Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/239



Of stolen goods (or, as they are better called by their nick name, and ) are pretty well known to the police officers, as well as the thieves. But as those of them who deal in the least bulky articles, change their places of call, neither the one nor the other ever nose the snoozing ken, where they inhabit. It is the poor devils who are "dealers in marine stores," that are made obnoxious by act of parliament. There is an adage that says, "the receiver is worse than the stealer," and so they are, more especially in these times of refined depravity; not merely because "there would be no thieves if there were no receivers," but for the more proveable reason that the receivers often incite others to robbery, to obtain the very articles they stand in need of, or of which they can make the readiest sale. In proof, whereof, we adduce the case of Mr. Hunter, silk manufacturer, of Paternoster row, who having sold and delivered five pieces of silk, various colours, to Messrs. and  in Wood Street, called upon their neighbour in the same street, with the offer of others of the same article; but what was his surprise to hear, that they had been offered goods precisely similar, at prices very little more