fice above three years, and is liable to a penalty of 201. for refusing to serve, which penalty goes to the poor of the parish; upon which he observed, that the high constable should not be a tradesman, because his power enables him to oblige the keepers of public houses to deal with him, or those with whom he is concerned in his way of trade: that the penalty on persons refusing to serve the office should be increased; that the high constable should have a reward for his service; and that the constables of the night should have a reward also.

Mr. Rainsforth being again examined, said, he was of Mr. Sayer's opinion.

Sir John Fielding being again examined, said, That ballad-singers are a greater nuisance than beggars, because they give opportunity to pickpockets, by collecting people together: that the songs they sing are generally immoral and obscene; the people themselves capable of work, and of the lowest and most abandoned order of people; for remedy of which, he proposed, that all ballad-singers should be considered as vagrants, and be made liable to the same punishments, no person being a vagrant now but who comes within some one of the descriptions of vagrancy in the Vagrant Act: And the bigh constable, being again examined, informed the Committee, That he has often had warrants for taking up ballad-singers that he has apprehended a great many; notwithstanding which, their numbers increase, and they are become a very great nuisance: that they have often been dispersed, but still continue the practice.

Sir John Fielding, being again examined, said, That the city of Westminster is a franchise under the dean and chapter of Westminster: that the common gaol thereof is called the Gate-house, to which offenders of every kind apprehended within the liberty of Westminster have been usually committed for some years back, to the number of 600 or 700 annually that in this gaol there is little or no allowance or provision for the prisoners, but what arises from the charity of passengers, seldom amounting to more than 5 or 6 shillings a week; the greatest part of which is given to the beggar at the window for the day: that the said gaol appears, from experience of the magistrates, to be too small for the number, and too weak for the safe custody of prisoners: that to this gaol, persons in execution for debts recovered in the court of

conscience are committed; and he said, he believed this is the only gaol in England where there is not some provision for poor and distressed prisoners; and he added, that when a magistrate commits a man to that gaol for an assault, he does not know but he commits him there to starve: for these reasons, as well upon the principles of humanity as of civil policy, this ought to be remedied; and that on account of the vast increase of inhabitants, property, and number of offenders, there ought to be in Westminster, a strong, capacious, and useful gaol, and there is no such thing at present: that the said gaol, called the Gatehouse, is a very old building, subject to be repaired by the said dean and chapter, who appoint the gaoler: that the supposed original use of this gaol, was for the purposes of committing clerks convict; the commission of magistrates of Westminster is not later than Charles the 1st's reign: they began first to commit offenders to this gaol, rather by sufferance than by right; and he observed, that however proper it may have been for its original purposes, it is unequal to the present occasions, and as he apprehends, cannot be altered without a law: and he further informed the Committee, That the magistrates of Westminster have represented this mischief to the dean and chapter, who acknowledge it, are willing to pull it down, and to give a piece of ground in their royalty, in Tothill Fields, to build a new gaol upon, and to subject the same, with every thing thereunto belonging, to the magistrates of Westminster, under such regulations as the legislature shall think proper, provided a sum be granted by the public for building the same; and he added, that estimates have been made, by which it appears, that a very effectual gaol may be built for the sum of 2,500l. In order therefore to remedy the inconveniencies above mentioned, he proposed, that such gaol should be built and kept in repair out of the county rate, which he said may be done without injury to the county at large, for this reason, that there is but one rate at present for Middlesex and Westminster, near one third of which is paid by the latter since the increase of buildings there: that this proportion is much greater than the expences required by the Act for county rates would subject Westminster to; and he added, That the gaol called the House of Correction in Westminster is repaired by the magistrates of Westminster, and the expence is paid

these houses are situate in Covent Garden; about 30 in St. Mary le Strand; about 12 in St. Martin's, in the vicinity of Covent Garden; about 12 in St. Clement's; 5 or 6 at Charing Cross; and in Hedge-lane about 20: that there are many more dispersed in different parts of Westminster, in Goodman's-fields and Whitechapel, many of which are remarkably infamous, and are the cause of disorders of every kind, shelters for bullies to protect prostitutes, and for thieves; are a terror to the watchmen and peace officers of the night, a nuisance to the inhabitants in the neighbourhood, and difficult to be suppressed by prosecution, for want of evidence; and in short, pregnant with every other mischief to society that any person desirous of gaining a livelihood by keeping a place of public entertainment, who is of good reputation, can obtain a licence with ease from the magistrates to keep such house, when a public house in any neighbourhood happens to be vacant that has been licensed before; the magistrates of Middlesex and Westminster, having long held it to be a rule essential to the public good, rather to diminish, than increase, the number of public houses: that persons of abandoned characters, by applying to the commissioners of the Stamp-office, may obtain a licence for selling wine; by virtue of such licences it is that the taverns above described are kept open; for the aforesaid commissioners are impowered by law to grant such licences to whom they shall think fit: that licences, for selling spirituous liquors by retail, are not granted by the commissioners of excise, unless the parties produce to them a licence under the hands and seals of two justices of the peace to sell ale that magistrates cannot by law authorize any person to sell ale, without a certificate of such person's being of good fame, and sober life and conversation; so that producing this licence to the commissioners establishes their character with them, and takes away the necessity of any enquiry: for remedy of which, he proposed, that wine licences should be placed by law under the same restraints as the licences for selling spirituous liquors now are: this remedy, he apprehended, might probably reduce the revenue of wine licences; if confined to the bills of mortality, it would, in his opinion, diminish it no more than 400l. per ann. but if extended to Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, and other dock yards, it may lessen it 2001. more: he added, that he thinks it more

:

necessary to correct the evil in those parts, as it has a direct tendency to corrupt and destroy the very vitals of the constitution, the lives of the useful seamen, who, by means of these houses, become the objects of plunder as long as they have any money, and are induced to become robbers when they have none: and he informed the committee, that there is another great evil which is the cause of these disorders, namely, the immense number of common prostitutes, who mostly from necessity infest the streets of the city and liberty of Westminster, and parts adjacent, attended by common soldiers, and other bullies, to protect them from the civil power: these prostitutes, when they have secured the unwary customers, lead them to some of the aforesaid taverns, from whence they seldom escape without being robbed: the cause of this evil, as he apprehends, is the great difficulty, as the law now stands, to punish those offenders, they being, as common prostitutes, scarce, if at all, within the description of any statute now in being: and he added, that this subjects watchmen, round-house keepers, constables, and even the magistrates themselves, to prosecutions from low attorneys: that the remedy, in his opinion, should be to declare, that persons walking or plying in the said streets for lewd purposes after the watch is set, standing at the doors, or appearing at the windows of such taverns, in an indecent manner, for lewd purposes, shall be considered as vagrants, and punished as such: that as to the circumstance of street beggars, it never came to his knowledge that they are under contribution to the beadles.

Upon the whole of which matter, the Committee came to the following Resolutions:

Resolved, 1. "That since the 29th of September last, 104 houses within the cities of London, Westminster, and the parts adjacent, have been broke open, and plate, jewels, and other goods, stolen therefrom, to the amount of 4,2417.; that the said evil hath increased very much of late years, and is likely still to increase, unless some effectual provision be made to prevent it.

2. "That to put a stop to the said evil, the number of constables in the city and liberty of Westminster, St. Martin's le Grand, and such parts of the duchy of Lancaster as are within the said liberty, should be increased; and that all persons being householders within the same, other

3. That the number of watchmen in the said places should be increased, more able persons appointed, their pay aug mented, another method adopted for appointing them; that their beats, or districts, should be less extensive; their duty be made general; and that they should be put under one general direction.

4. "That the beadles in many parishes are not at present of sufficient service; that they should, for the future, be employed under another name, and under some general direction, as regulators of the watchmen, and to take up vagrants and other disorderly persons, in their respective wards; and that their number should be increased.

5. "That the duty of constables and watchmen, and of beadles under another name, should be regulated, with proper encouragements for doing their duty, and penalties for their neglect of it.

6. "That the receiving stolen goods, particularly gold and silver plate and jewels, should be made more penal, and the receivers of them, particularly of those taken by burglary or highway robbery, be made principals.

7. "That provision should be made for transporting criminals, which now are transported to America, to the coast of Africa, and to the East Indies.

8. "That common Ballad Singers, by collecting great numbers of people about them, give opportunities for picking pockets, and are a great nuisance; and that some effectual provision should be made for suppressing them.

9. That the present unrestrained method of granting licences to sell wine, in and about the city and liberty of Westminster, gives an opportunity to persons of the most abandoned characters, to open houses for the retailing of wine to be drank in the said houses as taverns, which are frequented by every species of disorderly persons, and is a great cause of robberies and other disorders; and that the said method should be restrained.

10. "That the house in King-street, Westminster, called Guildhall, which is now the property of his grace the duke of

11. That the prison, called the Gatehouse, in the city of Westminster, to which a great number of criminals and debtors are committed, is too small, and totally unfit for the purposes of a common gaol in the present increased state of the said city, and the liberty thereof; and that there is no certain allowance for the maintenance of the prisoners committed thereto.

12. "That a strong and capacious gaol for the city and liberty of Westminster, should be built in another place, and some provision be made for the maintenance of the prisoners which are or shall be committed to the Gate-house, and to the said new gaol, when built.

13. "That larger and more convenient round houses should be provided in the said city and liberty of Westminster, and in Saint Martin's le Grand, and that part of the duchy of Lancaster, which is within the said liberty; and that no liquor should be sold therein.”

Several gentlemen spoke against this increasing our capital penal laws, already much too bloody. The receiver was indeed as bad, or perhaps worse than the thief, yet it should be considered, whether the present laws were not too cruel on the latter; and whether it would not be first better to determine, Whether it would not be a better step to reduce this punishment, than to increase that of the receivers ? However, on the division, it was agreed to by 47 to 19.

Sir G. Saville spoke well upon the subject, he wished for a committee upon this head, who should revise all the penal statutes, and reduce them into a regular system, in which the punishments should be more adequate to the crimes.

To the Resolution that the transported convicts should be sent to Africa or the East Indies, instead of North America, several objections were made; first, that sending them to these climates was, in other words, ordering them to death: 2dly, that, unless the African and East India companies were ordered to take them, and pay for their passage, it would be impossible to get them there, as, at present, the expence of sending them was paid by