ELEGANT EXTRACTS FROM THE RECORDS OF SWINDLING.
NOTHING can be more laudable than the anxiety of the Press to furnish the public with exact knowledge, more especially in mat- ters the importance of which renders accuracy of historical advan- tage. One of our Sunday contemporaries, which is eminently dis- tinguished for letters—we do not mean letters in the literary sense, but the publication of letters in trim. con. cases, actions for seduction, or felons' correspondences—has enriched its pages with Mrs. Stamp Cooke and Company's epistles, together with divers curious and notable facts belonging to that interesting swindling case ; and The Times, recognizing the value of such particu- lars," as they are termed, has transferred the matter to its own co- lumns, with a modest acknowledgment of the source of information. It is impossible to read such a letter as the following without advantage, and we cannot be too grateful to a Press which stores our minds with details of roguery so profoundly curious, and ro- mantically interesting. The attempt on Mr. Jones's cheeses has now a place in our memory.
" The following is the copy of a letter addressed by Drummond and De Burgh to Mr. Jones, cheese-factor, of Shrewsbury:-
" 7, Sherborne-lane, Lombard-street, Ang. 1, 1828. " Sir,—We shall feel obliged by your forwarding to us, as soon as possible, a list of your prices for different sorts of cheese; and if they are such as will answer our purpose to sell in the London market, we shall be glad to give you an order ; also a small dairy of butter, if you have any in hand. You will also have the goodness to state your mode of doing business, as we can satisfy you as to our respectability.
" We are, Sir, your most obedient servants,
• " DRUMMOND and DB Boace.
" Mr. Jones, cheese-factor, Shrewsbury."
" We believe that Mr. Jones refused to furnish them with goods with- out cash or a respectable reference."
The belief is of a laudable caution. In writing history, we should not be positive without very sufficient grounds. Here too is an epistle recusant of screws, which enlarges the sphere of knowledge, and nourishes the understanding of the daily reader.
" About the same time they made an application to Mr. Wilkes, of Sedgley, and received a reply to the following effect :- " Scdgley, Aug. 11,1828.
" Gentlemen,—We have received your order for screws, and beg to inform you that our men are out at harvest-work ; and if they were not, and we were to execute your order, we should expect cash the first time of trading, not having the pleasure of knowing you; therefore, unless you will remit us the cash on receipt of invoice,
we must decline your order. " Your obedient servants, "B. WiLitss and Co."
An order for hams is a perfect literary bonne-bouche.
" The following is the copy of a letter they addressed to Mr. Bainbridge, ham-factor, of Easiiigwold, Yorkshire :— " Sir,—FIaving an immediate demand for two hogsheads of the very best York- shire hams, we are indebted to a friend for your name, and shall therefore feel ob- liged by your forwarding them to the — wharf, —, addressed to us. You will advise us of the hams being sent, and at the same time send the usual invoices."
Two hogsheads of ham 1 What a happy association of words. The fact, however, not the jeu-de-mots, is the main thing; but with facts we are indeed bountifully provided in the account of this important case. For example- " In Hammersmith, among their creditors, besides those we have be- fore mentioned, is Mr. Rimell, a publican, for 11.14s. for beer, spirits, &c.; Mr. Jackson, a grocer, 31. ; Mr. Richards, a poulterer, I9s. ; Mr. Johnson, a baker ; Mr. Tucker, a tallow-chandler ; Mrs. Reed, a circulat- ing-library-keeper, &c. &c. Among the tradesmen whom Mrs. Stamp Cooke had defrauded, and whose cases have not been made public, was Mr.'White, of Duke-street, Chelsea, of whom she obtained grocery to the amount of 9/. Mr. Hawes, of Church-lane, butcher, supplied the house with meat, principally rump-steaks, (oh, admirable fidelity to historical exactness !) to the amountof 181. Mr. Wilson, of Charles-street, baker, is her creditor to the amount of 4/. A green-grocer near the Admiral Keppel,-in.the Brompton-road, has a claim upon her to the amount of 3/. A milkman, in Bury-street, has likewise a claim upon her to the amount of 21. 10s. Mr. Pye, a fish-monger, of Knightsbridge, supplied the house with fish, chiefly oysters, to the amount of ht. 10s.. A shoemaker in the Fulham-road has also a claim to the amount of above 21."
How good it is to tell us that the green-grocer lives near the Ad- miral Keppel! Without this fact how incomplete would have been our knowledge of the man of greens and carrots, and how unsa- tisfactorily our minds would have dwelt on his bad debt of three pounds ! Two profoundly curious inferences must be drawn by the intelligent reader from these data. Mr. Dawes the butcher, it will be observed, supplied the swindlers principally with rump-steaks, while Mr. Pye's bill was chiefly for oysters. Iturnp-steak and oyster- sauce is therefore the probable diet of sharpers.
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