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INEFFICIENCY OF SUMPTUARY LAWS.

Ch. 14.

Evasions of

aimed. They are only operative, at the present
time, to render absolutely illegal morning concerts
in London and its suburbs; while similar rational the Law.
and humanizing entertainments may be per-
formed with impunity at Manchester, Liverpool,
and every other great or small town in the United
Kingdom.

illiterate.

81

When we descend to the lower orders of society, we find vice exhibited in all its hideous grossness. Scarcely any effort had yet been made, either by public or private means, to redeem the common people from the abject ignorance in which they were sunk. Education, indeed, so far from being promoted, was very generally regarded by the higher ranks as a thing with which the middle classes had little concern, and which was positively noxious to the lower orders. Hardly any Tradespeople tradesman, in 1760, had more instruction than qualified him to add up a bill; and long after that date, if he opened any book besides his ledger, he did so by stealth; for if it was known that he was addicted to reading, he would probably be injured in his business. A labourer, mechanic, or domestic servant, who could read or write, possessed a rare accomplishment, and one which would not at all help him to earn his bread. Drunkenness was the prevalent habit of the common people; but it would be unfair to brand them distinctively with this reproach, when people of

m See Mr. Place's evidence before the House of Commons, in 1835. Committee on Education.

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82

Ch. 14.

Licentiousness of the people.

PREVALENCE OF INTEMPERANCE.

every class drank to excess.

This was the age of

four-bottle and six-bottle men; when it was considered the height of hospitality and good-fellowship to compel the guests to drink, until they arrived at a state of delirium or insensibility. We still deplore the prevalence of a vice which fills our jails, hospitals, and lunatic-asylums; but the drunkenness of these days is temperance, as compared with the drunkenness of the last century. In a population which is computed at not more than one-third of the population ascertained by the late census, the consumption of exciseable liquors was about equal to what it is at present.

The insolence, licentiousness, and ferocity of the people, especially in the capital and other great towns, were such as a traveller would hardly now encounter in the most remote and savage regions of the globe. No well-dressed individual, of either sex, could walk the streets of London, without risk of personal insult or injury. It was, indeed, an undertaking of difficulty to pass through the streets at all. The narrow foot-way, separated from the carriage-road only by a line of unconnected stakes, or posts, at wide intervals, was frequently blocked up with chairs, wheelbarrows, and other obstructions, some of them placed there wantonly, to annoy foot-passengers." Carmen and hackney coach-drivers considered it excellent sport to splash decent people from head

n Covent Garden Journal, June 20, 1752.

STATE OF PUBLIC THOROUGHFARES.

Ch. 14.

83

to foot; and when a terrified female or bewildered stranger was tumbled into the kennel, the accident Nuisances in was hailed with shouts of delight. Yet, on the the Streets. whole, it was as safe and less disagreeable to traverse the streets on foot than in a conveyance. Chairs and carriages were upset, and collisions were constantly occurring; the least inconvenience was, that the progress of vehicles through the great thoroughfares was interrupted by the absence, or rather disregard, of regulations for the traffic. But the delay was not the only annoyance. When a stoppage took place, or an accident happened, the ears were stunned by a storm of oaths, and abusive altercation from the drivers and servants. Thieves were always ready to take advantage of the confusion, which they had themselves probably originated for their own purposes. Beggars, also, availed themselves of the opportunity to ply their trade. The dismal tale of sickness and famine was drawled out, and corroborated by horrible exhibitions. Stumps of limbs and diseased children were held up to the carriage windows of the quality. If there were ladies in the familycoach, a street vocalist would probably begin chanting some filthy doggrel, of which the refrain would be taken up by the bystanders.

of a system of

This state of things continued up to 1761, in Establishment which year a memorable step was taken towards Police. the establishment of a system of police by the Westminster Paving, Lighting, and Watching Act. Through the operation of this excellent statute,

84

Ch. 14.

PAVING, LIGHTING, AND WATCHING ACTS.

the greater part of the metropolis underwent an immediate change. Thoroughfares were widened communications were opened; crazy houses were pulled down; all the main streets were paved with even blocks of granite; smooth and solid footways, elevated above the carriage road, were, for the first time, laid down. The huge shop-signs extending from the houses on either side of the way, and excluding light and air, were removed; as were also the projecting water-spouts which deluged the unprotected passengers. By these improvements, not only were the safety and comfort of the puplic greatly promoted, but the health of the metropolis rose to a far higher standard. Street robberies in the daytime, at least, were much diminished, but the continued absence of any police patrol, still left London in a dangerous and disgraceful state.

Scandalous exhibitions in the public

thoroughfares.

Besides the annoyances which I have named, the streets exhibited another gross violation of decency such as no other capital in Europe at that time displayed. The unhappy females who minister to the vices of great cities, but who are sequestered from public view by every well-ordered system of police, openly professed their calling in the public thoroughfares of this metropolis. They paraded the streets in large bodies soliciting the passers by, and often behaving with shocking

• The chairmen and hackney-coachmen, who exercised despotic power in the streets, would not permit the use of umbrellas.

PUBLIC OUTRAGES ON DECENCY.

indecency. In the evening, they ranged themselves on the footways, in parties of five or six, assailed every well-dressed man who approached, aiding their allies, the thieves, in committing depredations, and decoying victims for plunder. So indifferent was the law to this scandalous outrage on decency and morality, that a register of prostitutes, giving not only their addresses, but descriptions of their personal appearance, was annually published, like any other directory, with the printer's name, and hawked about the streets.P The public places of amusement were infested by these women, whose conduct, at the theatres especially, is described as so gross and impudent, as to be almost beyond belief, if we did not recollect that the stage itself exhibited manners scarcely, if at all, less licentious and obscene.

Ch. 14.

mobs.

85

Tumultuous mobs assembled on the slightest Frequency of pretence, and committed outrages on persons and property, with or without the slightest provocation. Foreigners, or persons having the appearance of foreigners, were wantonly insulted, and sometimes assaulted in the streets and public walks, as giaours were in the streets of Constantinople at the same period. But the rabble of London, though to this day the most brutal and odious rabble in Europe, were never sanguinary. People, indeed, were often seriously injured by the

P It was called The New Atalantis, published and sold by M. Harris. Under the Piazza of Covent Garden.' Grosely's Tour to London, 1762, vol. i. p. 55.

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