University of Virginia Library

THE POLITICS OF COSTERMONGERS. —
POLICEMEN.

The notion of the police is so intimately blended
with what may be called the politics of the
costermongers that I give them together.

The politics of these people are detailed in a
few words — they are nearly all Chartists. "You
might say, sir," remarked one of my informants,
"that they all were Chartists, but as its better
you should rather be under than over the mark,
say nearly all." Their ignorance, and their
being impulsive, makes them a dangerous class.
I am assured that in every district where the
costermongers are congregated, one or two of the
body, more intelligent than the others, have
great influence over them; and these leading
men are all Chartists, and being industrious and
not unprosperous persons, their pecuniary and
intellectual superiority cause them to be re-
garded as oracles. One of these men said to
me: "The costers think that working-men know
best, and so they have confidence in us. I like
to make men discontented, and I will make them
discontented while the present system continues,
because it's all for the middle and the moneyed
classes, and nothing, in the way of rights, for the
poor. People fancy when all's quiet that all's
stagnating. Propagandism is going on for all
that. It's when all's quiet that the seed's a
growing. Republicans and Socialists are press-
ing their doctrines."

The costermongers have very vague notions
of an aristocracy; they call the more prosperous
of their own body "aristocrats." Their notions
of an aristocracy of birth or wealth seem to be
formed on their opinion of the rich, or reputed
rich salesmen with whom they deal; and the
result is anything but favourable to the no-
bility.

Concerning free-trade, nothing, I am told,
can check the costermongers' fervour for a cheap
loaf. A Chartist costermonger told me that he
knew numbers of costers who were keen Chartists
without understanding anything about the six
points.

The costermongers frequently attend political
meetings, going there in bodies of from six to
twelve. Some of them, I learned, could not
understand why Chartist leaders exhorted them
to peace and quietness, when they might as well
fight it out with the police at once. The costers
boast, moreover, that they stick more together
in any "row" than any other class. It is con-
sidered by them a reflection on the character
of the thieves that they are seldom true to one
another.

It is a matter of marvel to many of this class
that people can live without working. The
ignorant costers have no knowledge of "pro-
perty," or "income," and conclude that the non-
workers all live out of the taxes. Of the taxes
generally they judge from their knowledge that
tobacco, which they account a necessary of life,
pays 3s. per lb. duty.

As regards the police, the hatred of a coster-
monger to a "peeler" is intense, and with their
opinion of the police, all the more ignorant unite
that of the governing power. "Can you wonder
at it, sir," said a costermonger to me, "that I
hate the police? They drive us about, we must
move on, we can't stand here, and we can't pitch
there. But if we're cracked up, that is if we're
forced to go into the Union (I've known it both at
Clerkenwell and the City of London workhouses,)
why the parish gives us money to buy a barrow,
or a shallow, or to hire them, and leave the
house and start for ourselves: and what's the
use of that, if the police won't let us sell our
goods? — Which is right, the parish or the
police?"

To thwart the police in any measure the
costermongers readily aid one another. One
very common procedure, if the policeman has
seized a barrow, is to whip off a wheel, while the
officers have gone for assistance; for a large and
loaded barrow requires two men to convey it to
the green-yard. This is done with great dex-
terity; and the next step is to dispose of the stock
to any passing costers, or to any "standing" in
the neighbourhood, and it is honestly accounted
for. The policemen, on their return, find an
empty, and unwheelable barrow, which they must
carry off by main strength, amid the jeers of the
populace.

I am assured that in case of a political riot
every "coster" would seize his policeman.