The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-17 00:00:00

1 ili SU- S, LONDO N,.•

METHODICAL MENDICITY.

Of all unprofitable methods of almsgiving that of
bestowing indiscriminate charity upon the beggars
in the streets of London is perhaps the worst.
Mendicity, unfortunately, is a profession or trade,
and a profitable one too. The beggars have their
regular beats. They have special methods of
working upon the sympathies and tender feelings
of charitable persons ; they look to the steady
prosecution of their calling for a subsistence
which can scarcely be called precarious. The
office of interfering between the outstretched
hand of charity and the wretched crea-
ture who to all appearance is sunk in the
lowest depth of human misery is an ungracious one,
but it is one which, for the sake of the deserving
poor should not be neglected. There are, un-
doubtedly, to be met with in the streets of London
objects worthy of all commiseration, but how are
we to distinguish between real and fictitious misery?
The chances are as about ninety to one that a Lon-
don beggar is an impostor. There are some per-
sons of excellent intention who would say "For
the sake of that one turn not away from the
ninety." It is added that we ought not in any
case, save one of notorious and patent imposture,
to harden our hearts against thespectacle of human
misery, lest in the end we prove too successful, and
become, in fact, indifferent to the sufferings of our
fellow-creatures. Now suggestions of this descrip-
are very captivating at first sight. There are few
persons removed themselves from absolute misery
who would not be disposed to afford a certain mea-
sure of relief to any poor creature who might be
iu their way, could they feel the assurance that
by so doing they were not encouraging imposture.
It is not from want of compassion, but from the
absence of certainty, that men who know this
town well have brought themselves to turn a deaf
ear to the beggar in the public streets. Even men
like Lord Shaftesbury, who have made charity,
as it were, a career, have told the public that if
they would not work more evil than good they
must rush past the street beggars without any
idea of affording them relief. They are for the
most part mere impostors. Just the same is the
case of the begging letter writers, and of other who
tell their piteous stories to the public through the
advertising columns of the daily journals. To
make our meaning clear with reference to this last
class we will take a few headings from the Men-
dicity Society's report, such as are commonly em-
ployed in this form of application :—" To the
charitable, benevolent, or affluent ;" "To the
humane and benevolent i" "To those who can
feel for the sick and hungry ;" " Awful
distress of a clergyman's daughter ;" " Distress
of widow with a large family—unparalleled suf-
ferings—literally starving." Against all such head-
ings, and the applications to which they serve as
introductions, we pray all our benevolent readers
to be continually on their guard. If they should
be sl ill-advised as to attend to any of these heart-
rending requests, the probabilities are that they
will be merely affording encouragement to some
idle and profligate person to continue a career of
vice and shame.
The question then arises, " What is to be done?"
Is is pretended that misery does not exist in the
back streets and blind alleys of London ? Surely
not ; misery is there to be found in many very
terrible forms, and misery which requires all the
assistance which can be spared by those who have
been blessed with more abundant means. If it is
desired to deal with it—in the first place, we would
say let every one attend in the first instance to
those cases of distress which fall within his own
immediate knowledge. How few of us are there
who are able to do all we would wish to do in
alleviation of the well-ascertained misery around
us which we know to be real ! In the next place,
there are the metropolitan wagistrates, who are
among the best almoners that wealthy and cha-
ritably-disposed persons can find. Not 5 per
cent. of the contributions to the poor-boxes
of the police-courts is expended upon impos-
tors. There are the great Hospitals—there are
the clergy in the more distressed quarters cf the
town. There can be no difficulty in applying
any spare sovereign to the relief of real distress.
But if any one should desire to be his own almoner
he can become so with safety if he will but call
in to his assistance the organization of the Men-
dicity Society. By the outlay of a very trifling sum
in the form of au annual subscription to this most
useful institution any one can procure that every
application to him for alms, either in person or by
letter, shall be thoroughly investigated. Tirero
ara persons employed by the society well acquaint-
ed with the chronicles as well as with the con-
temporary history of London Rascalism, who
will follow the applicant to his home and test the
value of his assertions. If he comes well out of the
investigation steps can be taken for his relief with
confidence—if not, an impostor is unmasked. It is
some time since we have seen any public document
half so interesting as the Fortieth Report of the
Society for the Suppression of Mendicity, which
has just been published. Well nigh every form of
imposture practised by the London mendicants is
herein discussed, and suitable cautions are given to
unweary Samaritans. For example, the society tell
us that since the commencement of the late war a
system of fraud has been practised by a gang of im-
postors, " who, on hearing of the death of any
officer in the army or navy, find out his relatives,
and make unfounded claims for debts pretended
to have been contracted by him, either fur
money lent or goods supplied, and remaining
unpaid." Rather than submit to unpleasant
proceedings, which might involve the good name
of a deceased relative, his family discharge the
claim, and only find out their mistake when it is
too late. Then we are told of Dr. Dewhurst, now
styling himself Brier, who is bringing out a pub-
lication of enormous general interest, but, unfortu-
nately, there is a breakdown about the preliminary
expenses. There is the " American Dodge" too,
which should not be altogether ignored. A pack
of swindlers on the other side of the Atlantic are in
the habit of addressing letters to " dead men" in
this country, dated, let us say, "Gaol Hospital,"
and comme' cing, " Dear —," or, "Kind and
Honourable Benefactor." It may at first excite
surprise that these fellows should select their corre-
spondents from the churchyard, but their hope is
to extract a remittance from the piety of surviving
relatives, out of respect for the memory of the
deceased.

To described the multifarious forms which Lon-
don mendicity, whether personal or literary, as-
sumes, would be to transcribe the report with
which we are now dealing. Let us, however, en-
treat our readers to be on their guard against all
persons unknown to them who come to their houses
with begging petitions. Their object is a great-
coat. With regard to the beggars who expose their
sores in the public streets, we would only sly that
vitriol, judiciously applied, can do a good deal.
Then, again, about the pale, piteous widows with
children, who look so wan that a man at first feels
like a ruffian when he passes them by without re-
lieving their apparently dire distress. Babes are
hired—by the hour, and the day ! Twins com-
mand a ready market. There are also many unfor-
tunates who have just escaped shipwreck ; a good
many of them are involved in marine misfortunes
off the Kentish coast, and are only saved by the
exertions and well-known gallantry of the Dtal
boatmen. Not a few noble relics of the various
searches after Sir J. Franklin are still extant among
us—it is fair and natural that they should apply to
us for relief. They need never be hindered by any
d'fficulty of expression, for in the neighbourhood of
Drury-lane and crher such places petitions exactly
stitolintgedutboyetvheerygross_l,
category of human misery can be
arnes.

POLITE ATTENTION TO FRANCE.

( Prom Punch )
Our firm ally is arming fast
Against some foe unknown ;
'Twould be an inattention vast
To let him arm alone.
His foe, of course, must needs be ours,
His battle we must share ;
But which of all the foreign Powers
To fight shall we prepare /

A steam fleet must invasion mean,
But whom will he invade ?
No matter ; put our own marine
In case his force to aid ;
To aid, and just a little more;
With ample odds to meet.
In short, to guard Britannia's shore,
Get up a Channel fleet.

Gibraltar is the key of Spain ;
Look out, it you are wiac
Alarm, perhapp, is weak and vain,
Fcr we aro close allies.
For arming 'gainet a sudden stroke
Our cau►e may turn ont none.
Then our Ally has had his joke,
And araied himself for fun.

But his example we should take
If but to be polite,
And ample preparation make
With any foe to fight ;
The compliment at least to pay
Of walking in his track,
While 'tis impossible t) say
Whose shores he may attack.

The detachment of Royal Marinas, under the
command of Lieutenant M‘Meekan, paid off from
her MRjesty's ship
Monarch, yesterday received
wages at 'Woolwich, each man receiving an amount
ranging from 30i. to 60i.

MANNING THE NAVY.

The following letter has been addressed to a con-
temporary :
Sir,—The subject of procuring seamen for her
Majesty's ships is again to be inquired into by a
commission appointed at the instigation of Sir C.
Napier, and its exertions seam likely to be quick-
ened by the warlike preparations of the Emperor.
If the alarm these excite should induce our rulers
to overhaul their own conduct, and deal more justly
and wisely with seamen, its effects will be benefi-
cial. Their mods of procuring men for the navy
was for centuries an outrage of humanity and an
opprobrium to statesmanship. From the reign of
Williamlll. to the close of the reign of George 111.
they laboured incessantly on this subject. The num-
ber of acts passed for the encouragement of seamen
and for manning the navy was very great, and till
1853, we are assured by the late Secretary of the
Admiralty, Mr. Osborne, " no satisfactory results
had been produced." Now the Navy is more in
want of men than ever, while our neighbour can
summon ;70,000 men into his vessels with the
swiftness of despotism. Enlarged bounties, little
pensions, and small rewards, have all been tried
have failed. The Royal Navy is about the only
employment in the whole civilised world which
never can get a sufficiency of men. This is the
more singular when the gladsomeness of the sailor's
life is considered, and the honour in which his pro-
fession is held. There is never any want of colliers,
miners, scavengers, &c. ; and that our adventurous
maritime population do not willingly enter the
navy is one of the most extraordinary facts in the
history of society. Officers are plentiful, marines
abundant ; a want of men in any other employ-
ment where funds exist to pay them is unknown ;
andifor this singular want of seamen by the Navy,
both in peace and in war, there must be some
cogent reason equally singular. Our statesmen
and our admirals have not found it out, or will not
acknowledge it, and we can scarcely expect that
much light will be thrown on the subject by their
new Commission.

In fact, the source of the evil is in the minds of
our statesmen. It has no root in the popular mind,
or in the great law of population in relation to em-
ployment. Thoroughly ignorant of that, as was
proved by their having given bounties on the pro-
duction of people, and unable, as aristocratic civi-
lians, to comprehend the possibility of enterprising
youth loving the adventures of a sea life, they acted
on their own fear, and rashly resolved to seize the
seamen, as in olden time they had seized ships, and
compel them to serve in the navy ; or the state con-
inued the old practice of stealing the seamen after it
had learned to respect the property of shipowners ;
it continued to expose the seamen to unrighteous
slavery, and the usual consequences followed. For
the country they have been most disastrous. True,
it has been well defended, the navy bas gained
great victories, but at an enormous cost. While
every other employment has been abundantly
supplied with hands, without trouble or expense,
never from the reign of William 111. till the close
of the French war were seamen obtained without
press-gangs and guardships, tenders, numerous
officers, soldiers, and all the apparatus of a great
system of coercion, the total cost of which would
have hired twice the number of willing men.
Always did this system invest each man-of-war
with the characteris'ics of a gaol, and the whole
naval service with the attributes of felony. It
was in consequence abhorred. When the press
was at the hottest, and men were most united,
the seamen left their ships and fled into the coun-
try, or fled with their ships to Holland, or fled in
crowds to the United States, and thus that costly
system actually drove the best men out of the
country when they were most wanted. It reached
the climax of expense and mischief when to recover
our seamen it led to a war with the United States,
which tarnished the flag and lowered for years the
naval character of England.
It was not (said the New York Tribune of the
29th ult.) against the right of British ships of war
" to search and detain the merchant vessels of other
nations," as the Union alleges, that the war of 1812
was undertaken. That right, for certain purposes,
and to a certain extent, was fully admitted. It was
against the right to deprive American merchant
ships of a portion of their crews, and that too at
the risk of the frequent subjection of Americau-
born citizens to a life of slavery in the British navy,
that the war of 1812 was persisted in ; and it was
in the character, and in the character alone, of a
war on behalf of sailors' rights as against British
press-gangs, that it took such a hold on the hearts
of the people.

The whole cost of that war, in money and repu-
tation' as was remarked in the Edinburgh, Review
of October, 1824, when the matter was fresh in
memory, was the consequence of our system of
impressment. If the country were defended by
impressment, it was at an enormous sacrifice. But
there is abundant reason for saying that impress-
ment, instead of contributing to its defence, only
blighted, while it lasted, the natural energies of the
people.
The real basis of our naval superiority is the
natural character of our seamen. They are at
once the most daring and the most numerous mari-
time population of any civilised state of the world.
For upwards of forty years itnpres,ment has been
suspended, but it has never Leal' formally abro-
gated, and the Admiralty, clinging to it still, hold
up firced service in the navy in, terrorern to the
seamen. If the tyranny, too, be dead, its exhala-
tions still polute the atmosphere. The system of
cruel coercion which grew from it, constituting dis-
cipline, still prevails in our ships. They still carry
soldiers and unnecessary officers to keep the
sailors submissive. If these be heroes they are
gaolers, and the imprisoned slaves cannot
be allowed to share the higher honours of
the profession. These are monopolised by
the Greys, the Russells, the Elliotts, and the
Percys. t was justly deemed a grievous evil that
the aristocracy could by purchase monopolise all
the high places of the army, but without purchase
they monopolise them in the navy, now little better
than an appanage to the scions of some noble houses.
The seamen, as Mr. Osborne stated, could never
hope to reach higher offices than those of warrant
officers. In civil life every post in the law, in the
church, and in commerce, is open to talent, but till
1853 the high places of the navy were reerved for
a Brahmin caste. By accident a cook might reach
the wardroom or the captain's cabin, but as a rule
the men never hare a hope or a chance of passing
into the rank of commissioned officers. In 1853,
indeed, it pleased the Admiralty to submit for her
Majesty's approval that warrant officers, " for ex-
emplary conduct and acts of gallantry and daring,"
might be " eligible to hold commissions in her Ma-
jesty's fleet," and might "receive 1001. as an out-
fit." In what spirit the niggardly proposition has
been carried out is not apparent, and the classes
continue to be distinct. As a consequence, too, Of
impressment, the detestable cat-o'-nine-tails, the
spawn of ancient barbarity, is still the prevailing
instrument of discipline. In 1853, according to the
parliamentary return, No. 48, session 1857, 24,959
lashes; in 1854, 35,479 lashes; and in 1855, 42,154
ltshes, were scored on the flesh of her Majesty's
gallant seamen. To the general public, these dis-
gusting punishments—partly inflicted for insubor-
dination, insolence, quarrelling, skulking, and
other trifling offences against discipline—are un-
known ; but amongst the sea-g: ing population
they are continual topics of talk, and keep alive iu
their hearts the great hatred and detestation of the
naval service which have descended to them from
the time of impressment. When such degrading and
cruel punishments are banished from our gaols, to
retain them as the means of discipline in the navy
is to make the service more odious and degrading
than crime.

To have the navy readily and freely supplied
with seamen it must be implanted in the affection
of the people. There must be a moral reform at
head-quarters, and all the consequences of impress.
ment must as soon as possible be swept away.
Ministers must place a little trust in human na-
ture, and believe that it is possible for men readily,
and even patriotically, to enter on board her
Majesty's ships on a emergency. They must,
from that belief, frame a system of discipline con-
sistent with the usages of civil life, and impose
neither restraints nor privations on the men not
indispensable for the public welfare. Mar::inetism
or irksome discipline, for the gratification of in-
div:duals, must not be tolerated. All situations
must be avowedly open to merit, and officers and
men, must be treated as one and the same class.
Corporeal punishment must be indignantly de-
ler(s fois
p,
flounced, and for ever abolished ; soldiers employed
only as sentinels and guards over seamen should
be
r it proposes,
e:,in and our
as was strips,
,i Sir Nin t
the
i_oEdr
in
reaps 0
burgh Review in 1824. The attribut of s a gaol
must 1.):-! for ever swept fr, m a man of war, and
the naval service must never again ba deal aded
into felonry. Wages mu,t be mada conform'
to circumstances and exigencies. The rase that
might be sufficient before the corn laws were
repealed, and gold was discovered in Cali-
fornia, will not suffice now. In short, if the
navy is to be recruited from society it must
keep pace with society. So it will become beloved
by the people ; men will make interest to obtain a
berth on board ship as they do to be made a tide-
waiter or a guager, and the only punishment ne-
cessary to maintain discipline will be dismissal from
he service.—l am, &c.,
A RETIRED COMMANDER,