The Sun.
London, England, 1827-09-18 00:00:00

ABUSES IN THE POLICE.

It was reported, in the beginning of the last
week, that the police Magistrates intended to
adopt some measure for remedying the enormous
abuses to which we called the attention of the
passive inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Co-
vent-garden in particular, and that the Marquis
of Lansdowne had made inquiry into the truth
of the heavy complaints which it has become our
duty to make for the sake of public morals.—
That the subject is under consideration in the
highest quarter there is no doubt, but that the
magistrates remain in static quo, unimproved and
unawed, although bitterly offended by the ex-
posure which has taken place, there is as little
reason to question. The neighbourhood to
which the strongest allusions have been made is
still infested at all hours of the night by thieves
and prostitutes, whose partnership has met with
no check from the magistracy—whose trade is
extended and fostered by the rabble of the police,
and tolerated by the parish authorities to an ex•
tent almost beyond belief. The flash-houses are
open.at all hours far the same flagitious purpo-
ses : robbers, and gentlemen, and watchmen
and police-officers, and bawds, and bullies, and
prostitutes, are received upon equal terms ; and,
in the event of a quarrel, the keeper of the
" crib" invariably lends his aid, and authority to
the person who calculates upon advantage in the
confusion of the fight. The city magistrates
have, at all events, the merit of insisting
upon the performance of the orders which they
issue. Withintheir jurisdiction the public-houses
are all closed at seasonable hours. The inspec-
tors are responsible for the performance of this
important duty, and what has been the conse-
quence ? The general good may be guessed at
from the fact, that the chief magistrate has re-
ceived several communications from the parents
and masters of young men, expressive of their
gratitude for the peremptory interdict upon
houses of this description. In fact, the Public-
house Act is considered, in that provision which
inflicts a penalty for late hours, one of the most
useful measures ever submitted to and adopted
by Parliament. The shonman or the clerk must,
if he is not satisfied with the obligation to go
home at a seasonable hour, turn towards Bow-
street, where, although he is sure to be served
with liquor at any hour, he is sure (to use the
phraseology of the cribs) to be served out too,
and runs the chance of being exposed as well as
plundered and half poisoned. There is a sort
of security against citizen visits in the very dis-
grace which may attend the experiment. We
would, however, recommend every man of exten-
sive business to have his eye upon public places
in which dissipation forms an essential part of
the system. Many a young clerk is to be seen
in the saloons of the theatres accompanied by
some prostitute dressed out and supported in her
wanton extravagance upon the daily plunder of
some industrious 'man. Many a boy has been
suddenly transferred from the lobbies to the pril
son, and from thence to the place of inost fright-
ful retribution. Of late years there has been a
most dangerous. addition to the variety which
courts the heart and imagination of youth. We
mean the accommodation given to persons of
both sexes at all hours of the night, in houses
in which, although they are 'not licensed by
the magistrates, wine and spirits arc sold, and
fighting, and robbery, and drunkenness are
to be constantly witnessed. The owners of
those hateful places of debauchery contrive to
get the consent of some worn-out beggarly
vintners, and upon the authority of that qualifi-
cation, they open their doors to all well-dressed
miscreants, both men and women. Saloons of
this nefarious kind operate very much against
the theatrical saloons, as many of the prostitutes,
who know that they can meet their " pals " or
their " flats " at the former, prefer three and
sixpence worth of gin and oysters, to the chance
of picking up a customer at the latter. The
vile system pursued by the managers a few years
ago, was no encouragement to competition in
this respect. It is 'notorious that a common
prostitute, if she happened to possess charms,
was sure to be presented with a freedom for the
season. In fact, persons of authority in the
theatrds Were employed to decide upon the
merits of the female visiters to the lobbies; and
if a girl was pronounced " likely to draw friends,"
she became at once enrolled in the list of the
estatelishment, and thus contributed to the pros-
perity of her respectable patrons. This pimp-
ing plan has been a good deal abated. The
lobbies and saloons and upper boxes exhibited
such scenes of riot and indecency, that society
was shamed.. into a determination not to
wink any longer at the violativit }to ..);upit

sacred compact: respectable men would not
allow their families to run the hazard of the
.
pollution, and trembled for the immorality, not
of the stage, but of the immense concourse of
uerfol met" before the curtain. The gambling
isjust such as that which
which is carried on in the private rooms of the
iwl,ittsiesoanldo
ti.og gurii
oyster
ees
in
the low vicinity of St.
James's. Indeed, the constant frequenters of
the former have attained the most profound
knowledge of the art of robbing at the ;
west-end-
of-the-town gaming-houses. The " Legs'
visit the saloons' every night, in order to pick up .
new acquaintances amongst the young and inex-
perienced. They are-polite, well-dressed, gen-
tlemanlike persons : and if they can &race any
thing soft in the countenance of a new visiter,
their wits go to work at once to establish an
ac-
quaintance with him. Wine is set going, anti
cards are proposed. The master of the concern
soon provides a room,
and play adVances, ac-
companied by the certainty of loss to the unfor-
tunate stranger. But it the invitation to play be
rejected, they make another plant upon him.
The ruffians attack him through a passion of a
different kind. They give the word to one of
their female pals—she throws herself in his way,
and prevails upon him to be her companion for
the night. She plies him with drink, and in
the morning the gentlemen, who in vain solicited
him to play, call in to pay " a friendly visit. ,
Cards are again spoken of and again proposed,
with the additional recommendation of the lady,
who offers to be the partner of her young friend
in the game. The consequence is palpable.
Many young noblemen and gentlemen have been
plundered by this scheme, of hundreds, nay of
thousands of pounds; and yet the Magistrates,
who know well the truth of every
.statement we
have made, present no obstacle in the way of
those unconscionable robbers, but API them to
plunder on without remorse. To escape with-
out loss is impossible. They pack and dis-
tribute the cards with such amazing dexterity,
that they can give a man, as it were, what-
ever cards they please. A few years asp
some of them were detected in a trick, by
which they had won enormous sums. An ecarte
party, consisting of a nobleman (since deceased), a
captain in the army, an Armenian gentleman,
and an Irish gentleman, sat down in one of the
private chambers attached to one of those large
wine and shell-fish rooms. The Armenian and
the lrishnaan were partners, and they were won-
derfully successful ; indeed, so extraordinary ,was
their luck in turning up cards, that the captain,
who bad been on the town for some time, sus-
pected the integrity of his competitors, and, ac-
cordingly, handled the cards very minutely. He
soon discovered that there was an " old gentle-
man" (a card somewiat larger than the rest of
the pack, and now in considerable use amongst
the " Legs") in the midst of them. The
Captain and his partner exclaimed, that they
were robbed, and the cards were sealed up, aid
referred to a card-maker for his opinion. " The
old saying," said the referee, " that the cards
would beat the card-maker was never more true
than it is in. this instance, for this pack would
beat not only me, but the very d—l himself.
There
w gentleman,'ereimmediately
but‘as la
'themer. e” i s nTo het onlytwo '
gentlemen n old
old lady' (a card broader than the rest) amongst
h
accused of the itnpositim, but they feigned ig-
norance of the robbery, refuSsd to return a farthing
of the swag, -and charged the losers with having
got up the story in order to recov&Ss what they
had fairly lost. This was a lest n not
throWn 'away upon the nobleman. He IM'er
again appeared in the house where practices'
of this description are going on every night,
and where officers of .the police are palmed
(bribed) for their forbearance. The Lord Mayor
ordered the officers to burst open the doors of
the Stock Exchange Shades, if at any time they
should suspect that gaming is going forward
there. 'Why do not Magistrates of the west end
of the town issue orders to their police, to pay
an honest and resolute visit to those infamous
abodes, and to rake out the swarms of fellows
who congregate for the purposes of plunder ?
The Irishman was intimate with Thurtell'the
murderer, and is great at the game of " blind
hookey." In fact, there is no game that is not
perfectly understood by this comely robber. If
the shopkeeper, who cannot account for the de-
cline in his profits, and must call his creditors
together if things do not change for the better,
would give a look in occasionally to the houses
we have alluded to, he might recognize amongst
the most extravagant of the visitors, a person
whose sole dependence is upon his master,whom
he robs to provide • himself with the means of
living amongst those he and she devils. But
without a well-disciplined police it will be im-
possible to break down the various base institu-
tions with which London abounde.so much as
to make the character of informer libnourable.
It is useless to appeal to the Magistlq; re-
monstrance or solicitation will effect but little in
that almost incorrigible quarter. . The Secretary
'of State alone can bring those negligent and
overpaid servants of the community, to whom
they act as masters as often as they can to
a proper sense of their duty.. To the aban-
donment of that duty is to be ascribed the state
of our prisons, which are always crammed with
the victims of flash-cribs and brothels, and gam-
bling-dens. The haberdashers of the metropolis
are particularly exposed to plunder at the hands
of their shopmen, who keep up what is called
,4 a pretty game" in the several places which have
come under our condemnation. The facilities
are great, and the temptation (the love of a
" blowing") irresistible to a young man under
the excitement of liquor, and acted. upon by the
intoxicating
intoxicating character of the scene. he system
upon which the eminent house of Morrison and
Co., of Fore-street, acts, is well worthy of no-
tice. There are upwards of one. hundred and
fifty men employed every day on the premises.
These are divided into companies, each of which
has -a separate department to- attend . to, and is
under the controul of. a superintendent, who is
responsible for the goods under his care. -To
steal on the premises, under such an arrangement
as exists there, is almost impossible. This se-
curity is increased by the example of vigorous
industry exhibited by all the partners, and the
encouragement to study in the hours of relaxa-
tion from business. All the persons employed
sleets in the premises, where a library is fitting
up for their use. Establishments not one-tenth
of the size are daily suffering from the dishonesty
of Servants. Surely
particularly it is the duty of
shopkeepers,
at a deli when there is such lament-
able defectiveness in the police, to use every
exertion calculated to abate the necessity of ap-
plying to the police at all.--Timet.

Sir William Alexander, the Chancellor Elect
for Ireland, has been for some time on -a visit to
Lord Manners, at his seat at Yoxford, in Suffolk.
Sir 'William may be expected to arrive here in
the course of next mouth.--Dublin Mail.