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9(3 M END 
-twelve years of age, who alfo appeared very dirty and 
offenfive. The girl informed me Ihe had been fix years 
engaged in begging for her mother; that on l'ome days 
Ihe gets three or four ihillings, befides copper; that on 
Chrlftmas-day lalt file earned four ihillings and Iixpence; 
that file ufually gets about eighteen-pence a-day. I in¬ 
quired of the mother whether the child had any inftruc- 
tion; flie faid ihe had not; and ihe gave as the reafon, 
that file had no fuitable clothes to go to l'chool in. The 
mother was furniihed with money to procure fuitable 
clothing, and the child was fent to the Sunday-fchool in 
Drury-iane, which ihe attended two or three Sundays; 
but, like many other fimilar cafes, ihe then abfented her- 
felf. A boy, aged about fifteen years, was placed by his 
mother by the wall near Whitechapel workhoufe. On 
application to the mother, entreating her to let him be 
taken into the workhouie, ihe would not confent unlefs 
they would allow her 36s. or 38s. a-week, as, ihe Hated, 
that upon an average was but a part of his gains.. The 
Society well knew a negro beggar, who about two years 
iince ufed to Hand by Mefl'rs. Elliott and Robinion's tea- 
warehoufe, near Finlbury-fquare, who has retired to the 
Welt Indies, with a fortune, it was iuppofed, of about 
1500I. obtained by this way of life. 
Mr. S. Roberts, watch-houfe keeper, Bloomibury.—My 
opinion is, that a great number of the beggars who go 
about are not in diftrefs, that they are impoitors: I have 
knowledge of one man in particular, that goes about and 
pretends to be in fits in the ilreet: he chews ioap, and 
has been taken feveral times in impofing upon people; 
he was taken in Lincoln’s-inn-fields about a fortnight 
ago, and committed for a month : his name is John Col¬ 
lins; he is known by the beadles by the name of the 
foap-eater. There is another, a woman, a good deal in 
Lincoln’s-inn-fields, of the name of Anne Phillips ; ihe 
has been paifed to St. Sepulchre’s a number of times, but 
it is impoiTible to keep her away from that neighbour¬ 
hood. There is a little black man who has frequently 
been brought into the watch-houfe for begging. I have 
feen him have a bag with filver, and another bag with 
copper; and at other times he has come to fetch me to 
take up people who have robbed him of a great deal of 
money, as he Hated : and I have been told at the public- 
houfe, he would fpend fifty ihillings a-week for his board: 
he would fpit his own goofe or his own ducks, and live 
very well. 
Mr. Cooper, conne&ed with the Spitalfields Benevolent 
Society.—In January, February, and March, 1814, the 
Spitalfields Society was called upon for very particular 
exertions. A committee, confining of about fixteen per- 
ions, vifited, in the couri'e of thofe three months, I lup- 
pol'e at leaH 800 different families. We ufed to go two 
and two together. From the obfervations I made upon 
the Hate of poor families, I have no idea at all that, in 
any individual caie, perfons that were worthy objedfs, 
however diftrelfed they were, have had recourie to ftreet 1 - 
begging. ' 
Mr. John Daughtry, in the fame connection.—-What is 
your general opinion as to the character of Hreet-beggars, 
derived from any information you have acquired ?—'That 
they are idle and worthlefs ; the vifitors of the Spitalfields 
Benevolent Society, with which 1 am connected, having- 
been led to adopt as a maxim, “ That llreet-beggars are, 
with very few exceptions, fo utterly worthlefs and incor¬ 
rigible, as to be undeferving the attention of fuch a lo- 
ciety.” I would beg to Hate as a general oblervation, 
that, when perfons are by any means driven to the prac¬ 
tice of fireet-begging, their characters become lb depraved, 
that they are feldoni ot any ufe to lociety or their fami¬ 
lies afterwards; they generally become openly depraved 
and immoral to a very great degree. But the infiances 
in which worthy, honelt, indultrious, perfons have re- 
courfe to begging, are extremely rare; they will in ge¬ 
neral rather fiarve than beg. A perfon of veracity, who 
Tome time ago vifited 1500 poor families in the neigh- 
I C I T Y. 
bourhood of Spitalfields, affirms, that out of full 300 cafes 
of abjeCt poverty and defiitution, and at leafi 100 of lite¬ 
ral flarvation, not a dozen had been found to have had 
recourfe to begging: many of the mofi wretched of the 
above cafes_ had been not long before able to fupport 
themfelves in lome comfort, but want of employ had 
completely ruined them; they were at that moment 
p reded by landlord, baker, and tax-gatherer; had pawned 
and fold every thing that could be turned into money; 
were abfolutely without a morfel of food for themfelves 
or family; but Hill had not had recourfe to begging. As 
a general faCt, the decent poor will flruggle to the utter- 
mofi, and even perifli, rather than turn beggars. After 
lome of the preceding obfervations, it need fcarcely be 
Hated, that the clafs of perfons under confideration is 
believed to confifi almofi exclufively of the idle and pro¬ 
fligate, the greater part depraved and abandoned beyond 
delcription; only lefs vicious and injurious to fociety 
than profefied thieves and houfebreakers. In mofi cafes, 
idlencfs and hypocrily are fo wrought into their natures, 
that they are abfolutely incurable. Living by hourly de¬ 
ception, they have lefs character than even thieves, and are 
more hopelefs as to moral reformation: they are known, 
to be too idle even to beg when they have a /hilling left to 
fpend, or can find a pubiic-houfe or chandler’s fliop that 
will trufi them. 
Mr. William Hale, of Spitalfields.—I have known in-, 
fiance’s of my own tvork-people, who have left good looms 
of work, to go out begging. Some time back, in Old Broad- 
fireet, leading to the Royal Exchange, where there are a 
number of merchants who walk about four o’clock to¬ 
wards the Exchange ; coming towards Spitalfields I met 
a woman, as I was crofling the ftreet in a hurry ; Ihe had 
an infant in her arms, and alked charity; I looked her in 
the face, and (lie was very much confuled ; Ihe and lien 
hulband worked for me at the time; he had a good loom’s 
work, and Ihe filk-winding, which I was at the time very- 
much in want of. 
There was a woman who ufed to go to a chapel in the 
City Road, as file faid : one of our overfeers was coming 
out in the evening after fervice, when he hea-d a voice, 
“ Pray, remember a poor blind child ; have pity on a poor 
blind child.” Knowing the voice, he turned round, and 
recognized her to be one of our paupers, who had bor¬ 
rowed or hired this blind child for the purpofe 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 who appears to have twins, in ninety-nine 
cafes out a hundred they are not her own, or not both her 
own : I have known a woman Jit for ten years xcith twins ; 
they never exceeded the fame age. Some, who are well prac- 
tifed in the art of begging, will collect three, four, or five, 
children, from different parents of the lower clafs of peo¬ 
ple, and will give thofe parents iixpence or even more per 
day for thofe children to go begging with ; they go in thofe 
kind of gangs, and make a very great node, letting the 
children fometimes crying in order to extort charity from 
the people. Many children alfo are fent out by their pa¬ 
rents as foon as it is poflible for them to extort relief, and 
difiributed about. One perhaps takes a broom ; and, if 
they do not bring home more or lefs, according to their 
fize, they are beaten for it. A family is the greateft re- 
lource of fuch perfons : like as the arrows in the hand of a 
giant. 
Some mendicants employ a certain portion of their time 
in finding out the committee-days cf the relpedtive parifiies, 
when they meet and relieve their out-door poor ; and it is 
very well known they go to one vefiry on a Monday, a fe- 
cond on Tuefday, and a third on VVednefday, and lo on. 
They will tell fuch tales of diftrefs, which appear fo in- 
terelting to gentlemen not deeply verfed in their dupli¬ 
city, that, they are fure to gain upon their feelings, and 
they get is. or is. 6d. or 2s. 6d. from each. 
It is a rule with us, never to relieve any perfon that ap¬ 
plies, in the firft infiance, as a .calual pauper for temporary 
relief; 
