296 
child; have mercy, have pity, on 
a poor blind child!” Knowing 
the voice, he turned round, and 
recognised her to be one of our 
paupers, who had borrowed or 
hired this blind child for the pur- 
pose of exciting pity; for it is a 
very common thing for them to 
hire or borrow children to go out 
begging: and if you meet with a 
woman wlio appears tohave twins, 
in ninety-nine cases out of a 
hundred they are not her own, 
or not both her own. I have 
known a woman sit for ten years 
with twins, and they never ex- 
ceeded the same age. 
The children grew no older ?— 
No, they did not. Those mendi- 
cants employ a certain portion of 
their time in finding out the com- 
riittee' days of the respective pa» 
rishes, when they meet and re- 
lieve their out-door poor; and it 
is very well known they go to one 
vestry on a Monday, a second on 
Tuesday, and a third on Wednes- 
day, and so on. They will tell 
such tales of distress, which ap- 
pear so interesting to Gentlemen 
not deeply versed in their dupli- 
city, that they are sure to gain 
upon their feelings, and they get 
1s. or Is. 6d. or 2s. 6d. from each. 
We have sent to a neighbouring 
parish one of our overseers, and 
have detected some of our pau- 
pers residing within our parish, 
who were relieved weekly by us, 
going to another parish. 
Do they get relief from an in- 
dividual officer, or from the pa- 
rish fund ?—From the parish 
fund ; and they will go to the 
churchwardens or overseers, or 
see the wives of the churchward- 
ens-or overseers, taking a child, 
perhaps; and they will pinch the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 
child, and play all sorts of tricks 
to move pity, and get relief in 
this way as parishioners. When 
there are women who have chil- 
dren, I am persuaded that fre- 
quently they are pinched; and if 
their persons were examined, 
there will be found to be a black 
mark, where they had been so 
pinched to excite pity. These peo- 
ple get much more than they 
could get by honest industry, ten 
ortwenty shillingsa day sometimes. 
Has it fallen within your knows 
ledge that they have got to that 
amount ?—Yes, more than that; 
for they appear frequently in a 
state of intoxication two or three 
days in a week; and they will 
have rump steaks and. oyster 
sauce in a morning frequently ; 
they live extremely well. There 
is one house in Whitechapel called 
the Beggar’s Opera, where a 
great number of them go. We 
are too strict in our parish to be 
imposed upon by them: it is a 
rule with us, never to relieve any 
person that applies, in the first 
instance, as a casual pauper for 
temporary relief; but we take 
down their name and their resi- 
dence ; and the overseer whose 
turn it is for the week, calls the 
next day, and relieves them at 
their own habitation. That plan 
was first adopted when I was 
overseer ; and I think, in five 
cases out of ten, we found that 
we had false directions, and that 
there were no such persons living 
there. Some time after we had 
come to this resolution, a woman 
came down with two children, 
and, notwithstanding our resolu- 
tion, she completely duped us all. 
She came in about five o’clock 
in the evening, The master of 
