Star.
London, England, 1815-08-29 00:00:00

MENDICITT.

EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKES BE-
FORi. A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ON
THE STATE OF MENDICITY IN THE NETIIOPOLIS.
Samuel Rokris, called in, and examined.

What are you ?-4 am wateh.houie keeper of St•
Giles's and St. George's, Bloomsbury.
Have you known much of the state of the beggars
in your neighbou,hood ?—Yes; I have se.n them
brought in, and I have been them about the streets a
good deal.

What is your opinion of them ?—My opinion is,
chat a great number of the beggars who go about, are
not in distress, that they are impostors : I have know-
ledge of one man in particular, that goes about and
pretends to be in fits in the streets ; he chews soap,
and has been taken several times in imposing upon
people ; ht was taken in Lincoln's-inn Fields about
a fortnight ago, and committed for a month :—his
name is John Collins; he is known by the beadle, by,
the name of the Soap Eater. There is another, a
woman, a good deal in Lincoln's inn Fields, of the
name of Ann Phillips ; she has been passed to St.
Sepulchre's. a number of times, but it is impassible to
keep her away from that neighbourhood. There is a
little black man who has frequently been brought into
the watch-house for begging. I have seen him have
a bag with silver, and another bag with copper; and
at tither. times he has come to fetch me to take up
people who have robbed him of a great deal of money,
as he stated : And I have been told at the public-
h-use, he would spend fifty shillings a week for his
!ytard : he would spit his own goose or his own
ducks, and live very well.
Yeu were told this by the people of the house ?
Y‘s ; and he has appe.acd t., the to have a gJod deal
I money.
Is this a Lascar ?—Yes..

• Is he addicted to spirits ?—Yes, he wrivid think h Alf
a pint of spirits off at a time : And a number oldie
other Lascars I have seen, who live by lieg4lng, wli,.
have got money by them. About a tort/sight ago, I
was coming up Holborn ; them was a wom in sitting
at a door barking, and pretending to be out et. her
,Hind : the tn,,tnent that she saw he come up,
knowing foe, she walked nil' immediately ;--she
thought I Was gimig uo take her into custody.
' Have you reara to believe that they get-a good
deal of money by begging ?—I b. 4 ye no doubt whatever
.1 it. 'I have heard some of them say it was a poor
daf they could not go through forty streets , and is
was a poor street that would not turn out twopence.
We could very easily keep the streets clear of those
pe..ple, and of prostitutes ; we could take them up :
but the Magistrates discharge them ; and then ttey
are back again. upon the streets immediately. In
Drury-lane I have had complaints of the streets being
infested : but it is impossible to prevent it, withou
the Magistrates doing more than they do.

Do not the Magistrates frequently commit them r
.—Very !Adorn : In consequence of the complaints of
prostitutes being about Drury-lane, so that no person
could pass, we have taken up twenty and thirty in a
night, but they have been dilcharged immediately.—
I took ups young woman, whose father lives in Mary.
la•bonne : she pretends to be mad, and beats her head
against the posts. I have taken her dawn to Hatton
Galden, and the Magistrates have discharged her.
t saw her in the very act of begging, and this sort of
conduct. •

Do you know that these people undergo the sen-
tence of the law, where it is directed ?--Yes, 1 believe
they do. I passed one Atm Collins to St. Martin's
lately. lam positive that many of these beggars are
in a much better situation than many of the working
people. I have seen them, at the cod of Compton-
street, come out of the houses where they have been,
with a leg and an arm tied up, and so on ; they have
had fonr or five glasses of gin before they started ; and
have settled which way they should go : then they
meet again in the evening, and cook their own geese,
or their own turkies ; or they will cook a turkey and
put sausages round it, and call it an Alderman hung
in chains.

Have you reason to believe that they live well at
the public house where they put up ?-0h yes. better
than any common tradesman : • They say it will not
do for them to buy fine clothes : for that they spend
all their money in eating and chinking ; and that fine
clothes will not do for them at all.

po you know that some of these people have par.
ticular walks, where they constantly attend ?—Yes ;
a number of them on one road, and a number on
another; sometimes they go to Whitechapel, some-
times to Hyde.l'ark, changing their walks. They
make out in the morning which Wily each shall go.
Add Famish called is, sod esaneised.
What are you j--Roundhouse keepir in St. Piles's,
Bloomsbury.
From what you know of beggar:generally, do you
believe them to be impostor; certainly believe
that ; I have many times heard them say, that it is
a very bad day if they do not get eight shillings, and
more than that. I have seen the black us:lll,ost re.
terred to, toss up for a pint Of gin, And j thipk, for a
994 r; of gin and * gallon 9f beer. I have beard the
people say, that ; publicdn had ten pounds•of his in
his hand:, white at the guse time he went about'
begging, John P.)1141.11 the Soap Pier, fp he
js
called, 14offee4 in the act,

;I'M:RIO°.

FROM 'NE SALOPIAN JOURNAL.
ft To MT 06ONTitYMEN OF &WASH tat should
not have presumed to address you oil this subject,
but from being recently arrived horn the Metrepolis,
and having witnessed the zeal that pervades all ranks
of Society tfiere, in promothig that came, which has
induced his Royal Highness the Prince Rez,ent
to
issue the King's Letter to the Metropolitln of the
country ; which, by noticing, I think I may assist.
" It is not necessary to pitta out the cenduct to
be pursued on this occasion : the zeal is already ma-
nifest, with which the people of Shropshire cad be
actuated on any public occasion : of which a most
excellent and.praise-worthy instance is'now to be seen
in the approach to the good town of Shiewsbury.
The public spirit of the Salopiaes iuchiced cheat
to raise a monument to commemorate the bravery
and merit of a native warrior ( Lot cl'Hill). We are
now to consider of erecting it monument of national
gratitude and admiration to tle• moan of those he
roes who have fought and bled, or laid down their
lives for us: it is due from us to offer our mite of
consolation, so highly deserved, and dearly earned,
by the sufferings of more than ten thousand of our
fellow-countrymen, endured for us with such unpa-
ralleled constancy, courage, and heroism, in the plains
of Flanders, in the Battles and Victory of Waterloo.
Had not such troops been sent to battle, and such
native leaders to lead them to victory, what would
have been our situation or prospects at this moment
If those brave fellows had not so :foully defended the'
few feet of earth they fell on, and conquered in de-
fending, whose would soon have been all our acres
—our homes—what our hereafter ? What would
have been our fate ? and what would have become of.
oar wives, our children. and families ?
" The City of London -has always done well in
the examples it has so often set us. The Patriotic
Fund of 1803, has raised 48540,000, and relieved
18,500 cases in ten years. It now sends nearly four-
fifths of its • funds to Inland, to relieve, the families
and relatives of her sons fallen in our service ; and it
• has still the casualties in America to attend to. The
Metropolis once more generously and unremittingly
pursues its beneficent task, by relieving the families
of " the brave men killed, and the wounded sufferers
under the command of Field Marshal the Duke of
Wellington, in the signal Victory of Waterloo."—
And why ? 'Had London a greater stake depending
on that tremendous battle than we ourselves ? No..

Why then should the Metropolis nen to monopolize
all the demonstrations of national gratitude and sym-
pathy? It is a debt we all owe, a bond we all signed
in 1803, which must he paid to the Widows, the
Orphans, and the brave men disabled in these glori-
ous conflicts.
" The Metropolis has Laid the foundation, and has
!Totted a base of breadth for us to build thereon a
noltie superttructure, adomed by a rich Corinthian ca.
Oa, of liberality. This undertaking had, with the
inhabitants of the Metropolis, no reference to trade,l
shipping, banking, or insuriag, but was trulygenera/,
maional, and public spirited. It is to our honour, that
we have not waited the call of the Prince Regent to
bmik through the apparent individuality of their ex-
ertions. Already ewe public prints contain the list of
many generous contributors to this meritorious fund.
Still farther incited by his loyal Highness, let us •in-
clic ate our share of feeling, influence, and example,
by the especial part we take to prove what can be done
in this county ; let us prepare our minds to imbibe die
strongest impressions in favour of that exemplary
cause, which
_is to be advocated from • the I
More or less—the high, the middling, and the low,
the sanction, the example of each of us, in our re-
silective neighbourhoods, will do much. Can we do
enough ?
" Proudly and deservedly as we stand, rich and
eminent in merit and in fortune, amongst the Em-
pires, Nations, and States of Europe; let us convince
the brave Wellington, his gallant coadjutor Blucher,
and the survivors in that unparalleled, awful, and
tremendous battle, that we are not insensible to their
sufferings not unmindful of their dtserts ; th.tt their
appeal to our feelings in behalf of their comrades,
was not made in vain ; but that our efforts this
time shall be ennead with an unexampled gratitude,
admiration, and liberality. " CON numurua."