When William IV. Was King :: CHAPTER XIX. 1835

CHAPTER XIX. 1835

Gambling house police case — Curious superstition — A cook's letter to her mistress — Jews and public employment — Fire at Hatfield House — Curious discovery of jewels — Scarcity in Ireland.

Under the year 1833, I called attention to the prevalence of gaming-houses, but, in spite of the efforts made to put them down, they still flourished, as we see from the annexed police report, taken from the Times of July 7th.

"Marlborough Street.—William Smart, the proprietor of a gaming-house in the Quadrant, called the 'Regent Circus Club,' appeared before Mr. Dyer, yesterday, on a warrant charging him with committing an assault on a man named John Ward, under the following circumstances. The complainant stated that he had for some time filled a situation in the gaming-house kept by the defendant, but no longer wishing to have anything to do with such disgraceful proceedings, he gave the defendant warning to leave; but, when he applied for his wages, he was attacked by the defendant, and most cruelly beaten by him.

"The defendant, in answer to the charge, stated it was totally false, and that the first assault had been committed by the complainant himself. The truth was, that he had been discharged from his situation on account of his having retained some money which did not belong to him. The complainant denied this statement, and said that his reason for leaving the service was on account of the disgust he felt at the proceedings that were going forward, and the system of robbery that was practised upon the gentlemen who went to the defendant's house. He here handed to the magistrate a couple of the dice that were made use of in the defendant's house, saying, at the same time, that they were loaded for the purposes of deception.

"Mr. Dyer, after examining the dice, said that although it was certainly very disgraceful, if it were true, to make use of such instruments to rob the persons who might be foolish enough to enter a house of such a description, yet that had nothing to do with the present question. He considered the assault proved, and therefore called upon the defendant to find bail.

"A person, who said he attended professionally for the defendant, said they had now to make a charge against the complainant of having wilfully broken a valuable pane of plate glass. It appeared that this occurrence took place at a house of a similar description to that kept by the defendant, and which belonged to one of his friends or a relation, called 'The Melton Club,' in Park Lane.

"Ward, the complainant, said that he went there for the purpose of asking for his money, but could not gain admittance. He accidentally broke the window, and gained admission as far as 'the tiger.'

"Mr. Dyer asked what was meant by 'the tiger?'

"Ward replied that it meant the second door at a gaming-house, which was a very strong one, which enabled the persons inside to shut out any one they did not like to admit.

"Mr. Dyer asked the person who made the charge why it had not been brought forward before?—He replied that it was so paltry, that he did not think it worth while to bring it forward.

"Mr. Dyer said that, whether it was a paltry one or not, it would have looked much better if it had been brought forward before a charge had been made by the complainant. He then said that the defendant must find bail for the assault, and, with respect to the counter-charge which had been made, he should not interfere in it, but leave the parties to take their legal remedies."

In this year was finished a monument to the memory of George IV., which was erected at Battle Bridge, now known as King's Cross. It was a composition statue of the king, about eleven feet high, and it stood atop of an octagon building of brick and cement, which was used first as a police station, and afterwards as a public house, whilst the pediment of the statue was utilized as a "Camera obscura." It was demolished in 1845, and it is said that the basis of the statue's nose was a draining tile, and that it was offered to a gentleman for sixpence!

We come across a curious superstition. Two men were executed for burglary, at Horsham, on August 22nd, when the silly custom of passing the hands of the dead men over the necks of two or three females, as a supposed cure for the glandular enlargements, was upon this occasion had recourse to. And the Times of April 24, 1837, quoting the Gloucester Journal, has in a paragraph headed "Revolting behaviour of a Hangman," with which I will not horrify my readers, the following: "Several women were on the platform to have their necks charmed by rubbing the dead man's hands over their wens as a cure."

But if we get horrible paragraphs in the papers, we also occasionally meet with amusing ones, as this from the Times of September 22nd—

"March of Intellect.

"We can vouch (says the Bristol Mirror) for the authenticity of the following copy of a letter from her late servant, to Mrs.—— "'Dear Madam, I cannot enter into the family of the Hon. ——, without returning you many thanks for your unsteady and dishonourable character. I am truly sorry that you have been so unfortunate in your four cooks since I left, and trust the fifth will be as indifferent; but your cruel and unladylike insinuations could have no weight where my real character was so well known.

"'From your grateful friend, ——,

"'P.S.—Farewell—

"'May the turf where thy old reliques rest
Bear herbs, odoriferous herbs, on thy breast:
Their heads, thyme and sage, and pot marjoram wave,
And fat be the gander that feeds on thy grave.'"

Although the disabilities under which the Jews laboured were not removed by Act of Parliament, public opinion was decidedly in favour of the freedom of the Israelite. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Francis Goldsmid, was the first Jew that was ever called to the English bar, and this took place in 1833. According to the Times of November 18th, quoting the Liverpool Albion, it was in 1835 that a Jew was a juror in a law court for the first time.

"It may be noted, as a novelty, that Mr. Joseph Hess, silversmith, of Lord Street, was the first person of the Jewish persuasion who ever discharged the duties of a juryman in any of the courts of this country; that gentleman, after having been sworn on the Pentateuch, forming one of the grand jury panel at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions."

And the first Jewish alderman and sheriff of the City of London, was Mr. Sheriff (afterwards Sir) David Salamons, who was elected to the vacant gown of Aldgate Ward, on November 21st. One incident which set all tongues wagging, about this time, was the great fire at Hatfield House, on November 27th, and the death of the Marchioness of Salisbury (grandmother of our present premier) by burning. She had only arrived at Hatfield on the previous day, and on the afternoon of the 27th she retired, a short time before dinner, to her dressing-room to write a few letters. At five o'clock her maid entered her apartment, and found her writing by the light of two candles. Her ladyship complained of the dimness of the light, and requested her maid to bring her a bedroom candle, which she did, and left the marchioness, who wore a very lofty headdress, writing by these three candles.

About half-past five fear was felt by the female servants of the house, in consequence of the volumes of smoke. The marquis and marchioness were alarmed, and the marquis tried to force his way into his mother's dressing-room, but found it so full of flame and smoke, as to render all hopes of rescuing her utterly desperate. The fire bell was rung, and the engines arrived from the neighbouring towns, but were of little avail, as there was a bad supply of water. That part of the west wing which looks down the noble avenue of trees by which Hatfield Hall is approached from the south, was speedily gutted by the fire. The roof fell in with a tremendous crash, and the poor old marchioness was buried in the ruins.

Another subject for talk was an extraordinary discovery of valuable jewels, thus told in the Annual Register, December 21st.

"In the month of February last, the warehouse of Messrs. Hall & Co., on the Custom House Quay, was broken into, and a box, in which there were deposited diamonds belonging to a foreign countess, and amounting to from £7000 to £8000 in value, stolen therefrom. From the mode in which the robbery had been effected at the Custom House, it was the opinion of Lea, the constable, at the time, that both it and the one at Messrs. Hall & Co.'s had been accomplished by the same parties who had effected the Custom House robbery. By the most singular accident, however, a portion of the diamonds had been discovered in such a manner as to leave no doubt that they had been in the possession of William Jourdan. Lea, the officer, made the following statement:—

"He said that, having satisfied himself by inquiries and information through various channels that Sullivan and Jourdan were the persons engaged in the robberies, he, with much difficulty, traced out their residence in the neighbourhood of Kennington. He had no sooner done so, than they by some means or other got information of it, and, before he could secure them, left their homes, taking with them a portmanteau and trunks each, with an excellent stock of clothes, and took up their lodgings at the Red Lion Tavern, in King Street, Bloomsbury, where they represented themselves as persons engaged in mercantile pursuits. By this means, he (Lea) lost trace of them for several days, until a person who had been placed to watch the house at Kennington, followed and traced the brother of Sullivan to the Red Lion. Lea lost no time in going to the house, and on making inquiries of the landlady about the person (describing Sullivan's brother) who had been there, a short time before, with a green bag, and the object of his calling; she said he was a shoemaker, who had called to take some orders from, and do some work for, two gentlemen who were stopping in the house.

"Sullivan's brother is a common thief, and had merely assumed the character to prevent any suspicion in the minds of Mr. Proctor and his family, and, by this means, he was enabled to see his brother and Jourdan often, and, when seen by a fourth party, his manner towards them was precisely that of an artisan. Lea then proceeded to state that from the description which he obtained from Mrs. Proctor of the description of the persons who were at her house, he was satisfied that they were the parties of whom he was in pursuit, and he consequently made such arrangements as to succeed in the apprehension of both on the following morning.

"At that time (the 2nd inst.), after securing the prisoners, he made what he conceived to be a minute search of the apartments which the prisoners occupied, and had secured everything belonging to them, but he had now discovered that, notwithstanding all his care, he had overlooked some most valuable property.

"After the capture of the prisoners, Jourdan's wife and Sullivan's brother had repeatedly called at Mr. Proctor's, and, upon various occasions, expressed the greatest anxiety to go into the room which had been occupied by Jourdan, but this was refused, notwithstanding their earnest entreaties. Two or three persons, of gentlemanly appearance, had, at different times, driven up to the door in coaches, with luggage, as if they had come off a journey, and eagerly asked for lodgings; but Mr. Proctor, owing to what had previously happened, refused to let any strangers lodge at his house, and the parties were obliged to go away.

"On Thursday morning last, Mr. Hanson, a gentleman residing at Reading, who, when in town, was always in the habit of stopping at Mr. Proctor's, called there, and his luggage being taken into the room that had been previously occupied by Jourdan, he ordered a fire to be lit by the time he came home in the evening. This was done by a charwoman, who is in the habit of attending the house, and that being the first time since spring that a fire had been made in the room, she threw a quantity of what she conceived to be rubbish which had accumulated during the summer months under the ornamental paper in the grate, on the top of the coals, after the fire had been made up.

"In the course of the night the attention of Mr. Hanson was attracted to a most brilliant substance in the centre of the fire, and, on taking it out with the tongs, he, on inspection, found a brooch of considerable size, set with pearls, but the greater part of the gold mounting had melted from it. This circumstance led him to examine the fire more minutely, and he found two more, one of a larger and one of a smaller size, but which, as well as the former, had been seriously damaged by the fire. On communicating the circumstance to Mr. Proctor, the fire and the ashes underneath were carefully examined, and seven good sized brilliants, seven emeralds, one of which is of considerable size and must have been of great value, and four dozen of small but sparkling brilliants were found.

"Lea recollected perfectly, upon searching Jourdan's room, observing the ornamental paper in the fireplace, but not perceiving it disturbed in any way, it did not occur to him to examine it minutely, particularly as the prisoners had trunks in the room. There was no doubt on his mind that the property which had been placed there by Jourdan was of considerable value, from the anxiety evinced by his friends to get to the room to secure it, and it was not at all improbable that there was a portion of the notes stolen from the Custom House placed there also, and, if so, they must have been destroyed by the fire."

Matters were fairly quiet in Ireland, but there was a murder now and then. There was, however, sad distress, and this is the tale told in June. In that month, the poorer inhabitants in many places along the west coast of Ireland, particularly in County Mayo and the adjacent islands, suffered severely from a failure of provisions. At a meeting of a Central Committee for their relief, held at Castlebar, on June 15th, the Rev. Mr. Dwyer stated that the population of Clare Island amounted to three hundred families, of whom only fifteen, at most, had provisions to last the harvest. All the rest were, at that moment, in want, with the exception of twelve or fifteen families who would be equally destitute in a fortnight. Of nineteen families living in one village, twelve had begun to be in want in April. In that village there were six families who, if a shilling could buy a ton of potatoes, were not able to command it. All the other villages in the island were said to be still worse off.

The Rev. Mr. Conolly, from the island of Achill, stated that the crop there was short from last harvest, owing to the failure of the seed in spring, and to the north-western gales of the previous August. He had given relief to seven hundred and fifty families, and he would require thirty tons more than he had to distribute, in order to afford even six stone to each family. Many poor creatures came forward to offer the hides of the goats they had killed, as also geese, hens, stockings, and even wearing apparel, in lieu of potatoes.

A respectable inhabitant of Ihnisturk stated the number of families at about ninety, of which only five were not distressed. Some few might be able to procure food from their own resources, provided the rents were not called in, but if they were, the people would starve. Sligo's agent at Boffin and Stark had given relief to eighty-five families; fifty families were, to his own knowledge, positively in a state of starvation, and utterly destitute of means to procure relief; about one hundred families, besides, were in want; but half that number had some means, the rest had none.

The Rev. Mr. Hughes stated, that the distress in his parish (Burrishoole) was chiefly owing to the failure of the potato crop, some of which was lost by the perishing of the seed, and some by high winds in August. Many families were obliged to put themselves on the short allowance of one meal in the day, so early as last February; he had already seen many with the signs of starvation in their haggard countenances, and had heard them cry from hunger. He knew whole families, each of which had subsisted, frequently, for twenty-four hours on one quart meal. The population was 11,761, of which number five thousand were now actually in want; three hundred families had neither cow, sheep, nor horse, nor any other means to purchase provisions; two hundred families, at least, had not been able to make their usual sowing of potatoes for want of seed; and hundreds would necessarily perish with hunger, unless something was soon done for their relief.

The Rev. Mr. Gibbons stated the population of his parish (Kilgevar) at nine thousand. The crop failed there last year owing to the rotting of the seed and to harsh winds; two thousand five hundred persons were now in distress. About one half of these might struggle through summer, if they sold their few head of cattle to procure provisions, but the rest had no resource. The wives and children of a great many of them had already gone to beg. At subsequent meetings of the committee similar accounts were received from other parts of the western coasts and its islands. They exhibited the state of the country as being deplorably wretched, and the sufferings of the poor as daily and hourly on the increase. Several thousand families were reported to be without food, except the precarious sustenance they were enabled to gather in the fields, and among the rocks on the seashore. Cabbage and shellfish usually furnished their repast. In some places partial relief was given by the meal which the Central Board ordered to certain districts; and a resolution passed at a meeting, by which they requested permission of the London Distress Committee to procure, with the money remaining at their disposal, one hundred tons of meal, to give further assistance. A Mr. Owen, from the Board of Works, attended by order of the Lord Lieutenant, and informed the meeting that his mission was into Erris, where £500 was to be expended for the purpose of giving the poor employment.

The costumes, etc., given for this year are a nursemaid and children, indoor and walking dresses, and different modes of dressing the hair. (See pp. 211, 212.)

Clyx.com