Return of the Number of persons apprehended 2.62
| Year | Taken into Custody |
| 1841 | 13,345 |
| 1842 | 8,841 |
| 1843 | 12,147 |
| 1844 | 10,702 |
| 1845 | 9,635 |
| 1846 | 7,629 |
| 1847 | 6,587 |
| 1848 | 6,477 |
| 1849 | 4,687 |
| 1850 | 4,578 |
| 1851 | 4,890 |
2.62 Chadwick, 1861, Table No. 20, p. 28.
Offenses, Manchester, 1850 2.63
| Offenses | Male | Female | Total | |
| Manslaughter | 12 | 0 | 12 | |
| Common assault | 426 | 89 | 515 | |
| Assault on Police Constables | 137 | 4 | 141 | |
| Burglary | 20 | 4 | 24 | |
| Breaking into Dwelling-houses, etc. | 57 | 3 | 60 | |
| Robbery from the Person | 72 | 18 | 90 | |
| Larceny in Dwelling-houses, etc. | 385 | 227 | 612 | |
| Larceny from the Person | 113 | 210 | 323 | |
| Larceny by Servants | 50 | 57 | 107 | |
| Larceny, miscellaneaous | 172 | 36 | 208 | |
| Pawning or disposing of Property illegally | 29 | 31 | 60 | |
| Persons having property, supposed to be stolen | 80 | 28 | 108 | |
| Wilful damage | 92 | 56 | 148 | |
| Drunk and incapable | 239 | 34 | 273 | |
| Drunk and incapable, Breach of the Peace | 415 | 89 | 504 | |
| Sober and creating a Breach of the Peace | 68 | 17 | 85 | |
| Vagrants, disorderly Prostitutes | 0 | 197 | 197 | |
| Vagrants, reputed thieves and suspicious characters | 289 | 92 | 381 | |
| (smaller numbers) | 603 | 127 | 730 | |
| TOTAL | 3,259 | 1,298 | 4,578 |
2.63 House of Commons, Accounts and Papers, Statement of Crime, Manchester, Taken into Custody, 1850, p. 182 [Google = “Manchester, Statements of Crime, 1850”]
[The document of the House of Commons for 1851 is not findable]
“The lower classes of the workers in Manchester found time and money enough, to go to drinking saloons, beer-shops and “dram-shops” (gin-palaces). Benjamin Love reports that in 1840, from own investigation and from a report published by an academic institution, “in all our large towns, the principal taverns and gin palaces have now attached to them spacious saloons, in which, four or five evenings a week, and principally on the Sunday, the operatives assemble in crowds to listen to vocal and instrumental music, generally speaking, of superior character. Those who spend a certain amount in liquor have admission free, so that the expenses, which are large, must, of course, be amply covered by increased custom, i.e. from those who go there for the music and not for the drink. The number of such places of resort in Manchester and Salford is upwards of fifty, which display themselves in all directions at an average of not more than a quarter of a mile’s distance from each other. Reckoning one hundred persons at a time in each place, would give five thousand, principally young people of both sexes, nightly exposed to these contaminating influences. The nature of the scenes sometimes enacted, and the effects upon the character of those who frequent them, may be readily imagined”. 2.64
2.64 Love, 1842, pp. 144-146
These expenses often impacted the family budget: “Beer shots are considered debts of honour.” The operative paid these first, before giving the rest of his salary to his wife, to cover the weekly expenses. One of the mills made the Saturday payment of the week’s salary to the workers in large amounts of small change, so that the worker would not have the excuse to go to the nearest public house “to change the large coins”.
The male workers also had the time, energy, and money to frequent prostitutes. Quantitative and descriptive data come from a report written by a Mr. William Logan, a “City Missionary”, i.e. a Christian social worker, in his book. 2.65
Mr. Logan gives his estimate of the size of the “industry” in Leeds and Glasgow (“only the third-class houses”):
2.65 Logan, William, “An Exposure from Personal Observation of Female Prostitution in London, Leeds and Rochdale and especially in the City of Glasgow”, 1843
But we must not forget the other side of the equation. Many of the women in prostitution had miserable lives. Some were prostitutes by choice, but many were workers in badly-paid jobs, or in times of reduced work possibilities, and who had to “go on the street” in order to eat.
“The police report, for the year ending December 31, 1843, states that the number of brothels in Manchester (within the police limits, containing a population of 235,139), is 330. The number of bedrooms is 722, and these contain 973 beds. The number of prostitutes living in these brothels is 701. But these numbers give a very inadequate idea of the extent of prostitution, for there is certainly a large number of females who work in factories, and also, of dress-makers, umbrella-stichers, stock, cravat, and shirt sempstresses, &c., who resort to this practice, to eke out the deficiencies of their ill-remunerated labour. If we suppose that these are only as numerous as the professed prostitutes – the result would be 1,444 – a number, which, accords very nearly with Mr. Logan’s estimate. From information, which he states he had derived from the Manchester Town Missionaries, and which was corroborated by a medical gentleman who had paid particular attention to the subject, he gives 1,500 as the number of prostitutes in Manchester, at a probable cost to our town of £470,000 per annum! (*) And, out of this number, he estimates that at least 250 are annually cut off by intemperance and disease. He affirms the average duration of a life of prostitution is not more than six years. In London, Mr. Logan thinks, there may be about 15,000 of this unfortunate class – in Liverpool, 2,000; in Hull, 300; and in Paisley, 250.”
(*) £ 7 per adult male client per annum! 2.66
2.66 Faucher, 1844, p. 42, footnote 18, added by the translator, a native of Manchester
“But Mr. Logan has omitted one feature, which I am convinced, is a powerful cause in extending prostitution. I mean seasons of commercial distress, when trade becomes paralysed – the mills closed – and honest labour denied an honest livelihood. During the last panic, the increase of prostitutes was enormous; and it was impossible for a resident to be ignorant that this increase was owing to the awful destitution which then existed. In seasons of prosperity, this class is contracted to the professed prostitutes, whose dress and demeanour declare all too plainly their vocation; but in seasons of distress, the homely garb and timorous deportment of a large number of females, tell, in language not to be mistaken, that the increase consists of females who are driven to walk the pavement for a livelihood.”
(op. cit., p. 43, continuation of footnote 18)
