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Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis
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MIDDLESEX
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At the General Quarter Session of the Peace of Our
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Sovereign Lord the King, holden for the
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County of
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Middlesex
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, at
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Hicks-Hall
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in
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Saint John Street
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, in the
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County aforesaid, by Adjournment, on Thursday the
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Fourteenth Day of July, in the Thirty-first Year of
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the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Second,
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King of Great Britain, Etc. 1751.
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WHEREAS Complaint having been made to this Court, of the growing Expence
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arising to this County from the Apprehending and Passing Vagrants, in of the
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Frauds committed by the Officers conveying such Vagrants, Etc, A Committee was
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appointed to consider from what Causes such Expence arose, and Frauds were com-
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mitteed; and also to consider of some Method to ease the County, and to prevent
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such Impositions for the Future; which Committee, on the 21st of April
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ft, did
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make their Report, touching the Premisses, to this Court as follows, viz.
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Report
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at April,
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1757.
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Your Committee are of Opinion, That the great Expence complained of, and the Fraud com-
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mitted, have their Rise form the following Causes:
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1st, That one Cause of this Expence is the great Relaxation in the Executing the Statute of the 17th
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of His present Majesty, called The Vagrant Act; which is evidently proved from the Swarms of Beg-
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gars insesting the Streets, some produced by real Distress, and others, who, by artful Disguises of
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Wretchedness, contrive to support themselves and Families in Idleness, and intail a Race of Rogues
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and Vagabonds upon Posterity.
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2d, That when Vagabonds are apprehended and brought before the Magistrates, the Punishment pre-
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scribed by the said Act has been in too many Instances dispensed with: And this We apprehend is not
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only a great Incouragement to Beggars, but also renders the Passes in themselves illegal, and such Ma-
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gistrates private Fortunes liable to all the Charge incurred from such Passes.
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3d, That the Magistrates in general not returning the Duplicates of the Vagrant Passes and Examinations
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to the next Sessions, as directed by the said Act, there to be kept as Records, renders the Clause of the
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said Act, for the Punishment of incorrigible Rogues, of no Force, for it seems doubtful how incor-
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rigible Rogues can be convicted without such Records.
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4th, The too liberal Distribution of the Ten Shillings, with which the Magistrates are impowered
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to reward Persons apprehending Vagrants, and the
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rts made use of by Officers in the Conveying of
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Vagrants, by obtaining Passage for them at one That of the Expence allowed by Sessions, by Means
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of Carriers and other easy Methods, have proved fe
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lucrative, that a Kind of Trade has been made of
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it at the Expence of th County: Your Committee, by inspecting the Orders for paying the Reward
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of Ten Shillings, find upwards of Fifty Pounds directed to be paid, in the Compass of about a Year,
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by one Magistrate; a Sum, We belive, greater than directed, in the like Cases, by all the rest of the
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Magistrates of the County in the same Time: And when the Sums, paid for passing the Vagrants,
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are added to the said Fifty Pounds, it amounts to near a Twelfth Part of the whole county Rate, and
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near a Fourth of the whole Expence charged upon the County upon this Account: And your Com-
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mittee think, That no Magistrate's Clerk ought to make any Deduction upon Pretence of having
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made out the Pass and Order out of the Ten Shillings, which is the Reward given by the Law to the
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Apprehender: But your Committed found the contrary has been done, and that Four Shillings has
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been deducted by the Clerk of that Magistrate out of such Reward; which induces your Committee
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to be of Opinion, that this extraordinary Method of sharing the Reward between the Constable and
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the Justice's Clerk, may have produced an Imposition upo the Justice, and been the Cause of this
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extraordinary Charge upon the County. Nor can your Committee help observing, that many of the
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Orders, for the Paying the above Fifty Pounds, are made out in large Sums in one Order, and coached
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in Terms not expressive of the Cause for which they were made or given, under Hand and Seal: Nor
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does it appear that such Vagrants were either whipped or committed to
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Bridewell
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, or that any Dypli-
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cates of the Passes or Examinations were returned to the Sessions as the Law directs.
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5th, Another Cause of this great Expence has arisen from a wrong Use made of Vagrant Passes,
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by the Officers in some Parishes, who, to save the great Expence of Settlement-Passes, or the Main-
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tenance of casual Poor not belonging to them, and whose Settlements were at a great Distance, have
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passed such Poor a Rogues and Vagabonds, although no Act of Vagrancy had been co
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d and
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more especially the Scotch and Irish Vagabonds.
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6th, Your Committee are also of Opinion, That the Putting the Vagrant Act into Execution par-
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ticular Parishes and Places, (howsoever laudable the Intention of the Magistrates may be) brings a
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large Expence upon the County, without producing the designed Effect to the Publick; for as he De-
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sign of putting the said Act in this manner into Execution, relates only to one Species of Vagabonds,
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namely, Beggar; Those of them, who are more the Objects of Compassion than Punishment, till the
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Lash of the Law
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, while the artificial Objects of Distress, who have reduced Begging into a Trade,
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well know how far the Whip of Justice extends, and carefully avoid coming within its Reach: And
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this is a strong Reason for the general Inforcement of the Law through the County.
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Another Cause of the Grievance complained of, arise from the ready Harbour Beggars find in the
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Out-skirts of the Town, from the Keepers of Houses who lett them out to Vagrants at Two-piece a
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Night; though by the Statute before-mentioned, Chap. 5. Sec. 22. "If any Person knowing per-
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mit any Rogue or Vagabond, or incorrigible Rogue, to lodge or take Shelter in his House, Ban
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or
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other Out-house of Building, and shall not apprehend and carry him before a Justice, or give Justice
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to
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