Voi.vni. — No. 10- 



lilve oiii the si)awii il li:ul goi-'jed itself witli, pre 



t(. its taking fliglit, botli in ;i digested and in 



S undigested state, so that on trial he ascertan.ed 



,t it iiioduced fish of various kinds.— ^tHflg'e 



» sister. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL^ 



77 



CRIME IN LONDON. 



n Wo mentioned yestcnlay, a n<^w and authentic 



ii jrlv on the Police and Crimes of London. The 



IS tails which it contains excite wonder and afford 



undant moral instruction. We shall proceed to 



udeiise a few for our readers, in order to con- 



y an iilea of the extraordinary characters of the 



I .rregate. The British metropolis alone would 

 b rnish iniich more than occupation enough to the 



r(;OstzcalousandinteHigentphilanthropist,through- 

 ni It the longest life that ever was desired lor the 

 Hvention and accomplishment of schemes of or- 

 ilj !r and benevolence. 

 Iji The ■constables in the metropolis are near 



■ tieven hundred in number; those on whom the 

 . I Bcc devolves by operation of law, are, for the 

 ,, ost part,.aboye its functions ; those who actu- 

 s ly discharge tbem, are unworthy of the trust. 

 ^a Crime has increased considerably ; in a ratio 

 i reater than that of the population. Prinking 

 ! < -nong the lower class— chiefly laborers— is spe- 



a fied as one of the main causes. Gaming has 

 Intended, and reache.l a dreadful pitch. Some of 



I ,e many gaming houses, or " hells," are on the 

 llii .rgest and most luxurious scale. The nett proets 

 iDlf one of these, in one season, amounted to more 

 ,;ie lan one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ster- 

 ni ng. In one night, a million of money was ' turned 

 ill ver,' and the sum of ten thousand guineas occa- 

 ivliionally stakkl on a single chance. The total 



I I ain in one year of the principal « hells," fell but 

 |i ttle short of three millions sterling. The amount 

 itl f sums won and lost annually, is estimated at be- 



ween seven and eight millions, 

 r From 1790 to 1825, 49,754 commissions of 

 fi ankrnptcy were issued. From returns of affida- 



■ I its of debts, it appears that in two years and a 

 Mialf 70,000 persons were arrested in and about 

 fK.OBdon— law expenses, five hundred thousand 

 impounds sterling, no more. More than eleven thou- 

 'al and persons were deprived of their hberty on the 

 -le Tiere declarations of others, before any tribunal 

 ri ,r proof that they owed a farthing. In 1827, the 

 wl lumber of executions issued was 4408, for £5o9, 

 i,,i,i34. 'Some of the great debtor prisons are 

 itunown to be perfect hells, in which deeds of the 

 II, nost revolting nature are of ordinary occurrence.' 



:rime and misfortune share the same fate, and 

 »-e brought into the most cruel and degra.lmg 

 , "ellowship. , c 1 



■■ Thirty years since, the number ot beggars in 



''London was estimated at fifteen thousand. It 

 must now be double or treble that number. Nine- 



™;y-nine out of every hundred are of the idle and 

 Drofli^ate class,— more or less impostors. Ihe 

 number of persons who, last year, presented 



! themselves for relief to « the Society for the Sup- 

 pression of Mendicity in the Metropolis," amount- 



" i Bd, including theh- families, to nearly forty thou- 

 Band. Upwards of thirteen thousand beggars are 



'' ■ annually conveyed out of London by the parishes ; 



"I they usually return, and finally escape detection. 



!' To illustrate the sum of juvenile delinquency, 

 iu London, it may be sufficient to mention that 



'"! during the last few years, out of 16,427 commit- 



; raents in Surrey, 7,292 were of P'^^sons under 



J twenty years, and 370 under twelve. Out of 4000 



convicts on board the hulks, 300 boys under six- 

 teen, were taken at once to be placed m a sepa- 

 rate ship. On the morning of the 26th Septem- 

 ber last, one hundred and twenty children of this 

 miserable description were brought up at one of 

 the London police offices: they had been found 

 sleeping in a biick field. Eight out of ten of the 

 boys, sentenced for a short period to transportation, 

 or confinement on board the hulks, return to then- 

 old wicked courses. The experience of the Brit- 

 ish metropolis— which is complete— proves the 

 utility of Houses of Refuge, such as have been 

 established in the United States. Our author re- 

 marks, that it is from the many thousands of child- 

 ren, who have no regular employment, and no 

 moral asylum, that is derived the chief mass ot 

 criminals who crowd the prisons, the hulks, and 

 the convict settlements. A very considerable por- 

 tion of them are found to have been taught to 

 read and write :— idleness, the want of a home, 

 or a vicious home, are the principal causes of their 

 ruin. . 



The annual average loss of property by fire in 

 London, is near £200,000, with a number of lives. 

 Half the fires are supposed to bo the work of in- 

 cendiaries. Attached to the difll'rent courts are 

 about 800 officers, to which may be added 350 

 barristers, 2000 attorneys, 130 conveyancers, 69 

 special pleaders, 84 proctors, 40 public notaries, 

 4000 clerks, assistants, and others, besides doctors 

 at law, masters in chancery, Serjeants at law, and 

 king's counsel— making a legal phalanx of neariy 

 eight thousand. Lawsuits have vastly muUiplied, 

 and involve an amount of property and professional 

 practice, of eight, ten, or more millions sterimg. 

 In the five principal prisons, 6000 persons have 

 been annually shut up for debt. A few years ago 

 the number of, students of anatomy was about 

 one thousand. There are about ten thousand 

 general practitioners of medicine in England and 

 \Vales. Receivers of stolen property in London, 

 a-'ents and le^al solicitors for criminals, and per- 

 sons who und"ertake to recover property by com- 

 promise with roguery, make large fortunes. An 

 eminent solicitor related to the police committee 

 ' that when -lie regretted to a chief officer of pohce 

 the increase of crime, the officer answered "Well, 

 master, you and I have no reason to find fault, be- 

 cauce v/ith us, you know, the more the merrier. 



The pride of character, integrity and honor 

 has " fallen at least 50 per cent within the last 

 fourteen years." Thern has been a great increase 

 in the sale and consumption of ardent spirits. 

 The use of them, in London, may be said to be 

 universal— " Decent females, as well as those of a 

 dissolute character, are addicted to dram drink- 

 ing." It is noted of a certain gin-shop in West- 

 mhister, that the proportion of w-onien who enter 

 it, to the men, is as nineteen to one. No wUi;re 

 in the worid is beastly intoxication more common. 

 — Capt. Hall would ascribe it, we presume, to the 

 influence of the democratical part of the English 

 constitution. The author of the book before us, 

 connects it with other circumstances, such as the 



following : — . • i 



"In the great woolen and cotton districts in the 

 country, as%vell as the metropolis, there has long 

 been advancing a process of consolidation of capi- 

 tal, or its accumulation into large masses, which 

 have either swallowed up, or reduced to the level 

 of a verv bare subsistence, all the subordinate 

 manufacturers, traders, dealers and chapmen. But 

 the depression in the price of labor below the 



means of comfortable subsistence, from the com- 

 )ctition of workmen, is an evil of far greater 

 inairniiudc. The statesman must be Wind indeed, 

 who cannot foresee the dreadful catastrophe 

 which must ultimately ensue from the indefinite 

 increase in the number of the people, unaccompa- 

 nied with a corresiiondiiig increase of employment 

 ami subsistence : still it is impossible to imagine 

 how the legislature can successfully interfere, till 

 some national distress, more palpable anil convinc- 

 ing than the reasoning of philosophers, shall have 

 dcinonstrated, even to popular conviction, its use- 

 fulness and necessity. Meanwhile the stream 

 continues to flow ; and when events shall occur 

 which may cause a serious interruption to the or- 

 ilinary means of employment and production, we 

 anticipate a revulsion of misery and discontent 

 like the retrocession of a torrent suddenly obstruct- 

 ed in its course." — Nat. Gaz. 



IVEW ENGLAND FARMER. 

 BOSTONrFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1829. 



HORTICULTURAL FESTIVAL. 



The first Anniversary of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society was lield on Saturday the I'.Hh inst. at the 

 p:xchana-e Coffee House, under the most promising aus- 

 pices, and in a manner truly gratifying to its trienda. 

 The dinino- hall was very tastefully ornamented with 

 festoons of flowers susiiended from the chandeliers ; 

 and the tables were loaded with orange trees in fruit 

 and flower, (from Mr Lowell's green house,) ; a large 

 variety of Mexican Georginas of uncommon size and_ 

 beauty, (from Mr Pratt and others,) a fine speeimen of 

 the India rubber tree, (from Mr Belknap of this city) 

 interspersed with large boquets of beautiful flowers, 

 and numerous baskets of grapes, peaches pears, melons, 

 apples &c &c. The arrangement of the decorations 

 was m'ade by Mrs Z. Cook, Jr. and Misses Downer, 

 HvviN TcTTLE, and Cook of Dorchester, assisted by 

 Mr Ha'ggerston of Charlestown, and Messrs Senior 

 and AoAMSos of Roxbury. 



The Address before the Society and others was de- 

 livered in the picture gallery of the Atheneum, at 3 

 o'clock by the President, Gen. Dearborn He gave 

 an interesting and comprehensive view of the origin 

 and prooi-ess of Horticulture; its various branches ; its 

 eflects m multiplying and enriching the fruits of the 

 earth ; and alluded to the promoters and benefactors of 

 the art • to the formation and beneficial labors of Horti- 

 cultural Societies ; and to their prospects of increasing 

 usefulness. i , i r 



Amono- the fruits presented were two baskets ol un- 

 commonTy fine grapes and pears from Wm. Dean of Sa- 

 lem— a basket of superior peaches and grapes trom &. Ix. 

 Perkins of Brookline. Fine fruits, (includmg a single 

 bunch of grapes weighing 3 lbs.) from Mr LowELL-a 

 basket of fine sweet water grapes and peaches <rom Mr 

 FosoicK of Charlestown— several baskets ot white Mus- 

 cadine grapes, intermixed with the Bartlett pear and 

 Malan-a grape from Z. Cook, Jr. of Dorchester-Fine 

 rapes, peaihes and nectarines from Mrs T. H Pek- 

 ■;iNs of Brookline— a basket of beautitul nectarines 

 from Mr E. Sharp of Dorchester— a basket of peaches 

 and nectarines from Mr Breed of Chelsea-a basket of 

 choice apples and pears from J. Prince ot Roxbury— 

 two laro-e baskets, comprising six varieties, of superior 

 melonslrom T. Brewer of Roxbury-Bartlett pears, 

 with peaches and nectarines from Enoch Bartlett 

 of Roxb'irv— a basket of beautiful semiana plums trom 

 JouN Derbv of Salem-a basket of Black Hamburg 

 and Black Cape grapes, large peaches, and 100 kinds ot 

 ornamental plants from W.nsii.ps Nursery at Brighton 

 -a box of choice apples and pears from Gorhahi Far- 

 sons of Brighton— a box of fine fruits from Rev. G, B. 

 Pkrrv of Bradford— several varieties of fine pears, cur- 

 rant wine, li years old, and Raspberry wine from S 

 DowvFRof Dorchester— a basket of fine large French 

 pears from John Heard, Jr. of Watertown—^ baskets 

 of Fulton pears, and a fine native autumnal appl" from 

 loHN Abeott of Brunswick, Mc.-finebunches of Black 

 llamburo- grapes from R.ciiaro Sullivan of Brookline 

 -varioul fruits from A. D. Williams of Roxbury-a 

 basket of fine Black Hamburg and Black Cape grapes 



