The Masters of Bow Street Read online

  ‘I must protest!’ Hooper interrupted. ‘Hogarth seeks out the drunken lechers and the gin-sodden who present nothing but the filth in which they live. Nine citizens of London out of ten, aye, ninety-nine citizens out of a hundred are decent and respectable. You’ll do no good making the situation out to be worse than it is.’

  ‘If there is to remain a London it cannot become any worse than it is,’ Furnival retorted. ‘Because you keep the crime at a distance from you by employing a strong and well-paid force of private peace officers, you will not be able to hold it back forever, any more than by having water closets and sewers here at Great Furnival Square and at Furnival Tower House you can keep the stench of open sewers and open cesspits away when the wind carries it from outside your walls. You may carry the waste to fields and keep it from the Thames and the Tyburn, but others don’t and they befoul the air you have to breathe. So the crime in the rest of London befouls the House of Furnival and all those like it. It is useless to be farsighted if all you can see is a brick wall.’

  He stopped, glaring at Hooper. Robert Yeoman put a restraining hand on Hooper’s arm, and, without getting up, Francis spoke in his bell-like voice, ‘Brother John, if you could continue uninterrupted for - for a while - not too long,’ he added, smiling, ‘would you answer any questions afterward?’

  ‘Yes,’ barked Furnival.

  ‘Then I shall be absorbed in what you have to say - and fascinated to find out what you want us to do.’

  ‘So shall I,’ growled Hooper.

  Furnival was aware of Anne watching him intently, and her expression suggested that she was pleading with him to keep the peace, to avoid an open quarrel. That was right, of course, and what he had to do, but it was far from easy.

  ‘Telling you what I want is simple, but only useful if you see the need to support me,’ he said. ‘We have in this huge city and its close environs three-quarters of a million people, more, perhaps, than are gathered in any other area in the world except possibly the capital cities of China and Japan. Among these in the metropolis of London we have an estimated one hundred and fifteen thousand people who live on the proceeds of crime. We have a small, exclusive number of very rich people who live better than they could anywhere in the world since London has long since been the greatest port for the importation of exotic foods and spices in the Western Hemisphere. We have - and you will see how little we have changed since Defoe’s figure of 1720 - about one hundred and fifty thousand people of middling income, who, if they work hard, can eat and clothe themselves and their families well; and we have more than five hundred and fifty thousand who can barely earn a living, who are hungry most of the time. This is the breeding ground of our drunkards and our criminals. It exists. And we have to clean it up just as we have to clean up our streets and our sewers and our rivers. The Act of 1737 demanded half as many watch boxes as there were watchmen, so that each parish area should have one watchman patrolling and one at a box. But there are neither the required number of boxes nor the required number of watchmen. Only the old and frail and useless will do such work - or pretend to - for five shillings a week. This is a mockery of protection as the trading justices are a mockery of justice.’

  He drew a deep breath, and expected another interruption, but no one spoke and he sensed a tension which now touched them all. He was quite sure that to many of the women the figures he quoted came as a shock, which was why he had wanted them here.

  At last he went on with great deliberation.

  ‘There is only one way: a strong peace force, as I would call it, paid not by individuals who can afford to protect themselves and devil take the others, nor by parishes, which avoid paying every penny they can, but by the government.’ He went a step closer to the edge of the little platform and raised his hands waist high, the first gesture he had made. ‘If the House of Furnival, with all its influence in Parliament, with the King and with wealthy merchants and the guilds, will commit itself to fighting for such a professional force, I will resign from Bow Street and devote myself to all the affairs of the Furnival enterprises.

  ‘I ask for no money, no charitable foundations, no work for other good causes, but simply for this.

  ‘For if we prosper out of the sickness and the poverty, the hunger and the desperation of the mass of the people, the time will come when there will be a terrible reckoning.’

  When Furnival stopped, the silence was even more profound; none among the City group stirred; everyone was watching him as if expecting more. Yet without repeating himself there was nothing more to say. His mouth was dry and he was sweating at the forehead and the neck although he did not know whether anyone else was aware of that. He expected Hooper or one of his group to speak but it was Robert Yeoman, sitting behind them but not one of them, who rose to his feet, and standing against a well of books, he looked more elegant than among the crowd. He placed a pinch of snuff on the back of his hand, sniffed up each nostril in turn, and then said, ‘Most eloquent, John; never heard such eloquence. You belong at Westminster or in the Bishop’s Palace. Such sentiments do you credit, great credit. At the beginning you told me that you are what you are because you believe in people. ‘Tis not for me to argue with you about how many people are in the mob or whether they could improve themselves by hard work or endeavour. That can be a matter of opinion and no doubt always will be. But it is for me to tell you, John, that anyone who tried to persuade Walpole to create such a peace force would be wasting his time. Walpole will have none of it, nor will the King. Cromwell tried it and left scars enough. A peace force is an army used against the people, John; these people you say you wish to help and protect. An army, I say, in England, to be used against the people day in and day out, not simply at times of riot and disturbance or to keep order on hanging days. You forget one thing, John. You forget that before their possessions, before the sanctity of their homes, aye, and even before their families, Englishmen love freedom. The worst of them, the lowest of them, the murderers and thieves who will hang at Tyburn or Tower Hill, would call for freedom with his dying breath. And you would have their streets patrolled by armed men. You would ravage the sanctity of their homes by sending soldiers to search and pry. Who could believe that a man’s wife and daughters would ever be safe if troops patrolled—’

  ‘May I inquire,’ interrupted Furnival coldly, ‘whether you are speaking for the King, for Walpole, for the people, or for yourself?’

  ‘As God is my witness, for all four!’

  ‘May I say a few words?’ Plump-faced Martin Montmorency stood up, and Yeoman immediately gave way to him, as no doubt he would on a day when the House of Commons was behaving courteously.

  Furnival felt quite sure what had been planned: that each man should speak in turn, opposing whatever they felt he would propose, if they were of a mind, showing the rest of the family that opposition was not from one but from several men with different interests and different causes for loyalty to the House of Furnival. It was as if witness after witness were standing up to give evidence on behalf of a rogue they knew to be guilty, hoping to impress by weight of numbers even if they could not do so by fact.

  Montmorency had a plummy voice, a countryman’s voice upon which a London or Westminster accent had been imposed, but he spoke to the point. ‘I have to agree with John about the shameful conditions among some classes and parts of London. I have to agree with him that much needs doing. But I strongly oppose the concept of a peace force as un-English - un-British, I will say. I concede that it might be practicable for those of us who employ private guards - I can only say might; it is a situation which should be explored - to find a way to work together so that in wards and parishes we might spread our canopy of security over the less fortunate. I will myself recommend such an investigation. But a peace force paid by the government - no, sir, never. Over my dead body—’

  ‘And well it might be,’ Furnival said roughly.

  ‘You exaggerate, John, and I am sure I may use a colourful figure of spee
ch!’

  ‘If I may interpose—’ This time it was Jeremy Siddle who stood up, several places away. Gracefully, Montmorency lowered himself snugly into a chair, and had Furnival needed confirmation of the ‘opposition plot’ he had it now. ‘There are aspects of the situation in our fair city which you overlook, John. There is much that is good here, if also much that needs doing. One thing, as my colleague Robert Yeoman said, is to teach the people the benefits of honest toil. Another is to improve living conditions. You talk of the sewers, of the living conditions of the House of Furnival, as if they were bad because they do not improve the condition of others as fast as you would like them to. But they are an example to others and an example to the government. Here is a way in which we could, and I truly believe should, try to improve our beloved London. We can work ceaselessly in Parliament and in the City of London until great public works, not only of new sewers - we are not rats, John - but of new highways and improved roads, and a water supply purified and brought closer to the houses of the people so that they do not need to carry it so far, are undertaken.

  ‘And we need not one but two, even three, new bridges across the Thames. It is a disastrous situation when -London is the only bridge on which to cross, crowding the river dangerously with small row-boats and with ferryboats, a great danger to shipping. There is more, much more. London has become the greatest port in the world, as well as in all Britain: more than three-quarters of our trade with the Empire and with nations overseas goes through the Port of London, but it is now so crowded that there is too little space to load and unload in a reasonable time. We need twice as much dock space as we have.

  ‘No, John Furnival. We do not want to restrict the rights of the people.

  ‘The House of Furnival has more vital work to do: to use its influence in Parliament to get great projects into being and to help to finance such undertakings as will give more employment while making our magnificent city the greatest in the world.’

  Siddle bowed in all directions and sat down to a loud and prolonged burst of applause which was certainly spontaneous. Furnival, who had taken in everything Siddle had said, and even admired its cleverness and the indisputable truth of much of it, was at first angry, then quite calm. There was no hope at all for support for his proposals and it would be useless to try to find it; wise only to accept defeat without worsening the situation between himself and the rest of the family. Was Anne pleading again? Was Cleo deliberately avoiding his eyes and Sarah only pretending that her nose tickled?

  He did not know what made him glance up but for the first time he saw four or five of the younger members, nieces and nephews, sitting in the gallery above the doorway. He smiled at them as he rose to an uneasy silence and his smile seemed to ease the tension.

  ‘Not in my lifetime, not in the lifetime of all these unimaginative old fogies down here - I mean really old people, like your uncles, Timothy!’ This brought a chuckle from many and delighted the youths and made Sarah, mother of Timothy, stop worrying her nose with a tiny lace handkerchief. ‘But in your time, the life of all of you in the gallery, there will be a peace force here in the metropolis of London. It will not be an army, it may not even be armed, but’ - John looked down from the gallery and to the assembly, now happy because obviously there was going to be no storm of temper, no bitter recriminations - ‘between now and the day when it comes, much unnecessary harm will have befallen London and the whole of England because we have no organised peace-keeping force to see that the law is carried out.’

  He paused, then gave a great bellow of a laugh before going on: ‘Nothing is going to force me into the House of Furnival, either, but if you don’t do all those fine things Jerry Siddle has promised in your names, I’ll haunt you with ghosts of the thousands who will die and the tens of thousands who will be driven to crime because of your failure.’

  And he sat down. He did not know what caused them but the pressures at his chest and beneath his jaw came upon him suddenly, and for a few minutes he could only sit there un-moving. Mercifully, no one approached until the pain began to ease.

  ‘We would still like you back,’ William said when the men were alone in the dining room after dinner, the great room a blue-grey haze of tobacco smoke, as port, sack and cognac were being passed around. ‘We really want the same thing, John.’

  ‘There can be no doubt of that,’ said Francis. ‘Come back, John.’

  ‘No,’ replied Furnival quietly. ‘We should forever be in conflict over priorities and I would be forever convinced that I should be working for one thing and one thing only. Profit. I can’t get help from you, but there must be others who think as I do.’

  ‘I can tell you one such.’ Robert Yeoman, close enough to overhear, joined them.

  ‘And who is he?’ asked Furnival, surprised.

  ‘Henry Fielding,’ answered Yeoman. ‘Yes, the playwright who lost his Little Theatre in the Haymarket for his lampooning of our distinguished Minister of State and members of his Cabinet. There is little doubt that the closing down of all theatres except those licensed by the Lord Chamberlain was really to crush him.’

  ‘Surely with success,’ remarked Furnival, remembering what Gentian had said in the coffee house. ‘Didn’t Fielding dismiss his company and give up without a fight?’

  ‘He’s no coward,’ Yeoman declared, ‘but you can’t defeat King and Parliament. He has studied for the bar. He may make a good lawyer, and he certainly has no time for trading justices—’

  ‘I saw his Debauchees and his Justice Squeezum,’ Furnival interrupted. ‘I will keep an eye open for him.’

  ‘You may find him at your court, John! As for your present notion, I doubt if any Member of Parliament will support you. But as London grows larger and the problem of population grows greater, then one day something may have to be done about it. You’re ahead of your time, that’s the truth of it.’

  Furnival gave a throaty laugh.

  ‘And I’m two hundred years behind the need,’ he retorted. ‘At all events, thank you for the information about Fielding. I’ll be grateful for any other names of people who may take a sympathetic view.’

  ‘That we can prepare,’ William promised. ‘And we will.’

  Rising from the table, they went out into the garden and relieved themselves in a long covered shed which had a porcelain barrier to prevent them from splashing their shoes and stockings with a mixture of mud and urine; the waste was washed into the sewer from here by men tossing buckets of water at one end. They strolled about the grounds for a while afterwards to drive the smell of smoke out of their clothes and hair, and were sprayed by footmen with eau de cologne so that when they went back to the salon to join the ladies there was hardly a whiff of tobacco and little of the male sweat some men always carried. Furnival was anxious to leave, now; but to have gone before dinner would have been churlish, and both William and Yeoman had shown that at least he had moved them to gestures if nothing more. The need he saw was so glaringly obvious that he could not believe that intelligent men would hold out indefinitely. They must eventually realise that unless the city was safe for all, the time would come when it would not be safe for them without a strong guard.

  Three of the children were playing a Bach concerto on a harpsichord and violins, a piece which was the rage since it had come to England from Leipzig only a year before. They were much more proficient than Furnival would have expected. He heard this out and joined in the clapping, then sought out his sisters and sisters-in-law to bid his adieus. He could not find Anne, and was sorry, feeling that she understood what drove him more than any of the others. William went with him to the front door.

  ‘Will, tell me this,’ he said slowly. ‘Were the defenders prepared so well because they knew in advance that I was going to ask for their help in creating a peace force?’

  ‘They knew it would be something to do with law officers or Bow Street, and Siddle has Walpole’s ear. Walpole told him you had petitioned for peace officers to be employed
by Bow Street and paid by the court, and the newspapers talked of your endeavour recently. So adding two and two together wasn’t difficult.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Furnival, in a voice edged with bitterness. ‘I was defeated before I began to speak.’

  ‘John,’ William said as they stood on the porch and looked into the square, which was bathed in a pink-and-mauve afterglow of quite rare beauty, ‘if we had agreed to help we would have got nowhere, and we would have damaged what influence we have. We have a lot, you know.’ If we put money into a bridge or new docks or a new water supply from the country, not out of the Thames, other money soon flows. On at least three occasions we have led the way and the directors of the Bank of England have followed. If we espouse the wrong cause we can do much harm to other causes which are equally worthy.’

  ‘I suppose so, I suppose so,’ Furnival said, a touch of despondency in his voice. ‘What no one seems to understand is that it won’t serve London if a bridge is put over the Thames at Westminster and thieves can escape more easily with their loot. It won’t help trade if you build more new docks and the dock workers and the dock owners vie with each other to cheat and steal. It won’t - but no matter, Will. I meant what I said to young Timothy!’

  He shook his brother’s hand and strode down to his coach, already waiting, with a footman at the door and the young coachman in his seat, the two bays tossing their heads. As he put a foot on the step and gripped one side to haul himself in, he was aware of a woman sitting in a corner, and she uttered a low-pitched ‘Husssh.’ So he did not cry out or back down, and as he sat, his heart lifted as he recognised Anne.