The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-09 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.
The Lord Mayor received a letter relative to alleged
practices in Billingsgate Market, and immediately sent for
Mr. Goldham, the Clerk of the Market, and showed him
the communication. The contents were to the following
effect :—The writer stated that he sometimes went to
Billingsgate to purchase oysters. He was what the dealers
in shellfish called a " housekeeper," viz., a person who
bought a peck or two at a time, and who was, therefore,
subjected to the tricks of the boatowners, to the gratifica-
tion and advantage of the regular oyster dealers. The mo-
ment a "housekeeper" applied for oysters, the man working
on deck cried out to him below, " I say, Tom, send up a
peck," or, " a peck of them good uns :" and Tom, who knew
his lesson, tumbled up fish in such a condition as got the
name of " half corpses." The fact was, that the unsold
oysters of a preceding boat were put aside in the boat de-
livering cargo, in order to be dealt out to the housekeepers,
who were thus supplied at a high price with half-starved
oysters, which could not be used (poor creatures !) till they
were victualled for some days. The writer of the letter
submitted that such a system ought to be checked by the
Chief Magistrate. It was impossible to judge of oysters as
open fish could be judged of, and his Lordship would be en-
titled to the thanks of his fellow-citizens who happened to be
housekeepers if he would exercise his skill and power in pre-
venting the owners of boats from disposing of half corpses,
many of which, from long starvation, expired before they
could be brought home, where they might be refreshed with

food.
Mr. Goldham upon reading the letter, declared it was
suite impossible that such a practice could exist at the pre-
sent day. He visited every oyster boat, and took particu-
lar care that the corpse rig should not be played off ; in
fact the person alluded to in the letter as having been privy
to the sale of deceased or half deceased oysters, was an
owner who did so much business, on account of the invari-
ably excellent article in which be dealt, that he was envied
by all the small dealers, one of whom the writer of the let-
ter was. Why had not the complaining individual applied
to him upon the occasion ? If he (Mr. Goldham) saw
any oysters which were half-starved, or dropping off for the
want of necessaries, he would not hesitate to seize them.
He knew what bad fish was, and he knew nothing worse
than an oyster in decline.(—Laughter.)
An oyster boatman said, that to his knowledge, there
had not been a " corpse" in the boat which he was attached
to for years. To be sure, when a heavy gale of wind pre-
vented the boats from coming up the river for two oethree
days, the poor hanimals got sick like other bodies, but then
they rewived when they came ashore, and was sarved with
wittles ; and they soon was good wittles themselves.
The Loan MAYOR---I lon't believe there is any foun-
dation for the charge ; but I can very well imagine that
the large dealers would be likely to be served better than
what are called housekeepers, who they suppose ought to
deal with them, and thus secure themselves from purchas-
ing corpses, or being made corpses by eating corpses.
Mr. Goldham assured the Lord Mayor that there never
was a time at which the fish of Billingsgate were more free
from blemish. The corpse rig was considered too despe-
rate a game by the disreputable dealers, at the same time
it was indignantly scouted by those who had characters.
The Loan MAYOR expressed himself satisfied at Mr.'
Goldham's denial of the truth of the accusation. His
Lordship incidentally observed to the clerk of the market
that he had heard that Billingsgate had become greatly re-
fined of late, and he, therefore, was surprised to hear a
sickly or dead oyster called a " half ,corpse," or " a corpse."
For the honour of Billingsgate such terms ought to be
avoided.—(Laughter.)
Mr. Goldham said that the market had greatly improved.
but be feared it would be too radical an innovation to pro-
pose that a bad oyster should be called anything but a
" corpse." For his part he didn't like to run the hazard of
the experiment, lest the language complained of might be
, applied to himself."--(Laughter.)