cause by certiorari into some higher court, where the prosecution becomes more

expensive, and the tradesman, who was willing to sacrifice a little for the good of his country, does not chuse, or perhaps is not able, to go on further. Preventing then these sort of causes from being removed by certiorari, would put an entire stop to this method of escape, as it has, in a great measure, of persons for keeping disorderly houses. Lastly, as the law now stands, the highest punishment in the power of any court to inflict on a cheat, is, either fine, imprisonment, or pillory, or all three. The general place for imprisonment on these occasions is Newgate, an excellent academy for the improvement of morals! As to the pillory, as it exposes men to public infamy, without ridding society of them, it too often obliges them to change fraud for violence, and converts the gambler into a highwayman. The effects of public shame, while the party remains in the kingdom, is, in no instance, seen in so true a light, as in the general fate of those who have been admitted as evidences against their accomplices, by which means they have saved their own lives, which they always make use of in raising another gang, as soon as they have obtained their liberty: and I scarcely know an instance of an evidence's living more than one or two sessions after his comrades; for having become infamous, he is driven out of society, and as it were necessitated to follow his old trade. If, therefore, the quartersessions had power given them to transport gamblers when their characters are notorious, and the injury great, as they have in cases of perjury, it would strike a terror on this body of harpies, and if it did not prevent frauds entirely, would rid the nation of some notorious villains. And as to evidences in robberies and in other capital offences, if after the conviction of their accomplices, they were to be tried on their own confessions and transported for life, the public would be relieved from a dangerous nuisance, and the mo tive for the discovery of accomplices remain sufficiently strong to answer the end.

1756, Dec.

JOHN FIELDING,

XXIV. Method to prevent Water-pipes from freezing.

MR. URBAN,

EVERY one must have observed, during the late frost, the numberless heaps of horse-dung, which had been purposely laid in most of the streets of this metropolis; and how much,

after it is dark, these embarrass, and in some degree, endanger, those who pass through them, especially on foot, every one in his turn must have been sensible.

As during frosty weather, the leaden pipes, which convey the water from the streets into our houses, are subject to be frozen, these heaps of dung are laid over such parts of the streets as the leaden pipes are conducted through, in expectation of their being thereby protected from the effects of the frost.

The heat of horse dung, when lying in large heaps in its putrescent state, is acknowledged to be very considerable; but when dung, even in this state, is divided into small par cels, and of course exposed to the action of cold air under a large surface, it quickly loses its heat, and becomes of the same temperature with the ground upon which it lies, and of the atmosphere which surrounds it.

How little, therefore, so gentle a heat, and of so short a continuance as these heaps are endowed with in frosty weather, can contribute to thaw the water already supposed to be frozen in the pipes, or prevent its freezing therein at the depth of three or four feet from the surface of the ground, must be obvious to every one, who is in the least degree conversant in thermometrical experiments and observations. But admitting, that it really had this power of preventing the freezing of the water in those pipes, over which it is applied, in this case it does no service; as, unless in very long continued and very severe frosts, the ground in this metropolis is rarely frozen to the depths at which the wooden pipes, which convey our water, are usually laid and indeed, in these the water has seldom, if ever, been known to freeze. The leaden pipes in the streets are laid generally at, or nearly at, the same depth with the wooden ones; and unless the ground is frozen to the depth to which they are laid, even these are rarely frozen in such parts of their length, as are continued in the ground.

But as it must necessarily happen, for our great accommodation and convenience, that great lengths of leaden pipe, quite exposed to the open air, are conducted to various parts of our dwellings; these, indeed, are subject to be frozen up, and rendered useless by even slight frosts; as the water, more particularly if stagnant in them, soon partakes of the coldness of the atmosphere surrounding the pipe in which it is contained. And if the temperature of the air causes. the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer to stand at any degree under thirty for a few hours, the water, if stagnant, will be frozen in these pipes. In proportion as the cold