The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-03 00:00:00

of gaming-houses, and those respectable thieves who
disdain to do a dirty action, but plunder where some
character is to be got by the achievement, for which
they may be, if not ce•scrag!.-t•ed" for death, at all
events ".lagged" fOr life.. There is a low public-
house close .to the noses of their Wpr'ships, in which
many, of tilos& ruffians are in the, habit of sitting the
greater part of the day. A stranger who would look
in, and see them playing cribbage ,and smoking and
drinking, would suppose that they-snatched an hour
for relaxation from the labours of their several
Deco-
patioJis. But it is not so : there they sit every. day''
from morning till night, waiting 'for the arrival of their
:rose (a man deputed, to pick up news of robberies),
;Ind the moment any thief is " pulled" at the office.
:iff they scamper to watch the examination, and as-
:!ertain Whether they cannot get hold of the," swag"
:Jefore it can be brought forward in judgment. There
tever is. tut occasion when what they call a " good"
robbery is known at the office to have been cam-
nitted, upon which they do not receive immediate
otelligence. Sbme of them act as " touters" to
hose who may have got the " swag," and the mo-
!lent they find that the thief is " grabbed" (appre-
aended), they run off to the fence, and give him
•he wink to " lumber it in another crib." A no-
orious receiver, named Reuben, Josephs, who was
-ome time ago transported.. for 14, years, was in the
habit of visiting this house, into which some of the
,)fficers often look to say " Tom, or Bill, or Benja-
min, how do yoU do ?" mid throw off a half-Oar-
i'en of "'jockey" to the health and at the expense
of the company. It has been the fashion with the
police (for what reasons it-maybe easily guessed) to
say in defence of. their practice of, associating. with
thieVes and receivers, - that it is necessary for them
lo do so for the protection of the public,—that, in
fact, stolen property could not be recovered if the
connexion were not kept up. The true meaning of
this is, that if the natural hostility which exists be-
t ween an honest officer and a rogue be acted upon,
all chanceof participation is at an end. ,The_ officer
is shot out from his perquisite, but the thief and the
receiver rtin a thousand hazards,, which they - know
not in the ordinary compact, and the public are sure
to be benefitted when the thief-taker eats independ-
ently. of the reptiles whom he is employed to hunt.
In the account of the variety of deceptions by
which the visitors of flash houses, oyster-shops, and
coffee-shops, contrive to draw, any young man of for-
tune, or any, clerk or shopman, whom they induce to
rob. his master, it is difficult to speak with accuracy,
without exciting a feeling very ,different from that
Which in such cases ought to absorb every other.
Some of them sham the man of birth,' education, and
fortune; others the simple countryman; and others
the buffoon and devil-may-care-sort of fellow. They
are all masters in their way, and there is not one of
them who would not cut his brother " mater's"
throat for It sovereign, if the gallows (not in its dis-
grace, but its bodily infliction) were not.constantly
before his eyes. Such is their love of the crooked
path, that they would rob a poor wretch of Gd.
although their pockets Were crammed with sovereigns
and Bank-notes.- The " gaffer," of whom we spoke
in the last article on this subject, is perhaps more
like a:human being than any of them. He has been
known to, give some trifle in charity to those whom
he has contributed to make beggars, while others
.have sneered at the entreaty, and, desired an unfortu-
nate gull to hang or drown himself, as he must be a
burden to hiMself and abore to everyone