East London . fficientcounty machinery for the enforcement of order and the pre-vention and punishment of crime. As years went on theriverside became more densely populated, and the people,left to themselves, grew year by year more lawless, moreignorant, more drunken, more savage; there never was atime, there was no other place, unless it might have been someshort-lived pirate settlement on a West Lidian islet, wherethere was so much savagery as on the riverside of London—those hamlets marked on my map—toward the close of theeighteenth century. When one thinks of it, when one real-izes the rea
East London . fficientcounty machinery for the enforcement of order and the pre-vention and punishment of crime. As years went on theriverside became more densely populated, and the people,left to themselves, grew year by year more lawless, moreignorant, more drunken, more savage; there never was atime, there was no other place, unless it might have been someshort-lived pirate settlement on a West Lidian islet, wherethere was so much savagery as on the riverside of London—those hamlets marked on my map—toward the close of theeighteenth century. When one thinks of it, when one real-izes the real nature of the situation and its perils, one isamazed that we got through without a rising and a massacre. The whole of the riverside population, including not onlythe bargemen and porters, but the people ashore, the dealersin drink, the shopkeepers, the dealers in marine stores, werejoined and l)anded together in an organized system of plun-der and robbery. They robbed the ships of their cargoes r td ffq. THE POOL AND THE RIVERSIDE 51 as they unloaded them; they robbed them of their cargoesas they brought them in the barge from the wharf to theship. They were all concerned in it—man, woman, andchild; they all looked upon the shipping as a legitimateobject of plunder; there was no longer any question of con-science; there was no conscience left at all; how could therehe any conscience where there was no education, no reli-gion, not even any superstition ? Of course the greatest rob-bers w^ere the lightermen themselves; but the boys were sentout in light boats which pulled under the stern of the ves-sels, out of sight, and received small parcels of value tossedto them from the men in the ships. These men wore leathernaprons which were contrived as water-tight bags, whichthey could fill with rum or brandy, and they had huge pocketsconcealed behind the aprons which they crammed with shore every other house was a drinking-shop and afence or receiving-shop; the eveni
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbesantwa, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1901
