The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-15 00:00:00

THIEVES AND' POLICE.

The new number of the Quarterly Review contains a
curious article entitled "Police and the Thieves." We
give a few sentences :
"The most trivial hint will suffice to put the detective
on the right track; for, like men accustomed to work in
the dark, things which to other persons appear invisible,
to them appear clear as noonday. The gossiping ten-
dency of neighbours is especially useful in worming out
secrets. To obtain a single link in a chain of facts they
wil I often hang about aliousefor months, interrogating the
newspaper lad, waylaying the servant girl as she goes
for her supper beer, and picking all he wants to know
out of her as easily as Hobbs picks a lock ; and with
quite as little consciousness on the part of the person
operated upon. Between the detective and the thief there
is no ill blood. When they meet, they give an odd wink
of recognition, as much as to say, on the thief's part,
I'm quite sate, you know ;' and the detective replying
with a look, of which the interpretation is, We shall
be better acquainted by-and-bye.' Both feel they are
using their wits to get their living, and there is a sort of
tacit understanding that each is entitled to play his
game as well as he can. Swell mobsmen may at once be
recognised by a certain ultra-foppishness of dressing, and
an excess of jewellery, whereas the aim of a professor
of the conveying art' is to go about his occupation un-
observed, for to be known to the police is to be disap-
pointed of booty. He has his clothes made by the most
correct tailor, and gets himself up as much a gentleman
as possible. The necessities of his art., it is true, oblige
him to carry a coat over his arm in all weathers, but
so may any veritable man of fashion without
creating suspicion. Still, though he may manage to pass
free in a crowd and frequent fashionable assemblies with-
out being suspected by the public, the professed thief-
catcher is rarely to be deceived by appearances. As the
hunter marks his quarry by peculiar signs known only
to his craft, so the detective can at once ascertain whe-
ther the Tine gentleman walking carelessly along is
wrong,' as the slang term is, or a respectable character.
The principal sign, it seems, is the wandering of the eye.
While those around are listening to a speaker, or wit-
nessing a spectacle, his orbits are peering restlessly
around, and when the thief-taker sees this he knows his
man. Pickpockets are essentially cowards, both morally
and physically, and they generally come down at once to
save trouble, as the opossums were wont to do when
they spied that dead shot, Col. Crockett.
"At the opening of the Crystal Palace, a party of de-
tectives distributed among the crowd observed several
foreigners looking about them in a manner calculated to
rouse their suspicions. These individuals were immedi-
ately taken into custody, notwithstanding their strong
and vehement expostulations made in very good French ;
it turned out that they were Belgian police, sent over at
the request of our Government to keep a look-out on the
mauclia suje's of their own nation. It appears that in
stealing watches from the person the ring of the watch is
:trenched off with the utmost ease, as the purchase upon
it is very great ; and a police magistrate of large expe-
rience has suggested that the way to baffle that game is
to make the ring work upon a swivel ; and anybody that
adopts that idea in the manufacture of time pieces, and
advertises accordingly, is likely to derive a tolerable stroke
of business in anti-extractable tickers. Thee might be in-
scribed as Spoonere' by way of indicating, at once the
place they came from, and the class of people they would
be particularly useful to—namely, the Exeter-Hallites,
for of all the varieties of the genus flat, there is none so
soon lesoked by a London sharper as the genuine no-
Popery man, and the season he is in finest condition is
-during the May meetings. If these people escape the
hustle on the hall stairs, they are waited on with more
attention in the omnibus. They lodge or visit for
the short period of their sojourn to town either at Is-
lington, elachans, or Camberwell, and the conveyances
are followed by the fraternity as certainly as a sick ship
in the tropics is followed by the sharks.
"Omnibuses are generally worked by a man and a wo-
man. The woman seats herself on the right hand side of the
most respectable looking female passenger she can see,
and the men, if possible, takes a place opposite. He
stares the victim out of countenance, and while confused
by his impertinence, the pal, by the aid of a cloak thrown
over her arm, or, if a man, by passing his hand through
the pocket of his cloak, made open on the inside for the
purpose, is able to rifle her pockets at leisure. If
the victim be a middle-aged or elderly lady, her atten-
tion is engaged in conversation while the clearing-out
process is going on ; the trick done, the confederates
get out at the first convenient opportunity. Lately
the run of thieves seems to be chiefly in the direction of
the church, where they go, prayer-book in hand, and
plunder almost with impunity. It is remarked that
the dress of the females is perfect enough, but with
them, as with most members of the swell mob, the finish
is entirely on the outside. They have scarcely any edu-
cation, and the moment they open their lips they betray
themselves. The shoplifters are thus frequently con-
victed out of their own mouths, as in the instance of a
lady-like female not long ago asking for some " wallen-
cians,' which caused her to be watched, and presently
she was detected secreting a •card of valuable lace. It
also appears that the extent of pilfering carried on by
ladies of rank and position is very great. There are per-
sons possessing a mania of this kind so well known among
the shopkeeping community that their addresses and
descriptions are passed from hand to hand for mutual
security. The attendants allow them to secrete what
they like without seeming to observe them, and after-
wards send a bill, with the price of the goods purloined,
to their houses."

FRENCH RAILIVAYS.—The letters from Paris mention
that it has been calculated the revenues of the different
French railways for the past half-year will yield, at pro-
sent prices, the following. rates of distribution : Northern,
5 8.10 ; Orleans, 5 7.10 ; Lyons, 5 8 10 ; Western, 5
1-10 ; and Strasburg, 8 3-10. In the latter company
new stares have been issued which will participate in the
whole receipts at the end of the year, and thus reduce
the rate to a level with the others.

The Essex Herald tells a story of an innocent man
convicted. Some time since a man named Jackson was
committed from this (Chelmsford) bench on the charge of
breaking into a shoemaker's shop at Writtle, more than
a year ago, and stealing nine pairs of boots from Mr.
Saltwell, for whom he had before worked. The evidence
appeared very conclusive. The policeman who stopped
the thief, with the hoots in his possession, in Writtle, in
the night soon after the robbery had -been committed,
but from whom he escaped, swore very positively to
him. Tim prisoner, however, asserted that he was at
work in Buckingliarrn,hire at the time ; this he repeated
at his trial at the recent assizes, but he was convicted.
It has now been ascertained that the prisoner's story was
correct. Mr. Woollard, a boot and shoe maker at Stony
Stratford, in Buckinghamshire, stated that from June to
September, 1855, the prisoner was in his service, work-
ing for him, and that during that period he was never
absent for a whole day. As Stony Stratford is 81 miles
from Chelmsford, and the robbery was committed on the
9th Aug., it was clear the prisoner was not the thief.
The form of a free pardon will be necessary, and will
probably be granted.