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REDISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY IN THE CITY.

Nov. 23, 1872.

In connection with the question of the best application of the revenues of Oxford Street and Cambridge Terrace, a Public Meeting was held at the Jolly Sandboys, on Saturday, November 23, by members of the light-fingered fraternity and others interested in the promotion of manual dexterity and pecuniary research in England. A preliminary resolution had been signed to the effect that “the chief end to be kept in view in any redistribution of the revenues of Oxford Street and Cambridge Terrace is the adequate maintenance of manual dexterity and pecuniary research, as well for their own sakes as with the view of bringing the maximum amount of loot within reach of all who are desirous to profit by it.”

Mr. John Sheppard occupied the chair. He explained that the gentlemen present did not represent any political party, but were there simply for a pecuniary purpose. Neither were they to be considered as having met to take an initiative; the initiative had already been taken by Mr. Gladstone in his recent appropriation—(A Voice: “Convey, the wise it call”)—he begged pardon—in his recent conveyance of the revenues of the Irish Church. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. Charles Bates,—“ Until the end of the last century, our fraternity were neither good at crib-cracking, nor good at cly-faking. The first thing to be done was to make them tidy hands at flimping, and so far as that is concerned, they work tolerably well at this moment. But when a man is kept for twenty-three or twenty-four years of his life under that sort of training, he gets to look at all work whatever of the professional kind from the point of view of manipulation merely. Men get demoralised by the process. They do not look at the swag for itself. They have no notion of pushing forward the elements of their science—such as false keys or cold chisels—into some area into which nothing has been before.” (A Voice: “Barring the Bobby.”) “Well, sure-ly: wheresomever there's cold meat, there in course is a Bobby! (Cheers and laughter.) Now I think one of the first things requisite is that cly-faking and sneezer-snatching should be considered rather more the work of boys than for those who have reached man's estate. The present system no doubt secures that all are made more or less to work—and idleness, of course, is a very great evil. (Roars of laughter.)

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But the present system does not contemplate original research. People will say, “How do you propose to encourage this original research?” Original research is a work of genius. You cannot fetter genius by law! (Cheers.) You cannot tie a man, who has this gift of original research, by rules and laws! You cannot give him definite crank-work to do in a given time! (Loud cheers.) Now by giving a cove something or other to keep him, so to speak, from beggary—” (The Chairman. “The right honorable swell is getting rather foggy in his patter. Does he allude to chaunting, or the respectable dodge.?”) “Well, at the moment I had my eye on the respectable tip, but the word includes the other, and the kinchin-lay into the bargain—by keeping him from this, I say, it is possible to keep his mind open to original research. But we know that funds must be found for it!” (Here the meeting rose en masse, and cheered vociferously.) “A man cannot prosecute research—” (At this point, the Chairman, taking his pipe from his mouth, remarked that he'd be blowed if he stood such language. The word ‘prosecute’ had a nasty flavour about it, and didn't ought to be used in respectable society.) “I beg to apologise to the Chair, though intending no allusion to the beaks, and will substitute ‘pursue.’ A man cannot pursue original research unless he has something to find him bread for the passing moment. A man must be fed who is one of the lights of society, who has the power of penetrating into new fields of activity, (say a bank, for instance,) where he can exclaim, in the words of the poet, ‘I was the first who ever burst into that silent safe!’” (Loud cheers.)

The chairman then put the first resolution, “That to have a class of men whose lives are devoted to original pecuniary research is a 'nation good object.”

Carried nem. con.

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Mr. Jehonadab Fagin said,—“I have the strongest opinion that when Mr. Gladstone's system is applied to the jewellers and the other bloated haristocrats, and the true revenues of Oxford Street are made known, the greatest surprise, and I may say also the greatest indignation, will prevail. (Cheers.) It is idle and useless to say that we need an expensive commercial system—a system of shops enjoying a revenue of thousands of pounds a year—why, only to take a squint in at their big plate-glass windows, it's enough to make a cove's fingers itch and his mouth water!” (Cries of ‘Go it, old 'un! Turn on the steam!”) “When these statements are made, as they will be made, there will be the greatest danger that we may witness a reform such as none of us wish for—I mean the alienation of these great funds, by sticking 'em into banks, or wedge-proof safes, or what not.” (Cries of ‘Shame!’) “When I recall the remarks made by that truly great man, William Turpin, I am struck with the real superiority of mind which that man displayed. My own idea is, that it would be very desirable to found in Oxford Street and Cambridge Terrace specific institutions for the promotion of pecuniary research. I use the term in its widest sense, and include in it, plate, jewels, flimsies, yellow-boys—the whole blessed lot.” (Cheers.)

Mr. Nym said he feared that the majority of the City fraternity were too much engrossed by ordinary filching and the pressing invitations brought by the peelers to attend the Lord Mayor's morning levees—(Laughter)—to have any real opportunity for original research. A better spirit would prevail if the student came in contact with more frequent instances of the most valuable swag carried out by sheer influence of superior cunning, and independently of the routine of buying and selling. (Hear, hear.)

The Chairman moved as the next resolution, “That it is desirable that professorships and special institutions should be founded in the City for the promotion of pecuniary research.”

Mr. Bardolph spoke on the subject of prices, purchase, private property, and other institutions which interfered with the universal diffusion of wealth. “The preceding speakers,” he said, “have introduced to the Englishman to-night a character for whom we have no adequate name in the language. In German we should call him Gauner, and in French escroc, but he has no English name. He is a person engaged in mature study, and who lives by his study: our business is to find him a name, and to find him a career. But we shall be met by an assertion that this person already has a career in England, and has also a name—that he is, in fact, a—” Here the speaker, warned by sundry loud whispers of ‘Twig the esclop!’ ‘Cool him!’ became aware that a policeman had entered the room, and broke off abruptly.

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The Chairman then put the resolution in the following amended form:—“That the present mode of attaching prices to goods, and owners to property, has been found unsuccessful as a means of promoting original pecuniary research, and that it is therefore desirable that it should be discontinued.”

Carried nem. con.

The Chairman then said,—“I think it is very important for us to let our attitude be clearly understood. We do not want, as the phrase is, to rob the shops to make the wholesale dealers rich. The antithesis between shopkeepers and wholesale dealers is nil, for our purpose. We do not intend to perpetuate the mistake which Robin Hood fell into, to take away a few thousand pounds from a rich swell, hand it over to his poorer neighbours, and leave our noble selves out in the cold! I think the attitude we shall take will be to say, “We will leave the shops exactly where they are. We do not intend to rob the shops and give the money to the wholesale dealers, but we will gradually convey their property to where we wish to see it!’ (These words, uttered by the Chairman with inimitable slyness, were received with rapturous applause.) “The supposed antithesis between policeman and cracksman should be sunk entirely, from our point of view. Instead of putting the cracksmen into an attitude of hostility to the policemen, as things are at present, I would reconcile them to the policemen by making them also policemen. (Loud cheers and laughter.) Of course I think it very desirable to reconquer that class of society; and I think this tendency, which I see in the public mind, to dispose of a portion of the City money, by sending it down to these places, might be directed in such a way as to regain the possession of wealth for us.” (Loud and continued cheering.)

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The Chairman then put the resolution,—“That a sufficient and properly organised body of resident cracksmen in various grades should be provided from the funds at present held by the watchmakers and jewellers.”

Carried nem. con.

Mr. Trotty Veck spoke on the need of organisation and management for the sake of the costermongers in this country. The British Government and private enterprise had done much for the higher branches of trade, but next to nothing had been done for the poor costermonger. Sometimes he could hardly turn an honest penny—. (Groans, cat-calls, and a Voice ‘Then turn t'other kind!’) “Ah! but some on 'em would sooner die than take to prigging—.” Here the growing impatience of the meeting vented itself in such a Babel of sounds that Mr. T. Veck's further remarks were inaudible. In the midst of the uproar two or three ‘Bobbies’ appeared on the scene, and a rumour got about that the Chairman was ‘wanted,’ and as, after this awful intelligence, no man appeared to feel himself secure from similar attentions on the part of a paternal Government, the meeting adjourned in some confusion.