The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 138: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

sess — — yy THE MYSTERIES. emancipate themselves from confinement at the Beggar's Staff. Atrocious villain though he were, and savage as he felt at the circumstance of this escape, he could not help admiring the courage which the incident displayed on the part of the fugitives. Retracing his way to the bar, he described all he had seen to the company present: for they already knew quite enough to refider it unnecessary to keep from them the most wonderful episode in the history of the escape;—and those who heard hin, soon became too inuch absorbed in the interest of the details which he thus gave them, to find leisure to question him as to his origina: motives for im- prisoning Meagles and the lady at all. Vociferous was the applause with which the health of the daring couple was proposed and drunk ;—and the orgie was continued in a manner well suiting the vile place and well worthy of the vagabonds, thievés, prostitutes, and hideous wretches assembled there. Are there such houses, and are there such people, in London at the present day? This is a question which many of our readers will ask themselves and each other. The reply is a bold affirmative: for most assuredly there are! And whose fault is it ? That of the Government and the Legislature ! Yes—it is the fault of our rulers that the noxious weeds of vice and demoralization flourish in such luxuriant rankness as they do. What do your lords and baronets know of the poorer classes ?—what nition can they possibly have of the causes of that terrible depravity which exists, in such widelv spread and intricate ramifications, amonyst those whom they denominate the lower orders? ‘They make grand speechés upon the immorality of the millions—and they taunt the victims of vice with their ptoflizacy: but they do nothing—absolutely nothing—to establish a remedy. It is monstrous aud absurd to take an aristocrat and make him a Minister. ‘He naturally labours only to aggrandize the Order to which he bélongs—and he utterly neglects the People. Thus the millions are inevi- tably sacrificed to a wealthy, despotic, and luxurious oligarchy. Let a Minister be taken from the People,—a man who knows what the People are—who has made himself acquainted with all the miseries of the poorer classes, and who understands the springs and causes of that demoralization which fills the low boozing-kens with revellers; and furnishes so many victims to the scaffold, the penal settlement, the hulks, and the gaol aye, and so many prosti- tutes to the streets. Such a man would be well aware how to grapple with the evil. He knows that Poverty—and nothing but poverty—is the origin of the tremendous mischief, which exists as a shame aud a scandal in that country so falsely called Free and Civilized England. And what causes this Poverty—this Penury—this Destitution which renders intolerable the lives of millions in a country naturally possessing, in the resources of its soil and the enterprise of its sons, every element of a consummate prosperity? It is the fact that all the land and all the wealth are held in the possession of a few: it is the abhorrent anomaly that where one has plenty—a thousand are starving,—where one counts his money by hun- dreds of pounds, a million count theirs by pence! The iniquitous laws of primogeniture and entail— ee Ee 123 the absence of any statute to regulate the accumu- lation of capital—the awful monopoly which capital so accumulated constitutes, and the tremendous tyranny which it engenders,—these are the springs of that Pauperism which sits like an incubus upon the bosom of fair Britannia! Oh! deplorable—heart-rending—and shocking is it to contemplate the misery in which the toiling, industrious millions of these islands exist! “ Death Jrom starvation”—this is a common verdict returned by Coroners’ juries in this country. Will ye be- lieve it, O glorious people of France ?—will ye be- lieve it, O enviable people of the United States of America ? Our sickly sentimentalists and maudlin saints raise their eyes and lift up their hands with horror, when they talk of negro slavery in the land of Washington. But they forget—no, they do not forget—they wilfully shut their eyes to the truth that the enslaved blacks in the United States are an enviable race when compared with our English myriads of famishing sons and daughters of toil and our starving paupers. ‘Talk of tyranny and oppression! Why—where is greater tyranny prac- tised than in England towards the poor? Oye vile hypocrites who assemble at Exeter Hall! dare not to say a word against the fine people of the Transatlantic Union, when so much cruelty is practised in this country! There breathes nota nobler—more generous—more enlightened—more free—nor more estimable nation on the face of God’s earth than the Americans:—slavery is a black spot upon their civilisation, it is true —but that spot is absolutely white when compared with the stain of hellish dye which the miseries of our own poor stamp upon the name of England? To resume the thread of our narrative: lone was the orgie continued at the Begear’s Staff. Ribald jokes elicited peals of laughter: obscene sones were welcomed with vociferous applause. An occasional quarrel and consequent fight varied the interest of the procéedings; and at last two or three of the younger women present stripped themselves starlx naked and danced madly under the influence of brandy. Their lascivious movements, disgusting attitudes, and abominable freaks raised the delight of the spectators to a positive delirium ;—and the liquor flowed so plenteously that the Big Beggar- man was perfectly correct in his calculation that every penny of the sum so liberally bestowed by the Amazon would find its way ere morning into his till. At length, between four and five o'clock, some of the vavabonds and prostitutes began to stagger away to their own dens: others, who were utterly incapable of taking care of themselves, were borne off by their less inebriate friends ;—and gradually a clearance took place. For a short time the sing- ing and shouting were transferred to the adjacent streets ; and the neighbours, who were startled from their slumbers by the untimely din, thus received unmistakable warning that the company at the Beggar's Staff was breaking up. Thus, while at the West End of London titled dowagers were sleeping comfortably with their fat butlers, widowed ladies of rank with their handsome footmen, Honourable Misses with the noble father’s pretty pages, and fashionable demireps with elegant guardsmen,—while, in fact, the luxurious immo- rality and voluptuous profligacy of the upper classes — ee Com ——— ~ Sh — ElOOOKKS. COM